Dennis and Rebecca will discuss the ideas in Alchemy, Jung, and Remedios Varo, which offers a depth psychological analysis of the art and life of Remedios Varo, a Spanish surrealist painter. The book uses Varo’s paintings in a revolutionary way: to critique the patriarchal underpinnings of Jungian psychology, alchemy, and Surrealism, illuminating how Varo used painting to address cultural complexes that silence female expression.
The book focuses on how the practice of alchemical psychology, through the power of imagination and the archetypal Feminine, can lead to healing and transformation for individuals and culture. Alchemy, Jung, and Remedios Varo offers the first in-depth psychological treatment of the role alchemy played in the friendship between Varo and Leonora Carrington—a connection that led to paintings that protest the pitfalls of patriarchy.
This unique book will be of great interest for academics, scholars, and post-graduate students in the fields of analytical psychology, art history, Surrealism, cultural criticism, and Jungian studies.
Dennis Pottenger is a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist in private practice in California. Dennis studied psychotherapy at Pacifica Graduate Institute and works often with trauma, identity, and diversity issues.
An award-winning literary journalist, Dennis is the author of Alchemy, Jung, and Remedios Varo: Cultural Complexes and the Redemptive Power of the Abjected Feminine (Routledge, 2021), and Great Expectations, a season in the life of a professional football franchise (Prima, 1991).
On a personal level, Dennis is a proud step-father to four multi-racial children (Alisha, Veronica, Coreana, and Jasynte) and step-grandfather to Ezra, who is 3 years old, and Ariah, who will be 2 years old early next year.
Rebecca Livingston-Pottenger is a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and Adjunct Faculty Member at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she advises MA candidates and edits master’s theses and dissertations.
Rebecca is a feminist scholar and gifted intuitive healer who has practiced and taught Reiki, a hands-on Japanese healing art, for more than 30 years.
Rebecca loves to work with women in small groups and with individuals. She facilitates intimate, transformational retreats using experiential modalities ranging from movement, vocal, and creative practices to guided visualization and Tarot.
Rebecca brings extensive presentation skills to the Varo material, having given papers at several conferences hosted by the Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies over the past decade.