Dennis Merritt, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst, author, and ecopsychologist in private practice in Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin.
He earned a Ph.D. in entomology with a specialty in insect pathology from the University of California, Berkeley and later went on to study psychology, earning a master’s degree in humanistic psychology from Sonoma State University. He trained as a Jungian analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute Zürich where his areas of interest included synchronicity and the I Ching.
Dr. Merritt is the author of the 4-volume series, The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe: Jung, Hermes, & Ecopsychology published by Fisher King Press. It consists of Vol. 1, Jung & Ecopsychology; Vol. 2, The Cry of Merlin: Jung, the Prototypical Ecopsychologist; Vol. 3, Hermes, Ecopsychology, & Complexity Theory; and Vol. 4, Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View.
He believes that Jungian psychology in the form of ecopsychology offers perhaps the best system for diagnosing and understanding our disastrous relationship with the environment and with each other, and points out that the challenge Jung gave us was to unite our cultured side with what he called “the two-million-year-old man within.” Jung said that a new paradigm had to come to the West and countries influenced by the West, which is now the entire world. In 1940 he labeled that shift a “new age” and the “age of Aquarius.”
In an explosive new article titled, Covid-19: Inflection Point in the Anthropocene Era & the Paradigm Shift of Jung’s New Age, Dr. Merritt says he hopes the virus will do what the titanic hurricanes or the hellish wildfires in the Western United States in 2019 couldn’t do, nor the fires in the Amazon or the toasting of the koala bears in Australia—shock us into consciousness of the almost unimaginable significance of the present time. He says the good news is that human-created systems are at the root of most of our problems, systems that can be changed by humans.
Jung said that his psychology was 500 years ahead of his time, and in this interview Dr. Merritt hopes to make the case that the time is now.
This interview was recorded on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. It’s 01:46:17 long and 97 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. It’s also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. This episode is now available on our YouTube channel.
You can also listen to this episode on your Amazon Echo device. Simply say, “Alexa, play Speaking of Jung on Apple Podcasts (or on TuneIn).” Just be sure to pronounce Jung with a hard J.
TOPICS
The novel coronavirus COVID-19, how the Chinese handle viruses, President Trump’s reaction, Echo & Narcissus, the trickster archetype, the myth of Hermes, “nature’s revenge,” James Hillman, the Age of Aquarius, Merlin, alchemy, the “2-million year old man within,” Lakota Sioux ceremonies, Fred Gustafson, the Anthropocene Era, Silent Spring, and Jung at Bollingen.
SHOW NOTES
Covid-19: Inflection Point in the Anthropocene Era & the Paradigm Shift of Jung’s New Age by Dennis Merritt, Ph.D. {full text}
Hermes, Ecopsychology, & Complexity Theory Vol. III of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe by Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.
Speaking of Jung, Ep. 48 with Dennis Merritt, Ph.D.; recorded in person on Aug. 16, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews & Encounters Includes the full text of Jung’s interview, Face to Face with John Freeman, pp. 424-439
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung
Enough is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources by Rob Dietz & Dan O’Neill
Jung & Ecopsychology Vol. 1 of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe by Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.
Lakota Voice Overview of the Lakota Indian Tribe
Dancing Between Two Worlds: Jung & the Native American Soul by Fred Gustafson, Ph.D., Jungian analyst
Speaking of Jung, Ep. 10 with Fred Gustafson, Ph.D.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
C.G. Jung: Word & Image Large format book containing lots of photos and information about Jung’s retreat in Bollingen
FREE BOOK SAMPLES
Jung & Ecopsychology The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe, Vol. I
The Cry of Merlin: Jung, the Prototypical Ecopsychologist The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe, Vol. II
Hermes, Ecopsychology, & Complexity Theory The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe, Vol. III
Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe, Vol. IV
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Fisher King Press Publisher of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe
A Historian Looks Ahead at a Transformed Post-Pandemic World NPR interview with historian Yuval Noah Harari, April 5, 2020
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The I Ching or Book of Changes by Richard Wilhelm; Forword by C.G. Jung
Use of the I Ching in the Analytic Setting by Dennis Merritt, Ph.D. {full .pdf}
In memory of Fred Gustafson (1941-2018)