Jung and Neumann: The Problem of Evil

The Jung Neumann Letters

An International Conference 

in Celebration of a Creative Relationship 

At the forthcoming historic Jung Neumann Letters Conference, leading Jungian Analysts

Murray Stein and Henry Abramovitch will speak on the problem of evil

Murray Stein

Henry Abramovitch

Neumann and Jung on the Problem of Evil

By Murray Stein, Ph.D.

In Depth Psychology and a New Ethic and Answer to Job, Erich Neumann and C.G. Jung deal with the problem of evil. For both thinkers, depth psychology has an obligation to reflect on the problem of evil and to search for ways to contain its destructive effects on human life and the planet. In this lecture I compare and contrast their approaches: Neumann’s based on a further development, sponsored by the insights of depth psychology, toward a more robust and psychologically acute sense of the ethical; Jung’s based on a reading of the Bible and its implications for the future of Western culture. Both thinkers aim at greater shadow awareness but approach this goal in significantly different ways.

The Search for a New Ethic: Professional and Clinical Dilemmas

By Henry Abramovitch, Ph.D.

Jung believed that deep psychotherapeutic healing is an ethical act, and that every ethical act is indirectly therapeutic. Neumann brilliantly envisioned a new ethic based on accepting one’s evil and understood how ethical awareness moved from group morality, to the splitting of right and wrong of the old ethic. After exploring Jung's and Neumann’s view of shadow and evil, this lecture explores how a new ethic may be applied to clinical and professional dilemmas in the group life of analysts, such as understanding how an ethical violation by perpetrators may be dealt with within a framework of the new ethic; or the more personal dilemma of hearing about misdeeds of colleagues in analysis. The lecture concludes with the author's personal experience as participant in an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue group, discussed in terms of Neumann’s theory.

Murray Stein, Ph.D. was president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) from 2001 to 2004 and President of The International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich (ISAP-Zurich) from 2008-2012. He is the author of Minding the Self and of many other books and articles on Analytical Psychology and Jungian Psychoanalysis. He lives in Switzerland and is a training and supervising analyst with ISAP-Zurich. Website: www.murraystein.com.

HENRY ABRAMOVITCH, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst, clinical psychologist, anthropologist, and medical educator. He is the founding president of the Israel Institute of Jungian Psychology and a professor in the department of medical education at the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv University. Website: http://www.henry-a.com/.

Jung Neumann Letters Conference Website

International Advisory Board

Erel Shalit • Murray Stein • Batya Brosh • John Beebe • Riccardo Bernardini 
Jerome Bernstein • Ann Casement • Angela Connolly • Tom Kirsch • Patricia Michan
Joerg Rasche • Nancy Swift Furlotti • Luigi Zoja • Liliana Wahba

Yoram Bouzaglo, photographer