The Zen of Dissociation: Beyond Individual and Society

OK, so this one is quite long, but I think worth listening to!

We tend always to think about the Precepts in terms of ‘my’ possible actions as an individual, but in what ways do WE TOGETHER make (for example) a world of killing, or a world of peace?

This is, contrary to what we might think, as much or more about EMPTINESS as it is about ETHICS. If we are (in as much as we are anything) just THIS self-state in this moment, defined by its patterning of dissociation, of ‘me’ and ‘not-me’, and in its relation to all the other momentary self-states through which ‘I’ tell the story of ‘myself', how far are our patternings of dissociation SHARED, how do they arise?

The key point here is not to end up with just another more fancy version of the fantasy of myself as some kind of 'separate’ and permanent Self that still approximates to the Christian SOUL responsible for its actions before God...

This talk brings together the thinking and practice of psychoanalyst Philip Bromberg, and feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan, to help us begin to think this through…