To Our Readers

Understand that thou hast within thyself herds of cattle…flocks of sheep and flocks of goats…Understand that the fowls of the air are also within thee. Marvel not if we say that these are within thee, but understand that thou thyself art another world, in little, and hast within thee the sun and the moon and also the stars…Thou seest that thou hast all those things which the world hath.

Origen

Quoted by Jung in CW 14, ¶6, note 26

(In Lev. Hom., V, 2: Migne, P.G., vol 12, cols 449–50)

At the beginning of Mysterium Coniunctionis (1955-56/1970, CW 14), in writing about the components of the coniunctio, Jung quotes Origen (184–253 CE), an ancient Greek scholar and ascetic. Origen envisions the inner world and outer world as reflections of one another, as having mirroring correspondences. Landscapes—inner and outer—figure powerfully in this summer issue of Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche.

Articles that focus on location have not appeared frequently in our literature. Considering how often place figures in dreams and memories and how it shapes our experience, I would think more writers would want to explore landscape, location, geography, and other aspects of physical setting, and the relationship of those factors to depth psychology. I remember childhood boat rides across Moriches Bay to Westhampton Dunes on Long Island. A long, long boardwalk ran from the bay side up over the dunes and down to the ocean. The walk on a hot summer day seemed endless to my small legs, but when the Atlantic Ocean, glistening, blue, and vast, came into view, I felt a thrill—one that etched into my psyche. That thrill has sent me back to the ocean again and again throughout my life.

Origen, Greek scholar and ascetic (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)

In one way or another the feature articles in this issue touch on inner and outer landscape. Susan Williams has written a deeply moving piece that connects her own experience of life behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest with a current Showtime runaway-hit series Homeland. She recognizes how the outer landscape of terrorism and the inner landscape of the bipolar protagonist are related. Two papers, “City as Soul: The Serpent Under the Stones” by Ronald Schenk and “Journeying: Internal and External Landscapes” by Isabelle M. DeArmond, address place and its cultural and psychological dimensions directly. Ronald winds us through the city and Isabelle explores how experiences of country, land of origin, and emigration can be factors in the individuation journey. Betsy Cohen explores a different sort of landscape, a territory that is familiar to the analyst, the analytic frame. In her article, “A Flexible Frame: Holding the Patient in Mind,” Betsy shares her personal experience of a tightly held, traditional psychoanalytic frame and how that shaped her desire to establish something else in her practice. In the terrain of the relational space, she offers insight into how the mind can be a containing vessel. D. Steven Nouriani takes us into the world of Islam in his thoughtful and informative article, “Islamic Cultures and Jungian Analysis.” In a heartfelt exploration, Steven connects key principles of Muslim practice with analytical psychology. He shows us how many of the religious tenets of Islam are related to the use of imagination, reverie, and active imagination, practices that are drawn on in analytic work.

Even weaver Susan Gangsei shows us landscapes that emerge via the loom. Several of her tapestries are based on natural-world scenes. Susan was willing to share her work with Jung Journal, both by allowing images of her work to be published here and by her willingness to talk to me about her artistic endeavors—the hardship that brought her to weaving and details of her process. Like Susan’s art, the natural world figures in Mary Ruefle’s poetry. Her four poems will dazzle you with their deftness in interweaving evocative nature imagery with psychological themes that will rock your world. Her willingness to contribute four unpublished poems was an act of great generosity, but beyond that, her sharing “I dream of Jung” provisions us with motifs to feast on—for days.

Janet Germane takes us to “…the suffering, paranoid country of North Korea, wherein all normal relationship is constantly at risk.” Her review of The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson, reveals the heroism of relationship in a fraught land. Russia also figures in this issue. In our Streams & Currents section, Brian Feldman shares his experience of infant observation in Russia with a newborn infant and its mother, connecting the interpersonal field with the cultural one. And finally, concerning the original terrain, the mother, the “land” out of which we all grow: Annie Reiner, psychoanalyst, poet, playwright, painter, and author, shares her personal insights into the mother-daughter relationship. Annie sensitively and thoughtfully writes about how this landscape, the relationship between mother and daughter, continues to evolve, even beyond death.

For me, as editor, each issue has its own integrity and seduction. I have found that this issue has raised many questions for me: What places have shaped me? How does location impact me? What is my relationship to and experience with the landscapes of my analysands? What are the correspondences for me between inner and outer? What grabs me in the natural world? How does that resonate in my psyche? And the questions go on. I hope the pieces that appear in this issue will stimulate questions for you like those they provoked for me.

Notes

1. References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).