1st Edition
Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology Jung, Politics and Culture
Winner of the Internationl Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) Book Award for Best Applied Book 2021
Carl Jung angrily rejected the charge that he was an anti-Semite, yet controversies concerning his attitudes towards Jews, Zionism and the Nazi movement continue to this day. This book explores Jung’s ambivalent relationship to Judaism in light of his career-changing relationship and rupture with Sigmund Freud and takes an unflinching look at Jung’s publications, public pronouncements and private correspondence with Freud, James Kirsch and Erich Neumann from 1908 to 1960.
Analyzing the religious and racial, Christian and Muslim, high-brow and low-brow varieties of anti-Semitism that were characteristic of Jung’s time and place, this book examines how Muslim anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism intensified following the Balfour Declaration (1917), fostering the resurgence of anti-Semitism on the Left since the fall of the Soviet Empire. It urges readers to be mindful of the new and growing threats to the safety and security of Jewish people posed by the resurgence of anti-Semitism around the world today.
This book explores the history of the controversy concerning Jung’s anti-Semitism both before and after the publication of Lingering Shadows: Jungians, Freudians and Anti-Semitism (1991), and invites readers to reflect on the relationships between Judaism, Christianity and Zionism, and between psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, in new and challenging ways. It will be of considerable interest to psychoanalysts, historians and all those interested in the history of analytical psychology, anti-Semitism and interfaith dialogue.
Introduction 01. Anti-Semitism in historical context 02. Enlightenment, emancipation and the birth of Zionism 03. Jung, Freud and the "Aryan Unconscious" 04. Judaism, Zionism and analytical psychology: 1933–1959; 05. Rethinking the past: Vatican II and Lingering Shadows 06. Sacred ground: Palestine, Israel and the Right of Return 07. Anti-Semitism and the cultural unconscious
Biography
Daniel Burston, Ph.D., is the author of numerous books and journal articles on the history of psychoanalysis, psychiatry and psychology, with a special focus on where and how these fields converge, overlap and intertwine with politics, religion and philosophy (and with one another) historically.
'Well known for his work on Fromm, Laing, Erikson and Karl Stern, Daniel Burston’s book makes an important contribution to the lingering controversies concerning Jung’s anti-Semitism and similar stereotypes in the post-Jungian movement. It raises important questions, such as why there is no convincing Jungian explanation for anti-Semitism as a collective phenomenon, nor how to treat it within analysis. Anyone interested in Jung or the history of analytical psychology should read this fine work.' - Henry Abramovitch, Founding President, Israel Institute of Jungian Psychology; Professor Emeritus, Tel Aviv University, Israel
'Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology is an in-depth study of different kinds of anti-Semitism, and the history of Jung’s and the Zürich Jungians’ ambivalent attitudes towards Judaism and Zionism. Highly recommended for everyone interested in sifting the gold of truthfulness from falsehood, and fact from fiction." - Ann Casement, LP, FRAI, FRSM, Professor, Oriental Academy of Analytical Psychology, China
'In this new controversial book, Daniel Burston does with Jung what Heidegger’s followers feared most – an analysis of the Jewish question in the shadow of Nazism. For Jungian apologists, this is a controversial critique and unwelcome trespass; for others, a sober corrective. Here Burston stands out as the premier authority on interrogating the specter of anti-Semitism lurking in the closet of Analytical Psychology.' - Jon Mills, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis; Faculty, Postgraduate Programs in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Adelphi University, U.SA.; author, Debating Relational Psychoanalysis
'Burston sets the still-troubling question of Jung’s anti-Semitism within the frame of a robust and succinct historical, cultural and political analysis of Jew-hatred in general. Thinking about the existing literature, I believe this is a unique achievement. Today’s post-Jungians, many of whom retreat behind the mantra "a man of his times", really need to read this account which is balanced, sincere and oriented to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in the future as well as in the past and present. Those who stand outside the Jungian community might also find the book illuminating.' - Professor Andrew Samuels, Series Editor and author, The Political Psyche
"Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology Jung Politics and Culture, by Daniel Burston (Routledge, 2021) should be required reading for candidates across the entire spectrum of psychoanalytic training today. We who teach psychoanalytic candidates (and others) must be adequately informed about the realities of anti-Semitism’s imposing threat to the safety and security of Jewish people today. We must also have the courage to deeply engage the controversies surrounding Jung’s ambivalent relationship to Judaism so that we may critically assess the ways in which we, their teachers, are influenced by the great minds of our times, and how this is reflected in our work with patients and stance in the world. Burston’s book inspired me to relinquish my passive involvement in a collective shadow that his text humanly and unapologetically reveals." - Robin McCoy Brooks, Jungian Psychoanalyst and Co-editor-in-chief, International Journal of Jungian Studies
