introduction to Toni Wolff:
Part I - Her Life & Her Intellectual Lineage
A live depth psychology seminar exploring the life, intellectual lineage,
and psychological contributions of Toni Wolff.
March 22nd, 2026 - 12:00pm PST - 2:00pm PST
Toni Wolff
Her presence and work were essential to C.G. Jung, but her work was never centered.
“Toni Wolff’s role in Jung’s life has always been overlooked and i think it’s one of the great scandals of the Jungian world that they’ve not even faced honestly up to what Toni Wolff’s role was, and that they haven’t given it decent, honest, and honorable recognition.”
— Laurens van der Post
Why Toni Wolff matters
Toni Wolff (1888–1953) was one of the most discreet yet structurally influential figures of the early Jungian circle. Trained in Zurich and a close collaborator of Carl Jung for many years, she played an active role in the clinical and theoretical development of analytical psychology while deliberately maintaining a position in the background.
Her work, marked by great rigor, focused on the internal organization of the feminine psyche, the dynamics of psychological orientations, and the question of inner vocation.
Though not prolific as a writer, Wolff nonetheless exerted a decisive influence through her teaching, her clinical practice, and the precision of her thought, leaving behind a body of work that is rare, foundational, and long underestimated.
Part I — Introduction to Toni Wolff: Her Life and Intellectual Lineage.
March 22nd, 2026.
This is Part I of a two-part seminar devoted to Toni Wolff’s psychological legacy.
In this first session, we will focus on her life, her historical context, and the foundations of her thought. We will explore her personal formation, her role in the early development of analytical psychology, and her intellectual and clinical collaboration with Jung. We will examine the psychological concepts she introduced and refined, and consider why her structural vision of the feminine psyche remains deeply relevant for contemporary inner life.
This is not simply a biographical lecture. It is a psychological reading of a life — an inquiry into how lived experience becomes theory, and how one woman’s inner structure helped shape an entire field.
What this seminar is about
This first seminar focuses on Toni’s life, its context and her psychological foundations.
We will explore:
Toni Wolff’s personal history and psychological formation
Her role in the early development of analytical psychology
Her collaboration with Jung — intellectually and clinically
The psychological concepts she introduced and refined
Why her work still matters for contemporary inner life
This is not a biographical lecture alone.
It is a psychological reading of a life and a body of work.
Who this seminar is for
This seminar is open to both women and men.
It is designed for:
clinicians and therapists
students of psychology and depth psychology
intellectually curious individuals
people interested in Jungian thought beyond clichés
those who want historical and psychological precision
No prior knowledge of Toni Wolff is required.
Many women struggle not because they have some type of deficiency, but because their lives are shaped around expectations that don’t match their natural inner orientation.
References
3. Laurens van der Post, Remembering Jung.
Part II — The Structural Forms of the Feminine Psyche.
April 12th, 2026.
A practical and clinical seminar based on Toni Wolff’s typology
The second seminar will be more clinical and experiential. It is dedicated to Toni Wolff’s model of the structural forms of the feminine psyche and to working with these forms in a grounded and applicable way.
In Part II, we will also explore how structural orientation influences the individuation process itself, shaping what experiences of growth, separation, and integration look like for different women.
Particular attention will be given to how individuation can become distorted when a woman is pressured—internally or culturally—to live from a non-dominant structure, often in the name of adaptation, attachment, or self-actualization.
We will examine how contemporary ideals of femininity and psychological health tend to privilege certain orientations while pathologizing others, and how symptoms such as chronic dissatisfaction, relational fatigue, or vocational deadness may reflect structural misalignment rather than psychopathology.
Throughout the seminar, the emphasis will be placed on psychological differentiation, recognizing that maturity does not require the equal development of all orientations, but a conscious and ethical relationship to them.
Objectives
During the second seminar, participants will learn to:
Identify their dominant feminine orientation (Mother, Amazon, Hetaira, or Medial) as a psychological structure rather than a personality label.
Understand how inner structure organizes desire, fulfillment, relationships, and vocation, often beneath conscious choice.
Differentiate structural orientation from adaptation, trauma response, or developmental arrest.
Recognize patterns of over-identification or distortion within a dominant orientation, and their psychological cost.
Clarify why certain life paths, relational models, or cultural expectations feel aligned—or profoundly misaligned despite appearing “healthy” or normative.
Develop a more differentiated internal map, to support choice rather than unconscious repetitions and external expectations.
Each seminar can be attended independently, though they are designed to complement one another.
With registration, you receive:
Participation in live webinar + recording + pdf presentation + inner work guidebook.
