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

Netanyahu the Hasmonean

Joshua Sobol, the outstanding Israeli playwright and director, writes the following, after Benjamin Netanyahu's comment in a Bible class that he hopes Israel will last longer than the rule of the Hasmoneans:

"Bibi compares the life expectancy of the State of Israel with that of the Hasmoneans, which lasted a merely 77 years, while he wishes Israel to be able to celebrate its hundredth birthday.

In other words: let’s hope Israel will continue to exist another thirty years.

Those words by the Prime Minister of Israel uncannily recall the prophecy by Ali Khamenei, who gave Israel another merely twenty-five years until it will be destroyed in war and disappear from the map.

“After us the deluge,” said Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV. Louis adopted her nihilistic statement, who after France’s defeat in the battle of Rossbach in 1757, reformulated it thus: “After me, the deluge.”

This is the spirit that now emanates from “Israel’s Royal House.” The message to the young is: Go search for a place where life expectancy is more than thirty years. And for those who remain in this place, and desire to raise their children, grandchildren and their great-grandchildren, the message is: Our Louis XV and Madame Pompadour have to be speedily replaced by those that ensure Israel’s existence over the generations, by its peaceful regional integration, rather than being sentenced to disappear within three decades of continuous conflicts and wars.

Who wants to live under rulers who say, “After us, the deluge”?"

It should be added that the fall of the Hasmoneans was mainly due to strife and infighting, rather than the external onslaught (which Netanyahu refers to). And Bibi, seemingly to defend his rule against the investigations carried out against him, has increased his attacks on big parts of the population, against the media and the State's democratic institutions, such as the legal system and the police.

The following is an excerpt from my novella Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, referring to the defeatist view reflected by Netanyahu - which I personally do not share. I trust Israel's past, present and future capability to fight against external forces that aim at its destruction. Leaders like Netanyahu, who with hate speeches set the torches of extremism on fire, do have the capability of tearing up the social fabric. 

...

True, not everyone had left. There were those who remained behind – he thought of the many poor who had no means to get away, and the baalei teshuvah, those Masters of Repentance who had returned to the fold of the orthodox fathers. It seemed to Eli Shimeoni that their return to the straight path of God had given them the freedom not to ask any questions. They always knew the answer so well, claiming that “in the War of the End of Days, the War of Gog and Magog, total defeat would precede the ultimate victory over evil,” as they knew to repeat by heart.

He had been fascinated by the fanatic obsession with the graves of holy men, whether those scattered over the country, prominently Shimon Bar Yochai at Meron, or those orgiastic journeys by the Bratslav Hassidim to visit the grave of Rabbi Nahman in Uman, or Uriah the Hittite in Iraq – what a thrill! Himself from a somewhat religious background, he often wondered about the fundamentalist need of doomsday fantasies, their need to split the world in good and evil, a “pure” world in which the “impurity” of the “evil other” will be persecuted and exterminated, without the simple realization that this means that if I succeed in my crusade, I will remain trapped as the evil exterminator. 

…

First his children had left, gone abroad to study. One had taken up a prominent position at the University of Stamville, while the other was doing gender research at the Institute of Harback. Then his wife had followed, accusing him of being a fanatic and an archaic idealist, or derogatively calling him silly and stubborn, an obsolete Zionist. Friends and colleagues had discreetly taken farewell. Initially they would apologetically say, “if things ever change, you can be sure I will be the first one to return home. After all, there is nothing like Israel, and you can not really extract Israel from an Israeli.” But then, people became increasingly forceful and determined as they said goodbye. The cultured ones would say with bleeding hearts, “this is not the country we prayed for,” and the self-proclaimed prophets would plainly tell him, “everything is collapsing, there is no future here.” Some would reinforce their doomsday prediction, relying on historical evidence that an independent Jewish nation could not survive more than a hundred years.

But what struck him the most was, that everything was so everyday-like. Nothing special, nothing particular to notice. So similar to Elie Wiesel’s pastoral description, “I left my native town in the spring of 1944. It was a beautiful day. The surrounding mountains, in their verdure, seemed taller than usual. Our neighbors were out strolling in their shirt-sleeves. Some turned their heads away, others sneered.”

That’s all. Nothing unusual. Only the mountains were taller than usual. And yet, when as a young man Eli had read those few lines, which he had memorized ever since, the impact on him had been shocking. In lieu of immanent mass murder, there was an uncanny sense of the ordinary, sensed by the mountains that were moved more than people were. As man became smaller, the mountains became taller. The uninvolved, the willing or unwilling bystander, may, or may not, have struggled to wrestle himself out of the conflict that the disruption of the ordinary entailed. The victim, on the other hand, would already have been transported away from the reality of a beautiful day in spring, however, not yet fully trampled down by the boots of the octopus.

 ...

“From the first pages of this book, the tone of a masterpiece emerges powerfully.

This book makes us realize that the “Israel problem” cannot be understood in a journalistic frame of mind. Politics, war, land, culture, and contemporary experience are expressions of the deep core of human life, the core of the human soul.

This is an important book for anyone who thinks about “cultural identity” and the love of one’s own country and culture.”

Junko Chodos

Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return

is available, in English as well as in Hebrew, at Amazon and other booksellers

Herzl vs. Bibi

The English will follow the Hebrew

.קונגרס הציוני הראשון התקיים בין 29 ל31 באוגוסט, 1897, כלומר, לפני 120 שנה

:לאחר הקונגרס, הרצל כתב בעיתונו, ב10 לספטמבר

מסתבר שלרעיון הלאומי היהודי הכח המאחד אנשים בעלי הבדלי שפה, הבדלים חברתיים,  פוליטיים ודתיים לשלם אחד

בהסתתו, שממשיכה יותר מעשרים שנה, הן כמנהיג האופוזיציה בתקופת רבין בתחילת שנות התשעים, הן כראש הממשלה בהווה, נתניהו עושה כל מאמץ (מוצלח מבחינתו) להפריד בין חלקי העם ולהסית נגד כל מי שחושב אחרת ממנו

ללא רמז של יושרה או רסן, הוא עושה הכל כדי לפרק את המרקם העדין של החברה הישראלית, באמצעות שחיתות והסתה

לצערינו, חברי הממשלה, הן ממפלגתו של נתניהו, הן מהמפלגות הקואליציה, שותקים. כפי שאלי ויזל אמר, הצופה מן הצד, ושותק, רע יותר לקורבן מן התוקפן עצמו

למזלנו, ישנם אנשים, ארגונים ומוסדות שפועלים בארצינו הקרועה ואהובה כדי לשמור ולהגן על הדמוקרטיה והשפיות

כמה הערות ביחס להפגנות פתח תקוה:

היועץ המשפטי לממשלה מנדלבליט אינו חלק מהרשות השופטת, אלא מהרשות המבצעת, מינוי אישי של ראש הממשלה נתניהו. לכן הפגנה מול ביתו או במרחק מאות מטרים מביתו אינה דומה להפגנה מול בית של שופט.

בנובמבר 2016 מנדלבליט הכריז שאין חשד לפלילים בפרשת הצוללות. איך ידע?

הפגנות פתח תקווה החלו בנובמבר 2016 כדרישה ממנדלבליט לא לגרור רגליים ולהתחיל בחקירות או להתפטר. 

היום יש חקירה ועד מדינה, לא רק בפרשה זו, אלא בפרשות נוספות שסיומן מתעכב.

עד כה, מי ומה השפיע יותר על היועץ המשפטי לממשלת נתניהו - נתניהו או העם שדורש חקירות יעילות של השחיתות?

בין 1984 ל 1987 דתיים לאומיים וחרדים הפגינו במוצ״ש נגד פתיחת קולנוע בשבת בפתח תקוה. גם כאשר בג״צ אסר על ההפגנות, המשיכו אלפים להפגין. היכן הם היום בהגנה על הזכות הדמוקרטית לחופש הביטוי?

Herzl on the balcony in Basel

The first Zionist Congress was held in Basel, August 29-31, 1897, that is, 120 years ago.

Following the Congress, Herzl wrote a piece in Die Welt, September 10:

"[I]t turned out that the Jewish national idea possesses the unifying power to wield together people with linguistic, social, political, and religious differences into one united whole. . . . "

Netanyahu on the balcony at Zion Square

With his incitement, which has continued over twenty years, both as leader of the opposition during the premiership of Yitzhak Rabin in the early 1990s, and presently as Prime Minister, Netanyahu makes every possible (and from his point of view successful) effort to divide, instigating against those who think differently from him, rather than to bring "together people with linguistic, social, political, and religious differences into one united whole."

Without any sense of integrity or inhibition, he is doing whatever he can to destroy the fabric of Israeli society, by corruption and incitement.

Tragically, the members of the government, from his own party and his coalition partners, remain silent. They have turned into bystanders, who, as Elie Wiesel said, are worse to the victims than the aggressor.

Fortunately, there are people, organisations and institutions in this torn country who stand up to defend and protect democracy and the sanity of this beloved country.

The Hero and His Shadow

Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel

 Contents

Preface       The Beggar in the Hero’s Shadow      

Chapter 1    Return to the Source               

Chapter 2    From My Notebook             

Chapter 3    From Dream to Reality             

Chapter 4    Origins and Myths             

Chapter 5    From Redemption to Shadow         

Chapter 6    Wholeness Apart               

Chapter 7    Myth, Shadow and Projection      

Chapter 8    A Crack in the Mask          

Chapter 9    The Death of the Mythical and the Voice of the Soul

available on Kindle ($9.99) and in paperback ($29.00)

Quadrant: The Journal of the C.G. Jung Foundation

Quadrant offers essays grounded in personal and professional experience, which focus on issues of matter and body, psyche and spirit. Major themes of Jung’s work are explored through mythological, archetypal and alchemical motifs and images, as well as through historical, scientific, clinical, and cultural observation.

Current Issue: Fall 16

Volume XLVI:2

Cover

Front Pages

Contents

From the Editor

— Kathryn Madden

Featured Artist

— Carole Lindberg

Individuation and the Culture of Democracy

— Robert Mitchell

Inner and Outer Travels: Analytical Psychology and the Treatment of Refugees

— Monica Luci

Schleiermacher, Jung and the Rebirth of the God Image in our Time

— Donald R.Ferrell

Art as Individuation, Individuation as Art in The Unconscious Roots of Creativity

— Clifford Mayes

Book Reviews

— Beth Darlington, Review Editor
Reviews by Laurie Schapira, Maryann Barone-Chapman, and Wendy Neville Jones

See Volume XLVI:2 Details

For further information about Quadrant, and an index of issues, articles and authors, here.

In 2006, Quadrant published a paper I wrote together with James Hall, 'The Complex and the Object: Common Ground, Different Paths,' based on my book The Complex:  Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego. 

The next issue will feature another essay of mine, 'The Human Soul (Lost?) in Transition, at the Dawn of a New Era,' which will be part of a forthcoming book of that name.

The Complex and the Object: Common Ground, Different Paths — 
Erel Shalit and James Hall

While complex and object are part of everyday psychoanalytic discourse, the meaning of the terms varies with different approaches, and the relationship between the concepts is far from apparent. Specifically, in this paper the Jungian complex and the Kleinian internal object are compared. It is the view of these authors that the internal object is primarily related to the archetypal image, and the internalized object to Jung's concept of imago. The complex is the central concept that in a well-defined model of the psyche dynamically unites the phenomena described by these concepts. Furthermore, while in neurotic conflict the struggle between the ego and autonomous complexes takes place on the battlefield of the subjective psyche, in the personality disorders the complex is projected “wholesale” onto the external object, turning the other into a “complex-object.”

The Complex is available on Amazon.

Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return

Requiem returns us to an eternal theme, a dialogue with Soul, and we know quite well what happens when one dialogues with Soul-we change, consciousness is enlarged, the impossible becomes possible and we no longer are compelled to blindly follow in the deathly path of our forefathers.

Heinrich Heine     

Existential questions accompany the narrative of Requiem. Some in the storyline, others as metaphysical discourse. While there are expressions of sadness and struggle, there is also joy and strength. The following is an excerpt from the beginning of the novella:

“If anyone had been present in that clean and tiny room in the small hostel in the heart of New York the day Professor Shimeoni arrived, watching him as he sat almost catatonically on the bed, his legs barely touching the floor, his cap awkwardly sitting on his head as if put there by a caring nurse on a schoolboy rather than the fifty-six-year-old man he was, his small unopened suitcase next to him as if he needed to protect it with strengths he no longer possessed, or as if the suitcase somehow squeezed itself quietly to his side so that it could protect him – if anyone had seen Professor Shimeoni sitting on the simple bed in the warm but alien room, they would have seen a picture of resigned defeat.”

“But no one was present, there were no witnesses. The defeat remained the private failure of Eli Shimeoni. Incidentally, Eli was short for Eliezer. However, since he had never managed to figure out if the meaning of his name was that God would be helpful to him, or if he was to be God’s servant in a scheme of contradictions that his philosophical mind could not grasp, he had formally shortened it to Eli.”

“Professor Shimeoni felt lonely and abandoned, like a redundant survivor. At fifty-six, he looked like an old man. Even when he was a child, people had told him he was an old man, but now there remained no trace of doubt. While not concretely, he profoundly experienced himself as the last survivor. It seemed to him that everybody had already left before him. True, there were those who remained behind – he thought of the many poor who had no means to get away, and the baalei teshuva, who seemed not to ask any questions, but always knew the answer so well, claiming that “in the War of the End of Days, the War of Gog and Magog, total defeat would precede the ultimate victory over evil,” as they knew to repeat by heart.”

“First his children had left, gone abroad to study. One had taken up a prominent position at the University of Stamville, while the other was doing gender research at the Institute of Harback. Then his wife had followed, accusing him of being a fanatic and archaic idealist, or plainly silly and stubborn. Friends and colleagues had discreetly taken farewell. Initially they would apologetically say “if things ever change, you can be sure I will be the first one to return home.” But then, people became increasingly forceful and determined as they said goodbye. The cultured ones would say with bleeding hearts, “this is not the country we prayed for,” and the self-proclaimed prophets would plainly tell him, “everything is collapsing, there is no future here.” Some would reinforce their doomsday prediction, relying on historical evidence that an independent Jewish nation could not survive more than a hundred years.”

Requiem is a fictitious account of a scenario played out in the mind of many Israelis, pertaining to existential reflections and apocalyptic fears, but then, as well, the hope and commitment that arise from the abyss of trepidation. While set in Israel sometime in the present, it is a story that reaches into the timelessness of history, weaving discussions with Heine and Kafka into a tale of universal implications.

Excerpts from Steve Zemmelman's essay Containing A Jungian Light: The Books of Erel Shalit, in Spring, 2015:

Requiem is unique among Shalit’s books in that it is a novella in which the narrator, a professor Eliezer Shimeoni (who shares the same initials as the author) gives voice to the unique combination of despair and hope that is the legacy of the ideal of the socialist pioneers no less than the decades of mutual shadow projections and resulting polarization by Palestinians and Jews alike which underlie a culture of militarization and terrorist attacks.  

     It is also a story of the alienation of the Western intellectual Jew from their Jewish religious heritage and the potential for finding a way back to a renewed Judaism and humanism through a new understanding of self and other.  For Professor Shimeoni it is a fight against denial, a battle for consciousness, and the courage to take a stand against evil that define the integrity one can maintain even in a situation that is seemingly hopeless in so many ways.  He writes, “Consciousness will determine the future of Israel, and the preservation of Jewish civilization and its cultural heritage.  When denial collaborates with demonization in the collective consciousness of the world, catastrophe lies in wait for its victim.”

      It is through self-scrutiny that essential elements in the often neglected and untold story of loss and despair can be identified and understood.  While following this path may be the only way to find ourselves, to do so is to risk becoming lost in the depths of our own suffering.  Shalit poses the essential question underlying all forms of depth psychology: “What witness is more trustworthy than the sitra achra (the other side, the story which is not told) which holds so many secrets, even secrets that we have forgotten, and secrets that are hidden from ourselves?”

      Requiem is ultimately a story of the possibilities of the spirit and its capacity to transform fate into destiny, for the human capacity to surpass mere repetition or adherence to collective thought and action, and to find the courage and creative intelligence that can lead to a new way in the face of despair.  This story is an appeal to the power of the symbolic life as an alternative to the literalism and concretism of fundamentalist and militaristic ideologies that underlie war and terror.  This central concern is woven throughout this book that returns over and over to the story of the akedah, the binding of Isaac, and the fact that it was sufficient for the sacrifice to occur as a symbolic act that did not need to be acted out.  Shalit writes, “By substituting the sacrificial animal for the actual son, the story of the akedah represents the separation of meaning from act, which is essential to culture and civilization.”

      Like all Shalit’s books, in Requiem one finds literary and historical treasures.  For example, he reminds us of Elie Wiesel’s observation that we may one day have an explanation for the Shoah (Holocaust) on the level of man but how Auschwitz was possible on the level of God will always be a mystery.  The narrator then complicates this further, turning Wiesel’s comment on its head, when he notes that Abraham substituting the ram for his son passed God’s test but questions whether he passed the human test. The patriarch showed his complete devotion to God but how is a parent ever justified in being willing to murder his own child?  

*******

Erel Shalit's narrative has a unique, fascinating and powerful style, which touches you strongly. He has a way of leading the reader to grasp complicated historical processes with unusual ease.

... We find not only the narrator of a story, but also the spiritual and lyrical face of the author. I highly recommend this fascinating and important book.

         Marcela London, poet, author

From the first pages of this book, the tone of a masterpiece emerges powerfully.

This book makes us realize that the "Israel problem" cannot be understood in a journalistic frame of mind. Politics, war, land, culture, and contemporary experience are expressions of the deep core of human life, the core of the human soul.

This is an important book for anyone who thinks about "cultural identity" and the love of one's own country and culture.

        Junko Chodos, artist

The book is available (in English as well as in Hebrew) at Amazon and Fisher King Press.

my human condition. original painting by Benjamin Schiff

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

***********
Jacob and Esau 

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

by Erich Neumann

cover image by Meir Gur Arieh