The Masterclass

A psychic laboratory for the development and application of Applied Jungian Psychology and the practice of individuation.

Substantially different from classical Jungian analysis in format: being practiced in a facilitated group environment, and focus: not on pathology or adaptation but specifically, individuation. In addition to the presentation of lectures, which are a form of distilled psychoanalytic theory and applications: the self-analysis or theoria (contemplation) of the student, it significantly includes a community aspect.

Individuation, as Jung characterised it, exists as an explicit conscious principle or moral imperative for a number of people. It is a practice that involves both psychic and social dimensions. The challenge with consciously subscribing to the principle of individuation is it can be a lonely journey. Because individuation typically involves radical personal change, one is not infrequently alienated from one’s existing network of social relations. With this in mind, a holding community, such as the Masterclass, is an invaluable resource.

The theory and applications presented in the class are inspired and informed by psychoanalytic theory. The focus is very much Jungian: classical and post, but also draws on Freud and Lacan.

A very brief history

Began in 2007 some four years before The Centre for Applied Jungian Studies was formally established in the middle of 2011.  The class was founded and is taught by Stephen Anthony Farah. The first two students in the class were Bernie Miller and Tasha Tolman. An early evangelist of the class was Oran Cohen, who established a much larger group hosted at the then home of Jan Lampen, in Bryanston Johannesburg. The class has been taught unbroken but for a year in 2010/2011, when Stephen spent the year in England on the master’s programme in Jungian and post-Jungian Studies, at the Centre (now department) for Psychoanalysis at the University of Essex.

The class and teaching offered are inspired by the style and teaching of Châtillon Coque, also known as “the Duke” and his school, Little Athanor. Châtillon Coque taught Jungian psychology in a unique fashion in three weekly classes in Johannesburg North, for over twenty-five years. His style of pedagogy he referred to as a “dramatization” of the Collected Works. This involved a hermeneutic style reading of Jung’s original texts, along with a dramatic contextualisation of these ideas in contemporary society and the lives of his students. The essence of this style of teaching was a very potent and accessible form of what we now refer to as, Applied Jungian psychology. A discipline focusing on the development of consciousness, the symbolic life and the practice of individuation.  The Duke died in 2015.

The Masterclass today

Class is taught in person once a month on Zoom, typically the last Tuesday of every month, from 18h00 to 20h30 GMT, and is recorded for anyone unable to attend live.

Membership of the class is by invitation only. If you have not been invited and would like to participate in this class, you can email Stephen at stephen@appliedjung.com .

Class is ongoing and works on a broad annual theme. The theme for 2018 was the Biblical Ark as a metaphor for consciousness and identity. The class

As a sample of the style of teaching in the Masterclass these were the classes taught in 2018:

• Conscious Community. ( 2 lectures)

• Fordham’s Primary Self (2 lectures)

• The Ark and the soul’s longing.

• In the shadow of the mountain.

• Your secret desire.

• The Ark as a symbol of consciousness or conscious identity

• The frozen aspect of the soul.

• Lacan’s four discourses. (2 lectures)

• Fordham’s Self-object.

The format of the classes is a lecture and dramatization of the topic, followed by a Q & A and then an application. The application being a form of self-analysis or theoria (contemplation) designed to take the presented idea out of athe abstract and into a form of symbolised psychic phenomena. And in so doing to meaningfully facilitate the promotion of consciousness, symbolic tapestry and the individuation of the student body.

Joining the masterclass

As this is a private unpublicised page, if you are on this page chances are you have been invited to join the Masterclass. If not, and you would like to join, contact Stephen at the email address already given.

If you have been invited the rules of engagement are fairly simple.

1. Your commitment to the class is for an unspecified duration of time. This class is a community and crucible for those practicing individuation as an ongoing moral imperative. As individuation has no specifiable time frame neither does the class. Your contractual commitment is monthly. That said, we respectfully request that you look at work in the masterclass in one-year blocks, anything less can be disruptive to the community.
2. All applications practiced in the class and most especially the applications of other students are confidential and not for discussion outside of class. In the alchemical tradition the class is treated as a hermetically sealed container. Naturally the choice to discuss what emerges from your own application with your psychotherapist or a confidant is yours. However, your participation in the class is strictly conditional on the undertaking to never share anyone else’s material or disclose anything about anyone in the class that may be prejudicial, outside of the container of the class.
3. Being in the masterclass means being part of a community. In order to interact meaningfully in that community, you need to participate in class and on the Masterclass Facebook forum.
4. Membership is only offered and extended a year at a time.

Fees for the Masterclass currently stand at $30 for international students and R300 for SA students, per month, payable in advance on the 1^st of every month.

To accept the conditions stated above and officially join the Masterclass subscribe below.