The Relational Jung: Challenging the Inward Orientation of Analytical Psychology

Within this fascinating new volume, a group of prominent Jungian writers seek to explore the apparent contradiction between two aspects of Jungian thinking: one that points in the direction of a genuinely radical relational psychology, and another which seems to struggle to engage meaningfully with what we might call the psychosocial dimension. Jung’s work is centrally concerned with what is often referred to as the problem of opposites, for example, his notions of introversion and extraversion. In biographical terms, this is expressed in the split between Jung’s outward-facing and inward-facing personalities. Because Jung identified himself as an introvert, the question arises as to how this might have shaped his psychology. Recent scholarship has often brought attention to the problematics of Jung’s engagement with collective life and the political. In the spirit of maintaining the kind of dialectical tension that Jung urged, this series of papers seeks to explore one-sidedness in analytical psychology with particular emphasis on how we theorize the immediacy of encounter with others. This unique collection will be of particular value to scholars and clinicians within the Jungian world, as well as relationally-oriented psychoanalysts with an interest in becoming more conversant in Jung.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. Jung and the Relational: Beyond the Individual 2. Some Implications of Synchronicity and the Psychoid for Analytical Psychology 3. From Projection to Enactment in a Jungian Light 4. Soul in the World: Symbolic Culture as the Medium for Psyche 5. J. L. Moreno’s theory of tele encounters C. G. Jung’s theory of synchronicity: An Integrative Approach to Group Psychotherapy 6. The Dynamics and Ethic of the Deep Relational Self 7. The Intersubjective Perspective in Jung and Bion: Complementary Views of Unconscious Process, Structure, and Interaction

About the Author :
Robin S. Brown, PhD, is a psychoanalyst in private practice who has served on faculty at Columbia University, Pacifica Graduate Institute and the California Institute of Integral Studies. His first book, Psychoanalysis Beyond the End of Metaphysics: Thinking Towards the Post-Relational (Routledge, 2017), won the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize. This was followed by Groundwork for a Transpersonal Psychoanalysis: Spirituality, Relationship, and Participation (Routledge, 2020). Mark Saban, PhD, is a senior analyst with the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists. He was until recently the Director of the M.A. in Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies at the University of Essex. His book, Two Souls Alas: Jung’s Two Personalities and the Making of Analytical Psychology (Chiron, 2019), won the International Association of Jungian Studies’ Best Book of 2019.

Review :
'A wise, well-informed and clinically useful book that opens a way for mutual recognition and dialogue between Jungian analysis and relational psychoanalysis. Encouraging a turning away from the introversion so typical of the classical Jungian approach, there is also a possibility herein for further rapprochement between the descendants of Freud and those of Jung. This is going to be greatly facilitated by the emerging consensus that Jung may be considered a pioneer of relational psychoanalysis.' Andrew Samuels, Founder and board member of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy 'The Relational Jung represents a carefully considered effort to free analytical psychology from its traditional intrapsychic bias to include interpersonal, synchronistic, and social dimensions of life. The essays are nuanced and form a bouquet of thoughtful contributions to this endeavor. It’s a book to be recommended for teaching purposes in Jungian training programs.' Murray Stein, PhD, author of Outside, Inside and All Around