Psychology & The Cross

An audio clip from John Freeman's 'Face to Face' (BBC) interview at Jung's house at Küsnach, in March 1959. It was broadcast in Great Britain on October 22, 1959.Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AMu-G51yTY

More psalms and music on: https://soundcloud.com/psychology-and-the-cross/

Episode description:

Ann Conrad Lammers is a Jungian scholar who has worked and written at the crossroads of theology and psychology for the last forty years. Her doctoral work at Yale University led to the book In God’s Shadow: The Collaboration of Victor White and C.G. Jung, and she is the editor of their correspondence.In this episode, Ann guides us through the creative and complex relationship between C.G. Jung and Dominican priest Victor White: a foundational relationship for Jung, and crucial to a deeper understanding of how Jungian psychology relates to Christianity.With read excerpts of the Jung–White correspondence as a backdrop, Ann shares her view on Jung as a Christian, the proposed idea of Jung as a therapist of an ailing Christian tradition, Jung’s relativized Christ, and the potential dangers of an Imitatio Jung. 

A special thank you to Jungian analyst Paul Brutsche for his beautiful Basel accent in recording the voiceover of C.G. Jung.BiographyAnn Conrad Lammers is co-editor of The Jung–White Letters, The Jung–Kirsch Letters, as well as editor and cotranslator of Erich Neumann’s two-volume work, The Roots of Jewish Consciousness. She is currently English-language editor and assistant translator for a selection of Emma Jung’s previously unpublished writings and artworks. 

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Music played in this episode"Dawns Dew" and "Mind" by ketsa.uk. Licensed under creativecommons.org by NC-ND 4.0.

A letter from C.G Jung To Count Hermann von Keyserling,

Küsnacht, 2 January 1928

"Dear Count,

Your return to yourself, enforced by illness, is on the right track and is something I have wished and expected for you. You identify with the eternally creative, restless, and ruthless god in yourself, therefore you see through everything personal— a tremendous fate which it would be ridiculous either to praise or to censure!

I was compelled to respect Nietzsche’s Amor fati until I had my fill of it, then I built a little house way out in the country near the mountains and carved an inscription on the wall: Philemonis sacrum— Fausti poenitentia, and “ dis-identified” myself with the god. I have never regretted this doubtless very unholy act.

By temperament I despise the “ personal,” any kind of “ togetherness,” but it is so strong a force, this whole crushing unspiritual weight of the earth, that I fear it. It can rouse my body to revolt against the spirit so that before reaching the zenith of my flight I fall lamed to earth. That is the danger you too must reckon with. It is also the fear that prevents our friend X from flying. He can be nothing else but intellectual.

You have paid a salutary tribute to the earth with your illness. Let’s hope your gods will be equally gracious to you next time!

With best wishes for the New Year,

Yours sincerely,

C.G Jung"

Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. I, Pages 49-50

In this bonus material to episode four of Psychology and the Cross, you get to hear the full dream of C.G Jung about how his dream-father leads him to the "highest presence". A dream that Jung made his own interpretation of but which has also been analyzed by other scholars such as Wolfgang Giegerich. 

The dream was first shared by Jung in the Aniela Jaffé biography 'Memories, dreams, reflections'.

Reading recommendations:A. Jaffé & C.G Jung, Memories, dreams, reflections (Internet Archive)
W. Giegerich, Jung’s Millimeter - Feigned Submission (Article)

What do we do if God is dead? British scholar, Paul Bishop examines the links and relationships between Nietzsche's Zarathustra and C.G Jung's Red Book. Understanding Jung's visionary work as an anti-Zarathustra, replying to Nietzsche that, God is not dead, “Er ist lebendiger denn je.” He is more alive than ever.

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Recommended reading: Shamdasani, Hillman (2013) Lament of the Dead : Psychology after Jung's Red Book

Episode description:

Paul Bishop is a renowned British scholar who has spent the last twenty-five years researching and writing on the foundational relationship between C.G Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche and Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In this episode, we dive into Jung’s relationship to both these figures but with a special emphasis on the latter and the legend Faust as an archetypal motif. Goethe's Faust struck a chord in Jung and its foundational story when trying to understand Jung’s own inner struggles, motivations, creative contributions, and wrestling with the religious question. We explore an “Imitatio Fausti” in contrast to an “Imitatio Christi” and the seeking for psychological transformation. How the question of finding redemption in a secularized world is portrayed in the story Faust, and transmitted through Jung’s life and psychology.

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Music played in this episode:'One has another' and 'Blue Violets' by Ketsa. Licensed under creativecommons.org by NC-ND 4.0.

Episode description:

Bernard Sartorius is a Jungian Analyst based in Zurich and a scholar of Islamic Studies. In this episode, we’re investigating individuation and Islamic faith, in relation to Christianity. We discuss psychological agnosticism, religious fundamentalism, and Jung’s difficulties with surrendering. How Jung, in the context of a dream shared in the biography ‘Memories, dreams, reflections', grapples with bowing in front of the mystery.

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Music played in this episode:‘Roam’, ‘Chrystal life’ and ‘Aimless by Ketsa. Licensed under creativecommons.org by NC-ND 4.0.

Recommended dream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLBa_nu0kPY&t=32s

In this extra material to the third episode of Psychology & The Cross, philosopher and theology professor Sean McGrath speak on how to advance the Jungian paradigm and what is needed to "dream the dream forward". McGrath also talks of how he thinks that Professor Sonu Shamdasani single-handedly made Jung academically respectful as well as in his belief that it's the analysands and analysts that can advance the paradigm. Last but not least, we discuss the role of the Red Book and how the proper response to is is to make your own. 

What are the obstacles when trying to bridge the psychology of C.G Jung and Christianity? The obstacle according to Philosopher Sean McGrath is 'psychological absolutism'.In this extra material from the third episode of the podcast 'Psychology & The Cross' Professor McGrath discusses the work of Wolfgang Giegerich, the limitations of psychology, and Jung as a guerilla theorist.

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