Module Five – Individuation – The Individual in Society

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MODULE FIVE
INDIVIDUATION: THE INDIVIDUAL IN SOCIETY

Presented by Johann Graaff

Foundational Concepts in Jungian Psychology Module 5

DESCRIPTION

Like the individual unconsciousness, society too has an unconscious, and we see the unconscious working in society when ‘mad’ things happen, just as when a large country, like Russia, suddenly invades a smaller country, like Ukraine, without apparent reason, killing thousands of people. Or when, in South Africa, there is a sudden movement to expel ‘foreigners’ from the country. This module explores how the Jungian perspective can illuminate social phenomena like scapegoating, xenophobia, conspiracy theories, authoritarianism, consumerism.

PRESENTER

Johann Graaff

SEMINAR DATES

  • August 12 – How to think about society in a Jungian mode
  • August 19 – The people who vote for authoritarian rulers
  • August 26 – Conspiracy theory: roots and dynamics
  • September 2 – The changing face of Consumerism
  • September 9 – The Matrix – movie trailer

SEMINAR CONTENT

August 12 – How to think about society in a Jungian mode

  1. Think how different it is watching a sports event on TV and being at the game with 50,000 other spectators, or saying prayers in the privacy of your bedroom and attending a service in a cathedral with 200 other congregants, or inserting your voting ballot paper in a voting box and joining a protest march with 100,000 other people. The social context gives experiences a whole different energy. Emile Durkheim, father of Sociology, called it ‘collective effervescence’.
  2. Reading: (Graaff 2021)
  3. Extra Reading: (Graaff 2019)
  4. Video clip: Murmuration

August 19 – The people who vote for authoritarian rulers

  1. There is a fundamental paradox in many countries today, that is, the great numbers of people who vote for leaders and parties that undermine those very people’s civic rights and freedoms. Leaders cheat in elections, proclaim themselves president for life, jail journalists who dare to criticize them, promote policies that aggravate pollution and unemployment. Such leaders seem to have charismatic personalities and promote social scapegoats that (supposedly) are responsible for social ills.
  2. Reading: (Jung 1936)
  3. Extra Reading: (Rich 2016)
  4. Video clip: Trailer of ‘The Dark Knight’

August 26 – Conspiracy theory: roots and dynamics

  1. Conspiracy theories often have three basic beliefs: that a secret cabal (the Illuminati, the Elders of Zion, Hillary and Bill Clinton) are secretly plotting to control the country/the world; that they engage in appalling acts of sexual perversion and cannibalism; and finally that there will be an apocalyptic day of reckoning when all these evil people will be arrested/executed and a new world will be born. But it seems that these beliefs grow specially among people who are in deep distress, who experience existential dread. It is a curious and unconscious strategy of collective self-defense.
  2. Reading: (Hofstadter 1964)
  3. Extra Reading: (Roose 2021)
  4. Video Clip:

September 2 – The changing face of Consumerism

  1. Some writers will say that advertisers have over time got much more powerful and much more devious. They employ hidden strategies to influence our conscious and unconscious lives. In the time of big data it is now extremely smart algorithms that assess and manipulate our tastes, desires and motivations. But these writers and the people who follow them are in the grip of a powerful archetype which supposes that we move around in a dream state waiting for a charismatic saviour to wake us up.
  2. Reading: (Earle 2021)
  3. Extra Reading: (Hancox 2019)
  4. Video Clip: Trailer of movie, Steve Jobs

Group Session

September 9 -The Matrix – movie trailer

Note

Each session will have a short reading for preparation. The session will combine a brief lecture with group discussion, assisted by video clips and podcasts.

REQUIRED READING

  • Earle, Samuel. 2021. ‘How The Matrix Made Us’. New Statesman. Retrieved 26 September 2022 (https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2021/12/how-the-matrix-made-us).
  • Graaff, Johann. 2019. ‘Wotan and Cats/Cocks: Reframing Jungian Sociology for the Early 21st Century’.
  • Graaff, Johann. 2021. ‘Society, Nazism and Crowds’.
  • Hancox, Dan. 2019. ‘No Logo at 20: Have We Lost the Battle against the Total Branding of Our Lives?’ The Observer, August 11.
  • Hofstadter, Richard. 1964. ‘The Paranoid Style in American Politics’. Harper’s Magazine, November 1.
  • Jung, CG. 1936. ‘Wotan’. in Civilizations in Transition. Vol. 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Rich, Nathaniel. 2016. ‘Inside the Sacrifice Zone, Review of Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land.’ November 10.
  • Roose, Kevin. 2021. ‘What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?’ The New York Times, September 3.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Johann Graaff is a retired sociologist from UCT. He is now interested in the cross over between Jungian psychology and sociology. He graduated from the CG Jung Institute in Zurich and has a practice as a Jungian analyst.  He is member of SAAJA, currently serving on Curriculum Committee.