From the 1920s to the end of his life, Jung repeatedly complained about the widespread misunderstanding of his book Psychological Types and how most readers overlooked its core message—the “gravamen” as he called it. Jung became increasingly frustrated to the point where he gave up revising the text of Psychological Types because ‘not even the elements have been properly understood’ (CW6, p. xii). The core of Jung’s message was concerned with overcoming polarisation of various kinds—psychological, political, religious, cultural, etc.—and it is a message that the world desperately needs today. Almost every time I watch the news, I see the problems that Jung discussed being acted out on the world stage. And I’m not talking about typology, which Jung used as an example to illustrate his theory—a common and important example though it is. I’m talking about his philosophy and how it explains the political messes the world keeps getting itself into.

We have recently seen political antagonisms escalating up to and sometimes over the threshold of war in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Kashmir, Taiwan, the South China Sea, Yemen, and many more. But political antagonisms are frequent at many levels below that threshold, such as partisan divides, culture wars, identity clashes, ideological battles, etc.. I will give some practical examples shortly, but first we need to make a brief excursion into the world of Jung’s philosophy or empirical standpoint.

Sandison, a British psychiatrist, developed pioneering treatment protocols for working with LSD. He tried and failed to win C. G. Jung’s support for his work. 

In a recent paper for the Journal of Analytical Psychology, I discuss Jung’s creative writing process and his practice of active imagination based on selected entries in The Black Books and Liber Novus, also known as The Red Book. These selected entries concern Jung’s fantasy dialogues with the dead in 1914 and 1916, culminating in Jung’s authorship of Septem Sermones ad Mortuous (Seven Sermons to the Dead)-a stand-alone pamphlet that Jung circulated among peers and colleagues. Jung included an adapted version of Septem Sermones in the third and final manuscript of The Red Book, called Scrutinies.  

Photo: James Hollis with a statue of James Joyce in Zurich in 1985

In the past four years I have had elective knee and hip replacements, non-elective cancer treatments involving surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and two major spinal operations as the vertebrae of my spine dissolved and fractured, possibly as sequelae of the cancer treatment onslaught. So, the last few years have been pain-ridden and constrained by various procedures even as I continued to work as an analyst when out of hospital. As a result of my uncertain but life-threatening medical prognosis, my wife and I recently moved to a retirement center. Through it all, I found that my medical situation was less on my mind than my work with analytic psychology. Even I found that surprising, and I can only conclude that the work of Jung and Jungians continues to animate, direct, and feed the life of my soul. If that were not the case, I would be collecting stamps, or knitting doilies by now.

“Where do we live symbolically? Nowhere, except where we participate in the ritual of life.”

C.G. Jung (1950, para. 625)

Some days cultivating peace of mind seems like an insurmountable task. Daily news can pummel one into feelings of overwhelm and helplessness as we bear witness – via the small screens in our hands or the larger screens on our walls – to global distress. Trauma abounds, from human mass migrations across the planet, to the community-shredding epidemic of gun violence – its relative proportion unique to the United States – to war and famine in too many places on the planet, to governmental oppression of entire groups of people. Add to what it reports, the news too often simultaneously reports on and fosters polarization; soundbites that salaciously satisfy as they defy historical and political complexities.

The genesis of Whispering at the Edges began years ago with one of my analytic supervisors who often referred to the analyst’s use of reverie, and frequently illustrated her use of reverie with her own patients. She spoke of reverie in way that was both bewildering and profound. Her use of reverie was bewildering because it was difficult to see from the ‘outside’ how she arrived at the reveries she would access and utilize in analysis.

It struck me as profound because her use of reverie often seemed to facilitate the emergence of something new in the analytic field or touch on something deeply felt but previously unknown to the patient. Her facility with and confidence in her internal process of reverie became something I wanted to understand and cultivate in my practice.

As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin with an individual; it might be any one of us. Nobody can afford to look round and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself.  (Jung 1950/1989, para. 599) 

The outrage and grief that has reverberated around the globe following George Floyd’s death has been marked by the breath-filled voices and somber kneeling in heartfelt expression for justice by a courageous, diverse, and committed movement. The protesters expect nothing less than effective and long-lasting change ...

We are very pleased to be able to present the video of the Interview with Murray Stein, conducted by Jan Wiener, in our series of interviews with prominent Jungian figures. The interview was conducted in Murray's consulting room in Zurich in Autumn 2018 and is also available ...

Martin Stone introduces the JAP Special Edition on the 'Who is my Jung?' Conference, originally held in November 2017. This Special Edition of the Journal, published in June 2018, includes all but one of the papers from this very successful conference. Martin gives an introduction, a brief history of the conference and an outline of the edition - click here for his video.

Stefan Gullatz and Matt Gildersleeve offer some background to their paper in the February 2018 edition and suggest some unmissable videos for anyone interested in the field.

To elaborate a little on the context of this paper: Matt Gildersleeve from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, approached me in 2016 with a suggestion to co-operate on a paper on Jung and Lacan. As we had both previously published in the same area - a bifocal view of Jungian and Lacanian theory - I soon warmed to the idea ...

The paper I’ve written on the somatic countertransference took many years to take shape. It was written several years after the analytic work ended but I had carried the notes with me as I retired from clinical practice and relocated. Why we can’t yet understand a patient’s communication is a vital question for clinicians and why we can, eventually, in a kind of Kairos moment, finally ‘get it’ is also interesting.

Wiley, our publishers, have just announced the launch of a JOAP app for phone and tablet ...

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new website which will give us the opportunity to offer more detail on new editions, conferences, staffing and other news.