by Phil Goss
Key idea: Assessing Jung’s legacy
Looking back from the vantage point of the twenty-first century, it is easy to assume we can see what was right or wrong about what Jung did, as well as what he seems to have overlooked. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that Jung was not an open Nazi/fascist or a ‘scientific’ racist, but at the same time he seems to have allowed his preoccupation with archetypal influences, as well as the power plays of his leadership of the GMSP, to allow significant criticisms to stick. As we shall see, Jung’s legacy in generating valuable insights into pressing contemporary issues is a strong one, and this needs to be weighed in the balance against these criticisms.
Post-Jungian ideas in ecology
Jung’s framework for reading archetypal influences into the human condition offers valuable ways of thinking about our relationship with nature, including challenges inherent to dealing with humanity’s despoliation of the environment. One way in which this can be applied is through the use of ecocriticism. This term refers to the exploration and critique of literature, which can provide tools for considering how we can address problems such as global warming.
Susan Rowland (2012) writes from a post-Jungian standpoint, arguing that Jung’s use of the symbol, and alchemy, can enable us to transform our consciousness of how these are rooted in nature. She does this by analysing the works of authors and playwrights. Examples include Jane Austen’s portrayal of estrangement from nature in Sense and Sensibility (1811) and The Tempest (William Shakespeare, 1610–11). In both cases, ‘civilized’ humans come face to face with how nature can embody what human consciousness seems to be out of touch with – the body, and the animal in our nature. The implication is that such eco-critical explorations of literature can help us get back in touch with these characteristics and help us take better care of the environment.
Spotlight: Watching the detectives
An example Rowland uses is the trickster quality of the role of detective fiction, films and TV series. The detective both protects social norms and subverts them, getting inside the mind of the often-sociopathic criminals portrayed – and sometimes even behaving like them. So the detective symbolizes the instinctual pull towards ‘hunting the wild’ (the criminal), deeply rooted in our relation to nature.
Another writer (and analyst), Gottfried Heuer (2014), highlights the reciprocal problem of ‘burn-out’ as applied to ourselves as well as nature, arguing what we do to the natural environment mirrors the ways we can drive ourselves relentlessly through heavy workloads, and an unwillingness to face up to our full bodily based nature. He advocates a return to the holistic principles of alchemy, which values the latter, as well as the adoption of Lear’s idea (2006) of ‘radical hope’. Lear wrote about the experience of native Americans seeing their environment, cultural heritage and identity superseded by Western post-industrialized values. The ‘radical hope’ drawn on, in the face of such devastation, is for the gold of change in our relationship with the natural world (and ourselves), achieved by facing our collective shadow with courage and realism.
Post-Jungian ideas in education
The vexed question of how best to teach our children and young people is one that troubles governments, thinkers and the media across the Western world. Debates about academic and curricular freedom, versus prescription, and how to raise achievement versus tending to the personal and social development of pupils, are a hallmark of this area and can be seen in terms of archetypal polarities. The realization that depth psychology has something to offer debates about schooling and education is only now beginning to emerge. Biddy Youell’s valuable book on schools from a psychoanalytic/psychodynamic perspective (2006) reflects this new thinking, but post-Jungians are also making their mark.
The edited collection Education and Imagination (Jones et al., 2008) provides good examples of this. It includes a valuable synthesis of Jung’s ideas with those of educational thinker Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934). Vygotsky’s theories (see Rieber and Robinson, 2004) are influential in teacher training but his emphasis on the need for schools to address the full nature of learning – a combination of nature and culture – is not always prioritized as central to the goals of educational systems in Westernized societies.
Matthews and Liu (2008) argue that Vygotsky’s emphasis on the phylogenetic inheritance (i.e. the presence of images and psychological influences from across human history) in the developing mind of the child is analogous to Jung’s collective unconscious. Vygotsky’s teaching and learning approaches reflected this, with a balance advocated between more didactic, fact-based learning, and more creative, experiential, approaches. This could be said to mirror Jung’s distinction between directed (i.e. focused on outer ‘facts’) and non-directed thinking (the allowing of imagination and free association).
The authors argue for a re-evaluation of the make-up of teaching and learning approaches in schools based on the ‘balanced’ approach of a Vygotsky–Jung bridge. As they put it:
‘If we can culturally withdraw our inflation of ego in our belief that ego alone is responsible for rational advance, and respect the role of the archaic man in directed thought, then perhaps the way will become possible to give inner life its due as well… A theoretical framework that sustains such a position, such as arises through this synthesis of Jung and Vygotsky, is a worthy pursuit for pedagogical inquiry.’
Matthews and Liu, 2008, p. 36
It is also potentially useful to apply Jungian concepts to the idea of ‘special education’ (as it is termed in the UK), and whether children and young people with significant learning difficulties may catch the shadow projections of the rest of us about our own ‘learning difficulties’. The question of whether we need to keep them ‘special’, like the ‘eternal child’ (puer/puella in Jung’s terminology) to represent our own wish to be ‘the special child’ also arises (Goss, 2008). Other contributions on Jungian applications include the use of storytelling (Jones, 2008) and software (Stratton, 2008) in learning institutions.
Politics ‘on the couch’
In his writing on politics and the contemporary disenchantment about our democracies, Andrew Samuels takes the political arena and analyses it. He dissects the underlying roots of our political beliefs, inviting his readers to consider questions like: ‘What was your first political memory?’ – tying what first made a mark on us (e.g. a news story about national or international political events) to our formative psychological and familial influences.
Samuels sees the ‘body politic’ as in need of therapy, and extends the question of what needs challenging to include the problem of leadership. He argues the case for us to value the ‘good enough leader’. He suggests that the well-worn ‘heroic’ leader model which relies on an archetypally driven idealized hero who will lead a community or nation to better times, or rescue it from the jaws of an enemy, is a source of potential danger, as borne out by the bloody events of the twentieth century (Samuels, 2001).
In turn, Samuels suggests we need to better understand what it is which works in ‘good enough leadership’, including the art of accepting failure and disappointment – in the same way parents can and do let us down, but can still be ‘good enough’. He also argues that there is a place for ‘erotic leadership’:
‘an erotic leader is not one who leaps in and out of bed… (but they) use their sexuality to convey to citizens that they (the citizens) are exciting, creative and autonomous people who can work co-operatively together.’
Samuels, 2001, p. 85
Samuels asserts that political leaders need to truly relate to the people they represent and not be afraid to show their respect and appreciation for them: not leave them outside the heart of the decision-making process and convey a sense of ‘putting up’ with the electorate. This, in turn, Samuels relates to problems in our system that have patriarchal roots. As he points out, it is women who, all over the world, have indicated their distrust of the old, male, forms of heroic leadership. In this and other creativ
e ways, Samuels diagnoses the ‘sickness’ in our politics and calls for a ‘resacralization of the culture’ (1993, p. 11) – an infusion of new life into how we ‘do’ politics.
Spotlight: A Jungian influence on politics
Andrew Samuels has worked as a political consultant for a number of governments around the world. In 1997 he proposed to Tony Blair, the new Labour Prime Minister of the UK, that there would be psychological and political value in offering public apologies for historical failures by the British government that might remain a source of hurt and anger. This included an apology for Britain’s contribution to the disastrous events of the Irish potato famine (1845–52), which led to the deaths of at least one million people.
Samuels (2009) reports the experience of seeing parts of the media mock Blair for this move, and seeing first-hand how political good intentions can turn sour led him to recognize how difficult and complex the psychology of politics is. However, he argued that, by acknowledging the inevitability of failure and disappointment in politics and national life, we can begin to build new forms of political life:
‘We should look for hope where we may least expect to find it, in the ordinary, the base and the abased – just as the alchemists of old did in their search for gold… Then we might resacralize politics in our time…’
Samuels, 2009, p. 2
Jungian thinking as a resource
The ideas discussed in this chapter indicate the richness of Jungian and post-Jungian ideas for thinking afresh about the challenges and possibilities of our postmodern, globalized culture(s): in particular the intractable (sometimes frightening) developments which can characterize local, national and international politics. In December 2014 an international Jungian conference in London, ‘Analysis and Action’, brought this rich potential for applying Jungian thinking to bear on topics such as refugee support, community building and conflict resolution. This event reflects the significant potential for further applications of Jungian thinking to social–political issues.
Key terms
Eco-criticism: The exploration and critique of literature which can provide tools for considering how we can address ecological problems.
Resacralization: Samuels’ term to describe the need for numinously charged energy to return to our political and cultural life.
Dig deeper
Dalal, F., ‘Jung: A Racist’, British Journal of Psychotherapy, 4:3 (London: John Wiley, 1988)
Goss, P., ‘Learning difficulties: shadow of our education system?’ in Jones, R., Clarkson, A., Congram, S. and Stratton, N. (eds.), Education and Imagination: Post-Jungian Perspectives, Ch. 3 (London: Routledge, 2008)
Heuer, G., ‘The Nature of Burnout and the Burnout of Nature’ in Mathers, D. (ed.), Alchemy and Psychotherapy (London: Routledge, 2014)
Jones, R., ‘Storytelling, socialization and individuation’ in Jones, R., Clarkson, A., Congram, S. and Stratton, N. (eds.), Education and Imagination: Post-Jungian Perspectives, Ch. 6 (London: Routledge, 2008)
Jung, C. G., Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Glasgow: Fontana, 1963)
Jung, C. G., ‘The Role of the Unconscious’ in Civilisation in Transition, CW10, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1970a)
Jung, C. G., ‘The State of Psychotherapy Today’ in Civilisation in Transition, CW10, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1970b)
Lear, J., Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation (London: Harvard, 2006)
Matthews, R. and Liu, C. H., ‘Education and imagination: a synthesis of Jung and Vygotsky’ in Jones, R., Clarkson, A., Congram, S. and Stratton, N. (eds.), Education and Imagination: Post-Jungian Perspectives, Ch. 2 (London: Routledge, 2008)
Rieber, R. W. and Robinson, D. (eds.), The Essential Vygotsky (New York: Springer, 2004)
Rowland, S., The Ecocritical Psyche: Literature, Evolutionary Complexity and Jung (London: Routledge, 2012)
Samuels, A., The Political Psyche (London: Routledge, 1993)
Samuels, A., Politics on the Couch: Citizenship and the Internal Life (London: Karnac, 2001)
Samuels, A., ‘Transforming Aggressive Conflict in Political and Personal Contexts’, International of Journal Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 6(4), 283–99 (December 2009), published online in Wiley Inter-Science: http://www.interscience.wiley.com
Stratton, N., ‘Learning assistants for adults’ in Jones, R., Clarkson, A., Congram, S. and Stratton, N. (eds.), Education and Imagination: Post-Jungian Perspectives, Ch. 11 (London: Routledge, 2008)
Youell, B., The Learning Relationship: Psychoanalytic Thinking in Education (London: Karnac, 2006)
Fact-check (answers at the back)
1 Why can Jungian thinking provide original insights about social/political issues?
a Because Jung saw himself as a social reformer
b Because Jungian thinking on symbol formation has a social–political dimension
c Because Jungian thinking on archetypes can illuminate social and political patterns
d Because Jung had dubious political ideas
2 Why was Jung’s thinking on nations and culture contentious?
a It was too theoretical and influenced by assumptions about archaeology
b It was too generalized and influenced by assumptions about race and culture
c It was over-influenced by Freud
d It was over-influenced by Levi-Strauss
3 What archetypal generalizations did Jung apply to Jewish and German people?
a Jewish people are not properly rooted and German people are too driven by their roots
b Jewish people have roots in Germany and German people have roots everywhere
c Jewish people are too rooted and German people are not rooted enough
d Jewish people like cooking root vegetables more than German people
4 In 1933, what did Jung become president of?
a The General Medical Psychotherapy Society
b The Society for General Medical Psychotherapy
c The General Medical Society for Psychotherapy
d The General Psychotherapy Society
5 Why did Jung’s editorship of the Zentralblatt journal cause controversy?
a He allowed contributors to edit their own papers
b He banned Freudian contributions
c He kept the profits from sales for himself
d He overlooked the insertion of Nazi statements
6 Why might Jung’s possible racism have been suggested?
a He overlooked anti-Semitic articles and over-generalized about racial characteristics
b His activities and omissions got blown out of proportion by his enemies
c He ignored Freud and this meant that psychoanalysts accused him of anti-Semitism
d His approach to the psychology of nationality was misunderstood
7 Why are Jungian ideas relevant to ecocriticism?
a Jung was critical of ecological thinkers
b Jungian symbolism and thinking are helpful in highlighting our relationship to nature
c Jungian archetypes can be found in literature and these can be critiqued
d Jung liked literature about nature
8 Why are alchemical influences relevant for thinking about the environment?
a There is a need to understand the mutual relationship between nature and humanity
b The alchemical process is full of natural materials
c There is a need to directly apply the ‘science’ of alchemy to environmental crisis
d The alchemical process is the same as solving the environmental crisis
9 How could a Jung–Vygotsky synthesis be helpful for school education?
a High schools would benefit from teaching Jungian and Vygotskian theory
b Jung’s thinking on education reflects Vygotsky’s pedagogic approach
c School curriculums would be balanced between directed and non-directed thinking
d Vygotsky’s thinking on education was influenced by Jung’s
10 Why does Samuels
think politics ‘needs therapy’?
a Our politicians are psychologically disturbed
b Politics has lost its connection with what matters and needs ‘resacralization’
c Our politicians have formally asked psychotherapists to give them therapy
d Politics is too boring
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Post-Jungian therapeutic developments
As with any school of thought or clinical practice, individual thinkers and practitioners who subscribe to a broadly Jungian approach have developed different ways of applying this. This chapter explores how Jung’s clinical approaches have evolved since his death in 1961, and the different schools of thought within the post-Jungian field. Research findings on the effectiveness of Jungian psychotherapy will also be referred to, as well as where Jungian thinking has influenced other therapeutic approaches, such as creative ones. There is also a consideration of how Jungian approaches to working with the unconscious can be incorporated into an ‘integrative’ approach to therapy and counselling. The case study in this chapter will reflect this theme.
Diversity and commonalities
Samuels (1985) provided a valuable outline of how three main schools of thought before and after Jung’s death emerged under the overall umbrella of ‘Jungian’. These are the classical, the archetypal and the developmental. We will briefly consider each one, bearing in mind that each draws on Jung’s original model significantly and differences are more a matter of degree.
Spotlight: Jung – ‘I am not a Jungian’(!)