Intimations of the Next Step

by robert aziz

In the process of preparing material for this website I was led back to journal reviews of my first book C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity I had not read for many years, some not since the time of that book's appearance 17 years ago. As I made my way through the folder holding those papers I have to say that I was genuinely surprised that beyond crediting me with completing Jung's thinking on synchronicity and the psychology of religion several reviewer comments could acknowledge the necessity of the next step—the necessity of this my most recent work The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung.

"Though grounded in Jungian orthodoxy," Patrick Johnson wrote in Chiron in 1991 about C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity, "its ultimate intention far outstrips its source. Published almost a year ago, the work awaits the evaluation of a wide and competent readership. The international Jungian community, analysts and non-analysts alike, should, in my opinion, pursue the discussion which Aziz has so courageously initiated."

Likewise, James L. Jarrett in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion wrote in 1993: "But the great point that Aziz is driving at is that Jung, far more than he ever realized, was moving away from the 'intrapsychic' model to one influenced by his discovery of synchronicity, such that nature (as evidenced by the activity of archetypes) can itself work synchronistically. There may be something in this, and if so, Aziz is to be commended for his perception that this change should have prompted Jung's explicit revision of other aspects of his overall theory." (Reviews).

How did I feel reading those comments and others like them? I felt grateful to my reviewers for having got it. I felt grateful that in that transitional moment of the appearance of my first book they had the insight and belief to hold consciousness on where things were needing to go from there. I felt grateful to them for holding consciousness on the next step, The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung.

under "Publications" on Wed, Feb 07 at 08:45