Katerina Sarafidou
PhD Student
Research Interests: C.G. Jung’ Red Book | History of Analytical Psychology and History of the Human Sciences | History of Hermetic Philosophy | Platonic thought | Renaissance Humanism | History of Philosophy | 18th and 19th Century German Philosophy
Year PhD started: 2021
Thesis
The Descent into the Hell of Self Knowledge: The history of an idea, image and method.
My research follows the idea, image and method of descending into hell as an initiatory process that appears in various guises and as a persistent and dynamic factor in Western thought. It traces its meaning and implications for the individual, as well the historical, cultural and social contexts in which such practices emerge. I am using this idea as a framework that organises and explicates Jung’s Red Book, its aims, some of its images and methods, placing it within the same historical and philosophical trajectory. I am also looking at the relevance and implications of this practice for contemporary psychoanalysis.
Supervisors: Professor John Tresch / Alessandro Scafi