C.G. Jung Society, Seattle

Eberhard Riedel, Ph.D., D.C.S.W., Jungian Analyst

Fundamentalism and the Quest for the Grail: The Parzival Myth as a Post-Modern Redemption Story

Lecture: Friday, January 11, 7 to 9 p.m.
Good Shepherd Center, Room 202, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle
$15 members, $25 nonmembers
2 CEUs

Fundamentalism and the Quest for the Grail

Class: Four Wednesdays, January 16, 23, 30, and February 6, 7 to 9 p.m.
Good Shepherd Center, Room 221, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle
$80 members, $90 nonmembers
8 CEUs

Preregistration for the class is required. Participation subject to instructor’s permission. Class is limited to 16 participants. To learn about preregistering for the class, see Preregistration Policy and Form.

Riedel photo What is it in the human psyche that lends itself to violent terrorist temptations? My thesis is that there is a fundamentalist core in all of us, and that liberation is a mutual process.

The lecture and classes will focus on listening to and working with stories and experiences that may shine light on this most critical issue of our time, fundamentalist radicalism and violence. One such story will be Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem, Parzival, dating to the era of the medieval crusades. We will pay close attention to and literally feel the difficulties we face when a deeply entrenched paradigm governing how we relate to each other requires change. In the deepest sense this is the task we face with regard to the fundamentalist threat in the world today. Jung (1934) said, "the only chance for redemption is in consciousness." Beyond this, von Eschenbach (1210) knew that liberation is a mutual process and struggle for humanization. Examples will be presented to show how living with the demand of mutuality can be the basis of a most powerful practice of being and problem solving on both the personal and societal levels.

Class Description

The small-group, Wednesday-evening sessions are a venue offered by the C.G. Jung Society designed to provide an environment in which participants can safely enter into the domain introduced in the lecture. The instructor will amplify and expand on the topics of the lecture, fundamentalism and quest for the Grail. Recommended readings (required for participants who register for CEU credits) are listed below. Participants in the class will be guided to put the ideas of the lecture into practice through discussions, working on materials they share, and creatively exploring them. Participants will also have an opportunity to explore assumptions they bring to their work on issues of fundamentalism and quest for the Grail.

Suggested Readings

C.G. Jung, After the Catastrophe , and Epilogue to "Essays on Contemporary Events" in C.G. Jung Collected Works, Vol. 10, pp. 194-243.
Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival (H.M. Mustard and C.E. Passage, Trans.). New York, NY: Vintage Books Paperback, specifically Chapters III and IX.
F. Dostoyevsky, The Grand Inquisistor (Book V.5 of The Brothers Karamazov).

Eberhard Riedel, Ph.D., D.C.S.W., is a Diplomate Jungian Analyst in private practice in Seattle, WA. He is a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP), the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (IRSJA), the North Pacific Institute for Analytical Psychology (NPIAP), and the Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis (NCP). He also is a photographer and holds a Ph.D. in quantum physics. He has longstanding interests in the interconnectedness of dreaming and the creative self-expression of psyche, as well as the phenomenon and psychology of fundamentalism.

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Updated: 25 November, 2007

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