“The present article studies mahmoud dowlatabadi’s novel yusef ’s days and nights and attempts to provide a different reading of the novel through the application of c. g. jung’s theories on the collective unconscious and archetypes. from jung’s perspective, the collective unconscious is the reservoir of psychic energy and the source of all human memories; also, the archetypes are universal mental structures the recognition of which becomes possible through the symbolic interpretation of dreams, fantasies, myths, and rituals. ‘shadow’ is one of the most important archetypes that, according to jung, is the dark half of our being. this shadow is our alter-ego, and it is only when we accept it as a part of our being that we can achieve psychic equilibrium and complete the process of individuation. the process of individuation, and indeed of the conscious mind’s coming to terms with the ‘self,’ usually begins with suffering. although this initial shock is not often recognized, it is a kind of summoning. however, yusef (the protagonist of the novel) follows the path of denial and his projections of his fears and anxieties gradually make the distinction between illusion and reality difficult for him. therefore, the confrontation with the shadow, although difficult and perhaps horrifying, is a necessary step on the road towards mental and psychical maturity.”

“Since the 1982 publication of aldo carotenuto’s book, a secret symmetry: sabina spielrein between jung and freud, there has been renewed interest in the life and work of sabina spielrein. she was jung’s first psychoanalytic case at the burghölzli hospital in 1904, and was referred to several times in the freud/jung letters. spielrein recovered, enrolled in medical school, and went on to become a freudian analyst. her most famous paper, published in 1912, ‘destruction as a cause of coming into being’, was referred to by freud in 1920 in relation to his death instinct theory. in the few freudian publications on this controversial theory since 1920, spielrein’s contribution is consistently omitted. jung also neglected to refer to her ‘Destruction’ paper in his early 1912 version of ‘symbols of transformation’, even though he had edited her paper and had promised to acknowledge her contribution. he did refer extensively to spielrein’s first paper, her medical thesis, ‘on the psychological content of a case of schizophrenia’, published in 1911, as yet unpublished in english. in her paper spielrein sought to understand the psychotic delusions of frau m, a patient at the burghölzli, much in the style of jung’s ‘Psychology of dementia praecox’ (1907). the purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent spielrein’s frau m paper, and its companion ‘destruction’ paper, make an original contribution to both jung and freud’s emerging theories on the possible creative versus destructive outcomes of neurotic or psychotic introversion, culminating in jung’s concept of the ‘collective unconscious’ (1916) and freud’s concept of a ‘death instinct’ (1920). © 2006, the society of analytical psychology.”

“In spite of jung’s encounter with the spirit of the depths that he describes in the red book and his reverence for other cultures, he remained, in some ways, very much a man held by the spirit of the times in which he lived. eurocentrism, even unconscious patronizing racism, is evident in jung’s writings. this article asks how, due to the impact of the spirit of the times on us, do we unconsciously express attitudes, writings, and actions that are offensive to the other? there are embedded forms of racism and thereby oppression that members of the dominant group learn not to see, to keep in the shadows. what forces keep unconscious racial bias alive and active in our societies? one answer lies in a culture’s shadow. this article utilizes writings of jung and post-jungians, such as kimbles, singer, and brewster, as well as examples from philosophy, relational psychoanalysis, film, and literature that depict culture’s shadow. the relationship of culture’s shadow to jung’s ‘geology’ of the personality as diagrammed in one of his 1925 lectures is explored as is the connection of culture’s shadow to archetypal evil and to the formation of negative cultural complexes. these explorations are directed toward new ways of understanding the creation and maintenance of the sense of other in the psyche, furthering the work of bringing culture’s shadow into consciousness.”

“The concept of the shadow is one of jung’s great contributions to psychology which he adapted early on in the twentieth century from freud’s original division between the light and dark sides of the human psyche. according to jung, when the shadow is activated, usually through projection, it is charged with affect and takes on an autonomous life of its own beyond the ego’s control. it is possible to depict jung as a structuralist thinker who was not so much interested in creating a highly systematised metapsychology, but who was, instead, concerned with the interrelationships between different psychic phenomena. as a result, he did not develop clear-cut definitions of the latter and this included his thinking about shadow. inextricably linked to this concept is that of compensation so that shadow – both individual and collective – is compensatory to a consciously held attitude.”