Explore the American criminal justice system – its massive extremes in number, its extension from socio/economic disparities, its foundation in racism, its inevitable bias extending from a flawed court system, its ambivalent shadow of the death penalty, and its perpetuation through inevitable astronomical rates of recidivism. 

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We’ll begin with a case study followed by a mythico/historical exploration of antecedents in ancient Western cultures. A historical view of justice in the Western tradition will lead into philosophical insights pertaining to the necessity of the criminal for cultural order based on power of the privileged.

Our gaze will then turn to America and its specific historical attitude regarding justice, and, in particular, the institution of prisons serving as a form of retribution, purification and banishment at the same time. We’ll survey the contemporary American judicial system and prison through the lens of the question: Why does America create so many prisoners relative to its population (rating among the highest in the world)? - with a focus on the history of the prison in relation to the historical evolution of the African-American culture from slavery to civil rights. In looking for the reasons why American justice is so geared toward punishment for so many and yet concealed from public view for the most part, we will focus on three fundamental aspects of American culture – capitalism in relation to the poor, racism, and its roots in the Puritan/Protestant religious orientation toward the essentially Fallen nature of humankind.

Instructor: Ron Schenk
Saturday, September 19
10 am - 1 pm CST
3 CE Hours
$65 ($55 Jung Center Members)
Register here!

Ronald Schenk, PhD, Jungian analyst, is currently in private practice in Dallas and Houston, and his interests are in clinical thought, cultural psychology, post-modernism, and the interface of the arts with depth psychology. A senior training analyst and President of the Council of North American Societies of Jungian Analysis, he has written four books, most recently American Soul, and several essays in Jungian publications.