*Puer Aeternus:
Forever Young or ‘Now or Never?’
Presenter: Frith Luton
Puer aeternus (Latin for eternal child) in mythology designates a new god image: a child-god who is forever young. Psychologically it refers to the quest for a new spiritual value, or to a man whose emotional life has remained immature, usually coupled with too great a dependence on the mother. (Puella is used when referring to a woman.)
The puer or puella typically leads an adventurous but provisional life, as the fear of being fenced in is great. Jung comments:
The "eternal child" in man is an indescribable experience, an incongruity, a handicap, and a divine prerogative; an imponderable that determines the ultimate worth or worthlessness of a personality. CW 9i, ¶300
This lecture will explore the territory of the ‘forever young’ and the kind of healing possible when one asks Jung’s central question:
I no longer seek the cause of a neurosis in the past, but in the present. I ask, what is the necessary task which the patient will not accomplish? ‘Psychoanalysis and Neurosis’, CW 4, ¶570
Frith Luton is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Melbourne. She trained in Zurich, where she has returned to present lecture series to trainee analysts at ISAP and at the Centre for Research and Training in Depth Psychology. Frith’s book Bees, Honey and the Hive: Circumambulating the Centre was published by Inner City Books last year and, soon after, she presented a lecture on the bees at the Psychological Club in Zurich.
DATE: June 9
TIME: 6:30 for 7:00 pm
VENUE: Level 2: 484 Kent St Sydney
COST: Member $10 Non-Member $25 Non-Member Concession $20
*Psychotherapists and other practitioners can obtain credit for Professional Development hours recognised by CAPA, PACFA and ACA for this presentation.