The Psychoanalytic Relationship between Israel and Switzerland

The C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann Conference

The Psychoanalytic Relationship between Israel and Switzerland

Dr. Andreas Baum, Switzerland's Ambassador to Israel

The following report appeared in the Newsletter of the Swiss Embassy in Israel

Over 250 participants from more than 25 countries gathered on the weekend of the 24-26th of May in Kibbutz Shefayim.

For once the center of the international attraction was neither world politics, nor a high tech business meeting but rather the intellectual relationship and written exchange between two intellectuals. On one side the famous Swiss pioneer of psychology Carl Gustav Jung and, on the other, his outstanding German-Israeli student and counterpart Erich Neumann.

The main reason for the event was the publication of the Jung-Neumann Letters, a book containing their correspondents of over 100 letters, written in a time period of over 30 years, revealing yet unknown discussions on various topics. And consequently the conference, organized by Dr. Erel Shalit, a leading Israeli Jungian psychologist, covered different fields of study: psychological issues, Neumann’s New Ethics, Jung’s art work, European culture, Zionism and the relationship of Judaism and Christianity.

The fact that members of both the Jung and Neumann families were present and spoke at the gathering added poignancy to the conference. Several Swiss Jungian psychologists were also present at the gathering, amongst them the head of the International School of Analytical Psychology of Zurich Murray Stein, and Thomas Fischer, the director of the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung. In this context it was a pleasure for the Swiss Embassy and Ambassador Andreas Baum to host the opening reception at the Kibbutz and greet the audience at the beginning of what turned out to be a successful conference for all participants.

For the speech of Ambassador Baum, please follow this link: www.eda.admin.ch.

Dr. Erel Shalit giving his welcoming speech at
the Jung-Neumann Conference, Kibbutz Shefayim