Analytical Psychology in Exile: The Correspondence of C.G. Jung & Erich Neumann

by C.G. Jung, Erich Neumann, Martin Liebscher (Editor)

C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann first met in 1933, at a seminar Jung was conducting in Berlin. Jung was fifty-seven years old and internationally acclaimed for his own brand of psychotherapy. Neumann, twenty-eight, had just finished his studies in medicine. The two men struck up a correspondence that would continue until Neumann's death in 1960. A lifelong Zionist, Neumann fled Nazi Germany with his family and settled in Palestine in 1934, where he would become the founding father of analytical psychology in the future state of Israel.

Presented here in English for the first time are letters that provide a rare look at the development of Jung's psychological theories from the 1930s onward as well as the emerging self-confidence of another towering twentieth-century intellectual who was often described as Jung's most talented student. Neumann was one of the few correspondence partners of Jung's who was able to challenge him intellectually and personally. These letters shed light on not only Jung's political attitude toward Nazi Germany, his alleged anti-Semitism, and his psychological theory of fascism, but also his understanding of Jewish psychology and mysticism. They affirm Neumann's importance as a leading psychologist of his time and paint a fascinating picture of the psychological impact of immigration on the German Jewish intellectuals who settled in Palestine and helped to create the state of Israel.

Featuring Martin Liebscher's authoritative introduction and annotations, this volume documents one of the most important intellectual relationships in the history of analytical psychology.

Genres: Psychology

496 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2015

About the author

Carl Gustav Jung (/jʊŋ/; German: [ˈkarl ˈɡʊstaf jʊŋ]), often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of extraversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, philosophy, archeology, anthropology, literature, and related fields. He was a prolific writer, many of whose works were not published until after his death.

The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.

Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.

Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.

Reviews

[Pythia Peay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating window into the personal and professional lives of two seminal psychologists: Carl Jung, and Erich Neumann, and their friendship of equals as it developed over the decades of the twentieth century. Of interest was their intellectual exchange around their ideas and writings, and how they influenced each other, and Neumann's description of living in Palestine during and after the second world war; and how he maintained his professional practice as a psychologist and his research and writing during that time of upheaval.

[Agnes Fontana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Franchement, j'ai abandonné en route.... Dans cette correspondance, Erich Neumann, installé en Israël, correspond avec son maître, l'illustre CG Jung, dont les positions sur le judaïsme et les Juifs ont été, disons ambigues. E.Neumann lui propose ses propres analyses (le processus d'individuation mis en évidence par Jung s'effectuerait parallèlement pour les Juifs en tant que peuple ; il propose aussi des lectures intéressantes de certains épisodes bibliques), et voudrait bien recueillir ses réactions. Jung écrit rarement, essentiellement pour expliquer qu'il n'a pas pu écrire plus tôt, et que les textes envoyés par Neumann sont un travail considérable qui mérite une analyse approfondie... qu'il livrera plus tard. Neumann répond pour insister encore. On est gêné pour les deux ; entretemps on a tout le récit des querelles mesquines entre les disciples de Jung. Bref, on ne trouvera ici ni des compléments éclairants aux travaux fondamentaux de Jung, ni des précisions sur sa vie quotidienne qui n'auraient après tout pas été sans charme (préférait-il le thé ou le café ?). Non sincèrement, mieux vaut de loin lire directement les ouvrages de Jung.

[Anton Zlatev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book. A must-read for all Jungians!

[Grazyna Nawrocka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book, but I had problems understanding some concepts.