What is it about?
Jung's dreams when he traveled to Africa are analyzed in terms of their racist and Colonial assumptions. An analysis of whiteness as "no color" from which all others are "non white" is discussed in terms of its Jungian politics as well as its incorporation into Jungian theory. On the other hand, it is also argued that the way out of this outdated theory is to be found in Jungian theory itself and across the contemporary post-Jungian field. The paper ends with critical discussions of notions such as the withdrawal of projections, the individuation process, and the meaning of object relations theory.
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Why is it important?
Jung's psychology has been described as racist, but the current analysis discusses this in detail while also arguing that the way out of Jung's racism is through Jung's work itself, especially through his alchemical imagination. A postcolonial, "alchemical" interpretation of Jung's central terms brings Jungian thought in line with the contemporary intellectual field.
Perspectives
I like this paper because it is the culmination of over three decades of thought about Jungian theory and his relationship to Africa. I grew up in South Africa and my formative academic and professional years were there in the upheavals of the 1980s. My early love of Jung became a critical appreciation, but I have felt in myself and in Jungian thought the need for redemption. That might be rather grand for a paper, but it is the impulse behind this work.
Professor Roger Brooke
Duquesne University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Jung’s Fantasies of Africa and Africa’s Healing of Analytical Psychology, International Journal of Jungian Studies, September 2019, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/19409060-01101003.
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