THE TRAUMA OF EXILE
THROUGH A JUNGIAN LENS

Plenary Speaker,  Lourdes Hernandez, MA, Jungian Analyst

 

This presentation will discuss the trauma of political exile, how it splits and shapes the psyche of displaced individuals, making their lives feel psychologically conflictual and incongruous. We will explore how Jungian theory can assist the exile in fashioning a new mythic center that grounds the uncentered, culturally diverse self-states that develop from acculturation. We will discuss how Jungian analysis is uniquely suited to working with the exile complex through the presenter’s own dreamwork, active imagination, the transcendent function of the symbol, and the transference container - ultimately bringing meaning to the suffering of exile.

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Lourdes Hernandez was marked by the traumas of war and political asylum when her family fled Cuba to take refuge in the United States. She holds post graduate degrees from Pacifica Graduate Institute and Regis University in hermeneutics, counseling, and Jungian and Archetypal Studies. She is a Diplomate Jungian Analyst with the IRSJA and has a bilingual private practice in Boulder, Colorado. Lourdes is a lifelong musician and visual artist who values the curative power of the symbolic psyche and its restorative interventions. 

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