The Apocalypse Archetype, Conspiracy Theories and the Archetypal Destructive Father: The Psychology of Religion Behind Our Modern Mass Movements

Jung implied that humans have an ‘instinct’ for religion, and wrote extensively about the destructive side of that impulse when it is no longer supported and contained in an organized living religion. We will weave together many threads of our modern history to try to understand the extremely powerful and pathological belief systems behind the dramatic changes we see in our society and political systems. We will ask: what is ‘religion’?; why do we suspect it is a central instinctive behaviour?; and how do we recognize when a cultural movement is driven by a religious impulse?