Course Description

This installment of the Aion Literary Discussion Group is structured around The Crock of Gold by James Stephens, a mythopoetic novel that blends folklore, philosophical inquiry, humor, and psychological depth. The text offers a rich symbolic meditation on freedom and constraint, instinct and civilization, eros and law, and the tension between innocence and moral awakening—making it particularly resonant for advanced clinical reflection.

The seminar will proceed as a shared reading experience. Approximately half of each session will be devoted to close discussion of the assigned chapters, with attention to narrative structure, symbolic imagery, character dynamics, and philosophical themes. The remaining time will be devoted to didactic material selected by the instructor to amplify the psychological and clinical relevance of the text, drawing on psychodynamic, Jungian, and archetypal perspectives.

Learning Objectives

Apply literary analysis of a mythopoetic text to clinical reflection, using The Crock of Gold to deepen understanding of unconscious process, ethical development, and therapeutic stance without collapsing symbolic meaning into diagnostic reduction.
Session 1 – Myth, Innocence, and Instinct (Chapters 1–6): Identify how mythic imagery, humor, and archetypal figures in the early chapters of The Crock of Gold symbolize pre-reflective psychological life, instinctual vitality, and defenses against moral complexity, and relate these themes to early developmental states and clinical reverie.
Session 2 – Law, Suffering, and Moral Awakening (Chapters 7–12): Analyze the emergence of law, punishment, and suffering in the narrative as symbolic representations of moral development, superego formation, and ethical conflict, and apply these themes to clinical formulations involving shame, guilt, conscience, and moral injury.
Session 3 – Integration, Paradox, and Ethical Maturity (Chapters 13–18): Evaluate how the later chapters of The Crock of Gold portray psychological integration as the capacity to hold paradox rather than resolve it, and reflect on how this stance informs mature therapeutic presence, ethical humility, and tolerance of ambiguity in clinical practice.

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 403 Psychodynamic Theory in Literature: The Crock of Gold