Chiron Publications is honored to publish the Collected Writings of Murray Stein.
This volume of the Collected Writings consists of psychological reflections on classical mythology for insight into archetypal structures and dynamics that play out in contemporary life. Mythology is an important resource for depth psychology, and the works included in this volume are a contribution to the archetypal perspective on psyche inspired by the works of C.G. Jung, James Hillman, and Raphael Lopez-Pedraza.
TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S
The Devouring Father: A Myth of Repression
Hephaistos: A Mythic Image for the Instinct of Creativity
Narcissus: A Mythic Image for the Instinct of Reflection
Hera: A Mythic Image for the Instinct of Mating in Matrimony
The Paradox of Jealousy
In MidLife
Chapter 1: Hermes, Guide of Souls Through Liminality
Chapter 2: Burying the Dead: The Entry into the Midlife Transition
Chapter 3: Liminality and the Soul
Chapter 4: The Return of the Repressed During Midlife Liminality
Chapter 5: The Lure to Soul-Mating in Midlife Liminality
Chapter 6: Through the Region of Hades: A Steep Descent in Midlife’s Liminality
Chapter 7: On the Road of Life After Midlife
On Psychological Interpretation
References
We are delighted to announce the 2019 Zurich Lecture Series for this coming October. ISAPZurich in collaboration with Chiron Publications will co-host the event. Please see ISAP Zurich’s page for updated details at: www.isapzurich.com/en/current-program/zurich-lectures/
Friday, October 4, 5:30pm – 9:00pm: Reception, Lecture & Dinner, Zunfthaus zur Schmiden, Marktgasse 20, Zurich
Saturday, October 5, 10:00am – 3:30pm: Lectures & Discussion, Zentrum Karl der Grosse, Kirchgasse 14, 8001 Zurich
Jung’s difficulties with what he describes as his ‘two personalities’ dominate the first few chapters of MDR. As a child, Jung tried to alleviate his feeling of inner division by repressing one or other of his two personalities, but he eventually realised that in order to live a full and fulfilled life he had to, first, maintain contact with bothpersonalities (even though they conflicted), and, second, find ways to enable each personality to engage dialectically with the other.
This experience constellated an important insight: that psychological transformation – and therefore the process of individuation – depends upon a dynamic engagement with the opposites and the tension between them. Only in this way can a continuous process of psychic balancing be enabled, and one-sidedness avoided.
This idea runs like a red thread through every period and every aspect of Jung’s psychology. We see it in his early work on the complexes, and we see it played out in that dialogical meeting between personality 1 and personality 2 which Jung describes in MDR as his ‘confrontation with the unconscious’. Central to individuation, it runs through Jung’s ideas on the ‘transcendent function’ and on typology and achieves fruition in Jung’s magnum opus, Mysterium Coniunctionis..
Because the logic of the two personalities is fundamental to analytical psychology it has the capacity to provide a unique critical tool when turned back toward Jung’s psychology itself. Applied in this way, the reflexive critique immediately shows up an endemic one-sidedness in Jung’s psychology whereby the themes, motifs and ideas associated with personality no 2 dominate, while the themes motifs and ideas that come with personality no 1 are persistently ignored or rejected.
For example, when we focus on the particular opposites, inner vs outer, and look at the ways in which Jung dealt with them in his life and in his work, what becomes apparent is a striking failure to maintain the logic of the creative and transformative dynamic he had developed. Instead, Jung one-sidedly identifies the inner realm with psychology itself, and thereby eliminates the outer as proper object for psychological attention.
This has meant that, despite Jung’s own pioneering work with transference and counter-transference (work that depends upon a relational – inner/outer – dynamic), analytical psychology has, on the whole, been marred by a persistent and problematic reluctance to engage with the outer other. This has led, among other things, to a long-lasting difficulty in dealing with, or even properly acknowledging, the psychosocial dimension.
This problem has become increasingly apparent as the relational, social and political realm becomes recognised more and more as active within, and critical to, depth psychology. By properly highlighting the logic of the two personalities we can begin to redress this imbalance with an acknowledgment that the collective unconscious may be encountered not only through intrapsychic relations with inner others, but also through extra-psychic engagement with the outer collective and outer others.
Mark Saban is a senior analyst with the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists and a lecturer at the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex. He co-edited Analysis and Activism – Social and Political Contributions of Jungian Psychology with Emilija Kiehl and Andrew Samuels (Routledge 2016) (Finalist American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize, Nominated Gradiva Award for Best Edited Book).
Recent articles include, ‘Secrete e Bugie. Un’area cieca nella psicologia junghiana’, Rivista di psicologia analitica, 2017, n. 43 Volume 95. and ‘Outside-In: Jung’s myth of interiority ambiguated Or – Knowing me, Knowing Jung – ahah!’, Journal of Analytical Psychology, 2018, 63, 3
The Zurich Lecture Series in Analytical Psychology was established in 2009 by the International School of Analytical Psychology Zurich (ISAPZURICH) and Spring Journal Books to present annually new work by a distinguished scholar who has previously offered innovative contributions to the field of Analytical Psychology by either:
Each year, the selected lecturer delivers lectures over a 2-day period in Zurich based on a previously unpublished book-length work. Chiron Publications publishes this work as a new volume in the Zurich Lecture Series, of which Murray Stein and Steve Buser are co-editors.
We are early into our Zürich seminar series with Dr. Murray Stein leading a discussion on religion and Jungian psychology. We so far have had 2 marvelous presentations by Dr. Stein looking in depth behind the archetypal experiences within religion. In the first seminar Dr. Stein describes the difference between an “original religious experience” and a religious experience that has been contained in the constructs of doctrine, dogma, and other elements in our organizations that while they might water down the experience, perhaps makes them “safer” for the individual experiencing them. Watch this brief video where Dr. Stein touches on this concept. We are interested in your thoughts on this as well. Does modern religion somehow discourage an “original religious experience?” Are people who have such experiences outside of clear religious constructs at times labeled psychotic or delusional? Is there a need to try to reconnect to these experiences? May it at times be dangerous to so do? We look forward to your comments…
