Romantic relationships are laden with expectations of mythic proportions. This course delves into the magic of storytelling through the essential fairy tales and myths about love, including the tale of Psyche and Eros, and mines the treasures of depth psychological thinking about love, desire, sexuality, and marriage. Concepts such as libido, anima and animus, projection, transference, and archetypal dimensions of personal experience are discussed.
This course is designed to address the complexities of the concepts of love, desire, and sexuality when approached from a depth psychological perspective. The course material is approached through classical and contemporary Jungian and psychoanalytic theories—those of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and individuals who have expanded in significant ways on their original work. The concepts of love, desire, and sexuality are viewed from the inside out, focusing on the intra-psychic transformation of the archetypes of anima/animus as they move from a state of possession to one of freedom and relationship. By developing a tolerance and understanding for inner diversity (through inner transformation of the anima/animus and the integration of shadow material), it is assumed that one gains the capacity for a love based on authenticity that remains connected to the anima mundi, or world soul.