Jung and Levinas

Book excerpt: This book brings C.G. Jung into conversation with the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, taking a radical view of post-modernist theory which, the author argues, is relentlessly introverted. Frances Gray presents completely new research which extends analytical psychology into the world of dispute resolution in mediation within a deeply philosophical framework. Arguing that mediation is a therapeutics that entails a psycho-social archaeology which, in turn, requires recognition of the foundational roles of sex/gender, time and narrative in inter-subjective relationships, this book develops Jung’s approach to projection as an ethical process that assumes the presence of a sex/gendered Other. Chapters explore the possibility of a psycho-social archaeology through development of the argument that a radical turn to the fundamentals of our own consciousnesses can open up a landscape on which we begin to fashion the moral courage necessary for the practice of alternative dispute resolution in mediation. This book highlights Jung’s contention that withdrawal of projection is a fundamentally moral endeavour and that although Levinas’ face of the Other can be seen as a way of acknowledging the Otherness of the Other, there are limits to its application in Jungian thinking. This book maintains that the face of the Other is critical to any moral encounter and, above all, brings us to the transformational possibilities of the process of dispute resolution in mediation. Jung and Levinas will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners of analytical psychology, dispute resolution, applied ethics, conflict studies and transformation.