Mountains. The Safest Risk?

Since its inception, mountaineering has been a mostly unrecognized subculture of risk-takers climbing mountains for no obvious reason. In the last several years, it appears this collective attitude has shifted with the help of globally distributed mountain films like Free Solo, Meru, The Alpinist, 14 peaks and many more. What is it about mountains? Why do they compel certain people to test their safety to such a high degree? We will take a look at the relationship between safety and mountains from a psychological perspective. If we achieve the summit, we will learn about how certain attitudes towards life and safety more broadly are near perfectly challenged in mountainscapes.

Nick Paul Smith is a Jungian Analyst-in-Training at ISAP Zurich with offices in Zug and Zurich. He has been climbing mountains for more than 25 years all over the world and is deeply interested in the psychological dynamics of mountain climbing and living wholly.

The event is part of the «Sicherheit gewinnen (Gaining Security)» series of events.