Professor Roderick Main

Biography

I have a BA and MA in Classics from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Religious Studies from Lancaster University. I joined the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at Essex (formerly the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies) as a visiting research fellow in 1997 and was appointed as a lecturer in 2000. I have had many roles in the department, including Course Director for the MA Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies between 2002 and 2009 and Director (i.e., Head of Department) between 2008 and 2012. I am currently Deputy Head of Department as well as Director of the Centre for Myth Studies. From 2014 to 2016 I was seconded to a University role as Deputy Dean (Education) in the Faculty of Social Sciences. My teaching and research mainly focus on the work of Carl Gustav Jung, especially in relation to religion, mythology, literature, and society. My publications have engaged in particular with Jung’s concept of synchronicity. From 2016 to 2018 I was the Principal Investigator on an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project titled ‘“One World”: logical and ethical implications of holism’, which resulted in two books (co-edited with Christian McMillan and David Henderson): Holism: Possibilities and Problems (Routledge, 2020) and Jung, Deleuze, and the Problematic Whole (Routledge, 2021). I was invited to deliver the 2021 Zurich Lecture Series in Analytical Psychology at the International School of Analytical Psychology, Zurich, which resulted in my latest book, Breaking the Spell of Disenchantment: Mystery, Meaning, and Metaphysics in the Work of C. G. Jung (Chiron Publications, 2022). I welcome applications for doctoral study in the following areas: Historical, philosophical, religious, and cultural contexts of the work of C. G. Jung; Depth psychology (especially Jungian psychology), religion, and modernity; Analytical psychology and society; Synchronicity; Myth; Western esotericism; Holism I am currently supervising the following PhD students: Reginald Ajuonuma, 'Archetypes as emplotment: A narrative approach to Jungian psychology' Jingchao Zeng, 'A practice of esotericism or psychology: Adaptations of Jungian ideas to divinatory techniques' Antje Barber, 'A new perspective on Erich Neumann's contribution to the concept of the transpersonal through examination of his own works on Hasidism' Yunlan Fang, 'Jung and Tao: A comparative analysis of analytical psychology and Taoism regarding major concepts' Sulagna Sengupta, 'The narrative myth of the Ramayana: The anima in individuation' Rohan Naidoo, 'The problem of identity in Buddhist modernism: What contribution can analytical psychology make to this area?' Robert Langan, ‘Jung and Spinoza: Search for the blessed self’ Yichi Zhang, ‘Bion, Buddhism, and Chinese culture’ (co-supervised with Professor Matt ffytche) Naoko Nakamura, 'Japanese mentality: Subjectivity, consciousness, and ego-self relationships' Luis Moris, 'Post-mortal phenomena, C. G. Jung, and his psychology' I have supervised the following successful doctoral theses: Stefano Carpani, 'Absolute freedom. The I+I (individuation + individualization) as a metanarrative of self-development in a second-late-modern society' (2023, PhD; completed supervision begun by Professor Andrew Samuels) John Boyle, ''Before and after science: Esoteric traces in the formation of psychoanalysis' (2023, PhD) Stephen Claffey, 'Psychological surrender: A phenomenological study interpreted from an analytical psychology perspective' (2022, PhD) Adriana Giotta, 'Clinical, cultural, and personal dimensions of fashion modelling as a basis for phenomenological and depth psychological exploration of femininity in Western societies' (2021, PhD; completed supervision begun by Professor Andrew Samuels) Huseyin Firat, 'A comparative study of Jungian psychology and Sufism' (2020, PhD) Mark Saban, ‘“Two souls, alas…”: Jung’s two personalities and the making of analytical psychology’ (2019, PhD; co-supervised with Professor Matt ffytche) Henriette Heide-Jorgensen, 'Religion and transformation' (2019, PhD) Orsolya Lukacs, ‘C. G. Jung and Albert Einstein: From the physical to the psychical relativity of space and time’ (2018, PhD; co-supervised with Dr Kevin Lu) Xiao You, 'Archetype and archetypal image in Chinese myths, legends, and tales' (2018, PhD) Steve Myers, 'Mythology for Christians: Dreaming onwards the Christian myth' (2017, PhD) Valeria Cespedes Musso, 'Marian apparitions in cultural contexts: Applying Jungian depth psychological concepts to mass visions of the Virgin Mary' (2017, PhD) Giovanni Colacicchi, 'Jung and ethics: A conceptual exploration' (2016, PhD) Patrick Schotanus, 'The archetypal market hypothesis: A complex psychology perspective on the market's mind' (2016, PhD; co-supervised with Professor Andrew Wood, Essex Business School) Ann Addison, ‘A study of transference phenomena in the light of Jung’s psychoid concept’ (2016, PhD; completed supervision begun by Professor Karl Figlio) Christian McMillan, 'The image of thought in Jung's Whole-Self: A critique' (co-supervised with Dr Matt ffytche) (2015, PhD) Christina Sjostrum, 'Searches for s/Self: Personal and spiritual transformation in Jung's psychology and holistic spirituality' (2015, PhD) Teodora Velletri, 'Mircea Eliade and C. G. Jung: A comparative study' (2015, PhD) Marcel van den Akker, '"To be full of things is to be empty of God": Renunciation in Catholicism and analytical psychology' (2013, PhD) Mathew Mather, 'The alchemical Mercurius: Esoteric symbol of Jung's life and works' (2013, PhD) David Henderson, 'Apophatic elements in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis: Pseudo-Dionysius and C. G. Jung' (2012, PhD; external supervisor for Goldsmiths College, University of London) Kevin Lu, 'Jung and history' (2011, PhD) Christine Driver, 'The Holy Mother and the shadow of death: The psychological impact of conflated shadows and Catholicism' (2009, D. An. Psych.) Lloyd Keane, 'Routes of wholeness: Jung and the western esoteric tree of life' (2006, PhD) Trudy Bendayan, 'Ecce mulier: Nietzsche and the eternal feminine -- an analytical psychological perspective' (2005, PhD) Lucy Huskinson, 'Nietzsche and Jung: The whole self in the union of opposites' (2002, PhD; co-supervised with Professor Simon Critchley)