Turbulent Times, Creative Minds - A review by Ann Casement

Turbulent Times, Creative Minds

Edited: Erel Shalit and Murray Stein

This reviewer of Turbulent Times, Creative Minds was introduced to the work of Erich Neumann decades ago by his close friend, Gerhard Adler, who thought highly of him. 

In complete contrast, Michael Fordham was critical of Neumann’s thinking on the child and told this reviewer he doubted that Neumann had ever encountered an actual child – thereby enacting an actual experience of the opposites. In addition, the profound Jung thinker, Wolfgang Giegerich, has also written critically on Neumann. 

In order to experience Neumann’s thinking at first-hand, this reviewer participated in the 2015 conference held at Kibbutz Shefayim to mark the publication of the correspondence between Jung and Neumann edited by Martin Liebscher. The current skillfully edited book arising from that conference is an homage to the exceptional personal and professional relationship between Jung and Neumann, including in its pages masterly chapters by Lammers, Mendes-Flohr, Shalit and Stein. 

The book ranges over such vital topics as the New Ethic linked to the eternal problem of evil (Stein’s in-depth thinking is outstanding here), the ego-self axis, sibling rivalry, the German-Jewish experience, Eranos, religion, clinical issues and art. The Jung and Neumann families’ memories and contributions add noteworthy personal touches to this highly recommended volume. 

Ann Casement, 

Licensed Psychoanalyst/Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute

                             

This volume of essays by well-known Jungian analysts and scholars provides the most comprehensive comparison to date between the works of C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann. Reflections are based on their extensive correspondence recently published, their differing cultural backgrounds, and the turbulent times surrounding their personal and professional relationship. Among the many specific subjects discussed are Jung and Neumann on art and religion, their views on the problem of evil, and clinical aspects of Neumann’s work. Also included are personal memories of both Jung and Neumann family members.

Sections:

I. The Correspondence (1933–1960)

II. Cultural Backgrounds

III. Troubled Times

IV. The Problem of Evil

V. Neumann and Eranos (1948–1960)

VI. On the Arts

VII. Clinical Contributions

VIII. On Religion

IX. On Synchronicity

X. “Memories from My (Grand)Father’s House”

Available on Amazon, Chiron and other book sellers.

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Jacob and Esau 

On the Collective Symbolism of the Brother Motif (2nd printing)

by Erich Neumann

cover image by Meir Gur Arieh 

title page image by Jacob Steinhardt

Jung`s Red Book For Our Time: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions

Jung`s Red Book For Our Time:

Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions

by Murray Stein (Editor), Thomas Arzt (Editor) 

The essays in this volume are geared to the recognition that the posthumous publication of The Red Book: Liber Novus by C. G. Jung in 2009 was a meaningful gift to our contemporary world. Similar to the volatile times Jung confronted with highly turbulent and uncertain conditions of world affairs that found himself in when he created this work a century ago, we today too are threaten any sense of coherent meaning, personally and collectively. The Red Book promises to become an epochal opus for the 21st century in that it offers us guidance for finding soul under postmodern conditions.This is the first volume of a three-volume series set up on a global and multicultural level and compiling essays from distinguished Jungian analysts and scholars.

 Contributions by: Murray Stein: Introduction

Thomas Arzt: “The Way of What Is to Come”: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions

Ashok Bedi: Jung’s Red Book: A Compensatory Image for Our Contemporary Culture: A Hindu Perspective

Paul Bishop: In a World That Has Gone Mad, Is What We Really Need A Red Book? Plato, Goethe, Schelling, Nietzsche and Jung

Ann Casement: “O tempora! O mores!”

Josephine Evetts-Secker: “The Incandescent Matter”: Shudder, Shimmer, Stammer, Solitude

Nancy Swift Furlotti: Encounters with the Animal Soul: A Voice of Hope for Our Precarious World

Liz Greene: “The Way of What Is to Come”: Jung’s Vision of the Aquarian Age

John Hill: Confronting Jung: The Red Book Speaks to Our Time

Stephan A. Hoeller: Abraxas: Jung’s Gnostic Demiurge in Liber Novus

Russell A. Lockhart: Appassionato for the Imagination

Lance S. Owens: C.G. Jung and the Prophet Puzzle

Dariane Pictet: Movements of Soul in The Red Book

Susan Rowland: The Red Book for Dionysus: A Literary and Transdisciplinary Interpretation

Andreas Schweizer: Encountering the Spirit of the Depths and the Divine Child

Heyong Shen: Why Is The Red Book “Red”? – A Chinese Reader’s Reflections

Marvin Spiegelman: On the Impact of Jung and his Red Book: A Personal Story

Liliana Liviano Wahba: Imagination for Evil

John C. Woodcock: The Red Book and the Posthuman

Erich Neumann: The Roots of Jewish Consciousness

With the publication in 2015 of the important correspondence between C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann (edited by Martin Liebscher), there has been something of a Neumann renaissance. A major international conference was held in 2015 at Kibbutz Shefayim, with participants from more than 25 countries, and in 2016 a symposium was held at the Pacifica Institute in California. 
Neumann’s slim but brilliant book, Jacob and Esau: On the collective symbolism of the brother motif, was recently published by Chiron in collaboration with Recollections. 
A volume of essays by prominent Jungians, as well as members of the Jung and Neumann families, has also een published by Chiron/Recollections. It is edited by Erel Shalit and Murray Stein, Turbulent Times, Creative Minds: The relationship between Erich Neumann and C.G. Jung (1933-1960). 

Ann Conrad Lammers

Soon, in late 2018 or early 2019, Routledge will publish Neumann’s major treatise on The Roots of Jewish Consciousness in an impressive two-volume set (Volume 1 on the psychological significance of revelation, Volume 2 on Hasidism), edited by Ann Lammers, and translated by Mark Kyburz with Ann Lammers. This work, written between 1934 and 1945 but never published, is a treasure trove, a wealth of pearls. Although Neumann mined its themes in several of his Eranos lectures, the work as a whole holds a unique place in his opus.

Further announcements will be posted as the work of translation and editing progresses, but here is a taste of Neumann’s writing:

... for Hasidism the world consists of a great, diffusely distributed creative nothingness, whose points of concentration, in varying degrees of power, reshape and form this unformed energy and cause it to shine. These points of concentration are the world's individuals, created in the tzimtzum, having a smaller and greater circumference and varying energy charge. They can also diminish or increase the extent and intensity of their radiance, depending on the level they attain, that is, their ability to enter into contact with divine nothingness.

Read more about Erich Neumann's The Roots of Jewish Consciousness
Read more about Erich Neumann's Jacob and Esau: On the collective symbolism of the brother motif
Read more about Turbulent Times, Creative Minds: The relationship between Erich Neumann and C.G. Jung (1933-1960)

Cover painting by Mordecai Arnon

Cover image silhouette by Meir Gur Arieh

Etching by Jacob Steinhardt

Neumann at Eranos

Erich Neumann lecturing at Eranos

Erich Neumann at Eranos

a presentation by Riccardo Bernardini

The fifth and last session of the Asheville Jung Center Webinar based on the volume 

Turbulent Times, Creative Minds: Erich Neumann and C.G. Jung in Relationship 

will be broadcast on June 22, 2017, at 11 am ET.

Between 1948 and 1960, Neumann lectured annually at the Eranos Conferences. The papers he delivered at Eranos are among his most brilliant works. Scientific Secretary of the Eranos Foundation, Riccardo Bernardini, will offer an overview of these works and include many photographs taken at the Eranos Conferences during Neumann’s time.

Eranos was created by Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn in Ascona (Switzerland) in the early ‘30s as a interdisciplinary cultural platform. It served as the only international convention center active in Europe during the war. The Eranos Conferences wound up becoming the most important meeting point between C. G. Jung’s complex psychology and other disciplines. Eranos also represented a meeting point for Jung and his pupil, Erich Neumann. This presentation will retrace the steps of Neumann’s involvement with the Eranos project from four viewpoints: (1) Neumann’s encounter with Eranos and his intellectual contribution to the Conferences, from 1948 to 1960; (2) The impact of Eranos on Neumann’s work and the significance of his work for Eranos; (3) Neumann’s encounter and collaboration with the Eranos Archive for Research in Symbolism; (4) Neumann’s relationship with Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn. Several photographs of Jung and Neumann taken by Eranos photographer Margarethe Fellerer, belonging to the Eranos Archive, will also be shown.

Riccardo Bernardini, Ph.D., Psy.D., serves as the Scientific Secretary of the Eranos Foundation. He is also the Founding President of the postgraduate Institute of Analytical Psychology and Psychodrama (IPAP) in the “Olivetti” University District of Ivrea and a Fellow of the Association for Research in Analytical Psychology (ARPA) in Turin, Italy. His works include Jung a Eranos. Il progetto della psicologia complessa [Jung at Eranos. The Complex Psychology Project] (2011), the critical edition of C. G. Jung’s The Solar Myths and Opicinus de Canistris. Notes of the Seminar Given at Eranos in 1943 (with G. P. Quaglino and A. Romano, 2015), and the special issue of Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture dedicated to Eranos (2015).

Watch the excerpts from all the previous seminars now! Our most recent seminar was Neumann and the Feminine. As theoretician of feminine development and the archetypal ground of the feminine in individuals and culture, Neumann had considerable influence on Jungian thinkers that followed him. Lance Owens will present as well as Israeli Jungian psychoanalyst Rina Porat. who is intimately familiar with this aspect of Neumann’s oeuvre and will summarize his views and offer her reflections on Neumann’s importance for their own thinking and practices.  Erel Shalit and Murray Stein joined as hosts in this fourth installment of the series.

The full course of this series consist of 5 webinars discussing the works of Erich Neumann as well as the relationship he shared with Jung. Participants may register for the full series of lectures for one price of $127. Participants joining anytime after the course begins can still register and catch up by watching the recorded version of prior lectures. Visit the registration page to view the free first webinar or to register for the full series.

Erich Neumann has been widely considered to be Jung's most brilliant student and heir to the mantle of leadership among analytical psychologists until his untimely death in 1960 at the age of fifty-five. Many of his works are considered classics in the field to the present day - The Origins and History of Consciousness and The Great Mother, to name just the best known among many others. Now with the publication of the correspondence between Neumann and Jung (Analytical Psychology in Exile, Princeton University Press, 2015) and of the substantial papers presented at the conference held at Kibbutz Shefayim in Israel honoring the relationship between Jung and Neumann (Troubled Times, Creative Minds, Chiron 2016), a great deal of new interest is developing in the life and works of Neumann. The five-part webinar Series is devoted to exploring the important relationship between them and discussing Neumann's works in many areas, clinical and cultural, from the perspective of analytical psychology. 

This volume of essays by well-known Jungian analysts and scholars provides the most comprehensive comparison to date between the works of C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann. Among the many specific subjects discussed are Jung and Neumann on art and religion, their views on the problem of evil, and clinical aspects of Neumann’s work. Also included are personal memories of both Jung and Neumann family members.

The book includes exclusive photos from Eranos, and several illustrations in color.

Contents:

Introduction (Erel Shalit and Murray Stein) ix

I. The Correspondence (1933–1960)

Uncertain Friends in Particular Matters: The Relationship between C. G. Jung and

Erich Neumann (Martin Liebscher) 25

Companions on the Way: Consciousness in Conflict (Nancy Swift Furlotti) 45

Neumann and Kirsch in Tel Aviv: A Case of Sibling Rivalry? (Ann Lammers) 71

II. Cultural Backgrounds

German Kultur and the Discovery of the Unconscious: The Promise and Discontents of the German-Jewish Experience (Paul Mendes-Flohr) 83

Basel, Jung’s Cultural Background and the Proto-Zionism of Samuel Preiswerk (Ulrich Hoerni) 95

The Cultural Psyche: From Ancestral Roots to Postmodern Routes (Erel Shalit) 111

III. Troubled Times

Carl Jung and Hans Fierz in Palestine and Egypt: Journey from March 13th to

April 6th, 1933 (Andreas Jung) 131

1933—The Year of Jung’s Journey to Palestine/Israel and Several Beginnings (Thomas Fischer) 135

Jungians in Berlin 1931–1945: Between Therapy, Emigration and Resistance (Jörg Rasche) 151

IV. The Problem of Evil

The Search for a New Ethic: Professional and Clinical Dilemmas (Henry Abramovitch) 167

Erich Neumann and C. G. Jung on “The Problem of Evil” (Murray Stein) 185

V. Neumann and Eranos (1948–1960)

Neumann at Eranos (Riccardo Bernardini) 199

“Dear, dear Olga!” - A Letter to Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (Julie Neumann) 237

VI. On the Arts

The Great Mother in Israeli Art (Gideon Ofrat) 245

Jung, Neumann and Art (Christian Gaillard) 261

The Magic Flute (Tom Kelly) 299

A Brief Comment on Neumann and His Essay “On Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’” (Debora Kutzinski) 309

VII. Clinical Contributions

Erich Neumann’s Concept of the Distress-ego (Rina Porat) 315

Can You Hear My Voice? (Batya Brosh Palmoni) 333

Neve Tzeelim—A Field of Creation and Development (Rivka Lahav) 347

VIII. On Religion

Erich Neumann and Hasidism (Tamar Kron) 367

Theological Positions in the Correspondence between Jung and Neumann (Angelica Löwe) 385

IX. On Synchronicity

Toward Psychoid Aspects of Evolutionary Theory (Joseph Cambray) 401

X. “Memories from My (Grand)Father’s House”

Introduction 411

Some Memories of My Grandparents (Andreas Jung) 413

Memories (Ulrich Hoerni) 415

Memories (Micha Neumann) 417

Memories (Ralli Loewenthal-Neumann) 421

Memories (Debora Kutzinski) 425

A Response (Thomas B. Kirsch) 429

Remembering the Mamas and Papas (Nomi Kluger Nash) 433

Memories of Max Zeller (1904–1978) (Jacqueline Zeller) 437

Murray Stein: Outside Inside and All Around

A new book by Murray Stein

In these late essays, Murray Stein circles around familiar Jungian themes such as synchronicity, individuation, archetypal image and symbol with a view to bringing these ideas into today’s largely globalized cultural space. These are reflections for our time, drawing importantly on the works of C.G. Jung, Erich Neumann, Wolfgang Pauli and a wide range of contemporary Jungian psychoanalytic writers. The general thesis is that all of humanity is connected – to one another, to nature and to the cosmos – and no human being should be left out of the picture of postmodern consciousness.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Outside Inside and All Around

Chapter 2 – Synchronizing Time and Eternity: A Matter of Practice

Chapter 3 – Music for a Later Age: Wolfgang Pauli’s “Piano Lesson”

Chapter 4 – A Lecture for the End of Time

Chapter 5 – “The Problem of Evil”

Chapter 6 – On Psyche’s Creativity

Chapter 7 – At the Brink of Transformation

Chapter 8 – Failure in the Crucible of Individuation

Chapter 9 – Imago Dei on the Psychological Plane

Chapter 10 – Jungian Psychology and the Spirit of Protestantism

Chapter 11 – Archetypes Across Cultural Divides

Chapter 12 – Where East Meets West:The House of Individuation

Chapter 13 – The Path from Symbol to Science

Chapter 14 – Cultural Trauma, Violence, and Treatment

Chapter 15 – Hope in a World of Terrorism – An Interview with Rob Henderson

Chapter 16 – When Symptom is Symbol

 

Available at Amazon and at Chiron

Neumann on the Feminine

Neumann on the Feminine Thursday 4/27 @ 11AM ET 5pm CEST (Central European Summer Time) Featuring  Lance Owens, Rina Porat, Erel Shalit & Murray Stein

As theoretician of feminine development and the archetypal ground of the feminine in individuals and culture, Neumann had considerable influence on Jungian thinkers that followed him. Lance Owens will present as well as Israeli Jungian psychoanalyst Rina Porat. who is intimately familiar with this aspect of Neumann’s oeuvre and will summarize his views and offer her reflections on Neumann’s importance for their own thinking and practices.  Erel Shalit and Murray Stein will join as hosts in this fourth installment of the series. The full course of this series consist of 5 webinars discussing the works of Erich Neumann as well as the relationship he shared with Jung. Participants may register for the full series of lectures for one price of $127. Participants joining anytime after the course begins can still register and catch up by watching the recorded version of prior lectures. Visit the registration page to view the free first webinar or to register for the full series. Erich Neumann has been widely considered to be Jung's most brilliant student and heir to the mantle of leadership among analytical psychologists until his untimely death in 1960 at the age of fifty-five. Many of his works are considered classics in the field to the present day - The Origins and History of Consciousness and The Great Mother, to name just the best known among many others. Now with the publication of the correspondence between Neumann and Jung (Analytical Psychology in Exile, Princeton University Press, 2015) and of the substantial papers presented at the conference held at Kibbutz Shefayim in Israel honoring the publication of the correspondence (Troubled Times, Creative Minds, Chiron 2016), a great deal of new interest is developing in the life and works of Neumann. The five-part webinar Series will be devoted to exploring the important relationship between Neumann and Jung and discussing Neumann's works in many areas, clinical and cultural, from the perspective of analytical psychology. The aim of this Series is to contribute to the momentum of growing interest in the full range of Neumann's writings. Information and Registration ›

C. G. Jung and Erich Neumann: Paintings from the Psyche

A Five-Part Webinar Series

Click Here to Register for the Series or Watch the free First Webinar

Next Seminar Thursday, February 23rd @11AM ET:

ERICH NEUMANN – HIS LIFE, WORK and RELATIONSHIP WITH C.G. JUNG

Nancy Swift Furlotti will show and compare paintings by Neumann that have recently been discovered with some of Jung’s paintings in The Red Book. For both men, painting represented an engagement with the unconscious and a central feature of their individuation processes. There will also be references to Neumann’s writings on art and artists with the assistance of Murray Stein.

Active imagination was the technique C. G. Jung developed to amplify images from his dreams and visions. It allowed him to delve deeper into the mythical and collective layers of human imagination to more specifically understand what the psyche was trying to communicate. He used this extensively while on his own inner journey described in, The Red Book, and encouraged his patients and colleagues to do so, as well. Erich Neumann was one of Jung’s foremost disciples. After commencing analytical work with Jung, he kept a dream journal and began using active imagination on his own dream images. Somewhat later he, too, began to paint these images creating a long series, much like those in Jung’s Red Book. The comparison between the two sets of paintings is striking in both their differences and similarities. We will explore a full image series from each one as a way of gleaning a deeper understanding of the psychic processes of these two prominent analysts and good friends.

Turbulent Times, Creative Minds

Erich Neumann and C. G. Jung in Relationship

This volume of essays by well-known Jungian analysts and scholars provides the most comprehensive comparison to date between the works of C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann. Reflections are based on their extensive correspondence recently published, their differing cultural backgrounds, and the turbulent times surrounding their personal and professional relationship. Among the many specific subjects discussed are Jung and Neumann on art and religion, their views on the problem of evil, and clinical aspects of Neumann’s work. Also included are personal memories of both Jung and Neumann family members.
The book includes exclusive photos from Eranos, and several illustrations in color.

Contents:

Introduction (Erel Shalit and Murray Stein) ix
I. The Correspondence (1933–1960)

Uncertain Friends in Particular Matters: The Relationship between C. G. Jung and

Erich Neumann (Martin Liebscher) 25

Companions on the Way: Consciousness in Conflict (Nancy Swift Furlotti) 45

Neumann and Kirsch in Tel Aviv: A Case of Sibling Rivalry? (Ann Lammers) 71

II. Cultural Backgrounds

German Kultur and the Discovery of the Unconscious: The Promise and Discontents of the German-Jewish Experience (Paul Mendes-Flohr) 83

Basel, Jung’s Cultural Background and the Proto-Zionism of Samuel Preiswerk (Ulrich Hoerni) 95

The Cultural Psyche: From Ancestral Roots to Postmodern Routes (Erel Shalit) 111

III. Troubled Times

Carl Jung and Hans Fierz in Palestine and Egypt: Journey from March 13th to

April 6th, 1933 (Andreas Jung) 131

1933—The Year of Jung’s Journey to Palestine/Israel and Several Beginnings (Thomas Fischer) 135

Jungians in Berlin 1931–1945: Between Therapy, Emigration and Resistance (Jörg Rasche) 151

IV. The Problem of Evil

The Search for a New Ethic: Professional and Clinical Dilemmas (Henry Abramovitch) 167

Erich Neumann and C. G. Jung on “The Problem of Evil” (Murray Stein) 185

V. Neumann and Eranos (1948–1960)

Neumann at Eranos (Riccardo Bernardini) 199

“Dear, dear Olga!” - A Letter to Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (Julie Neumann) 237

VI. On the Arts

The Great Mother in Israeli Art (Gideon Ofrat) 245

Jung, Neumann and Art (Christian Gaillard) 261

The Magic Flute (Tom Kelly) 299

A Brief Comment on Neumann and His Essay “On Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’” (Debora Kutzinski) 309

VII. Clinical Contributions

Erich Neumann’s Concept of the Distress-ego (Rina Porat) 315

Can You Hear My Voice? (Batya Brosh Palmoni) 333

Neve Tzeelim—A Field of Creation and Development (Rivka Lahav) 347

VIII. On Religion

Erich Neumann and Hasidism (Tamar Kron) 367

Theological Positions in the Correspondence between Jung and Neumann (Angelica Löwe) 385

IX. On Synchronicity

Toward Psychoid Aspects of Evolutionary Theory (Joseph Cambray) 401

X. “Memories from My (Grand)Father’s House”

Introduction 411

Some Memories of My Grandparents (Andreas Jung) 413

Memories (Ulrich Hoerni) 415

Memories (Micha Neumann) 417

Memories (Ralli Loewenthal-Neumann) 421

Memories (Debora Kutzinski) 425

A Response (Thomas B. Kirsch) 429

Remembering the Mamas and Papas (Nomi Kluger Nash) 433

Memories of Max Zeller (1904–1978) (Jacqueline Zeller) 437

Bibliography

About the Contributors

Cover image by Mordecai Ardon

Available at Amazon, and at Chiron

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Jacob and Esau 

On the Collective Symbolism of the Brother Motif (2nd printing)

by Erich Neumann

cover image by Meir Gur Arieh