Erich Neumann’s Theory of Early Development and its Application to Clinical Practice Part 1

The series of seminars explores Neumann’s early life theory and its complementarity to the relational theories. We will discuss Neumann’s conceptualization and terminology, to indicate the similarity with Fordham’s ideas about analytic work with children. We will describe a unified Jungian approach to the development of the ego and the establishment of the ego-Self axis throughout the primal relationship, as well as the possible disturbances and pathologies. Utilizing case material, we will discuss the application of a Jungian approach to the theory and practice of child analysis.

The first seminar will describe Neumann’s approach to child analysis. It will outline the genesis of child analysis in Jungian theory, and the origin of the split between Neumann and Fordham, to indicate the complementarity of their essential perception of early life psychological developmental processes, mainly the establishment of the ego-Self axis. We will discuss Neumann’s conceptualization and formulation, in synthesis with those of Fordham, to present a unified Jungian perception of early life development. Using case material, we will indicate its relevancy to practice.

Learning objectives:

• Describe what is meant by the archetypal nature of the mother/child relationship
• Describe the development of the personality from an archetypal perspective
• Give an example of complementarity and similarity between Neumann’s and Fordham’s perspectives