Making it Through:
Bosnian Survivors Share Stories of Trauma, Transcendence, and Truth
A Lecture by Dr. Demaris Wehr

 

Friday, April 29 | 7 to 9 pm
Members $20, Non-Members $25
Held Online via Zoom | Register Here

Based on Wehr’s book, Making it Through: Bosnian Survivors Share Stories of Trauma, Transcendence and Truth, this presentation will explore Vahidin Omanovic’s story, which revolves around his slow, agonizing journey toward forgiving the Serbs—the group who were the most responsible for the Bosnian war/genocide.  We will learn the profound mind/body connection between hating and physical ailments, and forgiving and the healing of those ailments. Wehr will tell the story of how the book came to be as well as how she came upon the main theme, the “centerpost,” a sustaining, natural, instinctive value that arose within each one of them as they “made it through” the horrific conditions of the war. Participants will consider the primary importance of our having a centerpost, or several of them, ourselves as we make it through similarly chaotic and confusing times of global unrest. We want to resist falling prey to archetypal madness.  As Jung said, “there is no lunacy people under the domination of an archetype will not fall a prey to.”  (Jung: CW, Vol. 9 I, 47-48).

Demaris Wehr, Ph.D., is the author of Jung and Feminism: Liberating Archetypes (Routledge)  and Making It Through:  Bosnian Survivors Share Stories of Trauma, Transcendence, and Truth. Demaris has had a lifelong interest in peacebuilding, starting with her Quaker upbringing. She taught Religion and Psychology for many years, including at Swarthmore College, Harvard Divinity School, and the Episcopal Divinity School. Demaris began her practice as a Jungian psychotherapist in 1993. She and her late husband, Jungian analyst David Hart, had a joint practice in Dialogue Therapy (a form of couples therapy), which they did together as the therapist couple. Demaris is on the core faculty of the Sophia Center for Transformative Learning: Integrative Studies in Psyche and Soul. She lives in Hanover, New Hampshire. 

Forgiveness in the Face of Genocide
A Workshop with Dr. Demaris Wehr

 

Saturday, April 30 | 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Members $30, Non-Members $35
Held Online via Zoom | Register Here

This workshop will begin with a short (4 min.) film titled “Forgiveness: Even in the Face of Genocide?”  Discussion will follow. We will then consider our own definitions of forgiveness and possible resistance we may have to it.  We will do this in breakout groups, later to be shared with the whole group. Next, we will reflect on Vahidin’s definition of forgiveness.  If we accept this new definition, we will then look at ways that we can possibly really do it. Using examples from our own lives, we will again break out in small groups to consider the need and practicality of forgiveness, learning from each other how it may actually, heartfully, be achieved.  (The person we need to forgive may be ourselves.) We will complete the workshop with a bringing-together of our learnings.

Demaris Wehr, Ph.D., is the author of Jung and Feminism: Liberating Archetypes (Routledge)  and Making It Through:  Bosnian Survivors Share Stories of Trauma, Transcendence, and Truth. Demaris has had a lifelong interest in peacebuilding, starting with her Quaker upbringing. She taught Religion and Psychology for many years, including at Swarthmore College, Harvard Divinity School, and the Episcopal Divinity School. Demaris began her practice as a Jungian psychotherapist in 1993. She and her late husband, Jungian analyst David Hart, had a joint practice in Dialogue Therapy (a form of couples therapy), which they did together as the therapist couple. Demaris is on the core faculty of the Sophia Center for Transformative Learning: Integrative Studies in Psyche and Soul. She lives in Hanover, New Hampshire.