Jane Hollister Wheelwright: Pioneer Ecopsychologist, Explorer of Wilderness Terrain, Inner and Outer

Abstract

In this paper, Jane Hollister Wheelwright's nephew, C. Doyle Hollister, synthesizes the central themes of psyche and nature posited by Jane and her daughter, Lynda Wheelwright Schmidt. Six themes are addressed: the process and experience of merging with nature, nature and the child psyche, the realm of the Other and the Big Something, the experience of the Wild Thing in a Jungian context, and the dynamic of opposites within physical nature and within Jung's transcendent Self. This paper was presented at Pacifica Graduate Institute on November 11, 2011, as part of a lecture series on Jane Hollister Wheelwright sponsored by the Opus Archives.

Keywords:

• ecopsychology
• Hollister Ranch
• indigenous
• instincts
• C. G. Jung
• nature
• opposites
• Other
• Jane Hollister Wheelwright
• wilderness

Acknowledgement

Many thanks to Lynda Wheelwright Schmidt for our “merging” phone dialogues; Kathleen Barry and her belated husband, Roy Mankovitz, for the sponsorship of the Jane Hollister Wheelwright Opus Archives lectures; and my editing assistant, Marisa Huston.

Notes

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).