What you will receive:

• 4 Live Webinar Sessions with Q & A
• 4 Links to the Recordings
• 4 CECs

For thousands of years individuals have gone through different rites of passage to become warriors who fight and protect those whom they love. Individuals who choose to become warriors in the United States join one of five branches of military service, and may serve anywhere in the world, each experiencing a variety of environments and challenges.  The United States has been consistently involved in overseas conflicts since 2001, making this the longest period of consistent warfare activity in the country’s history (Bandow, 2019). Though many people are familiar with the physical demands experienced by military personnel, as a global society we are only beginning to understand the long-term psychological impact of military training and service.

This course uses the alchemical metaphor to explore the psychological challenges United States military veterans face as they attempt to reintegrate into civilian society. The arc of the course tracks a military member’s progression from Basic Training to the transition back into civilian life, and pinpoints the psychological harm inflicted by the collective consciousness of the military on the individual psyche. We will examine the process of military training from the perspective of a Jungian understanding of the psychological stages of alchemy, illuminating the process that presents each military member with profound difficulties related to identity, the ability to engage in a vibrant relationship with the Self, and the ability to reenter civilian life.

This Course is Ideal If:

• You want a deeper understanding of the impact the military enculturation process has on the individual psyche.
• You are interested in learning how each stage of basic training works to psychologically and somatically enculturate military members.
• You want to better understand the impact of collective consciousness on the individual psyche, to include the creation of a contaminated internal mixture.
• You are interested in exploring the use of the alchemical lens to view the process of individuation through active examples.
• You want to learn about the challenges that returning military members face, including alienation, loss of identity, moral injury, and suicide.
• You want a deeper understanding of where and how military veterans find refuge and hope in civilian society.
• You work with active-duty military or military veterans and want to better understand their experiences.
• You are a military veteran and want to gain knowledge around your own experiences of enculturation and transition by viewing them through a Jungian alchemical lens.

Course Overview: (Weekly Titles/Themes)

Week 1: Introduction and Exploring Basic Training Weeks 1 through 6; Calcinatio, Solutio, and Coagulatio

• Introduction to use of the alchemical metaphor to better understand the process of individuation.
• Exploring the process of calcination through weeks 1-2 of military basic training.
• Exploring the process of coagulation through weeks 4-6 of military basic training.

Week 2: Exploring Basic Training Week 7 and 8; Separatio, Mortificatio, and Conunctio

• Exploring the process of sublimation in week 7 of military basic training.
• Discussion around the intentional avoidance of mortification and separation during military basic training.
• Discussion of conjunction and the creation of a false conunctio at the conclusion of military basic training.

Week 3: Transitioning Out of Military Service; Dissolution of collective consciousness, the search for refuge and hope.

• Discussion around the challenges of transition back into civilian society: loss of Identity, family, and connection.
• Exploring the withdrawal of the military collective consciousness and its impact on the individual psyche.
• Discussion on how veterans intentionally, though mostly unconsciously, avoid the process of individuation after separation from the military body.
• How veterans find temporary refuge through a sense of belonging in various civilian led groups.

Week 4: Facing the Other Within; Moral Injury, Depression, and Suicide

• Discussion around the forced emergence of Mortificatio and Separatio in veterans.
• Discussion around psychological contributors to suicide in veterans from two distinct age groups.
• How suicide in veterans represents the literalization of a necessary metaphorical death.

By the End of This Course You Will Be Able To:

1. Identify seven stages of the alchemical process as they align with military basic training.
2. Explain the creation of a false coniunctio due to group influence.
3. State three reasons veterans struggle when they leave the military.
4. Describe two contributors to veteran suicide.
5. Explain moral injury through a Jungian Alchemical Lens.

Course Addendums:

Books:

Baring, Anne (2019) The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul. United Kingdom: Archive Publishing

Edinger, E. F. (1994). Anatomy of the psyche. Le Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing Company.

Edinger, E. F. (1994b). The mystery of the coniunctio; Alchemical image of individuation. Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books.

Edinger, E. F. (1995). The mysterium lectures; A journey through C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis. Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books.

Hillman, J. (1997). suicide and the soul. Punam, CT. Spring Publications, Inc. (Original work published 1965)

Hillman, J. (1975). Re-visioning psychology. Ney York, NY: Harper.

Hillman, J. (2004). A terrible love of war. New York, NY: Penguin

Jung, C. G. (1983). Paracelsus as a spiritual phenomenon (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 13. Alchemical studies. Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1942).

Jung, C. G. (1966). On the psychology of the unconscious (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 7. Two essays on analytical psychology (2nd ed., pp. 1–119). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1943)

Kellermann, P. F. (2007). Sociodrama and collective trauma. London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Meagher, R.E. (2014) Killing from the inside out. Eugene, Oregon. Cascade Books.

Tick, E. (2005). War and the soul. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.

Journal articles:

Carta, M. G., Balestrieri, M., Murru, A., & Hardoy, M. C. (2009). Adjustment disorder: epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, 5(15). doi:10.1186/1745-0179-5-15

Mobbs, M., & Bonanno, G. (2017). Beyond war and PTSD: The crucial role of transition stress in the lives of military veterans. Clinical Psychology Review, 59, 137-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.11.007

Reger, M.A., Smolenski, D.J., Skopp, N.A., et al., (2015). Risk of suicide among US military service members following Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment and separation from the US military. JAMA Psychiatry. 2015;72(6):561–569. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.3195