THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SITUATION IN THE WORLD AND THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Sumi:

Many people wonder what Analytical Psychology has to say about the world situation. To make it more concrete, would Carl Jung have anything to say about the war in Ukraine?  

Elmarie:

It is important to realise that Jung was not a politician but a psychologist who investigated and also wrote about the observable psychological phenomena related to World War I & II. What Jung would have to say about Ukraine is not a political view but a purely psychological one. When he visited the United States in 1936 to participate in a symposium at Harvard University, he issued a press communiqué in which he stated: “I want to emphasize that I despise politics wholeheartedly: thus I am neither a Bolshevik, nor a National Socialist, nor an Anti-Semite. I am a neutral Swiss and even in my own country I am uninterested in politics, because I am convinced that 99 per cent of politics are mere symptoms and anything but a cure for social evils.” From the perspective of Analytical Psychology, there is a psychological situation in the world, borne out by a great number of phenomena which we have to call symptoms, of which the war in Ukraine is but one. The question of psychology and national problems or problems between nations is indeed topical. For instance, the political scientist professor Glenn Diesen has been asking this question for quite some time. Inasmuch as national problems or problems between nations are related to activities of the human mind they should be subject to certain psychological laws. There are certain sides to such problems that possess a definitely psychological aspect, bringing them within the scope of Analytical Psychology to produce a certain point of view at least. The war in Ukraine is one of many symptoms spread across the world, all of them pointing to the same psychological situation, namely, a disturbance in the mental or psychic atmosphere between the West and the East.

Sumi:

Do you differentiate between phenomena and symptoms?  

Elmarie:

Yes. You call a certain phenomenon a symptom when it is obvious that it does not function as a logical means to an end but rather stands out as a mere result of chiefly causal conditions without any obvious purposiveness.

Sumi:

Can you give me an example from the war in Ukraine?

Elmarie:

A neutral Ukraine forms a natural buffer between the European West with their allies on the one hand and Russia on the other hand. However, the West contends to transform Ukraine into a western military base. 

Sumi:

Thank you Elmarie. We will have to continue this discussion next time. May I ask that we look into the problem of misunderstanding between the American leadership and the Russian leadership? It is as if two very different mind-sets are at work.