Presenter: Dr Peter Hodson

The field of consciousness studies has emerged as a new discipline over the last three decades. It has attracted input from various fields including philosophy, neuroscience, computer science and even physics and mathematics. The input from psychology has been less prominent…

The field of consciousness studies has emerged as a new discipline over the last three decades. It has attracted input from various fields including philosophy, neuroscience, computer science and even physics and mathematics. The input from psychology has been less prominent.

Two major, as yet unanswered questions, form the basis for these enquiries:

Firstly, what is consciousness and how is it related to physical processes, or brain states and secondly, why is it necessary at all?

In this talk I will explore the background to these questions and look at the contribution a Jungian perspective might make in unravelling the mystery surrounding them.

Dr Peter Hodson is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst and has been in private practice in Cape Town for the last twenty five years. In the last few years he also practices from his home in Wilderness.

He is past president of The Southern African Association of Jungian Analysts (SAAJA) and a training analyst within the association. He has a particular interest in psychological transformation and how this happens in psychotherapy and has written and lectured on this subject. He has been actively involved in teaching on SAAJA’s training program for many years.