The two recurring themes to which supposedly complex psychological reflection usually boiled down to were shadow projection and the unintegrated feminine. This repetitive and rather reductive pattern meshed well with most of the Seven Pillars of Liberalism and its complex-ridden attitudes toward racist whites, brutal males, colonializing nation-states, devouring consumers, inquisitorial Christians, etc. The Usual Suspects.
Lo and behold, I just received a notice of a new edition of a "scholarly" Jungian journal and its three items exemplify my previous assessment. One is a scolding of Europeans for scapegoating the Gypsies with their own shadow projection. The other is a scolding of Europeans for the shadow projection, gender dis-integration (and essentialism) involved in a novel about slavery. The third is a book review on ecopsychology which scolds Europeans (and American whites) for....well, shadow projection on the wise and environmentally reverent dark native peoples.
The scholarly character of the pieces lies primarily in reflecting the obsessions of the pomo world of cultural studies and academic political correctness. The discourse has become so narrow and predictable that it qualifies for John Kekes' definition of an ideology.
Funny how the thought of an eccentric Swiss psychiatrist has come to match so well --absent his pre-feminist "essentialism"-- the opinions you could hear any day at the Mall in Kentfield or the faculty lounge at Stanford.
PS. What, you may be wondering, has the picture got to do with the post? Well, only this. I was searching in Google image for something appropriate and came up with this unlikely image of a homoerotic cartoon hunk named Jung. Not what you usually see in Jungian publications....
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