Nicky Glover - Resonances between Wilfred Bion and C.G. Jung

"When asked whether his notion of a "primorial mind" was related to Jung's archetypes, Bion replied 'I think he [Jung] was probably talking about the same thing. There exists some fundamental mind, something that seems to remain unaltered in us all' (Bion, 1978, p. 4)"

Glover, Nicky (2009). Psychoanalytic Aesthetics, London: Karnac (p. xxv).

Brent Potter - Elements of Self-Destruction

Why are humans, who are motivated by self-preservation, motivated to engage in behaviors that threaten and even extinguish their existence? The themes included in this book are: (1) the emerging understanding of self-destructiveness in culture, religion, philosophy and , (2) Bion’s investigation into the self-destructive capacity of the mind, (3) Heidegger’s ontology of Being and the Enframing of technology, (4) identifying and delineating the "who" who most experiences the impact of human-to-human destructiveness in out contemporary culture.

Brent Potter, Ph.D. (2013) Elements of Self-Destruction, Karnac.

The Jung - Neumann Letters

The Jung - Neumann Letters

A Book Launch and International Conference

24-26 April 2015, Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel 

The long awaited publication of the Correspondence between C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann promises to be a landmark event in the history of analytical psychology. The Jung-Neumann Letters, edited by Martin Liebscher, is due to be published by Princeton University Press early spring 2015. To mark this important event, an international conference is being planned, to be jointly sponsored by The Foundation for the Works of C.G. Jung, the Neumann family, The Philemon Foundation, The International Association of Analytical Psychology, and The Israel Institute of Jungian Psychology.

This collection of more than one hundred letters between the two men spans nearly three decades, from 1934 on the eve of Neumann’s arrival in Tel Aviv until his premature death in 1960. The letters reveal an intense and intimate encounter between two brilliant minds. Respectfully, yet in a most straightforward way, Jung - the founder, pioneer and wise elder - and Neumann - the courageous and bold younger thinker – reflect upon a broad spectrum of theoretical, clinical and cultural issues, including Jewish and Biblical themes, as well as anti-Semitism and Nazism.

The invited speakers for this conference will present recent discoveries and new perspectives pertaining to the correspondence, the relationship between Jung and Neumann, and the broad range issues they discussed.

In addition, this will be a celebration of Neumann’s unique and precious contribution to analytical psychology and cultural studies. Scholars and clinicians will present the latest views on many aspects of Neumann’s work, pertaining to psychological theory and clinical issues as well as to the arts and culture.

Greetings and lectures will include presentations by the President of the IAAP, Tom Kelly; the President of The Philemon Foundation, Judith Harris; by the Executive Director of The Foundation for the Works of C.G. Jung, Dr. Thomas Fischer; by Prof. Micha Neumann, the son of Erich Neumann; by Dr. Martin Liebscher, the Editor of the Correspondence; by Dr. Murray Stein, former President of the IAAP and ISAPZurich, and other internationally renowned scholars and analysts.

The conference will appeal to clinicians and analysts, to scholars and academicians in the humanities from around the world, and to the general public with an interest in Jungian studies. It will take place in the pleasant country setting at the hotel and conference center of Kibbutz Shefayim, 20 minutes north of Tel Aviv, the home of Erich Neumann.

Further details will soon be announced
Reposted from the original source - http://www.erelshalit.com/

Massimo Giannoni: Relational Aspects of Analytical Psychology

"We can pose for analytical psychology two fundamental questions that Greenberg and Mitchell (1983) have already posed for other psychoanalytic theories: (1) What is the main goal and motivation behind human action? (2) Does analytical psychology contain a two-person or a one-person conception of therapy and of development?

The first question is easy to answer. The main motivation for human action postulated by Jung is a striving for self-realization, presupposing an innate capacity for the self-regulation of the psychic apparatus analogous to that which has been called “self-righting” by Lichtenberg, Lachmann, and Fosshage (1996). This commonality contributes to the indubitable affinities that can be seen between certain aspects of analytical psychology and self psychology (Jacoby, 1990; Fosshage, 2000). This “individualizing” motivation, as presented by Jung, has received some confirmation in empirical research (Lichtenberg, 1983; Stern, 1985, 1995) and is in harmony with some post-Freudian psychoanalytic theories, for example, those of Guntrip (1961), Kohut (1984), and Winnicott (1989). In the past, the Jungian hypothesis of a fundamental motivation toward the development of the self was in sharp contrast with classical Freudian theory, which hypothesized sex and aggression as primary drives in conflict with the environment (Giannoni, 1999). Today this theoretical aspect of Jungian psychology not only does not prevent a dialogue with contemporary psychoanalysis, but rather facilitates it, especially with self-psychology (Giannoni, 2003).

The second question, whether analytical psychology adopts a one-person or a two-person conception of the development and therapy, is a more difficult and controversial one. In many writings Jung (1931, 1935a, 1946) stated that therapy is certainly interactive and that the involvement of the analyst is indispensable. The concept of “psychic contagion” is presented as prerequisite to any real change in the patient, and the psychotherapeutic relationship is compared to the combination of two chemical substances that are irremediably altered when combined, giving rise to a new compound. This metaphor is perhaps not far from the concept of interpersonal relationship expressed by Goethe (1809) in Elective Affinities. (Goethe was one of Jung's favorite authors, one with whom he himself felt a special affinity.) It is interesting to quote Jung himself when he claims that psychotherapy is a two-person matter: “In the treatment there is an encounter between two irrational factors, that it is to say, between two persons who are not fixed and determinable quantities but who bring with them, beside their more or less clearly defined fields of consciousness, an indefinitely extended sphere of non-consciousness” (Jung, 1931, p. 71). So we draw the conclusion that transference is viewed by Jung not as an intrapsychically generated phenomenon, but as contributed to by both analyst and patient.

Alongside this two-person aspect of Jung's idea of transference we find a markedly one-person theoretical conception of the development. Jung's theory of development, called individuation, states that a person develops his own individuality according to a predetermined plan within himself and without any particular environment responsiveness (Jacoby, 1990; Fosshage, 2002); Jung (1943) said: “The meaning and purpose of the process is the realization, in all its aspects, of the personality originally hidden away in the embryonic germ-plasm; the production and unfolding of the original, potential wholeness” (p. 110). We can answer the second question by asserting that both options (two-person and one-person) are present in Jung. Moreover, Jung's theory of development contains many one-person elements, whereas his clinical practice is more relational (Giannoni, 2000)—this gap between theory and clinical practice warrants further investigation."  (pp. 608-609)

Massimo Giannoni (2003). Jung's Theory of Dream and the Relational Debate. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Vol. 13, pp. 605-621

Conference: Ronald Fairbairn and the Object Relations Tradition

Space still available for participation by video link:
Ronald Fairbairn and the Object Relations Tradition

At the Freud Museum London 

7th - 9th March 2014

  

Registrations for the full conference have sold out, but a limited number of discounted tickets are now available for a video link room.

 

 The presentations will be relayed on a screen in a room above the main conference room. The tickets include tea and coffee breaks and the reception at the Freud Museum on Saturday evening.  

 

The cost is £100 and £80 (plus £10 / £5 reduction for members of the Freud Museum, IPI and Essex University).  

Only weekend tickets are available.

For more information, or to register: 

http://www.freud.org.uk/events/75383/ronald-fairbairn-and-the-object-relations-tradition/ 

 

Ronald Fairbairn was the father of object relations theory, which now permeates modern psychoanalytic thought. He developed a distinctive psychology of dynamic structure that began with the infant's need for relationships, and in which mental structure is based upon the relations between ego-structures and the internal objects that result from introjection and psychic modification of these early relationships. This conference will outline the basics of Fairbairn's contribution, and then explore the ramification and development of these ideas to clinical work, and broadly to applications in modern psychoanalytic thinking.

Friday March 7   Opening Panel: Internalization and the Status of Internal Objects Norka Malberg: On Being Recognized  Viviane Green: Internal objects: Fantasy, Experience and History Intersecting? David Scharff: Internal Objects and External Experience   Saturday, March 8   Presentations and Discussion Marie Hoffman: Fairbairn and Religion James Poulton: Philosophical Foundations of Fairbairn Gal Gerson: Hegelian Themes in Fairbairn's Work Steven Levine: Fairbairn's Theory of the Visual Arts and its Influence  Johnathan Sklar: Discussion of Steven Levine's Presentation Joseph Schwartz: Fairbairn and the Good Object: A bone of contention   Molly Ludlam: Fairbairn and the Couple - Still a Creative Threesome? Jill Scharff: Fairbairn's Clinical Theory   Panel: Psychic Growth Lesley Caldwell: Being at Home with One's Self: the Condition of Psychic Aliveness? Anne Alvarez: Paranoid-Schizoid Position or Paranoid and Schizoid Positions? Graham Clarke: Psychic Growth and Creativity   Wine and Cheese Reception Fairbairn and the Object Relations Tradition (Karnac Books)   on sale in museum shop   Sunday, March 9   Presentations and Discussion Eleanore Armstrong-Perlman: The Zealots and the Blind: Sexual Abuse Scandals from Freud to Fairbairn Carlos Rodriguez-Sutil: Fairbairn's Contribution to Understanding Personality Disorders Valerie Sinason: Abuse, Trauma and Multiplicity Ruben Basili: Recent Work from Argentina's Espacio Fairbairn Video Reflections on Fairbairn from Otto Kernberg and John Sutherland Hilary Beattie: Fairbairn and Homosexuality: Personal Struggles amid Psychoanalytic Controversy   Panel: Groups, Social Issues and the Social Unconscious Earl Hopper, Chair and Discussant  Julian Lousada: Psychoanalysis Goes to Market ? Stephen Frosh: What Passes, Passes By: Why the Psychosocial is Not (Just) Relational Ron Aviram: The Large Group in the Mind (With Special Reference to Prejudice, War, and Terrorism)   Closing Group Discussion Graham Clarke, Ivan Ward and David Scharff, Co-Chairs