Navigating Academic Egos and Therapeutic Spaces: some reflections from nearly 30 years at the front line of Jungian studies.

Join us for this fascinating lecture with Professor Lucy Huskinson

This talk explores the interplay between academic and therapeutic environments through the lens of Jungian and Nietzschean philosophy. It explores the challenges of navigating ego inflation, self-awareness, and institutional pressures, particularly within the humanities and social sciences.

Through personal experiences of ego inflation across various stages of academic and clinical life—from students to senior scholars—it highlights the challenges and contradictions inherent in teaching and studying self-awareness while navigating the pressures of academic performance and institutional demands. Drawing from Nietzsche’s critique of modernity and Jung’s focus on shadow integration, the talk underscores the dangers of ego inflation and the necessity of self-reflection and engagement with the ‘external,’ material world. It critiques the isolating tendencies of academic and therapeutic contexts, and advocates for the holistic integration of material surroundings into self-reflective practices, calling for environments—both physical and institutional—that foster introspection, creativity and connection. The themes extend to the design of therapeutic and urban spaces to highlight how well-designed spaces, and thoughtful architectural choices can facilitate psychological and intellectual growth, by fostering personal connection, self-discovery, and resilience amidst the pressures of modern institutional life.

The Speaker

Lucy Huskinson is Professor of Philosophy at Bangor University, UK, with nearly 30 years of experience in Jungian studies and practice, encompassing roles as a student, analysand, psychodynamic counsellor of adults and children, lecturer, researcher, author, editor, and examiner of students, Jungian degree programmes, and grant applications.

Lucy’s research continues to focus on Jung, psychoanalysis, and their connections to aesthetics and the built environment. She is author of Nietzche and Jung (2004), but her more recent publications include Architecture and the Mimetic Self: a psychoanalytic study of buildings make and break our lives (2018), and Nietzsche and Architecture: a grand style for modern living (2024).