About Dennis Merritt

I discovered Carl Jung while working on my Ph.D. in Insect Pathology (microbial control of insects) in Berkeley in the late ‘60s.  After getting an M.A. in Humanistic Psychology from Sonoma State College in California, I literally followed my dreams and went on to train at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland.  My Zurich thesis, "Synchronicity Experiments with the I Ching and their Relevance to the Theory of Evolution,” was an attempt to integrate science and Jungian psychology.  “Big Dreams” led me back to Wisconsin, Madison in particular (see Dreams and a Sense of Place).  I’ve combined my scientific and Jungian sides through week-long “Spirit in the Land” conferences and a book soon to be completed, The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe: Jung, Hermes and Ecopsychology.  Participation in Native American ceremonies through a connection to the Rosebud Lakota Sioux has had a profound affect on my worldview and analytic practice.

            I do dream interpretation and I Ching consultations in person or by phone. I have been working with the I Ching since 1975 and my article, “Use of the I Ching in the Analytic Setting,” has been translated into Chinese and published in Quadrant (2001). Besides using the I Ching in analysis I help individuals in a single three-hour intensive process using the yarrow stalk method. See the last paragraph of the Bob Dylan article for the I Ching's guidance for the United States post September 11 and "Dance, Archetypes and the I Ching" for an archetypal perspective on a dance as illuminated by the philosophy and hexagrams of the I Ching. The latter article also describes the similarity between Jungian thought and Chinese philosophy as expressed in the I Ching. I conduct weekend workshops and give lectures throughout the country based on the Madison Jungian Studies Program and topics listed under Lectures, Courses and Workshops. “Brief Psychotherapy: A Jungian Perspective” provides a good overview of basic Jungian concepts and the process of psychoanalysis. See the Menu below for descriptions of all the topics.