Robert is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Author of eight books including his forthcoming Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies, he has published essays in psychology, philosophy, literary and education journals, written a play about Frankenstein’s Monster, has done radio and TV discussions as well as online interviews and webinars and made a DVD movie of his trip to Antarctica. In addition, he has given keynote addresses at conferences, lectured at universities and professional societies and conducted workshops in the U.S., Europe, Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand.
His areas of interests are the psychology of technology especially in terms of climate issues and social media, grief and the healing power of poetry, the art and practice of psychotherapy, the wisdom and value of dreams, the art of memoir writing, and the relations between psychology and the humanities
Next Event
April 4, 2019 Art and Psyche Conference April 4-9 sponsored by Pacifica Graduate Institute and UCSB
Art as Psyche Researching the Future:
From The Red Book to The Frankenstein Prophesies
A Joint Presentation by Susan Rowland and Robert Romanyshyn
The presentation begins with Susan Rowland’s discussion in her remarkable book, Jung as a Writer, of Jung’s neglected theme of visionary creativity. Such art is profoundly cultural, historical and critical in two senses. It questions the status quo by materializing its depth and is a harbinger of contemporary crises. Using The Red Book as a work stitched out of personal and collective trauma, the presentation focuses on Romanyshyn’s new book, Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology; The Frankenstein Prophecies. Reading Mary Shelley’s work as a visionary text, his book illustrates how one might respond to the trauma of a visionary work via a format that emphasizes being questioned by what is on the way, by the figure of the Monster who, lingering in the margins of Mary Shelley’s work as a compensatory shadow of Victor Frankenstein, haunts us with messages to a suffering future. Writing as a creative response to the trauma of visionary works (and films as such texts too) has a therapeutic value. Above all, this presentation focuses upon not only the value but also the necessity of visionary art in times of political, economic and psychological upheavals.
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