Search

Alan G. Vaughan and Andrew Samuels, both Jungian analysts, met earnestly during the Analysis and Activism Conference first held in London in 2014. Impressed with the presentation of new paradigms and applications of principles of analytical psychology beyond the consulting room in communities of ethnically and economically diverse populations, their conversations increased through email exchanges and sharing ideas. In August 2017, they met in person during the International Association of Jungian Studies (IAJS) Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, the birthplace of Nelson Mandela. The exchanges were spirited and rich, the rapport genuine. Analytical psychology, analysis and activism, politics, economics, the African Diaspora, and the prevalence of the psychopathology of racism were discussed. Their conversations continued, in the Oakland hills of California, on December 17, 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2018, the British Journal of Psychotherapy published an Open Letter on the topic of Jung and the "Africans". The Open Letter (not a petition) was signed by 35 Jungian clinicians and academics from diverse and international backgrounds. The signatories take responsibility for attending to the many difficulties arising from Jung's writings on "race". Rather than proceeding to castigate Jung, the signatories delineate actions which might be taken with regard to the "decolonisation" of Jungian psychology. The Open Letter is reprinted here in full. Notes explaining the context and providing examples of Jung's attitude are provided by the author, one of the signatories of the Open Letter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]