The second issue of Psychological Perspectives’ 69th volume arrives with the theme: the meeting of Jungian depth psychology and Islamic thought. Where Two Seas Meet is the title borrowed from the Quranic image of the confluence of two bodies of water that cannot mix yet touch. The issue brings together ten pieces investigating the rich and largely underexplored territory between analytical psychology and the Islamic intellectual, mystical, and spiritual tradition. Below is a taste of what the issue might hold.
Ibn ‘Arabi and the Archetypal Imagination
Several pieces cluster around Ibn ‘Arabi, the thirteenth-century Andalusian mystic whose vast metaphysical system has long attracted the attention of those working at the intersection of spiritual and psychological thought. Natalia Abdel Fattah opens with what appears to be an exploration of the Muhammadi Light in Ibn ‘Arabi’s poetry, a concept at once theological and imaginal that invites rich Jungian amplification. Samir Mahmoud approaches the same figure from a Muslim perspective, asking what Ibn ‘Arabi and Jung might together reveal about the origins of the images of God. Andrea Paula de Vita traces the influence of Suhrawardi, the twelfth-century Persian philosopher of illuminationist thought, and a key influence on Ibn ‘Arabi.
Sufism and the Clinical Encounter
The Sufi tradition receives attention across several pieces. Karin Jironet brings Jungian psychology into dialogue with Hazrat Inayat Khan, who was the Indian Sufi musician and teacher who brought Sufism to the West in the early twentieth century. The piece reads as a dialogue between two traditions as much as a scholarly essay. Steven Nouriani, whose work on the visionary dimension of Persian miniature painting appeared in the previous issue, turns here to the meaning of love in Sufism and its clinical implications for analytic work. Frederick Burniston contributes two pieces: one introducing Islamic psychology alongside Rasjid Skinner, and another — Between the Ablution and the Sacrifice — whose title hints at a meditation on the ritual and symbolic dimensions of Islamic practice read through a depth psychological lens.
Myth, Legend, and the Figures That Connect
Two pieces turn to the mythological and legendary figures that have long served as meeting points between Islamic and Jungian imagination. Steven Herrmann writes on Khidr, the Green One, through the lens of Jung’s love for the Arab prince: a mysterious Quranic figure who appears at the meeting of two seas, guide to Moses and emblem of hidden wisdom. Jung himself was drawn to this figure, and Herrmann’s engagement with it promises to be both scholarly and personal. Jad Hatem closes the issue with a piece on the fish of transmutation in the Sura of the Cave, the Quranic chapter in which Khidr also appears, and suggests a bringing together of alchemical and Quranic symbolism in rare and productive proximity.
Salma Ahmad Caller contributes what may be the issue’s most personal piece — Muhammad Ali Came to Tea: A Discordia Concors — whose title suggests an encounter between opposites held in productive tension, and whose subject hints at bringing the iconic boxer and his complex relationship to Islam and identity into an unexpected Jungian conversation.
The issue is available for pre-order via the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles bookstore here. For international orders, contact bookstore@junginla.org.