Gita Sahgal – a hero of postmodern times

Gita Sahgal, an Indian-born author and journalist, is a leading voice against oppression of women, particularly by religious fundamentalists.
Until fired, April 2010, she was head of the Amnesty International's Gender Unit.

Why did Amnesty International fire Gita Sahgal?

Gita Sahgal criticized Amnesty for its association with Moazzam Begg, director of Cageprisoners, a well-known supporter of the Taliban.

Begg has said Sahgal's claims of his jihad connections and support for terrorism were "ridiculous," since he doesn't consider anyone a terrorist who has not been convicted of terrorism – i.e., if you commit a crime but escape conviction, you are innocent, goes this immoral, unethical and pervert reasoning.

Salman Rushdie, among others, has spoken up in support of Gita Saghal, claiming Amnesty – and Begg – "deserve our contempt."
Denis MacShane, a former Labour minister, called it "Kafkaesque" that Amnesty would threaten the career of Sahgal for her having exposed "an ideology that denies human rights."
Amnesty has stated that she was not suspended for "raising these issues internally." That is, her "crime" was going public (to let herself be quoted in The Sunday Times) about it – disclosing to the public the organization's hypocrisy.
Is not the mission of Amnesty to go public about "protecting human rights worldwide," as they claim?
In the post-modern condition, we fortunately do not adhere to the one and absolute truth of fundamentalism. Also, abandoning discrimination and reaching out respectfully to the Other, is one of the assets of multiple subjectivism.
However, there is a great danger that post-modern, multiple subjectivism gives undifferentiated, equal value to anything – to any act and any belief system – except for those who might criticize this lack of moral differentiation. Indian journalist Antara Dev Sen writes about Gita Saghal's courageous stand "given the dread of political correctness that cripples our thought" – a political correctness which may replace moral judgment and intellectual integrity, or, as written in the Wall Street Journal, "it's a pity that a group that was born to give voice to the victims of oppression should now devote itself to sanitizing the oppressors."

Read more about transiency and psychological aspects of the post-modern condition in Erel Shalit: 'Destruction of the Image and the Worship of Transiency.' Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, Feb. 2010.

All of Erel Shalit's publications can be purchased at http://www.fisherkingpress.com/ or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799, Toll free in Canada & the US 1-800-228-9316

Mother Earth has Struck at the Temples of Transiency

Mother Earth has struck, and by means of her messenger, angry Hephaestus, the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull, she reminds us how she can fasten Icarus's wings to the ground.

We have all become accustomed to the swift and structured passage through the airport, until we briefly breathe the disconnected sense of being duty-free, free of any duty. However, during the last several days, thousands of weary travelers have been stranded, making airports their inconvenient, temporary home.

The nonlocality and temporality of airports, as Temples of Transiency, sooth the restlessness of the Transient Personality, and suit him or her better than the temenos of the therapy room and the analytical relationship. For a moment, however, the airports have come to a standstill. Suddenly the swift transition between one non-place and another, has frozen.

I wonder if postmodern man will, indeed, stop for a moment, to reflect on Mother Nature's messages, one of which may be the need to stop for a moment to reflect, as we speedily resume our movement, and continue the journey toward our destination, which if we are lucky may be Eco, Home.

Read further in Destruction of the Image and the Worship of Transiency. Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, Vol. 4, number 1, Feb. 2010, pp. 94-108.

All of Erel Shalit's publications can be purchased at www.fisherkingpress.com or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799, Toll free in Canada & the US 1-800-228-9316

Destruction of the Image and the Worship of Transiency

Erel Shalit: Destruction of the Image and the Worship of Transiency -- Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche: Winter 2010, Vol. 4, No. 1, Pages 85–98

Frontispiece

Susan Bostrom-Wong, Geology of Time #8, 2008, oil on panel, 20" × 24" (By permission of the artist) – see more of Susan's wonderful art at www.susanbostromwong.com

Abstract

Taking as its starting point Jung's statement, "Everything of which we are conscious is an image, and that image is psyche . . . [which] is a world in which the ego is contained," the fundamentalist's collective consciousness of the One Truth is compared with the postmodern imagination of a multitude of perspectives (CW 13,¶75). The identity of the fundamentalist is shaped by archetypal identification, whereby the shadow is projected onto the Evil Other, against whom acts of evil may then be "justifiably" perpetrated. Postmodern deconstruction of identity, on the other hand, tends toward a condition of transiency and "as-if." Images and ideas become detached from "ground and reality." The image becomes its own simulacrum, detached from the images of interiority. Finally, features of transiency and the transient personality are compared to and contrasted with the survivor syndrome.

Erel Shalit's books can be purchased at www.fisherkingpress.com or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799

2009 Lecture Schedule for Dr Erel Shalit

January-February, Jerusalem

Ego and the Development of Consciousness

February 7, Stockholm:
Dreams and the Life Cycle

February 8, Stockholm:
Rosarium Explicable:
Jungian Perspectives on Transference and Countertransference

May 7, conference:
“Fragmented Lives” Izra’el Valley: The Worship of Transiency

May 24, Westport:
Requiem - Notes from Professor Shimeoni’s Lecture and Reflections on Exile

June 2, Jung Foundation New York:
Masks of Transiency: The Transient Personality Between Shadow and Persona

June 9, Bar Ilan University

Guide for the Perplexed: Jungian Concepts

June 27, Vilnius:
Panel on 'Developing Analytic Identity in Different Cultures'

June 27, Vilnius:

Masks of Transiency: The Transient Personality Between Shadow and Persona

4-5July, Sofia:

Shadows in the Hero's Path

In conjunction with the publication of the Bulgarian translation of Enemy, Cripple, Beggar

Aug 21 Stockholm:
From Thebes to Colonus: Riddles of Guilt, Wanderings of Meaning

October 8 Sofia
New Bulgarian University: Masks of Transiency

November 20 Stockholm:

Requiem: Notes on Professor Shimeoni's Reflections on Exile

November 21 Stockholm:

Dreams in the Bible

Erel Shalit's Enemy, Cripple, & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path and his previously published book The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego can be purchased at www.fisherkingpress.com or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799

Masks of Transiency: A lecture by Erel Shalit, Jung Foundation NY

On Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 7:00 – 8:30 pm the C.G. Jung foundation for Analytical Psychology, President's Lecture Series presents Erel Shalit lecturing on:

Masks of Transiency: The Transient Personality Between Shadow and Persona

The identity of the fundamentalist is shaped by archetypal identification, whereby the shadow is projected on the “Evil Other,” onto whom acts of evil may be “justifiably” perpetrated. Postmodern deconstruction of identity, on the other hand, tends toward ‘as-if’ and transiency. Images and ideas become detached from “ground and reality.” The image becomes its own simulacrum, detached from the images of interiority.

In contrast to fundamentalism, the post-modern condition is distinguished by a multitude of perspectives and narratives, challenging the view and the value of central, universal truths. Furthermore, it is characterized by transiency. Characteristics such as speed without digestion, fleeing the centre, remoteness from reality, disconnection from temporality, and the as-if quality of wearing transient masks come together in what may be termed the Transient Personality.

In the process of individuation, the ego-Self axis is vital and dynamic, leading to a conscious sense of wholeness and meaning. However, the ego of the Transient Personality is squeezed between persona and shadow, which have a tendency to merge.

In this lecture Dr. Shalit will elaborate on these issues, which are related to the crises and opportunities, the dangers and the hopes of today’s world.

Erel Shalit, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra'anana, Israel. He is a training and supervising analyst, and past President of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology. He serves as liaison person of the International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP) with Bulgaria.

Dr. Shalit is a past Director of the Community Mental Health Clinic, Shalvata Regional Psychiatric Centre. He has served as officer in the IDF Medical Corps, and is a member of the Council for Peace and Security.

He is the author of Enemy, Cripple & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path (2008), The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel (new revised edition, 2004), and The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego (2002).

Articles of his have appeared in Quadrant: The Journal of the C.G. Jung Foundation, The Jung Journal (previously the San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal), Spring Journal, Political Psychology, Clinical Supervisor, Round Table Review, The Jung Page, Midstream and other professional and cultural journals. Entries of his are forthcoming in The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, Journeys and Encounters: 17th International IAAP Congress, and elsewhere.

Dr. Shalit lectures at professional institutes, universities, and cultural forums in Israel, Europe and the United States.

Please reserve your seat by calling the New York C.G. Jung Foundation at 212-697-6430, or by emailing info@cgjungny.org. This lecture will be held at the Jung Center, 28 East 39th Street, New York City.

Click here to learn more about Erel Shalit's work.

Erel Shalit's Enemy, Cripple, & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path and his previously published book The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego can be purchased at www.fisherkingpress.com or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799