Jung and the Dreaming: Analytical Psychology’s Encounters with Aboriginal Culture

Abstract

This article reviews some contributions of the Jungian analytic tradition to indigenous ethnopsychiatric thought in Australia. The authors review Jung's writings on Aboriginal culture, then describe some of their own fieldwork findings. Acknowledging that the contemporary post-Jungian tradition is pluralist, they propose a notion of 'Jungian sensibility.' They discuss some of the ways in which the Jungian sensibility might contribute positively to Aboriginal mental health, with especial reference to theories of subjectivity, and note that some Aboriginal people find the Jungian world-view very compatible with the Aboriginal one.

Universalising the particular? God and Indigenous spirit beings in East Kimberley

“…In Australia, publications on Aboriginal spirituality by Catholic writers (Cameron 1995; Stockton 1995; Charlesworth 1998) appeared, followed by homogenising Jungian analyses (Tacey 1997;Petchkovsky et al 2003). Colonial rupture produces portable utopian concepts.…”

Recasting Jung Through an Indigenist Approach to Deepen Shared Knowledges of Well-being and Healing on Australian Soils: Protocol for a Qualitative Landscape Research Study

“…Jung's search for understanding the essential connection between human and nature naturally resonates with First Nations cultures [20], who experience a kinship with Earth, grounded in systems of relationships and reciprocities that form the basis of all life [21]. Jung's extensive study of comparative mythology and anthropology extended to First Nations Australians [22]. Petchkovsky [23] asserts that Jung's concept of Active Imagination is a valid mode to understanding First Nations Australians' land-based creation stories, performed rituals, and rites of passage that constitute human life and express cosmology.…”

Southern Psychotherapies

“…A number of the founding fathers and mothers of psychotherapy were themselves either overtly political and, therefore, interested in the social/political world and context, and/or interested in culture and in different cultures, including: Alfred Adler (1870–1937), an early psychoanalyst and, later, psychotherapist, who was also a socialist, and emphasised in his theory and practice the understanding of power dynamics and the importance of equality; and espoused the development of “social interest” and democratic family structures, especially in raising children. Carl Jung (1875–1961), the founder of analytic psychology, who travelled widely, encountered different cultural perspectives, and made efforts to value and include indigenous wisdom traditions into his version of psychoanalysis, a project which has been continued by analytic psychologists and post‐Jungians (see, for example, Petchkovsky, San Roque, & Beskow, ). Karen Horney (1885–1952), one of the first women to enter a German university as a medical student, and an early feminist and psychoanalyst, who instigated research into female sexual development, and wrote, contrary to Freud, that the source of penis envy was in the way that female children were treated by the parents. Her work was influenced by her studies of sociology and anthropology and, in 1941, she founded the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, which focused on the importance of culture in shaping personality. Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), a psychoanalyst and a Marxist, who argued that neurosis is rooted in the physical, sexual, economic, and social conditions of the patient, and wrote The Mass Psychology of Fascism (Reich, 1933/); he also promoted adolescent sexuality, and the availability of contraceptives and abortion, establishing the first sexual hygiene clinics in Europe; and argued the importance for women of economic independence. Eric Berne (1910–1970), the founder of transactional analysis, who, like Jung, also travelled widely, and was highly influenced by his anthropological studies. Paul Goodman (1911–1972), an anarchist and early gestalt therapist, who brought his particular social perspectives to influence the theory and practice of gestalt therapy (see Aylward, ).…”

“…• Alfred Adler , an early psychoanalyst and, later, psychotherapist, who was also a socialist, and emphasised in his theory and practice the understanding of power dynamics and the importance of equality; and espoused the development of "social interest" and democratic family structures, especially in raising children. • Carl Jung (1875, the founder of analytic psychology, who travelled widely, encountered different cultural perspectives, and made efforts to value and include indigenous wisdom traditions into his version of psychoanalysis, a project which has been continued by analytic psychologists and post-Jungians (see, for example, Petchkovsky, San Roque, & Beskow, 2003). • Karen Horney , one of the first women to enter a German university as a medical student, and an early feminist and psychoanalyst, who instigated research into female sexual development, and wrote, contrary to Freud, that the source of penis envy was in the way that female children were treated by the parents.…”