Quadrant Fall 1983

Old Age and Death — Jane Hollister Wheelwright

My aim in this paper is both to convey to you some personal experiences of my old age, as well as thoughts about death. Certainly experiences vary enormously, and there must be about as many versions of old age as there are old people. Yet perhaps out of our pooled experiences we might pin down a few generalizations. Also, we should consider that our fantasies about what is to happen to us when we cross over may be valid. After all, on the subject of death there can only be speculation, as no one — so far as I know — has come back from the dead to tell us what happened. For each of us, our fantasies have an important personal validity as communications, perhaps hints, from the unconscious and (possibly all-knowing) area of our psyches. And hopefully our exchange of views of death and the afterlife will serve to open us up to further individual explorations and intuitions in this area. …

Jung’s Seminars — William McGuire

Jung’s seminars, in which he expounded his psychological ideas and his analytical methods as well as his views on society, the individual, religion, history and much more, have been known to only a few even among Jung’s followers. The classes of auditors were limited, and the multigraphed transcripts, prepared by devoted seminar members, were not published but were circulated privately to a restricted list of subscribers. The volumes of Seminar Notes (as they are properly caled) in special Jungian libraries have customarily been withheld from any reader not having an analyst’s approval. Jungian publications contain occasional references to the Notes but seldom quotations. Although the policy of restriction had Jung’s consent, he eventually agreed to the inclusion of the Seminar Notes among his published works. …

Jungian New York — William McGuire

When did it all begin? I believe that the first tiny spark, the prima scintilla, was struck around 1890, when a Basel schoolboy named Carl Jung first studied English. Then, in early 1903, Dr. C. G. Jung took leave of his post at the Burghölzli Hospital and spent two months in London, practicing the language and haunting the art galleries. That was a wise decision: American and British psychiatrists were turning up in Zürich for postgraduate study. Burghölzli, with its association tests, psychoanalysis, and remarkable collection of Swiss psychotics, was the place for a refresher course. The first Americans Jung met were probably the New Yorkers Peterson and Brill, who had residencies at the hospital, and a New York delegation including Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe that came to the American Congress in 1907. Jung invited the New York doctors to drop in later at the Burghölzli, and so they did. Over the sober teacups of Dr. Bleuler’s establishment, one can imagine young Carl listening eagerly as the visitors talked of New York and its stimulations. …

Jung’s Contribution to an Understanding of the Meaning of Depression — V. Walter Odajnyk

C. G. Jung made a significant contribution to our understanding of the psychology of depression. His most striking discovery was that in its natural condition the unconscious is in a depressed state. The usual symptoms associated with depression — the feelings of inadequacy, inertia, heaviness, sadness, blackness, lack of interest in life and the pull towards death — are apt descriptions of the lower depths of the psyche. It is no wonder that consciousness normally being activated by the opposite principles — spirit, light, energy, joy, curiosity, life — fights vigorously not to fall into the hands of the unconscious. But by paying close attention to the unconscious, and with the help of the disclosures that the psyche itself makes in the alchemical treatises, Jung discovered two other startling facts: that the unconscious deplores its depressed condition and longs to be made free of it, and that within its blackness it contains a germ of consciousness capable of unifying the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche, thereby healing the split soul of man.

In what follows I want to describe the evolution of Jung’s ideas about the nature of depression. …

Lilith — Barbara Black Koltuv

Lilith, an irresistible, long haired, she demon of the night, flies through Sumerian, Babalonian, Assyrian, Canaanite, Persian, Hebrew, Arabic, and Teutonic mythology. … The present paper is an attempt to tell her story, to evoke her presence in consciousness, and to inquire into her meaning in the modern psyche. …

Book Reviews

A Secret Symmetry: Sabina Spielrein Between Jung and Freud— Aldo Carotenuto. Translated by Arno Pomerans, John Shepley, and Krishna Winston. New York: Pantheon Books. 1982. Reviewed by Thomas B. Kirsch.

Jung’s “Secret” Confrontations with Freud (A Symposium) From American Imago: A Psychianalytic Journal for Culture, Science, and the Arts, Vol. 31, Spring 1981, No. 1. Reviewed by C. Jess Groesbeck.

Bollingen: An Adventure in Collecting The Past— William McGuire. Bollingen Series, Princeton University Press. 1982. Reviewed by Joseph L. Henderson.

Narcissism and Character Transformation: The Psychology of Narcissistic Character Disorders— Nathan Schwartz-Salant. Toronto: Inner City Books. 1982. Reviewed by Murray Stein.

Jungian Psychology in Perspective— Mary Ann Mattoon. New York: The Free Press. 1981. Reviewed by Meredith Sabini.

The Religions of the American Indians— Ake Hultkrantz. Translated by Monica Setterwall. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. 1980. Reviewed by Jerome S. Bernstein.

Light From The Darkness: The Paintings of Peter Birkhauser. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag. 1980. Reviewed by Dean L. Frantz.

Saint George and The Dandelion: Forty Years of Practice as a Jungian Analyst— Joseph B. Wheelwright. Preface by Erik Erikson and foreword by Gregory Bateson. Published by the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. 1982. Reviewed by Alma Paulsen-Hoyer.

The Return of the Goddess: Femininity, Aggression, and The Modern Grail Quest— Edward C. Whitmont. New York: Crossroad. 1983. Reviewed by Christine Downing.

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