Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies
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Guest Editor\u27s Introduction to Volume 10
No full textBefore introducing this year\u27s volume I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the death of Don Fredericksen. We in the Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies community have been deeply saddened by his passing. Don was a special friend to many and an irreplaceable community member. He hosted JSSS conferences three times at Cornell, acted as plenary speaker on more than one occasion, and served as secretary for a number of years. Always he inspired thinking anew. On a personal note, I knew Don only briefly but had the good fortune to enjoy his presentation and analysis of the movie Walkabout at the IAJS conference in Phoenix in 2014. Later in the conference we shared a glass of wine, some dancing, and a wonderful late-night conversation about Jung, the Jungian communities, consciousness and our love for our wives and families. We will truly miss Don.
In memory of Don we begin this years Journal with a poem dedicated to him by Joel Weishaus, Feeling for stones.
This year editors are pleased to announce that the Jungian Journal of Scholarly Studies is again available on Kindle and other portable devices. As guest editor of this year’s journal I have the pleasure of introducing the two essays included in this volume. The first is by Matthew Fike entitled, “Encountering the Anima in Africa: H. Rider Haggard’s She.” In this erudite paper Fike explores the role of Ayesha, one of the main characters in H. Rider Haggard’s She, as a "classic anima figure." This book was one of Jung’s favorite novels, and can be used to help us understand how anima projection can contribute to the individuation process. As Fike notes, "She depicts the perils of directly confronting the anima archetype and the collective unconscious.”
The second paper in this volume is by Sukey Fontelieu and is entitled, “Metaphorical Use of Alchemy’s Retort, Prima Materia, and the Philosopher’s Stone in Psychotherapy.” In this paper Fontelieu describes her personal experience with the usefulness of alchemical understandings of the “retort,” “prima materia," and the "philosopher\u27s stone" in being an effective psychotherapist. Fontelieu describes how both the alchemist and the psychotherapist aspire to a quality of presence that supports the transformative process.
Peter T. DunlapGuest Edito
Encountering the Anima in Africa: H. Rider Haggard’s She
Full text linkH. Rider Haggard’s She was one of Jung’s favorite novels and is frequently mentioned in The Collected Works. Although his view that She depicts an encounter with the anima is a critical commonplace, his reasons for considering Ayesha, the titlecharacter, to be a classic anima figure have not been sufficiently explored. This essay uses the anima’s widely ranging nature—specifically, Jung’s statements about the Kore and the stages of eroticism—to explain his interpretation and then to analyze Ayesha’s effect on Ludwig Horace Holly, the main character and narrative voice. His African journey is one of failed individuation: after repressing his anima in England, Holly projects his anima onto Ayesha in Africa, experiencing compensation and enantiodromia (a swing from misogyny to anima possession). In this fashion, She depicts the perils of directly confronting the anima archetype and the collective unconscious
Metaphorical Use of Alchemy’s Retort, Prima Materia, and the Philosopher’s Stone in Psychotherapy
No full textThis essay shares my experience of the usefulness of alchemical understandings of the retort, the prima materia (first matter), and the philosopher’s stone in the practice of therapy. I discovered that these suppositions offer practical insights into how to be an effective clinician. The retort correlates with the therapist, the process of therapy, and eventually the client as container; the prima materia correlates with the unconscious material that the client brings to therapy; and the philosopher’s stone correlates with the healing function of the psyche. The quality of the therapist’s presence is likened to the qualities the alchemists aspired to live up to in themselves. I also found parallels between psychological transformation and the alchemical understandings of the structure of the retort as exemplified in the axiom “like cures like.” * Autho
So You Want to be a Change Agent
Full text linkThis paper analyzes a range of theories of change agency for the purpose of exploring possible ways for individuals to practice social change that are inspired by Jungian thought. The methodology for this paper is a narration of varioustheories of social and organizational change. The study uses variations of the story of the Rainmaker, told by C. G. Jung, to explore the connection between individual and social change. The conclusion considers the contribution thatJungian theory can make to the resolution of the tensions that are inevitably engendered by the thoughtful facilitation of social chang
Hemingway’s Francis Macomber in “God’s Country”
Full text linkIn 1925−26, C. G. Jung’s Bugishu Psychological Expedition journeyed through Kenya, the setting of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” Although the two authors went to Africa for vastly different reasons,Jung’s insights into the personal and collective unconscious, along with the discoveries he made while there, provide a lens through which to complement previous Freudian and Lacanian studies of the story. Francis, a puer aeternus andintroverted thinker, overcomes his initial mother complex by doing shadow work with his hunting guide, Robert Wilson. As the story progresses, Francis makes the unconscious more conscious through dreaming and then connects with thearchaic/primordial man buried deeply below his modern civilized persona. The essay thus resolves two long-standing critical cruxes: the title character makes genuine psychological progress; and his wife, whether she shoots at the buffalo orat him, targets primordial masculine strength
Psyche and Society: Some Personal Reflections on the Development of the Cultural Complex Theory
Full text linkBeginning with a review of the current development of cultural complex theory, this article discusses the notions of the "collective psyche: "thin times", the cultural complex as being like a "teratoma" and the major characteristics of cultural complexes. The article is framed in terms of "personal reflections" of Thomas Singer who places the development of the ideas in the context of his personal development as a Jungian analyst. The theory and practice of "cultural complexes" is likened to a cultural circumambulation of highly conflicted political, social, economic and environmental issues in which the search for effective action is always at issue.
Much of what tears us apart in the world today can be understood as the manifestation of autonomous processes in the collective and individual psyche that organize themselves as cultural or group complexes—which one can metaphorically imagine as accumulating in the collective psyche much like a newly reported area in the Pacific ocean where microscopic plastic particles from around the world seem to be coming together in a massive glob that fills an area the size of Texas. Cultural complexes are every bit as real, every bit as formative, every bit as ubiquitous, and every bit as powerful in their emotional and behavioral impact on individuals and groups as are personal complexes. Indeed, cultural complexes may present the most difficult and resistant psychological challenge we face in our individual and collective life today. Thomas Singer, unpublished remarks to the Berlin Jung Society 
The Psychology of Terror, American Exceptionalism, and the Greek God Pan
Full text linkThis study strives to contribute to a better understanding of contemporary anxieties in American culture by applying meanings derived from mythology to panic inducing cultural phenomena. It asks if the Greek god Pan and his retinue ofnymphs metaphorically exemplify an archetypal core within an American cultural anxiety complex. The principal technical device used is Jung’s method of amplification, rendering cultural material at a more psychologically substantial level.This hermeneutic research views primary sources for and commentaries on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the American reactions that followed. A faulty belief in American exceptionalism is examined for its contribution to thereactions by the American government and its citizens. Some consequences of American exceptionalism, as seen in reactions to 9/11, are clarified through a correlation with a metaphoric reading of Pan, the Greek nature god. Pan’s compulsion into life is considered to be a symbolic expression of an archetype that was once alive in the bold spirit of America, but has rusted into paralysis due to a lack of initiative towards contemporary problems. It was as if the government of the Unites States, starting at the top, had decided that the terrorist outrages of September 11, 2001, meant that law, custom and decency had all been suspended sine die. (Hodgson, 2009, p. 127) History …is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken. (Joyce, 1961, p. 34
The One and the Many: The Significance of the Labyrinth in Contemporary America
Full text linkUnicursal labyrinths, with a single, highly circuitous path based on a medieval design, have enjoyed an unusual amount of interest in the United States over the last twenty years. They appear in such varied settings as churches, parks,hospitals, and retreat centers, their growing popularity coinciding with a time of deep political divisions in American society. The unicursal labyrinth closely resembles a mandala, suggesting that its current appearance is compensatory tothe increasing fragmentation and growing diversity in American life. The labyrinth’s popularity in meditative and recreational settings expresses a deepseated wish to walk a heroic, individual path and connect this path to a largerpurpose. As socio-psychological theories of the individual’s relationship to society move toward an “embedded” model, the labyrinth, too, suggests a collective, perhaps unconscious desire to find a middle way between individualism and common purpose as well as shared ground amid competing cultural values
Polikoff, Daniel Joseph. In the Image of Orpheus: Rilke, a Soul History. Wilmette, IL: Chiron Publications, 2011, ISBN 9781888602524.
Full text linkGuest Editor\u27s Introduction to Volume 9
No full textThe editors are pleased to announce that the Jungian Journal of Scholarly Studies is launching the availability of this volume on Kindle and other portable devices. Readers familiar with the journal will note significant format changes: a cover, a table of contents, and this editorial introduction.
As guest editor of this year’s journal I have the pleasure of introducing the five essays and one book review included in this volume. This year we invited authors to submit papers associated with the 2013 Chicago conference titled Psyche and Society: the work of the unconscious. This conference was itself built upon the success of the 2012 New Orleans conference that addressed the relationship between affect and action. In all, these conference themes are emerging out of the JSSS community’s understanding of the importance of connecting psychology more immediately to social action. This desire is the context for this volume of the Journal which seeks to present their divergent perspectives on the critical social realities of our time.
The first four papers reflect the conference theme in a variety of interesting and exciting ways. The first three explore the rich terrain of the idea of “cultural complex,” starting with Tom Singer’s recounting of how his thinking developed about the idea over time. He identifies how his contribution to the concept arose from his own need to account psychologically for the problems he was seeing in groups, including those of his own upbringing. Singer notes that while conflicts generated by cultural complexes often take place in the arena of politics, these complexes remain a legitimate subject matter for the study of the psychology of individuals and groups.
Singer’s paper is followed by Sukey Fontelieu’s that describes the way in which belief in American exceptionalism reveals a cultural complex that can be understood in relation to the Greek god Pan. Within this complex Americans’ attitude toward our own unique value is recognized as having a shadow side that restricts our ability to deal effectively with our own problems and negatively influences other people’s attitude toward Americans.
Mary Hackworth’s article explores how American individualism may be being balanced by a sense of the Commons expressed in an emerging interest in Unicursal labyrinths. Hackworth uses the concept of cultural complex to discuss the political divisions within and fragmentation of American society. She explores the possibility that the growing interest in labyrinths represents an unconscious expression of the desire to compensate for these complexes through the power of labyrinths to balance individual and common purposes.
Susan Wyatt’s paper links individual and society through an exploration of the capacity of the individual to be an agent of change. Wyatt uses the story of the Rainmaker to explore the connection between individual and social change. Her article makes use of Jungian theory to increase understanding of social transformation.
In addition to these four papers spun out of the topic of Psyche and Society, Matthew Fike uses a Jungian approach to understand Ernest Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” Fike offers an analysis of this story that contributes to prior Freudian and Lacanian studies of this story, which further establishes the contribution of Jungian thought to literature.
Finally, Susan Rowland in an insightful book review brings a Jungian perspective to the new book, In the Image of Orpheus: Rilke, a Soul History by Daniel Joseph Polikoff.
Peter T DunlapGuest Edito