Routledge Temporality, Shame, and the Problem of Evil in Jungian Psychology: An Exchange of Ideas

In a unique epistolary style, authors Murray Stein and Elena Caramazza share their rich and reflective conversations surrounding the themes of temporality, shame, and evil through letters, essays, and email correspondence. Ignited by Wolfgang Pauli’s "The Piano Lesson," Stein and Caramazza study the function of temporality and consider the importance of shame and evil to this relationship. In this book Stein shows how Pauli, as a result of his contact with C.G. Jung and analytical psychology, embarked on a thought experiment to merge two currents of scientific thought: quantum physics and depth psychology. In his work of active imagination "The Piano Lesson," Pauli playfully brings together the former, which supplies a causal explanation of the mechanics of the material world, and the latter, which supplies an approach to meaning. The problem of how to merge the two currents in one language is presented in Pauli’s symbolic solution, piano music, which combines the black and white keys in a single harmony. This music symbolizes a unified theory that combines the explanations of causality and the meaning delivered by synchronicity. Presenting an original approach to synchronicity and dis-synchronicity, this interdisciplinary and innovative exchange concludes with a script written by Murray Stein, inspired by Pauli, as well as an afterword by influential Jungian scholars. This book will be a key reference for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and seminars in Jungian and post-Jungian studies, philosophy, psychoanalytic studies, psychology, and the social sciences. Review "What an intriguing and interesting read this dialogue is between two Jungian analysts! It is the deep psychic perception of small-large events, simple but extraordinary, that both of them experienced and have remained etched into their memories the quicksilver of a significant correpondence about the exceptional experience of the Nobel winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli which allows us to participate in their own personal and clinical experience." - Daniela Iorio, CIPA "Elena and Murray's choice of correspondence to illustrate an intensely shared observation pleasantly reminds us of other times and other literature that have formed us. The authors’ courageous research, while implicitly emphasising the constraints of today’s physicalism, paves the way for a theory that "in another era" would integrate and unify physics and depth psychology, causality and synchronicity, subject and object, temporality and timelessness. How can we not be grateful to Elena and Murray for this vital and inspiring perspective about sense and unity?" - Anna Panepucci, AIPA and IAAP "One never tires of exploring the wonderful mind of Wolfgang Pauli! This remarkable book, incorporating a real e-mail exchange between its two authors begins in one of Pauli’s active imaginations. The outcome includes the introduction of a new and original notion of ‘dyschronicity’. This adds something to the literature on ‘time’. But then something a little mysterious happens – and I think it is the result of the relational dialogue itself and the human connection between the two people - and the conversation moves into a focus on ‘evil’. The twinning of ‘time’ and ‘evil’ is extremely challenging for any reader but, having considered it, I found it illuminating. And that is hard to find in today’s Jungian field, wherein ‘evil’ comes dangerously close to being done to death. Not in this volume, though!" – Andrew Samuels, University of Essex, UK "The experience of time, confrontations with evil, the role of the ego in the realization of the Self: three basic threads that run through the works of Jung and emerge as determining factors in his more mature thought and in his later works. These, along with the question of shame, are artfully and thoughtfully delved into by two analysts with years of experience in clinical work. The experience of time (and of timelessness) i