Course Description

This seminar introduces the horizontal dimension of Integrated Analytical Psychology through the Circumplex Model and the Archetypal Axes. Participants will explore how the interplay of archetypal forces—Christ and Lilith, Transcendent Self and Unique Identity—creates a dynamic map of personality structure and transformation. By combining the vertical harmonic progression of mental representations with the circular geometry of archetypal themes, this model provides a holistic framework for understanding personality types, defensive styles, and developmental trajectories. The session will include lecture, discussion, and applied exercises, focusing on the clinical and symbolic implications of the four quadrants and their spiral path toward integration.

Learning Objectives

Describe the Circumplex Model and Archetypal Axes within Integrated Analytical Psychology, and explain how horizontal archetypal tensions organize personality structure, motivation, and defensive style.
Differentiate the primary archetypal polarities (e.g., Christ–Lilith, Transcendent Self–Unique Identity) as symbolic axes of development, enabling clinicians to formulate psychological conflict as dynamic tension rather than trait pathology.
Analyze how the interaction between vertical harmonic levels (archetype through self) and horizontal archetypal axes generates distinct personality quadrants, and use this integration to assess developmental arrest, inflation, or fragmentation.
Apply the spiral model of personality transformation to clinical material in order to conceptualize therapeutic change as a process of recursive movement through archetypal tensions toward greater integration, rather than linear symptom resolution.

The Aion Institute is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. The Aion Institute (AIO279) maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

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AION 305 The Spiral Path I: Archetypal Axes