Chiron Publications' Book Spotlight for September
Paperback Edition Regularly Priced at $19.95 On Sale for $9.98
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In 1934, Erich Neumann, considered by
many to have been Carl Gustav Jung’s foremost disciple, sent Jung a handwritten
note: “I will pursue your suggestion of elaborating on the ‘Symbolic
Contributions’ to the Jacob-Esau problem . . . The great difficulty is the
rather depressing impossibility of a publication.” Now, 80 years later, in Jacob and Esau: On the
Collective Symbolism of the Brother Motif, his important work is finally published.
In this newly discovered manuscript,
Neumann sowed the seeds of his later works. It provides a window into his
original thinking and creative writing regarding the biblical subject of Jacob
and Esau and the application of the brother motif to analytical psychology.
Neumann elaborates on the central role
of the principle of opposites in the human soul, contrasting Jacob’s
introversion with Esau’s extraversion, the sacred and the profane, the inner
and the outer aspects of the God-image, the shadow and its projection, and how
the old ethic—expressed, for example, in the expulsion of the
scapegoat—perpetuates evil.
Mark Kyburz, translator of C.G. Jung’s
The Red Book, has eloquently rendered Neumann’s text into English. Erel
Shalit’s editing and introduction provide an entrée into Neumann’s work on this
subject, which will be of interest to a wide range of readers, from lay persons
to professionals interested in Jungian psychology and Jewish and religious
studies.
Erich Neumann was born in Berlin in
1905. He emigrated to Israel in 1934 and lived in Tel Aviv until his death in
1960. For many years he lectured and played a central role at Eranos, the
seminal conference series in analytical psychology. His writings include Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, The Origins and History of Consciousness,
and The Great Mother. The
correspondence between C.G. Jung and Neumann was published in 2015.
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