Description
Archetypes, Symbols, and Images in
Rachel Getting Married
with John Perkins, Ph.D.
Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026
Time: 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Location: Good Shepherd Center, Room 202
$10
It is recommended, but not required, that you view the film before we meet.
Filmmakers deliberately use Archetypes. The Story Grid site tells us: “Stories, fairy tales, and myths share patterns that are recognized at a gut level by almost everyone, regardless of culture. Distilled to their essence, these patterns are character Archetypes, storytelling tools that can be used to create and understand the things that make us tick.” Carl Jung would agree.
In this highly interactive workshop, we bring Archetypes to life through the charged relationship between Kym (Anne Hathaway) and Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt). In Rachel Getting Married, Kym botches the “make amends” step of her 12-step program, while Rachel reaches her breaking point with Kym’s talent for “sucking the air out of the room.”
Borrowing the language of filmmaking, we’ll step inside scenes—imagining “over-the-shoulder close-ups”—to uncover the Archetypal dynamics unfurling between these sisters. This experiential workshop is open to everyone—film lovers, writers, Jung enthusiasts, and professionals in recovery, counseling, coaching, or therapy. Come experience the kind of rich, thought-provoking conversations that filmmakers and actors have when bringing characters and stories to the screen.
JOHN PERKINS holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Change and is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He served as the second director of the Dream Community of New York, an open forum where anyone could lead a workshop grounded in dream work. He is an active member of the Saturday morning Jung Society Café
and a founding member of the weekly Seattle Film Society’s Discussion Group, where he has participated in most of its 150 film conversations. Drawing on Liberating Structures, Kagan Structures, and Intercultural Affairs’ Technology of Participation, John designed this workshop to be more engaging and insight-rich than the movie it
explores.
