Meanings and Mysteries of Perception
Tracking the Evolution of the S and N Functions!
Plus optional afternoon session of films, images and discussion—1:15 to 3:15

Since the early 20^th century when Carl Jung’s Psychological Types named perception as a cognitive activity, differently processed by sensation (S) and intuition (N), the perceptual stimuli of the Global Village have become commonplace.  Today we text, we download, we upload, we view countless images and we have access to endless streams of information.  Thus, contemporary cultural reality requires that we revisit our understanding of perception.

Do the distinctions Jung made between forms of basic psychological functioning sufficiently describe today’s experience?  Perhaps new forms have evolved.

Rachel Fitzgerald will reflect on her introduction to the S/N distinction embedded within the development of the typology assessment industry in the U.S. and invite us to trace our own experiences as well.  Together we will exercise our sensate and intuitive functions, consider diverse contributions to perception theory, and look at the possibility that we can be more subtle, discrete, and alive in our relationship to awareness that is so vital to the individuation process.

An optional afternoon session will include these experiences:

1. Viewing My Stroke of Insight, a recent video of neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor’s account of remaining conscious while suffering a stroke; she describes the right and left brain processing simultaneously, presenting reality from two distinct perspectives.
2. Viewing a film on the images of August Sander, a German photographer and contemporary of Jung’s, who is considered the father of modern photography.  Sander’s work was recently shown at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where many Californians viewed his powerful portraits of social types.  Workshop participants are invited to bring family photographs from the early 20th century for a discussion of their own experiences with perception and perspective.
3. If time permits, we may also have a small group experience exploring Marshall McLuhan’s insights into media culture or applications of perception to meditation and reflection experiences.

Join us!

Rachel Fitzgerald, PhD (INFP), is an LMFT and organization consultant with offices in Sacramento and Berkeley, CA.  She has been studying and teaching typology for over 30 years, designed CAPT’s first program on Spirituality and contributed to the founding of both the Bay Area and Sacramento chapters of APTi.

Richard Hendrickson is the MC for this program.

Click here for program cost and membership information. There will be an additional fee of $15 for attending the afternoon session.

Click here for directions to the program location.

See below for a PDF program flyer suitable for printing and posting.