Glen Slater is the author of Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age, as well as being a faculty member of the M.A./Ph.D. Jungian Psychology and Archetypal Studies program鈥檚 new online cohort (DJO), which is currently accepting applications. I鈥檓 delighted to catch up with Glen about his new book, as well as this exciting new online offering from Pacifica.
Angela Borda: I鈥檓 excited that the Archetypal Studies program is going to offer a fully online cohort (DJO) starting this spring. As the author of Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age, I wonder how you experienced the transition to online classes during Covid, and your opinion of online learning environments like DJO?
Glen Slater: Like many things in the digital era, the value of being connected in different ways across the world is extraordinary in terms of being able to share information, build long distance communities, and explore common interests and fields of study. The thing that surprised me when I started teaching in the hybrid program ten years ago was that the online module work, where people contemplate a questions and write responses based on readings and online lectures, created a very engaging environment to work with the material. People naturally bring in their own experiences and perspectives. It works the ideas in a rich way. All of that is a positive.
My book, by contrast, is really a critique of the way some things have gone with the digital age, particularly our investment in the belief that expanding data is going to solve all of our problems. It鈥檚 also about where we are headed with AI and the expectations of many that we鈥檒l be merging minds and computers. The thing we need to watch out for is that we don鈥檛 get too carried away with what we call technological solutionism鈥攖he idea we can address what is difficult about human relations and geo-political concerns by increasing technology. We鈥檝e seen that even though we鈥檝e had this ideal of the world being connected by the Internet, strong shadow forces have also emerged. With rampant misinformation and disinformation, for example, we鈥檝e created a world in which many of us are going about with deeply flawed forms of knowledge and understanding. This is a primary concern we hold alongside all the benefits.
Angela: What courses will you be teaching for the Archetypal Studies program鈥檚 online cohort (DJO), and do any stand out for you as being one of your favorite to teach for the program?
Glen: DJO is a fully online version of our Jungian Psychology and Archetypal Studies hybrid program (DJA). So I will most likely be teaching “Jungian Psychology: The Individuation Journey” at the beginning of the program, in second year “Archetypal Psychology,” and then a third-year course we鈥檝e been teaching in Archetypal Studies for a couple of years now, which is titled 鈥淧syche and Technology.鈥� Here we explore what Jungian psychology might say about where we are and where we鈥檙e headed in our technology.
Angela: Can you speak a little more about 鈥淧syche and Technology鈥� and its importance within the program?
Glen: It might be helpful to step back and look at how DJA/DJO approach the field of Jungian studies. Think about it in terms of past, present, and future. We spend a lot of time going deeply into the work that Jung set out for us, the work of some of his contemporaries and early generations of Jungian thinkers. Then we鈥檙e concerned that students become familiar with the field as it has evolved, so we consider contemporary Jungians and their approaches to the psyche. But we also want to have students branch out and apply Jungian psychology in new ways. That鈥檚 partly behind the impetus to have a course that applies an understanding of the psyche to our current and pending relationship with technology. Technology is something we鈥檙e now fully immersed in. Virtual reality is a growing part of people鈥檚 experience and, most recently, AI has started to make inroads into the way people work and think. There is a pressing need to engage the psycho-social implications of these developments.
It’s important to not just grasp the conscious understanding, but to look at what the unconscious might be saying and reacting to. Symptoms such as depression and anxiety have arisen around online activity and social media presence. What does this mean for the psyche, this increasing adaptation to the online world, especially when Jung saw the importance of having a relationship to nature and a psychology that remains rooted in the instincts? That鈥檚 the basis of the exploration. A particular topic we spend time on is post-humanism鈥攖he idea that we鈥檙e headed toward a literal merger with technology, when our bodies will have more replacement parts and our minds will be directly linked to AI. That scenario used to be the stuff of science fiction, but it鈥檚 an idea that鈥檚 very influential in technology circles, and we need to look at that. That鈥檚 part of what we do in the course.
Angela: How has Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age been received, and do you have any upcoming events pertaining to it, or other professional events upcoming that you鈥檇 like the community to know about?
Glen: There鈥檚 been a lot of interest because it鈥檚 unusual for depth psychologists to engage with questions about technology. Even though it鈥檚 the elephant in the room these days, and there鈥檚 a lot of discussion about where the relationship with AI is going to take us, it seems depth psychologists tend to be more focused on individual rather than collective, cultural matters. But I feel like I鈥檓 following Jung鈥檚 lead, which had to do with looking at the individuation process in the context of modern existence and coming to terms with the specific challenges of living in the modern world. Earlier on these challenges had to do with reconciling tradition and science; now the heart of this is our relationship with computers. And to me, we need to understand the impulse to be technological and the embrace of a datafied view of reality just as much as we need to understand our identities and the ways we relate to one another. We have an awareness that the values that encourage the creation of certain things come from the psyche, and we then need to consider the way these values are intersecting with or even usurping the values concerned with becoming more conscious or having a spiritual orientation. An example would be that what animates technologists most these days is the idea that the mind is a computer. Depth psychology sees the mind as far broader than that, thinking of the psyche as something much larger than the mind. I think there is an interest in how these perspectives can be in dialogue.
Over the past year I鈥檝e done a number of interviews and podcasts related to the book and the psychological implications of digital technology. A couple that many interest folks are:
In terms of upcoming events I鈥檒l be presenting to the Nashville Jung Circle on January 24, 2025. I鈥檒l also be presenting for the podcast Psycho-Social Wednesdays on March 12, 2025.
Angela: Thank you so much for your time and thoughtful answers.
***To read more about the M.A./Ph.D. Jungian Psychology and Archetypal Studies program鈥檚 new online cohort (DJO), visit us here.***
Glen Slater studied psychology and comparative religion at The University of Sydney before coming to the United States in 1992 for doctoral work in clinical psychology. He has been teaching at Pacifica for over twenty years and is currently the Associate Chair of the . He also teaches in the聽. His publications have appeared in a number of Jungian journals and essay collections, and he edited and introduced the third volume of聽, as well as a collection of faculty writings,聽. Beyond his work in Jungian and Archetypal Psychology, he writes on psyche and film as well as the psychology of technology. He lectures internationally in these areas of interest.
Angela Borda聽is a writer for 51社区, as well as the editor of the聽Santa Barbara Literary Journal.聽Her work has been published in聽Food & 51社区, Peregrine, Hurricanes & Swan Songs, Delirium Corridor, Still Arts Quarterly, Danse Macabre,聽and is forthcoming in聽The Tertiary Lodger听补苍诲听Running Wild Anthology of Stories, Vol. 5.
