When left hands touch: shadow vows and Jung’s quaternity

Is there a connection between the exchange of vows and the fighting and suffering of couples that are unique to the institution of marriage? This essay introduces the concept of Shadow Vows, the unacknowledged assumptions, agreements, and obligations each partner brings to the relationship, which the authors believe are often responsible for longstanding marital discord and strife. The authors ground the existence of shadow vows in Jung’s quaternity, alchemy, typology, archetypal theory, and depth approaches to couple therapy. The essay concludes with a list of themes indicative of shadow vow enactments in clinical work with couples.     

The reception of Holocaust research in the world of psychology

After having spoken to lay and professional audiences in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, France and in the United States on the effects of the Shoah on people in psychotherapy today and found varying reactions, I decided to pursue the question in a more consequential way. I devised a questionnaire which I sent to a large number of international psychoanalytic societies. My initial impressions were confirmed: Freudian societies generally devote more work to the topic. Some Jungian societies with especially interested individuals have also devoted a substantial amount of work to the Shoah and its aftermaths. The Jungian hesitancy has to do with our often more archetypal approach and with shame about Jung's statements on the Jewish archetype. On the collective level, the presence of a survivor population seems to make research on the topic more difficult. A certain amount of time must evolve before a society (be it professional, individual or political) deals with collective trauma, be it the Shoah or political oppression. On the personal level, intimacy (also in future, adult relationships) seems blocked when fantasies about parents' implications in the Shoah prevail. The bottom line of both phenomena is taboo, a prohibition against touching tameh. I propose that the IAAP supports research projects on the Shoah. They could also, as the Freudians do, offer a special prize at each international conference for the best piece of research on the topic of collective trauma.     

An approach to supervision in health care settings

This article describes a flexible approach to supervision which allows for the fact that integration may mean different things to different people under different circumstances. In the health contexts described the clinical mix which was found most helpful in the supervisory work combined psychodynamic, Jungian and humanistic perspectives. The application of this particular mix of clinical techniques is demonstrated with reference to the work with two supervisees. It is felt that the methods employed are consistent with the current notions of difference in counselling and psychotherapy.     

Panel: What could be Jungian about Human Rights work?

The question of whether Jungian analysts should move beyond the consulting room to engage with mental health issues that pertain to the collective is the focus of this paper. Two narratives are presented: one from the view point of a psychiatrist in Occupied Palestine, the other from the conflicted situation which faces an Israeli analyst. Despite the strong ambivalence that is experienced on both sides, there is a willingness to meet and to take a standpoint without necessarily coming to a resolution. A third position is offered by describing experiences from the South African perspective. The African notion of Ubuntu is offered as a moral entry point that states that community goes beyond one's own; from this point of view, Jungian analysts can do no other than to act.     

The making of an analyst: from 'ideal' to 'good-enough'

This paper addresses the issue of variances in training modalities and how this is linked to one's personal experience of training and to one's analytic lineage. The author, who bases his reflections on discussions held during the yearly directors of training meeting of the North American Jungian Societies, suggests that, while each institute aims to provide an 'ideal' training programme for its candidates, the philosophy underlying how this ideal is defined depends, in large part, on the theoretical and philosophical orientation of the founding fathers and mothers. This results in a form of analytic lineage that necessarily impacts on the form and content of the 'ideal' programme. Shadow issues related to analytic lineage in the admissions procedures, case consultation, exam committees and review committees are presented. Motivation for why we choose to train and reflections on what makes an analyst 'Jungian' are explored.     

Christianity and the Shadow Side of Human Experience

Pastoral Psychology - In Jungian theory, every human being, including the Christian believer, has a shadow side to his or her personality. The shadow, then, like it or not, is a part of our common...     

Psychoanalytic theory in times of terror

Recent events have underlined in the most tragic and dramatic way the need for depth psychology to turn its attention to the psychology of terror. The present paper attempts to distinguish between the psychological modes of horror and terror and explores the different theoretical approaches of Burke, Freud, Kristeva and Jung to this problem in order to cast light on the individual and collective functions that horror and terror play. While all these authors stress that terror and horror play a role in structuring the sense of identity and in strengthening community bonds, Freud and Kristeva believe that the experience of horror works to increase the exclusion of otherness through mechanisms of repression or foreclosure while Burke and Jung see in the encounter with the Negative Sublime or with the Shadow the possibility of widening the boundaries of ego consciousness and of integration of 'otherness'. The paper then uses the analysis of two horror movies and of a particular socio-cultural context to illustrate these different functions of horror and terror and to delineate possible solutions to the problems facing society.     

Collective complexes--total perspectives

A much greater part of our identity than we generally believe is collectively determined. Awareness of the causal link between identity, its connected values and the influence exerted by these values on perception is therefore crucial. In the implicit personality model of Peabody and Goldberg (1989), the apparent wide variety of human characteristics is broken down into three broad dimensions: general evaluation, impulse control and assertiveness. My hypothesis is that the regulation of impulses can be equated with the Jungian concept of the mother and father complexes, and assertiveness with the relation between individualism and collectivism. I have utilized Montgomery's perspective theory and Jung's concepts of the union of opposites, the complex and the shadow in order to provide an alternative interpretation of the implicit personality model. According to my interpretation, the traditional values of any culture can be read against these three dimensions. These values can be seen as the greatest treasure of a culture but, at the same time, they can also be devastating if they become complex-like.     

The other other: when the exotic other subjugates the familiar other

In this paper, the theme of the other will be examined and it will be argued that it is important to differentiate between two distinct types of other--the 'exotic' other which is distant and very different from the subject, and the 'familiar' other which is closer to the subject. The dynamic relationship between these two others will be investigated, and emphasis will be given to the process through which the exotic other tends to subjugate the familiar other. This relationship will then be discussed in its various applied forms, in the contexts of clinical practice and socio-political dimensions. In particular, a new reading of Jung's approach to the 'primitive' will be developed, based on the subjugation of the 'familiar' other by the 'exotic' other. A similar line of investigation will be followed to examine the concept of psychological trauma. In addition, Freud's 'narcissism of minor differences' and Bion's distinction between 'narcissism' and 'socialism' will be considered in the light of this differentiation between these two others.