Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies
15th Conference of Research in Jung and Analytical Psychology

Complexity, Creativity, and Action

Key Bridge Marriott, Arlington Virginia
Thursday evening June 22 — Sunday evening, June 25, 2017

We invite you to participate in a multidisciplinary gathering of scholars exploring complexity, creativity, and action in the context of Jungian and/or post-Jungian ideas and concepts.

The conference will be held at the Key Bridge Marriott, which is located directly across the Potomac River from Washington D.C. and the Georgetown University campus.

Program Committee: Alexandra Fidyk, Sukey Fontelieu, Luke Hockley, Inez Martinez, Robert Mitchell, Elizabeth Nelson, Susan Rowland, Rinda West, Susan Wyatt

Call for Proposals:
In Volume 8 of the Collected Works, Jung offers a model of psyche that is complex, dynamic, and creative.  Sherry Salman writes in the Cambridge Companion to Jung: “For Jung, the psyche was a many-splendored thing: fluid, multi-dimensional, alive, and capable of creative development.  Having been Assistant Director of a psychiatric hospital, Jung was no stranger to disease, psychosis, and inertia.  But he possessed a love for the orderly chaos of the psyche and a trust in its integrity” (The Creative Psyche: Jung’s Major Contributions (2008, p. 52).  In recent years, major advances in the development of complexity and dynamical systems theory have provided new perspectives for understanding Jung’s model.  Jung himself would have welcomed the insights that they offer.  “Difficulties must inevitable arise whenever the mind launches forth boldly into the unknown and invisible…. It is not a question of asserting anything, but of constructing a model which opens up a promising and useful field of inquiry.  (CW 8, para. 381).
Theories of complexity and dynamic systems have found that the greatest potential for change is at system states far from equilibrium.  In Living at the Edge of Chaos: Complex Systems in Culture and Psyche (2012), Helene Schulman explores the potential for creativity in living at these states of disequilibrium.  Taking action in these turbulent edges where outcomes are difficult to predict requires reflection and humility as well as creativity. This conference seeks to explore complexity and/or creativity as well as the challenges of living, researching, and acting at the chaotic edges of complex systems.  Possible areas of inquiry include:

Exploring the writings of Jung and/or post Jungians about the creativity of psyche.
Exploring how contemporary paradigms in complexity and dynamic systems theory create new possibilities for understanding Jungian perspectives on human consciousness, symbolic systems, and psychological development.
Offering scholarly frameworks for action based on Jungian and/or post-Jungian ideas.
Maintaining psychic balance within complex and continually changing personal and social environments.
Bringing multiple perspectives to creative engagement with complex psychic systems.
Revitalizing psychic systems that have been marginalized or lost energy.
Translating creativity into ethical action.
Ways that complexity theory opens up psychological understanding of societal problems with implications for responsible political action.
Reconceptions of how to educate students to flourish within complex dynamical systems.
Complexity and creativity in depth psychology.
Considering the complexity in diversity in Jungian and clinical theory and practice.
Literature and art that contribute to understanding of complex dynamic systems in a Jungian context.
Arts based research and creative practice that make use of, illuminate, or contribute to Jungian or post Jungian concepts and ideas.
Applications of complexity theory to clinical work.
Bringing in the margins to generate creativity in Jungian discourse.
Research designs that explore psyche within the context of complex dynamical systems.
Creative disruption of the hegemony of privileged or taken for granted ways of knowing and research methods.
This list is intended only as suggested entry points into the conference theme.  Presentations that contemplate complexity and/or creativity from whatever entry point are welcome.

The Program committee invites submissions for single or multi-authored scholarly papers, panels with three or more presenters, roundtables (recommended for presenters that want to receive feedback on work in progress or want to engage in in-depth discussion about their topic), experiential workshops, artistic presentation, and creative practice. We invite you to submit a proposal (350 words maximum), abstract (50 words) and biographical note (50 words) to sjw.jsss@gmail.com by December 15, 2016.  .  All submissions will be acknowledged.  We will review your submission and notify you by February 15, 2017. Details of the host site and conference registration will become available through the JSSS website: www.jungiansociety.org.
Proposal Format
Your proposal should include:
Full name (including preferred title)
Email address
Institutional affiliations (universities and/or professional bodies)
Preferred presentation format (the committee may reallocate presentation formats other than those requested).
Paper (20 minutes–discussion time will be added).
Panel (20 minutes for each presenter–discussion time will be added).
Roundtable (30 minutes with 10-15 minute presentation and discussion time included).  Note that a/v will not be available for this format.
Experiential workshop (60 or 90 minutes).
Creative Practice

Title of Presentation

Proposal
350 words maximum for papers, panels, and roundtables.  500 words maximum for workshops and creative practice.

Abstract
50 words maximum for inclusion in the conference program.

Biography (with optional photo)
50 words maximum for inclusion in the conference program

 

Visit the JSSS website for further information >>> http://jungiansociety.org/index.php/conference-announcements/54-call-for-papers