Alma A. Paulsen Origins of Analytical Psychology in the New York Area
Contact with Jung: Essays on the influence of his work and personality
The spade work for the development of analytical psychology in this part of the world was begun by a few doctors, who, in the early 1920s, had the courage to start practice as Jungian analysts long before there was any professional group or any written material other than Jung’s early writings.
It was their steady devotion to the task of applying Jung’s profound insights to the practical problems of human relatedness that made the New York
experience a unique experiment of lasting significance.
For, in this country, the enthusiasm engendered by Jung’s discoveries might easily have found a typically American expression, which would be to expend itself in the attempt to promote analytical psychology as a ‘movement’.
Instead, the development has been a slow, truly grass-roots affair, gaining thereby an integrity and a rootedness which it might otherwise not have had.
Organization into formal societies, on the professional level at least, has come relatively late, and in a rather interesting way.
Perhaps the beginnings can be traced to the efforts of Eleanor Bertine, who in 1919 was instrumental in procuring two established analysts as speakers before an International Conference of Medical Women.
One of these was Beatrice Hinkle of New York City, already well known as a practising psychiatrist.
The other, Constance Long, had practised as a Jungian analyst in London for some years.
Another American participating in that conference was Kristine Mann.
All four were keenly interested in the emotional and health problems of the American woman and were challenged by the vistas which Jung’s approach offers.
It was following this conference that Bertine and Mann began their analytic training, finding their way in due course to Jung himself
The untimely death of Constance Long during a temporary stay here in 1923 was a great loss, for she had planned to move to New York.
But shortly after this, Esther Harding of England joined the group of Jungian analysts in New York.
In the meantime Frances Wickes, who had been a child psychologist here, started her work with Jung in 1923, and upon her return to New York opened practice as an analyst.
Hinkle’s book, The Recreation of the Individual, had appeared in 1923, and in 1927 Wickes’ s The Inner World of Childhood represented the first
application of Jung’s thought to the problems of children.
This book is now a classic, for the field of child psychology was then only beginning to be enriched by the insights of depth psychology, and Wickes’ s contribution was experienced as a voice in the wilderness.
These five analysts shared their experiences and had many fruitful discussions with one another.
More or less regularly scheduled periods in Zurich gave each of them a continuous contact with Jung over me years, a fact which played Its part m developments here.
The group of analysts gradually increased its ranks as new people returned from Zurich with Jung’s endorsement.
By 1936 there were about twelve practising analysts in New York.
By that time a sizeable number of people had become vitally interested.
Harding had published the first of her four books, The Way of All Women, in 1933.
It has since been reprinted in this country sixteen times, and it has been translated into five other languages.
In those days the analysts held privately organized seminars in which they presented new material gleaned from their contacts with Zurich and from their own experience.
There also arose spontaneous discussion groups formed by analysands.
It was this interchange which led, in the spring of 1936, to the formation of the Analytical Psychology Club of New York.
This organization was to become the focus of Jungian thought in this part of the country.
It continues, in collaboration with the analysts, to carry a major role in the interpretation and dissemination of Jung ‘s ideas.
Origins of Analytical Psychology in the New York Area In the early fall of 1936 Jung was invited by Bertine, Harding, and Mann to conduct a seminar on Dreams at Bailey Island, Maine, to a group of about fifty people who had assembled there for the week to hear him.
This experience was enhanced by the informality of the setting and by the warm presence of Dr. and Mrs. Jung in the day-by-day contact.
Just previous to this, Jung had delivered his lecture on ‘Psychological Factors in Human Behavior’ for the Harvard Tercentenary celebrations.
The following year Jung came once more, this time to deliver the Terry Lectures at Yale on ‘Psychology and Religion’.
On this visit he gave his second seminar on Dreams-this time in New York City-to an audience of about a hundred persons.
But to return to the organizational developments, the Analytical Psychology Club of New York, now numbering 250 dedicated and hard-working members, has over the years initiated and maintained a vital program.
Since its founding in 1936 it has held monthly meetings, with papers by analysts or lay members of the Club, or by guest speakers who have come from many parts of the world.
A number of continuous discussion groups and many professionally led seminars have been organized under Club auspices for members and other interested persons.
A monthly Bulletin is issued to members, and the Club’s annual publication, Spring, is given a wide circulation.
Its contents have included papers by Jung and authorized translations of some chapters of his books, together with articles by others.
An enduring achievement of the Club has been the establishment of the Kristine Mann Library.
Here, in comfortable reading rooms in mid-town Manhattan, the reader will find assembled a large collection of Jungian material, including a press archive of Jung’s work from the early 1900s on, and an impressive collection of related material on mythology, anthropology, psychology, and
comparative religion.
There is a file of published and unpublished articles on Jungian subjects.
All the material has been carefully catalogued and is readily accessible on open shelves.
Club membership carries with it full library privileges.
Special arrangements are made for the use of the library by anyone seriously interested in Jung’s thought.
Many have availed themselves of this opportunity for study.
The analysts’ professional organization had its beginning in the informal group described above.
Upon the formation of the Analytical Psychology Club, this group of about twelve analysts was designated as the ‘referring analysts’.
They were charged with responsibility for recommending applicants for Club membership.
They had much to do with the maintenance of standards, with providing professional leadership where needed, and with establishing a good working relationship between the lay and professional members of the Club in carrying their joint responsibility for representing Jungian thought.
Perhaps influenced by developments in Zurich, the Medical Society for Analytical Psychology-Eastern Division-was founded here in 1946 in collaboration with a sister organization in San Francisco.
In the meantime professional developments among psychologists, leading to the Certification Law in New York State, prompted the founding of an organization for those analysts with background training in psychology rather than in medicine.
This is the Society of Analytical Psychologists, formally established in 1954.
But it was realized throughout that the two groups had common ground in that all of their members were practising Jungian analysts.
It was therefore decided that the two Societies should merge to form a single professional association ,~lt’.ich ,J;1011ld the11 function as a unit.
Hence, Association for Analytical Psychology came into being.
Meetings of this Association are held monthly; papers on professional subjects are read and discussed.
The present membership totals twenty-four.
It became one of the founding societies upon the formation of the International Association for Analytical Psychology.
The Association for Analytical Psychology arranges courses and lectures for interested professional audiences.
From time to time its members are called upon to give lectures or conduct seminars in connection with various organizations and at universities and
colleges.
Members have published numerous articles and a total of eleven volumes based on Jung’s thought.
A pilot project for the training of analysts has been started, and works in collaboration with the C. G. Jung Institute.
It is hoped that as time goes on an increasing number of suitable candidates from the ranks of both medicine and psychology will be attracted here for training.
An important step was taken in the fall of 1962 with the incorporation of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology.
This is a joint undertaking of the professional group and the Analytical Psychology Club of New York.
A major aim of the Foundation is the encouragement of training and research in analytical psychology.
No account of developments would be complete without special mention of the tremendous contribution made by the Bollingen Foundation.
A major achievement is the definitive edition of Jung’s works, a long-term task which has involved much work in collecting, organizing, translating, and publishing.
It is our great good fortune that the majority of the volumes in the Collected Works should have been completed while Jung was still able to collaborate and revise.
In various ways, it is the devoted work of a number of individuals, directly influenced by Jung, which has contributed to the ‘movement’ here, if one can call it such.
From reactions on all sides we sense that the new dimension in human experience which is implicit in Jung’s thinking now lives in a more receptive climate here than it did a generation ago.
It is this which leads us to anticipate that our several organizations will continue to grow and to serve effectively as carriers of Jung’s teaching. ~Alma A. Paulsen, Contact with Jung, Pages 184-189
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