Legacy of Darkness and Light:  

Our Cultural Icons and Their God Complex:

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Presented by
Michael Gellert, MA, LCSW

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link to video

​This program will be recorded and made available publicly on our YouTube channel.

Sunday, February 18, 2024, 4-6 pm PST (UTC -8)

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What do Niccolo Machiavelli, Abraham Lincoln, Martha Stewart, Vladimir Putin, Mel Gibson, and Bob Dylan have in common? In their own ways, they each resemble the stormy God of the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh - known as the Father in the New Testament and Allah in the Qur’an. Whether or not we believe in his existence, we are all susceptible to the Yahweh complex, a distinct god complex modeled upon his attitudes, emotional style, and behaviors.

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Like the deity itself, the Yahweh complex can be positive or dark, influencing our relationships, our social environment and culture, our public affairs and international relations, our treatment of the earth, and, of course, our religions. This program will explore both sides of this complex. Drawing upon the experiences of famous individuals as well as the larger factors that shape history, we can recognize and understand our own Yahweh complex in order to deal with it in a healthy, conscious, and self-empowered way.

This program will consist of readings by Michael Gellert from his new book, Legacy of Darkness and Light: Our Cultural Icons and Their God Complex, interspersed with questions and answers and an open discussion.  Program registrants will be sent, along with their Zoom registration link, a link for purchasing Michael Gellert’s signed book from the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles bookstore with a 25% discount.
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Michael Gellert, MA, LCSW, is a Jungian analyst practicing in Los Angeles. He was formerly director of training at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and a humanities professor at Vanier College, Montreal. He managed an employee assistance program for the City of New York and has been a mental health consultant for the University of Southern California and Time magazine. He studied with Marshall McLuhan at the University of Toronto and has lived in Japan, where he trained with a Zen master. Lecturing widely on psychology, religion, and contemporary culture, he is the author of Modern Mysticism, The Way of the Small, The Divine Mind, America’s Identity Crisis (the latter two each winning a Nautilus Book Award), and Far From This Land.

Visit Michael Gellert's website.

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Learning objectives: 

• ​Define and explain the Yahweh complex.

• List and compare examples, both positive and dark, of the Yahweh complex.

• Explain how to treat the Yahweh complex when it erupts in individuals, couples and families.