Music and Psyche

Music and Psyche
Contemporary Psychoanalytic Explorations
by Paul W. Ashton & Stephen Bloch, Editors


The diverse contributors to this volume—from Jungian and other analysts, to performing artists, to music therapists—all share a thoughtful and loving involvement with music, from Beethoven and Schumann, to twentieth century compositions, to blues and contemporary song (samples are provided on the accompanying CD).

Interviews with senior analysts Michael Eigen and Mario Jacoby complement the papers, providing a lively sense of analytic minds in engagement and reflection.

Paul Ashton and Stephen Bloch are Jungian Psychoanalysts living and working in Cape Town. They both have an abiding interest in music of different sorts and Music and Psyche came together from that interest as well as a fascination and curiosity about how music functions both as an agent of healing and as a medium that touches areas of the psyche that words cannot. Realising that they could not themselves cover such a vast subject in the depth that they wanted to, they invited authors with differing interests and backgrounds to participate in the project by submitting essays on any aspect of music that gripped them at the time of writing.

Oedipus Denied . . . Hold the Horses!

Review by Mel Mathews

Whether we know it, or not, whether we care to or are able to admit it, every human being is influenced by psychological ‘complexes’. In The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego, Erel Shalit explains the difference between an ‘autonomous complex’ and an integrated complex. Shalit explains, “The fundamental task of the complex is to serve as a vehicle and vessel of transformation…” In other words, psychological complexes are necessary aspects of our being and when we are able to recognize and develop a dialogue or an ongoing conscious relationship with these complexes, these aspects of our humanity can be expressed and honored in a healthy and often creative manner.

A complex becomes troublesome when it is denied and splits off from our greater whole, as is the case with the Oedipus myth. In studying and deciphering the symbolic meaning of the Oedipus myth, Erel Shalit explains how a complex that has the potential to bring us into living a fuller, more conscious existence, is often denied and splits off into an ‘autonomous’ complex. Denying a complex, an aspect of who we are, does not cause this entity to go away. Instead, the denied castaway becomes ‘autonomous’ energy and unconsciously continues to live a life of its own, often wreaking havoc that is acted out in a host of neurotic symptoms.

Jung in the 21st Century

Jung in the 21st Century 
Volume One
Evolution and Archetype
By John Ryan Haule.

ISBN: 978-0-415-57798-4, Paperback: 312 pages,

This first volume provides an original overview of Jung’s work, demonstrating that it is fully compatible with contemporary views in science. It draws on a wide range of scientific disciplines including, evolution, neurobiology, primatology, archaeology and anthropology.


Divided into three parts, areas of discussion include:

    * evolution, archetype and behaviour
    * individuation, complexes and theory of therapy
    * Jung’s psyche and its neural substrate
    * the transcendent function
    * history of consciousness.

Jung in the 21st Century Volume One: Evolution and Archetype will be an invaluable resource for all those in the field of analytical psychology, including students of Jung, psychoanalysts and psychotherapists with an interest in the meeting of Jung and science.
Table of Contents

Bees, Honey, and the Hive

New Publication from
Inner City Books
BEES, HONEY AND THE HIVE: Circumambulating the Centre
(A Jungian exploration of the symbolism and psychology).
Frith Luton (Melbourne, Australia) (2011)

ISBN 9781894574327. Index. 208 pp. 2011

The symbolism of bees, honey and the hive intertwine, but at the core is the imagery of the circumambulation of the centre. For bees, this is a dynamic in the service of the queen bee and the preservation of the hive. In depth psychological terms, circumambulation is linked with mandala symbolism or the archetype of inner order, an archetype that Jung said was perhaps the most important.

Environmental Disasters - Risky Business

New Publication from Inner City Books

RISKY BUSINESS: 
A Jungian view of environmental disasters 
and the nature archetype
by Stephen J. Foster
ISBN 9781894574334. Index. 128 pp. 2011

In Risky Business, environmental disasters, our relationship with nature and the Nature archetype are explored from a Jungian perspective through the use of nature myths that illustrate greed and environmental destruction.

Our relationship with nature is considered through a felt-sense of nature’s presence, what Jung called the “One World” or unus mundus. Using Jung’s complex theory and his work on archetypes, the author combines his background working as a scientist for hazardous waste cleanup projects and his training as a Jungian analyst to examine the psychological problem of toxic environmental spills.

Becoming: An Introduction to Jung

Now available from Fisher King Press . . .

Becoming: An Introduction to Jung's Concept of Individuation
By Deldon Anne McNeely

Becoming: An Introduction to Jung's Concept of Individuation explores the ideas of Carl Gustav Jung. His idea of a process called individuation has sustained Deldon Anne McNeely's dedication to a lifelong work of psychoanalysis, which unfortunately has been dismissed by the current trends in psychology and psychiatry.

Psychotherapists know the value of Jung's approach through clinical results, that is, watching people enlarge their consciousness and change their attitudes and behavior, transforming their suffering into psychological well-being. However, psychology's fascination with behavioral techniques, made necessary by financial concerns and promoted by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, has changed the nature of psychotherapy and has attempted to dismiss the wisdom of Jung and other pioneers of the territory of the unconscious mind.