How do we tend to perceive and respond to human suffering, both in its general everyday forms as well as in situations after being exposed to seriously traumatising events and circumstances? What makes us conceptualise these situations in the way we do? How much are our personal factors involved in this process, and how much wider, collective factors? What is the relevance of Jungian insights in these matters? To begin with, how did Jung really understand these phenomena? How can Jungian ideas about suffering, alchemy and individuation be of relevance to everyday life as well as inform Jungian professional analytical practice?

These are the main questions that these seminars will address, endeavouring to revisit them from new perspectives

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Renos K Papadopoulos, PhD., FBPsS, is Professor of Analytical Psychology, Founder Director of the Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees and of the MA /PhD Programmes in Refugee Care at the University of Essex, as well as Honorary Clinical Psychologist at the Tavistock Clinic. He is a practitioner, trainer and supervisor Jungian Psychoanalyst, Clinical Psychologist, and Systemic Family Psychotherapist. As a consultant to the United Nations and other organisations, he has been working with refugees, tortured persons, trafficked people and other survivors of political violence and disasters in many countries. He lectures and offers specialist trainings internationally, and his writings have appeared in 18 languages. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the IAAP for several years, inter alia, setting up the Developing Groups within IAAP as well as the Academic and the Publications Sub-committees. He was the editor of ‘The IAAP Newsletter’ for 8 years, of 'Harvest: International Journal for Jungian Studies' for 14 years, the founder editor of the 'International Journal of Jungian Studies', and co-founder of the 'International Association for Jungian Studies'. Among the honorary accolades that he has received are Lifetime Achievement awards by the International Association of Jungian Studies (the ‘C.G. Jung 2022 Award’), by the European Family Therapy Association, by the University of Essex for the ‘Best International Research Impact’, and by two Mexican Foundations for ‘exceptional work with vulnerable children and families in Mexico’. His last three books are on Moral Injury, on Involuntary Dislocation, and The Second Handbook of Jungian Psychology (2026).

Papadopoulos, R.K. Trauma and Umwelt. An Archetypal Framework for Humanitarian Interventions. In Andreas Maercker, Eva Heim, & Laurence J. Kirmayer (Eds.) Cultural Clinical Psychology and PTSD. Göttingen: Hogrefe (2018).

Papadopoulos, R.K The traumatising discourse of trauma and moral injury: distress and renewal. In Papadopoulos, R.K. (Ed). Moral Injury and Beyond. Understanding Human Anguish and Healing Traumatic Wounds. London and New York: Routledge. (2020).

Papadopoulos, R.K. Involuntary Dislocation. Home, Trauma, Resilience and Adversity-Activated Development. London and New York: Routledge (2021).

Papadopoulos, R.K. Destructiveness, Complexity, and Archetypal Epistemology. Critical Reflections. In Carpani, S. and Ostermann, L. (Eds.) War as Reset. London and New York: Routledge (2025).

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