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In the summer of 2017 Andrew Samuels, a prominent Jungian analyst, invited me to contribute a volume to a series he curates for Routledge addressing the topic of antisemitism in C.G. Jung and his inner circle. The result was Anti-Semitism and Analytical Psychology: Jung, Politics and Culture (Routledge, 2021). As I delved into Jung's papers and correspondence from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940's, I discovered that Jung was indeed an antisemite, at least by contemporary standards. His remarks about the difference between the psychology of Jews and Germans leave no room for doubt on that score. As my research progressed, I was struck by the thought that anyone who indulges in sweeping generalizations about the “collective unconscious” of a particular religious or ethnic group may follow Jung's example and go over the deep end, giving voice to thoughts and feelings that appear insightful to some, but are actually quite harmful. That being so, caution and candor are both called for when attempting to evaluate the merits of efforts like these, especially when they emanate from people of stature in the profession.
Meanwhile, to place what follows in some sort of context, let us remember that America's “racial reckoning” began more than ten years ago with the murder of Trayvon Martin in February of 2012, and gathered considerable momentum after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Since then, I began to take note of psychoanalytic reflections on the subject of “race”, and in particular, on the subject of “Whiteness”. So, shortly after my book on Jung and antisemitism was published, I stumbled across the text of a talk given by Dr. Aruna Khilanani, a board certified forensic psychiatrist and psychoanalyst on April 6, 2021 for Grand Rounds at Yale University's Child Study Center. Her talk, entitled “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind” appeared in Bari Weiss' substack, Common Sense, on June 4, 2021. Then one month later, Dr. Donald Moss published an article entitled