Robin S. Brown – författare

This collection offers a diverse range of perspectives that seek to find meaning in madness. Mainstream biomedical approaches tend to interpret experiences commonly labelled "psychotic" as being indicative of a biological illness that can best be ameliorated with prescription drugs. In seeking to counter this perspective, psychosocial outlooks commonly focus on the role of trauma and environmental stress. Although an appreciation for the role of trauma has been critical in expanding the ways in which we view madness, an emphasis of this kind may nevertheless continue to perpetuate a subtle form of reductivism—madness continues to be understood as the product of a deficit. In seeking to move beyond causal-reductivism, this book explores a variety of perspectives on the question of finding inherent meaning in madness and extreme states.

Contributors to this book are distinguished writers and researchers from a variety of international and interdisciplinary perspectives. Topics span the fields of depth psychology and psychoanalysis, creativity, Indigenous and postcolonial approaches, neurodiversity, mad studies, and mysticism and spirituality.

This collection will be of interest to mental health professionals, students and scholars of the humanities and social sciences, and people with lived experience of madness and extreme states. Readers will come away with an appreciation of the more generative aspects of madness, and a recognition that these experiences may be important for both personal and collective healing.

This collection offers a diverse range of perspectives that seek to find meaning in madness. Mainstream biomedical approaches tend to interpret experiences commonly labelled "psychotic" as being indicative of a biological illness that can best be ameliorated with prescription drugs. In seeking to counter this perspective, psychosocial outlooks commonly focus on the role of trauma and environmental stress. Although an appreciation for the role of trauma has been critical in expanding the ways in which we view madness, an emphasis of this kind may nevertheless continue to perpetuate a subtle form of reductivism—madness continues to be understood as the product of a deficit. In seeking to move beyond causal-reductivism, this book explores a variety of perspectives on the question of finding inherent meaning in madness and extreme states.

Contributors to this book are distinguished writers and researchers from a variety of international and interdisciplinary perspectives. Topics span the fields of depth psychology and psychoanalysis, creativity, Indigenous and postcolonial approaches, neurodiversity, mad studies, and mysticism and spirituality.

This collection will be of interest to mental health professionals, students and scholars of the humanities and social sciences, and people with lived experience of madness and extreme states. Readers will come away with an appreciation of the more generative aspects of madness, and a recognition that these experiences may be important for both personal and collective healing.

Since the split between Freud and Jung, psychoanalysis and analytical psychology have largely developed in an atmosphere of mutual disregard. Only in recent years have both discourses shown signs of an increasing willingness to engage. Re-Encountering Jung: Analytical Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis is the first edited volume devoted to a reconciliation between these two fields. The contributors explore how Jungian thinking influences, challenges, and is challenged by recent developments in the psychoanalytic mainstream. In examining the nature of the split, figures from both sides of the conversation seek to establish lines of contrast and commonality so as to reflect an underlying belief in the value of reciprocal engagement.

Each of the chapters in this collection engages the relationship between Jungian and psychoanalytic thinking with the intention of showing how both lines of discourse might have something to gain from attending more to the voice of the other. While several of the contributing authors offer new perceptions on historical concerns, the main thrust of the collection is in exploring contemporary debates.

Re-Encountering Jung reflects a unique undertaking to address one of the longest-standing and most significant rifts in the history of depth psychology. It will be of great interest to all academics, students and clinicians working within the fields of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology.