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Synchronicity, Intuition & the Psychoid
Overview
Two Jungian lectures exploring unconscious communication and aesthetic experience. Together, they examine how we may know or apprehend something before it can be expressed in words — a process whose deepest level Jung described as the psychoid.
Live online with Martin Schmidt — Thursdays, 8:00–9:30 pm Singapore time.
These lectures are designed for psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, arts therapists, clinical social workers and trainees. They will also be relevant to healthcare and pastoral-care professionals, as well as coaches and organisational consultants whose work is psychologically informed.
The lectures may also appeal to academics, students, artists, writers and other curious-minded participants interested in unconscious communication, intuition, meaningful coincidence and aesthetic experience.
No prior knowledge of Jungian psychology is required.
About the speaker
Martin Schmidt
Jungian training analyst and supervisor with over 30 years' experience. Former Regional Organiser for Central Europe of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. Published many papers in different languages and several book chapters, and has lectured in over 20 countries. Winner of the Fordham Prize for best clinical paper in the Journal of Analytical Psychology (Psychic Skin, 2013) and nominated for the Gradiva Award in New York (2014). In private practice in South London.
Programme
Lectures in this course
Each lecture stands on its own and can be booked individually — join one, or follow the whole arc.
Lecture 1
Synchronicity and Unconscious Communication
This lecture explores the roots of unconscious communication in early human development and considers how communication occurs before it can be expressed in words. From the earliest relationship between infant and caregiver, states of mind may be communicated and received outside conscious awareness. Psychoanalytic theories of projective identification, affective attunement and the analytic field offer different ways of understanding these processes.
The lecture then examines how these ideas relate to Jung's concept of synchronicity. Jung's theory of the collective unconscious and his later formulation of the psychoid suggest that the archetypal processes underlying psychic life cannot be understood as purely psychological. His concept of synchronicity extends this thinking by proposing that apparently unrelated events may sometimes be connected through meaning rather than by a conventional chain of causation.
Different forms of synchronicity that may emerge in clinical practice are considered, including meaningful coincidences between the inner experiences of analyst and patient, and events occurring within or around the analytic relationship. Finally, the lecture explores the possibility that the analytic encounter itself may be understood as a field phenomenon, in which unconscious processes emerge between analyst and patient and may sometimes take the form of synchronistic events.
Drawing on Cambray (2002), the lecture considers whether synchronicity can help us understand analysis not simply as an interaction between two separate minds, but as an emergent field in which new meanings arise.
Lecture 1
Synchronicity and Unconscious Communication
This lecture explores the roots of unconscious communication in early human development and considers how communication occurs before it can be expressed in words. From the earliest relationship between infant and caregiver, states of mind may be communicated and received outside conscious awareness. Psychoanalytic theories of projective identification, affective attunement and the analytic field offer different ways of understanding these processes.
The lecture then examines how these ideas relate to Jung's concept of synchronicity. Jung's theory of the collective unconscious and his later formulation of the psychoid suggest that the archetypal processes underlying psychic life cannot be understood as purely psychological. His concept of synchronicity extends this thinking by proposing that apparently unrelated events may sometimes be connected through meaning rather than by a conventional chain of causation.
Different forms of synchronicity that may emerge in clinical practice are considered, including meaningful coincidences between the inner experiences of analyst and patient, and events occurring within or around the analytic relationship. Finally, the lecture explores the possibility that the analytic encounter itself may be understood as a field phenomenon, in which unconscious processes emerge between analyst and patient and may sometimes take the form of synchronistic events.
Drawing on Cambray (2002), the lecture considers whether synchronicity can help us understand analysis not simply as an interaction between two separate minds, but as an emergent field in which new meanings arise.
Lecture 2
Beauty, Ugliness and the Sublime
Narcissism is often associated with beauty, yet the narcissistic personality may be unable to receive or enjoy many of beauty's gifts because of a fundamental difficulty in relating to what is other. In clinical work, it is striking how some patients become increasingly able to perceive, appreciate and be moved by beauty as they become psychologically healthier. This raises the question of whether an aesthetic capacity is not simply a matter of taste, but an important aspect of psychological development. This lecture explores the place of beauty, ugliness and the sublime in the process of individuation. It considers how the capacity to recognise and experience beauty may be related to the capacity to relate to something beyond the self, and how encounters with ugliness can likewise challenge narcissistic organisation and expand psychological experience. Drawing on original empirical research, the lecture also explores the hypothesis that the mother and our experience of the feminine and maternal play a central role in the development of aesthetic capacity and the appreciation of beauty. The sublime is then explored as an experience that transcends beauty. Whereas beauty may draw us towards an experience of harmony, proportion and pleasure, the sublime confronts us with something that exceeds our capacity to comprehend or contain it. It can evoke awe, wonder and transcendence, but it can also overwhelm and even shatter the structures of the self. In Joseph Campbell's evocative formulation, beauty is the "mysterious fascinans", while the sublime is the "mysterious tremendum": one draws us through fascination, while the other confronts us with something numinous and potentially terrifying. The lecture therefore asks whether the emergence of an aesthetic sensibility might itself be understood as an aspect of individuation: a movement from narcissistic enclosure towards the capacity to encounter beauty, ugliness and the sublime as experiences of something genuinely other.
Lecture 2
Beauty, Ugliness and the Sublime
Narcissism is often associated with beauty, yet the narcissistic personality may be unable to receive or enjoy many of beauty's gifts because of a fundamental difficulty in relating to what is other. In clinical work, it is striking how some patients become increasingly able to perceive, appreciate and be moved by beauty as they become psychologically healthier. This raises the question of whether an aesthetic capacity is not simply a matter of taste, but an important aspect of psychological development. This lecture explores the place of beauty, ugliness and the sublime in the process of individuation. It considers how the capacity to recognise and experience beauty may be related to the capacity to relate to something beyond the self, and how encounters with ugliness can likewise challenge narcissistic organisation and expand psychological experience. Drawing on original empirical research, the lecture also explores the hypothesis that the mother and our experience of the feminine and maternal play a central role in the development of aesthetic capacity and the appreciation of beauty. The sublime is then explored as an experience that transcends beauty. Whereas beauty may draw us towards an experience of harmony, proportion and pleasure, the sublime confronts us with something that exceeds our capacity to comprehend or contain it. It can evoke awe, wonder and transcendence, but it can also overwhelm and even shatter the structures of the self. In Joseph Campbell's evocative formulation, beauty is the "mysterious fascinans", while the sublime is the "mysterious tremendum": one draws us through fascination, while the other confronts us with something numinous and potentially terrifying. The lecture therefore asks whether the emergence of an aesthetic sensibility might itself be understood as an aspect of individuation: a movement from narcissistic enclosure towards the capacity to encounter beauty, ugliness and the sublime as experiences of something genuinely other.
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