Does Psyche Matter? Jung and the Unconscious in 2026 - AHRC Free Public Panel
The word "psychology" carries within it psyche, the Greek term for soul. Modern secular usage has reshaped this ancient concept, redefining it as the conscious and unconscious dimensions of individual and collective mind.
Decades into the era of psychotherapy and the broader mental health industry, and within a world of deepening crises, this raises a pointed question: is psychology, as we've inherited it, equal to the challenges we now face? In other words, how does what call "psychology" intertwine with the exigencies of crisis in its concrete and abstract dimensions?
This panel takes up that question through the specific case of Jungian thought, asking whether depth psychology can meet a moment defined by social, political, and material crisis, and whether it even endeavors to do so.
Questions the panel will address include:
Can Jungian Studies adequately equip itself to deal with the social, political, and material problems of 2026? Does it even endeavor to do so?
Can Jung be "radical," or does his notion of interiority foreclose that from the start?
By making Jung palatable for mainstream and academic consumption, do we kill what makes Jung Jung? How do we critically engage with his ideas without domesticating them?
Does our conception of the psyche remain too "introverted," too divorced from the material, or are these actually separate problems?
Anti-Oedipus and the tradition of libidinal materialism accuse psychoanalysis of capturing immanent flows of desire within transcendent structures like the archetype or the Self. Does Jung have a rejoinder, or must depth psychology concede the point?
Is there a way to read the archetypal as immanent rather than transcendent, and if so, does it remain recognizably Jungian?
Panelists:
Dr. Bob Langan (host), University of Essex
Gabriela Sova Spulirova, University of Essex
JF Martel, author, filmmaker, and co-host of Weird Studies
Dr. Christian McMillan, University of Essex
Date & Time: Sunday, August 30, 2026, 1:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83796372435?pwd=viLDROK4Di8yIEKaCIDSHwjt16wDBj.1
Meeting ID: 837 9637 2435
Free and open to the public.