Erich Neumann (psychologist)
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Erich Neumann (1905- November 5, 1960) was a psychologist, writer, and one of Carl Jung's most gifted students. Born in Berlin, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1927. He later moved to Tel Aviv. For many years, he regularly returned to Zurich, Switzerland to give lectures at the C. G. Jung Institute. He also lectured frequently in England, France and the Netherlands, and was a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology and president of the Isreal Association of Analytical Psychologists. He practiced analytical psychology in Tel Aviv from 1934 until his death in 1960.
Erich Neumann contributed greatly to the field of developmental psychology and the psychology of consciousness and creativity. Neumann had a theoretical and philosophical approach to analysis, contrasting with the more clinical concern in England and the United States. His most valuable contribution to psychology was the empirical concept of "centroversion", a synthesis of extra- and introversion. However, he is best known for his theory of feminine development, a theory formulated in numerous publications. His works also elucidate the way mythology throughout history reveals aspects of the development of consciousness that are parallel in both the individual and society as a whole.
His best known works are The Great Mother and The Origins and History of Consciousness. Another work, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, reflects on human destructiveness and the way the human mind relates to its own shadow.
Quotes
- As is demonstrated by a wealth of historical examples, every form of fanaticism, every dogma and every type of compulsive one-sidedness is finally overthrown by precisely those elements which it has itself repressed, suppressed, or ignored. - Depth Psychology and a New Ethic
- The shadow, which is in conflict with the acknowledged values, cannot be accepted as a negative part of one's own psyche and is therefore projected--that is, it is transferred to the outside world and experienced as an outside object. It is combated, punished, and exterminated as 'the alien out there' instead of being dealt with as one's own inner problem. - Ibid.