1st Edition
Archetypal and Cultural Perspectives on the Foreigner Minorities and Monsters
In this era of intense migration, the topic of the foreigner is of paramount importance. Joanne Wieland-Burston examines the question of the "foreign" and "foreigner" from multiple perspectives and explores how Jung and Freud were more interested in the wide phenomenon of the foreign in the unconscious rather than in their own personal lives. She analyses cultural approaches to the archetype of the foreigner throughout history using literary, cultural (as seen in mythological texts and fairy tales) and psychological references, and interprets the scapegoating of foreign minorities as a projection of the monster onto the foreigner. The book includes contemporary perspectives on immigration and displacement throughout, from analysing patient case material, the archetypal needs of people who join terrorist groups, feelings of alienation, and the work of Palestinian-German psychologist Ahmad Mansour. Throughout this personal and highly topical study, Wieland-Burston questions and studies C. G. Jung’s own reflections on himself as a foreigner and her own personal experiences.
This book will be vital reading for Jungian psychotherapists and analytical psychologists in practice and in training, as well as for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, archetypal studies, identity politics, and courses examining the experiences of displaced persons, refugees, migrants and minority groups.
List of figures
Preface
Introduction
1. Deconstructing the archetype of the foreigner
2. The archetypal experience of meeting the foreigner and being one in early cultures, mythologies and literary texts
3. Monster making/scapegoating: one way of dealing with the foreigner
4. Alienation in the modern world: feeling foreign
5. The encounter with the foreigner in the psychotherapeutic context
Postscript
Index
Biography
Joanne Wieland-Burston is an American-born Jungian analyst who studied in Zurich, Switzerland (1977–1981) and presently practises in Munich, Germany. She is a training analyst, supervisor and instructor at the International School for Analytical Psychology in Zurich and lectures internationally. Her background is in literature and art history.
"Joanne Wieland-Burston offers us a book that is quite clear, profound, and excellently documented, on our relationship with the foreigner within us, around us, and afar. It provides observation, investigation, analysis, and personal experience that are of practical use to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, researchers in the social sciences, and each one of us." - Christian Gaillard, Dr. Psy., training psychoanalyst and supervisor; former President of the International Association for Analytical Psychology, former Professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts, Paris, and author of The Soul of Art: Analysis and Creation
"In this impressive and thoughtful book, Joanne Wieland-Burston helps us come to terms with the 'other' in ourselves and in the world around us. This is a most timely and useful book, full of essential insights into the times we live in." - Murray Stein, PhD, author of Jung’s Map of the Soul
"Joanne Wieland-Burston having been herself involved with migration and alienation explores the theme of the foreigner from manifold angles based on her background as a Jungian analyst and her studies in literature and art history. Her fascinating and differentiated work centers mainly on the modern faces of the foreigner. Giving deep insight in the dominant topic of our culture she deals with the archetypal roots, cultural complexes, scapegoating, alienation of the self and brings all the aspects down to the practical work in psychotherapy. A truly wonderful and inspiring book!" -Kathrin Asper, PhD, supervisor, training analyst and lecturer at ISAPZURICH
