C.G. Jung Public Lectures, Bristol

C.G. Jung Public Lectures,
Bristol

Next Film - Feb

28th February 2026

Mark and Susan Kidel with James Hillman

Two Films: The Architecture of the Imagination: The Window and The Tower

1. The Architecture of the Imagination: The Window (1994)

Focusing on a recurring trope in cinema - itself a framed opening on the world - James Hillman’s exploration of windows is as rich as the rest of the series in film clips, from an obsessive sexually-motivated voyeur in Patrice Leconte’s Monsieur Hire, one of many films to play with the window as way of sampling the lives of others, with a measure of anonymity, to Miss Havisham’s heavily draped window in David Lean’s Great Expectations, and the moment that Pip finally draws the musty curtains open to expose the elderly woman to the light. In paintings of the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit, beamed down to Mary by a celestial dove, travels through windows. The figure of a woman at the window, a favourite of painters, evokes both interiority and a longing for contact with the magic of the external world. Ghosts and vampires, as in “Nosferatu” appear at windows and we use curtains or shutters to keep them out. The late artist Charlotte Johnson (mother of Boris) talks of her voyeuristic tendencies, and the erotic chase that peering at others from window to window can facilitate. As frame for reality, a vehicle for penetrating light, and a fulcrum for the imagination, the window is rich in archetypal associations.

2. The Architecture of the Imagination: The Tower (1994)

In a film that darkly anticipates 9/11, with a final sequence, introduced by the Tarot image of The Tower being destroyed by celestial lightning, and followed by a series of high-rise buildings being blown up, this episode describes the hubris that comes with over-reaching for Heaven, seeking the protection of a super-sized building, cut off from the earth. A surprising cast of characters includes a lonely man who dwells in a tower that rises up above Southall’s Asian-dominated streets, a New York writer who senses the total isolation and unreal lives of those who dwell around her high up in skyscrapers; and a scholar, expert on the Virgin Mary - often imagined as an impregnable fortress - visits a 16th century tower near Ipswich in which a nobleman locked up his daughter so she could learn the seven arts away from the distractions of the world. The skyscraper in King Vidor’s film of super-élitist philosopher Ayn Rand’s classic novel The Fountainhead offers an image of over-reaching ego – once again the excessive promotion of the individual at the expense of the collective, begging to be destroyed, as was the Tower of Babel, and the towering buildings in Fritz Lang’s dystopian and vision of authoritarianism, Metropolis.

At: The Cube [off top-left of King Square], Dove Street South, Kingsdown Bristol BS2 8JD and Online, Saturday 10.30am-12.45pm

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Next Lecture - Mar

March 14th 2026 10.30 am - 12.45 pm

Jake Yearsley

Being Trans

Gender and Sexuality is often measured against heteronormativity with non-heterosexuality, or gender variance being seen as inferior and, in some cases, pathologised.

There are many misconceptions around what a trans identity is, with the UK media fuelling vitriolic dialogue, aided with a current global hostility inflaming division between those that support trans people and those that don’t. Vitally, this creates a huge disconnect from what really matters, - human connection, understanding, love. This talk on ‘being trans’ aims to bring us back into our hearts, where I invite curiosity, open dialogue, kindness. We will explore the historical and global context of non-normative genders, both from my personal story and work as a GSRD therapist (see below). Examine how does “normal” shape our existence and sense of self. As we explore through a more expansive idea of gender, sex and sexuality we can begin to question these global narratives of gender that keep us divided; and choose to see ‘trans’ not just through the lens of suffering, but as a gift for all.
“In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
– Maya Angelou

Jake Yearsley (he/him) was born female and has lived as a transman since 1996, having transitioned medically when transgender was deemed a mental health disorder at that time in history. Jake works as a counsellor, psychosexual and GSRD therapist. Alongside his private practice he supervises and teaches Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD). For the last 10 years he has been teaching GSRD at the Minster centre, a private therapy school in London.

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Next Film - Mar

28th March 2026 10.30 am - 12.45 pm

Mark and Susan Kidel with James Hillman

Film: Kind of Blue – An Essay on Melancholia and Depression (1994)

(Royal Television Society Award – Best Education Film, 1995)

Named after a late 1950s’ Miles Davis jazz album, Kind of Blue is a deeply stirring and poetic film-essay defending the notion that feeling ‘blue’ isn’t to be avoided at all costs, but embraced, as the Ancients did, acknowledging that going ‘down’ offers a potential pathway to wisdom and wholeness, an experience of life in which darkness and suffering have as much of a place as well-being and light. An experience of life in which the god Saturn and his archetypal slowness offer a contrast to the fast pace that we frantically seek in an attempt to avoid the complex richness of the soul. We must, James Hillman argues, accept the downward pull of dark feelings and thoughts, recognising the ephemeral and the inevitability of change and decay. There can be transient beauty in melancholy as well; the “beauty”, as one contributor puts it, quoting Keats “that must die”.

A film rich in evocative imagery – empty beaches at low tide, gloomy graveyards, lonely woodland ponds, withered flowers, derelict houses with broken windows, shuttered shops in abandoned streets, the desolation of urban crowds - and melancholy sounds that range from Bartok to Ray Charles, and Beethoven to John Coltrane. There are paintings by Dürer, Giorgione, Cranach, Picasso, Munch and others, all of them conjuring the melancholy mood. Contributions from writers Jenny Diski and Trevor Preston, mythographer Jules Cashford, the Irish uilleann piper Liam O’Flynn and others, are structured around an inspiring and provocative interview with James Hillman.

At: The Cube [off top-left of King Square], Dove Street South, Kingsdown Bristol BS2 8JD and Online, Saturday 10.30am-12.45pm

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General information

Since the early eighties, the C.G. Jung Public Lectures have played an important part in establishing and maintaining Bristol's reputation as an acknowledged centre of interest in Depth Psychology.

The monthly lectures are on current issues and topics broadly related to the field of analytical psychology and are given by a variety of professional and established speakers. They are open to everybody with an interest in depth psychology, the therapies, philosophy, religion, mythology, life and the arts.

The aim is to provide a friendly, informal space for Jung's ideas and philosophy to reach a wider public. There is time for refreshment, socialising, and networking after the lecture followed by participative discussion with the speaker in the round.

A reduced-price bookstall is sometimes provided by Bookmark, Bristol. Their website includes a good selection
of Jungian and Analytical Psychology titles (also at reduced prices)!
Tel: (0117) 9672928 www.psychologicaltherapybooks.co.uk

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