Title: Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology: Jung, Politics and Culture by Daniel Burston (review)
Abstract: Reviewed by: Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology: Jung, Politics and Culture by Daniel Burston Geoffrey Cocks Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology: Jung, Politics and Culture. By Daniel Burston. New York: Routledge, 2021. 140 pages. $60.00 (cloth). This book is a concise and critical study of antisemitism in the Jungian movement from the early years of the twentieth century to the present day. The author is Daniel Burston, who teaches psychology at Duquesne University and has written books on the psychoanalysts Erich Fromm, Erik Erikson, and Karl Stern, as well as the psychiatrist, R. D. Laing. It is the stated purpose of this book not to uncover new insights and sources but to synthesize and present previously known texts and findings “in new ways that challenge readers to reflect on the scope and severity of the issues we’re addressing. After reading this book, perhaps Jungians will grasp why so many Jews think of anti-Semitism as a shape-shifting but deathless adversary that lives forever in the hidden recesses of Christian and Muslim cultures; one that lies dormant for shorter or longer periods, but always returns to torment us through the ages” (3). Readers, therefore, will not find here a critique of the literature on the Christian Jung and the Jewish Freud, but rather a careful and—within the bounds of a text of only 125 pages—comprehensive use of the literature on the subject to explore the nature and relevance of antisemitism in Jung’s life and career. Burston’s first chapter is devoted to the subject of “Anti-Semitism in Historical Context.” Here, he clearly and concisely examines varieties of antisemitism, arguing that despite differences between religious and racial antisemitism, there are also commonalities between them. Burston also distinguishes between what he calls “low-brow/high-intensity” antisemites and “high-brow/low intensity” antisemites in order to describe the difference between prejudice against Jews based on violent, conspiratorial fantasy and milder versions of what is often labelled “polite” antisemitism. These social groups are complementary in that the latter often provides cover and legitimacy for the former. Burston points out that antisemitism is to a significant extent paradoxical in that its origins are based on the common religious tradition shared not only [End Page 215] (and most closely) by Jews and Christians but also between Jews and Muslims as inheritors of Abrahamic faith. He sketches in the history shared—and contested—by Jews, Christians, and Muslims and the instances of accommodation between them as well as the struggles over cultural identity that produced hatred and fear of Jews as “the Other” among Christians and Muslims. The second chapter concerns the Enlightenment, the emancipation of Jews in Europe, and the emergence of political Zionism. This background brings the book around to psychoanalysis, since Freud was “in several important ways, a child of the Enlightenment” (34). In the words of Jay Sherry, Jung “can best be understood as an exemplar of an ‘avant-garde conservative’ intellectual. His cultural sensibilities were decisively shaped by the neo-conservative movement dominant during his university years. It rejected naturalism and was drawn to symbolism and irrationalism. In politics it questioned democracy and rejected socialism preferring a Nietzschean elitism . . . Jung adopted [Eduard von Hartmann’s] critique of modernity [including his] concern about the ‘Judaization’ of modern society . . . For Jung, Freud became the representative of such a rationalistic, ‘disenchanted’ view of the world” (Jay Sherry, Carl Gustav Jung: Avant-Garde Conservative [Ph.D. Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin, 2008], 3). By the 1920s and 1930s, supporters of Freud and of Jung increasingly saw each other as opponents in a battle for civilization as each defined it. Freudians, most but certainly not all of whom were Jewish, regarded Jung as an antisemite and latterly as a herald of fascist and Nazi barbarism. Was Jung an antisemite? Burston asks at this juncture and what has this to do with “the history of psychoanalysis and depth psychology and its relevance to today” (36)? While he leaves the answer up to the reader, it is clear that Burston sees a significant and disturbing link between the dynamics of antisemitism over the centuries and the psychology and politics of Carl Jung...
Publication Year: 2023
Publication Date: 2023-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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