As the first major commercial film to focus on Jung's role in the early history of (psycho‐)analysis, David Cronenberg's (2011) A Dangerous Method constitutes a milestone in the portrayal of Jung – and his relationship with Freud – in the popular media. The film's subject is a pivotal point in the development of analytical theory and clinical practice, namely the discovery of countertransference, its uses and abuses – a discovery and method which, in turn, led to the birth of intersubjectivity. This article deals with the historical background to the events portrayed in the film, specifically with regard to boundary violations and sexual abuse in analysis, draws distinctions between love relationships and abusive relationships, and indicates the revolutionary aspect of the “dangerous method” of psychoanalysis – and, in doing so, reclaims the influence of Sabina Spielrein and Otto Gross in the history and development of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Beginning with the analytic field, this paper introduces the problem of burn‐out as one of self‐neglect that can be understood as ultimately suicidal. There follows a brief outline of the aetiology of the pathology, before indicating the direction in which healing may lie. The origins of a holistic worldview are being traced that allow us to see the unity in the complexities of the different facets: the ancient teachings of the Chinese alchemists that later were reflected in the unus mundus concept of, first Egyptian and Arabic, then European alchemical traditions. These ideas are linked with recent and current ecological concerns by drawing parallels between one of the most important European alchemist‐healers of the past – Paracelsus – and, moving to recent modern times, Wilhelm Reich. Here, the focus is on the later period of Reich’s work. With his holistic perspective, Reich cannot only be seen as continuing the alchemist traditions, but should also be respected as the first eco‐psychologist. The paper leads to the spiritual implications of these ideas, towards a re‐sacralization of analysis and radical (eco‐)politics, and ends with suggestions towards possible solutions of the present dilemma of individual, collective and global burn‐out in presenting the concept of ‘radical hope’. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Section one of this article gives the narrative background to the love affair between Otto Gross and Else Jaffé. Otto Gross took Freud's psychoanalytic method in a libertarian direction and he became an influential figure in German anarchist circles shortly before 1914. Else Jaffé was a leading figure in Heidelberg's academic community. Section 2 provides the first complete translation of the Gross-Jaffé letters. Section 3 contrasts the positions of Gross and Max Weber to Nietzsche and comments on Else Jaffé's intermediate role. It was her person that contributed to the development of both men's thinking on the erotic. An appendix provides the transcription of the Gross-Jaffé correspondence in German.

Following a brief introduction to the philosophical climate of the nineteenth century, and understanding psychoanalyis as a late result of the Enlightenment, in the historical first part of this article, the author traces the origins of an opposing tradition that is nearly as old as analysis itself: the synthesis of analysis, religion and radical politics. This synthesis was originally conceived during the meeting, some hundred years ago, of the psychoanalyst Otto Gross with the anarchist Erich Mühsam and his partner, the religious scholar Johannes Nohl, in the Swiss village of Ascona. At the start of modernity, in their first attempts at resacralizing both politics and analysis, these concepts form the very beginnings of a postsecular thinking and in this they point beyond the postmodern. A second part presents the reception of these ideas, before the article concludes with a critical evaluation from today's perspective.

This paper is a preliminary communication of several years of research into the life and work of the Austrian psychoanalyst and anarchist Otto Gross (1877-1920). Although he played a pivotal role in the birth of modernity, acting as a significant influence upon psychiatry, psychoanalysis, ethics, sociology and literature, he has remained virtually unknown to this day. Following a biographical sketch and an overview of his main theoretical contributions, the impact of Gross' life and work on the development of analytical theory and practice is described. His relationship with some of the key figures in psychoanalysis is presented, with particular emphasis on his connections to Jung. The paper concludes with an account of relevant contemporary interest in his work: the founding of the International Otto Gross Society, the first edition of The Collected Works of Otto Gross on the Internet, and the 1st and 2nd International Otto Gross Congresses which took place in Berlin in 1999 and at the Burghölzli Clinic, Zürich, in October 2000.