Jung’s Relation to The Mother – A Response — Jeffrey Satinover
Months ago, when I first learned the title of this morning’s topic, I did a double take. I would have expected “Jung’s Relation to His Mother.” When, as Jungians, we speak of a Mother archetype as Nature, as Goddess, and as an emerging dominant image of our collective state of mind, we are indeed discussing the Mother. But is this truly psychology, or is it prophecy?
By prophecy, I do not mean mere fortune-telling, but rather prophecy in the biblical sense: the art of discerning, from dreams and other portents, the great collective trends of the race, the will of the gods, as it were. We often use the concept “archetype” to move from a psychological to a prophetic mode of understanding. The move is commonplace in Jungian thought and therapy, and even to draw attention to it may seem reductive and provocative. Nonetheless, this morning I would like to address the problem from just such a reductive point of view …
The Significance of Jung’s Father in His Destiny as a Therapist of Christianity — Murray Stein
Jung’s was a childhood spent in large and poorly furnished manses, without the company of siblings or playmates. His mother seemed to have two different personalities, a conventional “day-personality” and an uncanny “night-personality.” His father, while reliable, was a powerless man and was unable to help him overcome his childhood fears and somatic symptoms. …
Jung: Father and Son — Harry A. Wilmer
This paper was presented as a response to the preceding paper by Murray Stein, “The Significance of Jung’s Father in His Destiny as a Therapist of Christianity.”
We are always disappointed by our fathers. If we don’t learn that lesson we never grow up — we never mature or become our “own persons.” …
Emerging Concepts of the Self: A Jungian View — Charles H. Klaif
Many theories have been advanced over the years to explain the Freud-Jung split. Among them are Henderson’s theory about the two men’s different religious and philosophical backgrounds, the Oedipal inevitability theory whereby the son, Jung, must turn against the father, Freud, and more recently, Gedo’s narcissistic injury theory. In this discussion, however, the point of reference will be the more classical view of the split between Freud and Jung. In this view the split occurred because Jung could not fully accept Freud’s ideas about infantile sexuality and Freud could not tolerate Jung’s unfaithfulness to the libido theory. Using this as background, I will first discuss some of the current developments in psychoanalytic theories of the self. I will next comment on pschological theory building and then offer a Jungian hypothesis about the work of several Freudian theoreticians and their emerging concepts of the self. …
Vicious Circles: The Centrality of the Self in Metapsychological Rhetoric and Clinical Practice — Harriet Gordon Machtiger
This paper was presented as a response to the preceding paper by Charles H. Klaif, “Emerging Concepts of the Self: A Jungian View.”
It is crucial for analytic practice of all schools to be grounded in current theory. New developments have implications for both Freudians and Jungians. Jungians have lost a lot by not having an adequate developmental theory of childhood that is integrated into our body of knowledge. With the exception of noteworthy contributions of Fordham and Neumann, we have tended to minimize early development. Thus, we have much to learn from Winnicott, Mahler, Bowlby, Spitz, and others. Certainly, Jung’s parental woundedness in childhood helped shape his life’s myth. Jungians and Freudians can and should learn from each other. …
A Shared Space — Ann B. Ulanov
Jung is the psychologist of numinous space. He stands out among depth psychologists for his insistent emphasis on the space between us and the mysterium tremendum. He puts it bluntly in a letter, “You are quite right, the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character.” …
Object Relations, Dream Work, and the Analytical Relationship — Soren R. Ekstrom
This paper was presented as a response to the preceding paper by Ann B. Ulanov, “A Shared Space.”
The relationship between object relations theory and Jung’s thought is a fruitful topic for study. Reading Fairbairn and Winnicott, to mention only the most prominent proponents of object relations theory, one has a strong feeling of the compatibility of their views with Jung’s. But the question of Jung’s influence on them has never been clearly documented and is sadly ignored by most American psychoanalysts in their recent discovery of the English school. Nonetheless, practicing Jungians need to follow other paradigms of analysis with the same empathy and clear acknowledgment of sources that Dr. Ulanov displays in her paper, not only to build a dialogue but also to allow further developments in analytical psychology. …
A Conversation with Joseph Campbell — Jamake Highwater
This unassuming Greenwich Village restaurant is one of Joseph Campbell’s favorite haunts. He sits over a Scotch in the deserted little dining room, waiting for a hefty order of maniciotti all’ etrusca. The Italian restaurateur and his three waiters chatter, scurry, and generally fuss over the great man, whose books they have not read but whose intellectual charisma is instantly apparent to them. …
Book Reviews
The Way of the Animal Powers. Volume I. Historical Atlas of World Mythology— Joseph Campbell. New York and San Francisco: Harper and Row. 1984. Reviewed by Robin van Löben Sels.
A Jungian Approach to Literature— Bettina L. Knapp. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. 1984. Reviewed by Estelle Weinrib.
Jung and the Post-Jungians— Andrew Samuels. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1985. Reviewed by Jonathan J. Goldberg.
The Creation of Consciousness: Jung’s Myth for Modern Man— Edward F. Edinger. Toronto: Inner City Books. 1984. Reviewed by Warren Steinberg.
Cultural Attitudes in Psychological Perspective— Joseph L. Henderson. Toronto: Inner City Books. 1984. Reviewed by Marga Speicher.
Thou Shalt Not Be Aware— Alice Miller. Translated by Hildegard and Hunter Hannum. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. 1984. Reviewed by Nathan Schwartz-Salant.
