Introduction

This introductory chapter gives an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. So severe was the break between Freud and Jung that, over the course of the last century, Jungian psychology has developed in virtual isolation from the wider psychoanalytic community. Although relational psychoanalysis has paid only scant concern to Jungian thinking, the implications of this shift are significant—not only because Jung's psychology might itself be characterized to a considerable extent as relational, but also in the degree to which the relational emphasis on dialogue has succeeded in fostering an atmosphere of genuine open-mindedness. Efforts to synthesize different schools of thinking always run the risk of perpetrating some measure of violence towards the intellectual traditions concerned. Reflecting Freud's own status as an outsider, the guild system of training has enabled the field to remain relatively independent of the academy.