C.G. Jung Society of Atlanta

Jerry Ruhl, Ph.D.

The Pursuit of Happiness

May 18, Friday Lecture 7:30 pm
members: $20; non-members $25; students $10

What makes us happy? For the ancient Greeks, happiness was a gift of the gods. With the coming of Christianity it became a promise of the world to come. Today, we often think of happiness as a natural right, even an entitlement. We tend to look for something or someone on the outside to make us happy. This program will examine happiness from the perspectives of depth psychology, Buddhism, positive psychology, and recent neuro-affective research. Dr. Ruhl will suggest that unhappiness is rooted in anxiety which accompanies the sense of being an isolated ego (separate from others and nature as a whole). A sense of harmony, completion, and wholeness come with the realization that this feeling of isolation is an illusion.

Achieving True Contentment

May 19, Saturday Workshop 10:00am - 5:00pm
members: $60; non-members $70; students $50; CEUs $15

(includes lecture if paid before lecture)

Most of us believe that we’ll somehow achieve contentment just as soon as we get a better job, find a more satisfying relationship, buy a bigger house, retire, or attain some other outer goal. Our society conditions us to think this way. With this approach to life, contentment forever eludes us. We continually banish our contentment to another time, a different place, a better circumstance. Through myths, stories, and practical exercises, this workshop will show you how to move beyond the inevitable frustrations of the ego-centered approach to life and open to a deeper, richer layer of experience. We will explore the psychological experiences of projection, inflation, and deflation, and unexpected vehicles of contentment, including the “gifts” of: confusion, paradox, stopping, silence, yearning, and ordinariness.

Jerry M. Ruhl, Ph.D. iis a clinical psychologist living in Houston, Texas. Dr. Ruhl is executive director of The Jung Center of Houston and a faculty member of the Saybrook University Graduate Studies Program in Jungian Studies.  He is the co-author of three books with Robert A. Johnson, including Contentment:  A Way to True Happiness, published by HarperCollins. Dr. Ruhl sees patients in private practice, facilitates dream groups, and presents seminars around the nation. His website is www.jerryruhlrobertjohnson.com

Article: Review of Living Your Unlived Life - Van Waddy

Article: Interview of Jerry Ruhl - Van Waddy