Discover Depth Psychology as a Living Intellectual Tradition

Depth psychology did not begin with Jung, and it did not end with him

Depth psychology is the study of the unconscious dimensions of human life: dreams, symptoms, complexes, fantasies, symbolic images, relationships, instincts, archetypes, and the hidden patterns that shape behavior, meaning, creativity, and suffering. In this self-paced course, we study depth psychology as both a historical movement and a living intellectual tradition. We trace its roots in ancient and indigenous healing practices, follow its emergence through Mesmer, Charcot, Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung, and then explore later developments in Object Relations, Attachment Theory, Self Psychology, post-Jungian thought, and evolutionary psychology. The goal is not simply to memorize names and theories. The deeper purpose is to understand how the modern study of the unconscious developed, why Jung’s work belongs within a larger psychological and intellectual history, and why Jungian psychology is becoming increasingly relevant in our own time.
Enroll now

Contextualize Jung Within the Wider History of the Unconscious

Jung’s work becomes clearer, stronger, and more useful when we understand the tradition from which it emerged

Many students first encounter Jung through dreams, mythology, fairy tales, alchemy, archetypes, shadow work, active imagination, or the process of individuation. These are essential areas of Jungian study. But Jung’s psychology also belongs to a much larger historical conversation about the unconscious, healing, trauma, dissociation, projection, transference, instinct, symbol, and the structure of the psyche. This course brings those threads together. Students will see how Jung drew from earlier figures, where he agreed and disagreed with Freud, how his work relates to Janet, Adler, and later psychodynamic schools, and how contemporary perspectives continue to reopen questions that Jung anticipated with remarkable depth. Taken as a capstone, Jung 200 helps students step back and see the whole field in perspective. It gathers the symbolic work of mythology, fairy tales, dreams, active imagination, and alchemy into the wider context of psychological and intellectual history.
Enroll now
Contextualize Jung Within the Wider History of the Unconscious

Who This Course Is For

This course is well suited for students who want a deeper historical and theoretical grounding in depth psychology as a field.

It is especially valuable for:

  • Students of Jungian psychology who want to understand Jung in historical context
  • Students pursuing the Advanced Certificate in Foundational Depth Psychology
  • Students who have completed or begun the Certificate in Foundational Depth Psychology
  • Therapists, counselors, coaches, clergy, spiritual directors, and educators
  • Writers, artists, musicians, and creative practitioners interested in the unconscious
  • Serious lay learners who want a broader understanding of dreams, symbols, complexes, trauma, attachment, and psychological development
  • Students considering graduate study or more advanced training in Jungian, archetypal, psychodynamic, or depth psychological traditions


The Certificate in Foundational Depth Psychology is the preferred preparation for the advanced pathway. Students who already have a working knowledge of Jungian concepts, dreams, symbolic interpretation, and active imagination may also be ready to begin here.

What You Will Study

In this course, we explore:

  • Ancient and ancestral approaches to healing and the unconscious
  • Shamanic healing, soul loss, possession, exorcism, dream incubation, and early symbolic healing traditions
  • Mesmer, animal magnetism, hypnotism, and the emergence of dynamic psychotherapy
  • Charcot, hysteria, trauma, and the medical study of altered states
  • Pierre Janet, dissociation, fixed ideas, psychological analysis, and the early scientific study of the subconscious
  • Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, dreams, sexuality, repression, transference, and the psychoanalytic movement
  • Alfred Adler, inferiority, power, social interest, and the divergence from Freud
  • Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, and the development of ego psychology and child analysis
  • Object Relations, including Fairbairn, Winnicott, and the psychological importance of early relationships
  • Attachment Theory and Self Psychology, including Bowlby and Kohut
  • Carl Jung’s reinterpretation of depth psychology through archetypes, complexes, individuation, the Self, and the collective unconscious
  • Evolutionary psychology and renewed interest in instinct, attachment, archetypal patterns, and the deep history of the psyche


This course gives students a broad map of the field and helps them understand how Jungian psychology participates in an ongoing conversation about the unconscious, healing, development, culture, symbol, and human meaning.

Your instructor

  • James R. Newell, Ph.D.

    Senior Instructor

    James R. Newell, Ph.D.

    James Newell is an educator, counselor, personal coach, professional musician, and the director of the Depth Psychology Alliance. James earned his master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling and Theology from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, with a focus on Jungian psychology. He earned his doctorate in History of Religions from the Vanderbilt University Graduate School of Religion. James has taught online and face to face courses for Central Michigan University, Western Kentucky University, Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State University, and other institutions.

What others are saying...

Bonnie Bright, PhD, founder of the Depth Psychology Alliance

Dr. James Newell is a gifted teacher

Bonnie Bright, PhD, founder of the Depth Psychology Alliance

Dr. James Newell is a gifted teacher and scholar who has effectively organized an impressive amount of detailed research and information into a series of powerful classes and courses on Jung and Jung’s psychology, now available on Depth Psychology Academy. Students at all levels can gain a depth of understanding about how Jung’s ideas can change our lives and our world as Dr. Newell explains each topic very clearly and at exactly the right pace for students of all levels to take it in.
Monica Flores, Ed.D

Dr. James Newell is highly knowledgeable in Jungian Psychology

Monica Flores, Ed.D

Dr. James Newell is highly knowledgeable in Jungian Psychology. I learned so much from him about Jung and Jungian psychology when I began taking courses in depth psychology from the Depth Psychology Alliance online courses. Dr. Newell is open-minded and consistent. He has a smooth voice that can hold anyone’s attention. I enthusiastically recommend taking these courses through the Depth Psychology Academy.
Ann Amberg, MCS, Transpersonal Leadership Consultant

James is a knowledgeable and caring instructor with an engaging teaching style

Ann Amberg, MCS, Transpersonal Leadership Consultant

I highly recommend Dr. James Newell’s courses. Upon completion of my certificate in Depth Psychology I had gained the confidence, focus and knowledge to support my success in my current PhD program in Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. James is a knowledgeable and caring instructor with an engaging teaching style. All of the Depth Psychology Alliance courses I took: Introduction to Jungian Psychology, Active Imagination, Fairy Tales, Dreams, and many more, were phenomenal and I am most grateful for the opportunity to study with James.
Nirlap Bettenhauser, student

The courses I have taken with Dr. Newell have perfectly prepped me for my graduate studies in psychoanalysis

Nirlap Bettenhauser, student

This is an outstanding educational program where one can learn multiple areas of Jungian Psychology. These courses are very well structured with an appropriate course load and high quality texts. Plus the price is incredibly reasonable. The courses I have taken with Dr. Newell have been intellectually engaging and have perfectly prepped me for my graduate studies in psychoanalysis. Not something I expected to receive from the academy, but very grateful I did.

Course Format Note

This course is based on recordings from an earlier live Depth Psychology Academy class. The recordings preserve the full teaching content of the original course, but students may hear occasional references to live discussions, earlier assignment structures, or a previous course platform.

For the current self-paced version, students should follow the materials as they appear on the Academy site. Each module includes the current course materials and quizzes. Completion is based on the current lessons, quizzes, readings or materials, and lesson completion steps inside the course.

Course curriculum

  • 1
    Welcome to Jung 200: History and Introduction to Depth Psychology
  • 2
    Module 1: The Ancestral Roots of Depth Psychology
    • Start Here: About These Recordings and Current Course Requirements
    • M1/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M1/2: Course Syllabus
    • M1/3: Video Lesson: Ancestral Roots
    • M1/4: Video Lesson Quiz
    • M1/5: Readings Quiz - (All questions are based on the assigned readings, pages 3 -52; chapter 1, in the textbook, Discovery of the Unconscious)
    • M1/6: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M1/7: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M1/8: An Additional, Optional Video Resource
  • 3
    Module 2: The Beginnings of Psychodynamic Psychology: Mesmer and Charcot
    • M2/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M2/2: Video Lesson: Mesmer, Charcot, and the Development of Depth Psychology
    • M2/3: Video Quiz
    • M2/4: Readings Quiz - (All questions are based on the assigned readings in The Discovery of the Unconscious (pages 53-109; chapter 2)
    • M2/5: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M2/6: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M2/7: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M2/8: Additional, Optional Video Resources
  • 4
    Module 3: Pierre Janet and Psychological Analysis
    • M3/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M3/2: Video Lesson: Pierre Janet and Psychological Analysis
    • M3/3: Video Lesson Quiz
    • M3/4: Readings Quiz - (All questions are based on chapter six the textbook, The Discovery of the Unconscious, pages 331 - 409)
    • M3/5: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M3/6: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M3/7: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M3/8: Additional, Optional Video Resources
  • 5
    Module 4: Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis
    • M4/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M4/2: Video Lesson: Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis
    • M4/3: Video Lesson Quiz
    • M4/4: Readings Quiz - (All questions are based on pages 474-550, chapter 7, in the textbook The Discovery of the Unconscious)
    • M4/5: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M4/6: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M4/7: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M4/8: An Additional, Optional Video Resource
  • 6
    Module 5: Alfred Adler, Anna Freud, and Melanie Klein
    • M5/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M5/2 Module 5: Alfred Adler, Anna Freud, and Melanie Klein
    • M5/3: Video Quiz
    • M5/4: Readings Quiz - (All questions are based the readings in Ellenberger (pages 599-648; chapter 8) & The Talking Cure (P. 23 - 58).
    • M5/6: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M5/7: Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M5/8: Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M5/9: Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M5/10: Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M5/11: Additional, Optional Video Resource
  • 7
    Module 6: Object Relations
    • M6/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M6/2: Video Lesson: Object Relations
    • M6/3: Video Lesson Quiz
    • M6/4: Readings Quiz - (All questions are based on the assigned readings in The Talking Cure, vol. 2, pages 59-78; chapter 2)
    • M6/5: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M6/6: An Additional, optional reading.
    • M6/7: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M6/8: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M6/9: An Additional, Optional Video Resource
  • 8
    Module 7: Attachment Theory & Self Psychology
    • M7/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M7/2: Attachment Theory & Self Psychology
    • M7/3: Video Lesson Quiz
    • M7/4: Readings Quiz (All questions are based on the assigned readings The Talking Cure, vol. 2, by Anthony Stevens (pages 79-101; chapter 3)
    • M7/5: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M7/6: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M7/7: An Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M7/8: An Additional, Optional Reading
    • M7/9: An Additional, Optional Video Resource
    • M7/10: An Additional, Optional Video Resources
  • 9
    Module 8: Carl Jung, Evolutionary Psychology, and Synthesis
    • M8/1: Learning and Assessment Activities
    • M8/2: Carl Jung, Evolutionary Psychology, and Synthesis
    • M8/3: Video Lesson Quiz
    • M8/4: Readings Quiz - (All questions are based on the assigned readings in The Discovery of the Unconscious (pages 687-737); and The Talking Cure, vol. 3 (pages 71-98; chapter 3)
    • M8/5: Module Assignments and Additional Resources
    • M8/6: Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M8/7: Additional, Optional Resource for Study
    • M8/8: Additional, Optional Video Resource
    • M8/9: Course Completion

How This Course Fits into the Advanced Certificate

Jung 200 is the capstone course in the Advanced Certificate in Foundational Depth Psychology.

The Advanced Certificate in Foundational Depth Psychology continues foundational Jungian study through four major areas of symbolic and historical depth:

  1. Jung 105: Jung and Mythology
  2. Jung 106: Jung and Fairy Tales
  3. Jung 107: Jung and Alchemy
  4. Jung 200: History of Depth Psychology


Jung 200 functions as the capstone of this advanced pathway. Jung and Mythology opens the study of large collective stories, archetypal patterns, sacred narratives, and the symbolic imagination. Jung and Fairy Tales narrows the symbolic field into compact narratives of conflict, development, and transformation. Jung and Alchemy moves students into Jung’s mature symbolic language of transformation, psyche, matter, and the union of opposites.

Jung 200 then steps back and places the whole field in historical perspective. It helps students understand where depth psychology came from, how Jung’s work emerged from and departed from earlier traditions, and why Jungian psychology remains part of an active, developing intellectual tradition.

Students may also take Jung 200 as a standalone course. It is complete in itself and is especially valuable for students who want a broad introduction to depth psychology, a stronger historical grounding for Jungian study, or a clearer understanding of how dreams, symbols, archetypes, complexes, trauma, development, and the unconscious have been understood across the history of psychological thought.

Bring Your Jungian Study into Historical Perspective

Jung 200 offers a broad introduction to depth psychology and a capstone perspective on the Academy’s foundational Jungian courses.

Whether taken as a standalone course or as the capstone of the Advanced Certificate pathway, Jung 200 helps students understand depth psychology as a living tradition of inquiry into the unconscious. This course brings together the historical, theoretical, clinical, symbolic, and cultural dimensions of depth psychology. It gives students a wider map of the field, a clearer understanding of Jung’s place within it, and a stronger foundation for further study of dreams, mythology, fairy tales, alchemy, archetypes, complexes, and the symbolic life. Enroll now to explore the history of depth psychology and place your study of Jung within the broader intellectual tradition of the unconscious.
Enroll now