The latest issue of the JAP, published last week, features An interview with Jan Wiener, the eminent London based analyst and singer. In conversation with Linda Carter, Jan reflects on how the trauma of war shaped her sense of otherness and adventure, contributing to her understanding of analytic work and training worldwide.
In the first of two papers on Jung’s scepticism toward psychedelics, Ginny Hill, in Jung, the Rebirth Motif and Psychedelics I: Documenting Jung’s Contact with the British Pioneers, explores Jung’s consideration of mescaline and his interactions with British psychedelic researchers. Hill focuses on Ronald Sandison and Margot Cutner’s groundbreaking work with LSD in the 1950s and the first documentation of the “spiritual rebirth” phenomenon.
McDonnell, Moriarty, McCabe, and Higgins, in their paper AA, Bill Wilson, Carl Jung and LSD , explore the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous’ advocacy of LSD for alcoholics, using archival material, including Wilson’s letters to Jung. They consider whether Jung’s views might have changed had he seen the later success of psychedelic treatment for alcoholism.
In The Affective Charge of Sulphur and Salt in Working with Compulsion, Giorgio Giaccardi examines the analytic relationship through alchemical symbolism, particularly Jung’s descriptions of sulphur and salt, and applies this to his work with a compulsive patient. He details how alchemical processes mirrored the psychological transformation in his patient’s post-traumatic compulsive symptoms.
Christian Roesler, in Emotion Regulation, Relationship and Therapeutic Change in Analytical Psychology and Contemporary Psychodynamic Approaches, critiques Jung’s move away from emotion in favor of archetypal theory. He contrasts contemporary findings on emotion and relational models with Jung’s developmental model, suggesting that the role of emotion in therapeutic change needs more clarification within analytical psychology.
Steve Myers, in The Public Understanding of Analytical Psychology, addresses Jung’s concern about the global impact of his psychology, particularly regarding the risks of nuclear war. Myers explores how Jung’s ideas about the relationship between consciousness and the collective unconscious can be applied to political practice and public engagement to mitigate polarization.
Our Clinical Commentaries present the case of “Alice,” a survivor of childhood abuse and trauma. Responses from Nora Swan-Foster, Marilyn Marshall and Gustav Bovensiepen explore how the destructiveness in Alice’s psyche manifests in the analytic work and how systemic violence perpetuates harm toward the vulnerable.
In the Journal Reviews, Mark Winborn reflects on Violet Pietrantonio’s work on “raw reveries” in analytic work, Lara Newton critiques Joona Taipale’s exploration of Winnicott’s concept of the self, and Maria Giovanna Bianchi reviews Sharon Numa’s paper on psychoanalysis and racism.
Access the contents page of the issue here. Unfortunately none of the articles in this issue are Open Access and all require a subscription to read.