Round the Herne

 Earlier this month we had the third annual Suffolk Jungian Symposium at West Suffolk College. My contribution to the day was a talk applying Jungian principles to Oscar Wilde's novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (which also has plenty to say about the human psyche in general and not just as a bit of pretentious lit-crit. The recording of the original event did not come out at all well, so this is a slightly more rambling version of the same thing.

 I gave this talk at a college event in December 2024, recording it now on the off-chance that it might eb of interest to some followers on YouTube or this Blog. The talk interprets some of the ghost stories written by E F Benson, Saki, M R James, and Forrest Reid in the light of sexuality and social isolation. If nothing else, I rather hope that this talk will inspire listeners to want to read the works of the respective authors.

 As part of my job I organise various public conferences and seminars. This year we are trialing a few online mini courses in social sciences, starting with three evenings introducing some sociological theories and ideas. These are free to participate in, but you will need to let me know that you want to take part so the Teams link can be sent out. The first of these seminars takes place tonight at 7.30pm and is followed by another session next Tuesday evening and the one after that. The weekly topics are below. If you want the link, drop me an email at robin.herne@easterneducationgroup.ac.uk (the under-16s will need parental permission to tune in). What’s the Big (sociological) Idea – these virtual sessions explore major sociological theories: Week 1: Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and the Functionalists; Week 2: Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and Feminism; Week 3: Michel Foucault and Postmodernism.

 As previously mentioned, I gave the Annual Faith Lecture at the university campus in Ipswich, talking about animism and paganism and their involvement with environmentalism. The talk lasted an hour and the questions after were about half as much again. I made a recording of the talk, as near as I could remember it. Hopefully it might prove of interest to at least some subscribers to this blog.

 Every year I coordinate a programme of open lectures ad seminars on various topics for the college. Due to covid-19 restrictions we have started to combine live attendance from students with the virtual presence of outside guests. When the technology works, we record them and I will share some of them here. If any blog-readers would like to join events virtually, let me know and I will post the links for Microsoft Teams. The recording here is from a lecture on Carl Jung's use of alchemical imagery to explain the development of the human psyche. The rest of the 2021-22 programme is given below - email me at robin.herne@wsc.ac.uk if you want to receive the links to join in (the time are for the UK, just in case you are tuning in from more distant regions). Tuesday 16 th November, 2pm to 4.30pm (TG1.15) – The Big Three. Robin Herne leads a discussion of the explanations of Life offered by major thinkers in early psychology – Freud, Fromm, & Jung. Monday 29 th November, 2pm...

West Suffolk College was going to host a seminar today on Max Weber's theory of the Iron Cage - and drawing in ideas from psychology, sociology, ethics, and religious studies. Due to lock-down this has now been turned into a virtual seminar which you can watch at your leisure. If there is sufficient interest in discussing the topics raised, a virtual discussion could potentially be organised via Webex. There were going to be some other seminars this academic year and, depending on the kind of response gleaned to this virtual event, some of those may also be turned into this kind of format.

This Friday, February 16th, West Suffolk College is hosting a Religious Studies conference on the theme of Freedom of Speech and Conscience. The event is free to attend, but please notify me via my work email (robin.herne@wsc.ac.uk) if you wish to attend. The speakers include a Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, and Odinist weighing up the issues from their own perspectives. The running order is as follows: 10.00 – Welcome & housekeeping 10.10 – Gurmeet Sually; Words Have Power; Creative & Destructive 10.55 – Comfort break & coffee 11.05 – Reverend Canon Tim Jones; P auses Fall Pregnant: Language and coercion 11.50 – Janus van Helvert; Dialogue is the Essence of Life 12.30 – Lunch break 1.15 – Robin Herne; Hope, Healing, and Harmful Speech 2.00 – Workshops ·         Discussion led by Gurmeet Sually – does free speech have its limits when it comes to cherished beliefs? ·         Discussion le...

A couple of recordings to make potential students aware of the degrees which I lead at the University of Suffolk. If you know of any possible Religious Studies and/or Ethics students, do share the link - or get them to contact me via robin.herne@wsc.ac.uk ETHICS RELIGIOUS STUDIES