A Book Launch – The Spectre of the Other in Jungian Psychoanalysis: Political, Psychological, and Sociological Perspectives

Join us at the Jung Institute of Los Angeles on Saturday, January 27, 2024, for a book launch of Spectre of the Other in Jungian Psychoanalysis: Political, Psychological, and Sociological Perspectives by co-editors Marybeth Carter and Stephen Farah. Books will be available for purchase at the Institute library.

Program is from 2-5 p.m. Pacific – Doors/Zoom opens at 1:30 p.m. Pacific

Endorsement

This bold volume gives flesh and blood specificity to the notion of the Other, a term that can easily feel like an all-purpose nostrum when applied indiscriminately.  The insightful contributors to this finely differentiated book enable us to explore the ‘Other’ as it appears in the creative arts, sociology, psychology, and even the ultimate Other, the anus. —Thomas Singer, editor of the award-winning Cultural Complexes and The Soul of America

Presentations/Speakers

Stephen Farah, Introduction: What is an ‘Other’ from a Jungian Psychological Perspective?

All too often, the experience of otherness, experienced by those who are forced to carry it, fuels negativity, self-harm, or even violence. Paradoxically, the encounter with otherness, especially when experienced in the emergence of consciousness, is a fundamentally positive possibility as well as a goal of individuation. In this introduction, Farah speaks to the concept of the ‘other’ as understood in the philosophical thought of Lacan, Heraclitus, and Hegel, as articulated by Papadopoulos in the Foreword of the book.

Marybeth Carter, Satan’s Mouth or Font of Magic: What is it about the Anus?

Carter explores the significance of the alimentary Uroboros. She advocates its significance for the psychological expression of coniunctio to occur, exemplifying the prospective nature of the psyche rather than merely repression. She illustrates this position through images and patients’ dreams.

Douglas Thomas, My Kinky Shadow: The Poetics of the Sadomasochistic Other

A range of sexual behaviors, activities, and relationships are now commonly known as BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism, and masochism) or kink. Thomas proposes that Jung’s concept of the syzygy provides a framework to understand the value BDSM finds in the creation of a conscious ‘other.’ He advocates that this creative meaning-making aspect of BDSM and kink constitutes a form of poetics offering new possibilities for integrating countercultural aspects of the psyche.

John Beebe, On Being an Other

Beebe draws upon seminal periods in his life as a Jungian psychoanalyst in which taking up ‘Otherness’ played a role in developing his analytic identity. Each of these stories depends on the author’s willingness to accept the role of ‘Other’ within an intersubjective field and, paradoxically, foster objectivity by bringing in his standpoint.

Stephani Stephens, The Spectre and its Movement: The Dynamic of Intra- and Transgenerational Influence

Stephens explores the notion that a spectre leaves footprints, spaces, or perhaps a mark, as Jung calls it, and influences and interferes with the destiny of succeeding generations, which the author maintains, raises the crucial question of whether transgenerational influence constitutes haunting.