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.

***********
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

We mourn the passing of Tom Kirsch

We mourn the passing of Tom Kirsch, after a long and courageous battle with terminal illness.

Tom was one of the leading torch bearers in the tradition of Jungian psychology. He was a Graduate of Yale Medical School, Stanford Department of Psychiatry and C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.  He was president of the Jung Institute of  San Francisco, as well as of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. He wrote The Jungians, and in 2014, Fisher King Press published his A Jungian Life, of which Irvin Yalom writes: 

"This book is aptly titled. Thomas Kirsch writes not only a fine autobiography but also a fascinating profile of Jungian life in the last several decades. Thomas was the son of two psychoanalysts, disciples of Carl Jung. Thomas's father knew Jung well in Europe before fleeing from Nazi Germany and coming to California, where he and Thomas's mother practiced for many years. The younger Kirsch followed in the footsteps of his parents and became a highly influential scholar and leader of The International Association for Analytical Psychology for many years. His life story is both a personal tale and a wide sweeping panorama of Jungian thought."

The correspondence between Jung and his father, James Kirsch,was edited by Ann Lammers, and published by Routledge. From the back cover: The Jung-Kirsch Letters belongs to a category of literature where the thoughts and ideas of the psychoanalytic masters are revealed behind their more formal writings. We are here served an exceptional vista of ruminations, theoretical and clinical discussions, dreams and personal emotions, as they crystallize into meaningful ideas. Ann Lammers’ skillful editing renders this correspondence between Jung and one of his most prominent Jewish disciples into a masterful volume of great interest for readers, both professional and lay, interested in depth psychology.  Erel Shalit

From Tom Kirsch's contribution to Turbulent Times, Creative Minds: The Relationship between C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann:

"Overall, this correspondence is of immense importance to the history of the Jungian movement. Neumann was considered by many, but by no means all, especially in Jung’s inner circle in Zurich in the 1940s, to be Jung’s intellectual and spiritual son. Jung certainly implies as much in his foreword to The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949/1954), where he writes, “he arrives at conclusions that are among the most important ever to be reached in this field.” In an interview recently available from the Library of Congress in the United States in which Kurt Eissler interviewed Jung on Freud in 1953, Jung discusses the difficulty of being a leading figure but then having a student continuing in a creative way one’s most important thoughts. Jung thought that he was doing that with Freud’s ideas of “archaic vestiges” into archetypes. Freud could not accept that. Jung has the same feeling about Neumann furthering his work. It is not easy when a student makes a real contribution to one’s own most cherished work, but Jung says, “I have a very talented student, Neumann, in . . . Tel Aviv. He is truly a significant person! And, he took hold of some of my material and did something with it. You know, when one is overtaken in this manner, it is not easy for someone who has been in front.” High praise, indeed!

...

On a personal note, when Erich Neumann was still in Berlin, my favorite aunt was engaged to his older brother Franz, before marrying my favorite Uncle Walter, my mother’s older brother. This is another piece of evidence that the German Jews in Berlin were quite involved with each other.

People may be interested to know that my parents always read Neumann, and I never heard a bad word about him at home! My mother read him avidly, and so did my dad. I have often wondered what my life would have been had my parents stayed in Palestine in 1935. I could have been a Sabra. Hebrew would be my mother tongue. What would I be saying today, at this conference, about Erich Neumann? A path not taken."

The Tom Kirsch memorial website

Renewed website

Renewed website

You are invited to visit my renewed website, here. You will find links to YouTube presentations, material on Jung and Neumann, my books, and useful resources.

Thank you for your interest – any and every comment or correction will be appreciated!

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

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 ›

NEUMANN, RELIGION & THE NUMINOUS: Ann Lammers & Tamar Kron

The third session in the Asheville Jung Center webinar series on 

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

will be broadcast live on March 23, 2017 (11 AM ET)

Neumann’s writings on religion and numinous (mystical) experience. Israeli Jungian psychoanalyst Tamar Kron and Jungian scholar Ann Lammers will discuss some of the background of Neumann’s understanding of religious experience as expressed in some of his early and previously unpublished writings on Hasidism and Kabbalah as well as in his later writings on this topic in works such as Depth Psychology and the New Ethic and his first lecture at the Eranos Conference in 1948, “Mystical Man.”

Ann Lammers will speak about Neumann’s unpublished early book, The Roots of Jewish Consciousness, written in Tel Aviv between 1934 and 1945. It is his only full-length work on Judaism. The story of this book – why he wrote it, how his work with Jung influenced it, and why he eventually chose not to publish it – has many twists and turns and includes one tantalizing mystery. The second half of the book, “Hasidism: Its Psychological Meaning for Judaism,” includes a key chapter, “Life in this World,” which for some reason disappeared from two of Neumann’s working typescripts. (By good fortune, it survived in a carbon copy and an early version of the work.) This chapter deals with the Hasidic teaching on evil, a highly paradoxical, unitive response to objective shadow. In my opinion, the fact that Neumann removed this chapter from his book, and never replaced it, provides a clue to his eventual decision to lay the entire book aside. It also gives us a possible point of entry into understanding the powerful little book which he published soon after, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic.

Tamar Kron will present Neumann's unique interpretation of the Hasidic doctrine of the "sparks" and of ayin, (nothingness or the void). In his "Mystical Man" and in his writings on creativity Neumann relates the Kabalistic Ayin to his concept of the "creative point of nothingness" which is the origin of consciousness and central to his thinking on creativity. Referring to the doctrine of the sparks Neumann writes that man redeems the spiritual meaning of the spark by raising it to the conscious level. In a brilliant exposition Neumann  describes a gradual process of transformation wherein the movement from ‘mute stone' to the 'speaking creature'  likewise denotes the individual's development of consciousness.

The webinar will be facilitated by Murray Stein and Erel Shalit

Further details about the webinar can be found here.

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

A Five-Part Webinar Series beginning January 26th, 2017

The 90 minute introductory webinar is Free!

Click Here to Register for the Series or Sign-Up for the free First Webinar

$127: 5 Full Seminars; 1.5 Hours each
$227: 15.0 CEU Package (3.0 CE per seminar)

The Asheville Jung Center is very pleased to announce  our Winter webinar series on  The Life and Works of Erich Neumann and His Relationship with C.G. Jung hosted by Murray Stein and Erel Shalit. Dr. Stein has already taken part in 4 recent webinar series including Jung and Alchemy, The Psychology of Fairy tales, Jung and the World Religions, and Jung and Evil.  This course will consist of 5 webinars, the first of which is free to everyone, discussing the great 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 sign up for 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. This 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.

 

Click Here to Register for the Series or Sign-Up for the Free First Webinar

SEMINAR SERIES:

Session #1: AN INTRODUCTION TO NEUMANN – No cost!

1/26/2017; 11AM ET (Free to Everyone, Sign Up on the registration page)

An introduction to Neumann’s life and work and to his relationship with C.G. Jung. This session will include presentations by Erel Shalit and Murray Stein and a reading of several of Neumann’s letters to Jung by John Hill. The purpose of this session will be to introduce participants to the wide range of Neumann’s interests and writings, to biographical features of Neumann’s early life in Germany and his mature years spent in Mandatory Palestine/Israel, and to the intricacies and importance of his relationship to Jung.

Session #2: NEUMANN & JUNG AS PAINTERS

2/23/2017 11AM ET

 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 Erel Shalit and Murray Stein.

Session #3: NEUMANN, RELIGION & THE NUMINOUS

3/23/2017 11AM ET

Neumann’s writings on religion and numinous (mystical) experience. Israeli Jungian psychoanalyst Tamar Kron and Jungian scholar Ann Lammers will discuss some of the background of Neumann’s understanding of religious experience as expressed in some of his early and previously unpublished writings on Hasidism and Kabbalah as well as in his later writings on this topic in works such as Depth Psychology and the New Ethic and his first lecture at the Eranos Conference in 1948, “Mystical Man.”

Session #4: NEUMANN ON THE FEMININE

4/27/2017; 11AM ET

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. Israeli Jungian psychoanalysts Dvora Kutzinski and Rina Porat are intimately familiar with this aspect of Neumann’s oeuvre and will summarize his views and offer their reflections on Neumann’s importance for their own thinking and practices.

Session #5: NEUMANN AT ERANOS

5/18/2017; 11AM 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 Bernadini, will offer an overview of these works and include many photographs taken at the Eranos Conferences during Neumann’s time.

HOSTS:

Murray Stein, Ph.D., is a supervising training analyst and former president of The International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland (ISAP Zurich). He is the author of Jung’s Treatment of Christianity as well as many other books and articles in the field of Jungian Psychoanalysis.  Dr. Stein was also editor of Jung’s Challenge to Contemporary Religion. From 2001 to 2004 he was president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. He has lectured internationally and presently makes his home in Switzerland.

Erel Shalit, Ph.D. is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is a training and supervising analyst, and past president of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology (ISAP). He is the author of several publications, including The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel and The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego.

Click Here to Register for the Series or Sign-Up for the Free First Webinar

$127: 5 Seminars; 1.5 Hours each
$227: 15.0 CEU Package (3.0 CE per seminar)

The Asheville Jung Center is a National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) – Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP) and may offer NBCC – approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements. The ACEP solely is responsible of all aspects of the program. (Provider # 6594)

Target Audience: MFTs, LCSWs, LPC’s, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Counselors, Therapists, and others wishing to gain a deeper understanding of Jungian Psychology
Continuing Education Course Schedule: 1. View video seminar 2. Review supplemental material (if present) 3. Take post-seminar exam 4. Fill out evaluation survey
Instructional level for Counselors, Social Workers and Psychologists: Intermediate Practitioner
Course Delivery Format: All Asheville Jung Center lectures are primarily online seminars and are essentially Non-Interactive except for email communication with us.
Course Completion Requirements: In order to receive CE credit for this course, participants must: pay the appropriate CE fee, view the entire seminar, review any supplementary materials if appropriate, complete a course evaluation (online), and pass a brief online examination on the material. Certificates can be downloaded immediately after passing the exam. All CE recipients must attest that the name and license number on the certificate matches the individual completing the materials.
Commercial Support for CE Seminar: None
Approval Information by Jurisdiction: Asheville Jung Center seminars often have participants from across the United States as well as 50 other countries. Seminars are approved for continuing education by the National Board for Certified Counselors as well as the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Please consult your state’s licensing board to verify that you may use these credits professionally.
Deadline for Cancellations or Refunds: Please request any cancellations for refunds at least 24 hours prior to a seminar being presented for the first time. Refunds for seminars that have already occurred and to which access has been already granted cannot be accepted unless there is a technical or other superseding problem. Contact us at info@ashevillejungcenter.org
ADA Accommodations: Asheville Jung Center seminars may be viewed from any home computer with appropriate internet access. If you have a disability that would interfere with your viewing a seminar on your computer, please contact us and we can look at all available formats. info@ashevillejungcenter.org
Complaints or Grievances: Please contact us at info@ashevillejungcenter.org for any complaints or grievances. Click here to see our grievance policy.
Contact information: Please contact us via email at info@ashevillejungcenter.org

Turbulent Times, Creative Minds: Erich Neumann and C.G. Jung in Relationship - from the Introduction

Excerpt from the Introduction

With the recent publication of the correspondence between C. G. Jung and Erich Neumann, the personality and significance of Neumann for analytical psychology heaves into view more sharply than ever before. 

Although Neumann’s classic works, such as The Great Mother and The Origins and History of Consciousness, have been widely read and appreciated inside and outside of Jungian circles, his full range of works and his vibrant personal qualities as an intellectual leader in the field fell sadly into the shadows following his early death in 1960 at the age of only fifty-five. 

Had he lived another thirty years to the ripe old age of eighty-five as Jung did, his name and contributions would be far more widely recognized among his analytic colleagues and in the world at large. Now with the publication of the extensive correspondence between Neumann and Jung and thoughtful contributions by scholars such as those included in this volume, the stage is set for a Neumann renaissance.

Neumann was clearly a star in the Jungian firmament during his last decade of life and was recognized as one of the most brilliant exponents of analytical psychology. Beyond that, he made genuinely original contributions in works that extended depth psychology’s range of application to areas of history and culture that Jung himself, as a pioneer, had not been able to work out in a systematic way. 

While the focus of many of the papers in this volume is on the relationship between Neumann and his mentor, others consider topics that represent original and groundbreaking expansions into territories such as cultural history, art, and religion.

...

The relationship between Jung and Neumann can be compared to that between Freud and Jung. Both involved an older senior mentor figure and a young aspiring student. A similarity between the two relationships lies in the fact that Neumann never conceded his intellectual independence, just as Jung had claimed similar autonomy vis-à-vis Freud. A difference is that Jung, in the position of mentor, was considerably more encouraging and supportive of Neumann’s individuation process, which inevitably included differences of opinion, than Freud had been of Jung’s. ...

Jung and Neumann shared roots in a common culture in central German-speaking Europe, with a shared love of the poets Goethe, Schiller, and Hölderlin and an education (Bildung) among great German philosophers such as Kant and Schelling. But they were also each indelibly steeped in their distinctly different heritages. 

Jung was a Swiss Protestant Christian, quite secularized as an individual but bearing the religious influences of his culture and of numerous pastors and theologians in his immediate family background. Neumann was a Jew who grew up in Berlin in a nonobservant family, and as a young man he looked to elements in Jewish culture for his identity and sympathized with Zionist ideas about a homeland for the Hebrew people in Palestine. 

Upon discovering Jung—they met for the first time at Jung’s famous Berlin seminar in 1933—Neumann quickly realized that Jung’s analytical psychology and his discovery of the objective psyche could offer a means to recover more of the profound value and meaning of his Jewish heritage. They could thus each separately but also in fruitful dialogue share an appreciation of the depths of the archetypal layers of the psyche as explicated in their separate cultures and envision general trends in and threats to humanity. The basis for collaboration was present despite what would turn out to be quite sharp cultural differences. ...

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

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