The Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies (CLIE) M.A./Ph.D. specialization at Pacifica brings together scholars who pursue vocations oriented toward social and environmental justice. These efforts are brought together in our annual publication, Hearing Voices. We'd like to introduce you to the work of Katie Robinson, our 2nd year CLIE student, poet, and sexuality educator.

On Queerness As Praxis

By Katie Robinson

If part of decoloniality is about naming what hurts and why, equal part must also be about screaming what feels good and why. Queers raised in a western colonial and neocolonial context, in all
our vibrant multiplicity, have always been good at this, having continually broken from, acted against, and thrived outside of a colonial expectation and construct based in erotophobia. Many of us have decided to live and build community around a full bodied, “yes, this!” in the direction of pleasure as an authentic self and with others. 

by Susan James and Mary Watkins, Co-Chairs CLIE, Pacifica Graduate Institute

Our M.A./Ph.D. specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies (CLIE) in the department of Depth Psychology is a bold initiative to forge interdisciplinary and transformative approaches to the social justice, cultural, and ecological challenges of our time. We look forward to the completion of your application in the coming weeks so that we might meet with you this year about this unique graduate program. An early completion of your application is helpful if you are applying for financial aid.

Our curriculum in CLIE provides training in several lineages of depth psychology, which are placed in dynamic dialogue with critical community psychology, indigenous, liberation and eco-psychologies from a variety of local cultural perspectives worldwide.

by James Hillman, Ph.D.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pacifica Graduate Institute, James Hillman, Ph.D. gave a talk about the ways that Pacifica serves, promotes, and sparks the development of the education of the soul. What follows is a transcription of his talk.

By Nadia Thalji, Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Pacifica Graduate Institute

In these moments of challenges, I find comfort in recalling the holding space that Pacifica provided, and continues to provide, through lasting friendships and companionship. I recall the life-changing encounters with my fellow classmates, and the precious sharing and witnessing of each other’s unfolding. 

The exposure to new concepts, teachings, and discussions. The generous exchanges with professors, mentors, and librarians. The smiling cooks who prepared delicious meals to soothe our mind and bodies after intense classes. The birds and trees that brought beauty, balance, and proportion every day.

An Interview of Stephen Aizenstat by Angela Borda, Part II of II

An Interview of Stephen Aizenstat by Angela Borda, Part I of II

Stephen Aizenstat, speaking at the Barrett Center, Pacifica

Statement on the Violence in Atlanta (3/19/21)

The terrible murders of eight individuals in Atlanta this week, including six Asian women leave us in the Pacifica community with great sadness, grief and distress for the rising levels of hated-filled violence in our society and for the pain and suffering in the Asian community. While we do not yet know all of the details, there has been a clear pattern of escalation of violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) over the last year: According to NBC news, citing the advocacy organization Stop AAPI Hate, there have been about 3800 reported incidents of hate-based crimes targeting members of AAPI communities across the country, many against women, since last March when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Racist and gender-based crime have absolutely no place in our society. Pacifica Graduate Institute unequivocally condemns this violence and the hate that fuels it.

Statement in Solidarity with the Asian and Pacific Islander Communities (3/9/21)

In the midst of the many changes our society is undergoing and as part of our ongoing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts, we wish to explicitly state the following:

Pacifica Graduate Institute unequivocally condemns the racism, violence and hatred directed against the Asian communities across the nation, which has soared during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Hate and racism have no place at Pacifica Graduate Institute or anywhere else. Pacifica Graduate Institute stands in solidarity with the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in denouncing all forms of hate, discrimination, and intolerance.

Statement on Addressing Systemic Racism (6/3/20)

At Pacifica Graduate Institute, we are deeply distressed and aggrieved by the senseless, ongoing violence directed at black members of our communities. We grieve Mr. George Floyd’s death as the latest hate-motivated tragedy in a society riven by dehumanization and lack of empathy for fellow citizens based on mindless racist projections. This deep stain on the American soul has a long and dreadful history, and despite great efforts to educate, reform, retrain, add body cameras to police attire, there has not been effective, lasting change in overall behavior by police departments throughout the country. The legacy of systemic racial oppression continues to shape how we perceive ourselves and one another, and must actively be countered if its virulence is to be checked, and its lethal effects transformed. The results of this oppression include the differential health care being offered during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which African Americans and other people of color are suffering mortality at a much higher rate than white populations, especially those with better access to health facilities and PPEs.

by Joseph Cambray, PhD, Pacifica Graduate Institute President

Pacifica Graduate Institute has been the premier academic institution devoted to depth psychology from its inception about 50 years ago. Our overarching vision integrates multiple, diverse perspectives on the human psyche—the totality of our being, including conscious and unconscious mental life as well as how we are embedded and engaged in our environments, cultural and natural; traditional referred to as the soul. We offer a wide range of transformative programs designed to enrich soul-centered knowledge (taking psychology as the logos of the psyche) through experience and disciplined practice. Though our various programs have differing emphases, we draw upon many shared foundations, including but not limited to psychological processes based on the notion of an “unconscious” component to our mental life; psychotherapeutic, environmental, and social justice best practices, in conjunction with mythological, archetypal, and cultural studies, drawing upon the humanities as well as the sciences and the arts. While other select academic programs scattered around the world include depth psychology as a part of coursework, none are so profoundly rooted in this discipline. This is part of what makes Pacifica unique, as do our extraordinary faculty and staff, and the unique settings of our two campuses.

Next week, Counseling will be holding a series of events for our "Counseling Community Commencement Weekend". On Thursday evening, we will hold the next in our series of webinars, this time a clinical round table with department faculty. On Friday morning, we will host Thesis Presentation Day.