Congress Papers presented at The IV Latin-American Congress ofjungian Psychology, Punta del Este, Uruguay,  2-7 September 2006, organized by the Uruguayan Society of Analytical Psychology (SUPA), in conjunction with the Brazilian Society of Analytical Psychology (SBPA) and the Brazilian Jungian Association (AJB) under the co-ordination of the Latin-American Committee of Analytical Psychology (CLAPA). Editor: Maria Pia Ciasullo. Pbk. $20.00.

Emerging out of the collected papers presented at the IV Latin-American Congress for Analytical Psychologists, I closed the book over my knees, and gazed pensive at the window. The conference papers have catapulted me to an unknown space: a world, which can only be recounted by poetry, as I imagined the other side of the moon to be as a child. There, the intensity of suffering is inexorable, its meaning unfathomable. Only the soothing sound of words can provide comfort, like a lullaby sung to an ill child by the mother. And just so am I feeling here, held by Joao Bezinelli, Fabian Flaiszman and others, in my mind-opening discovery of this New World. Wrapped up in the sound of their voices I feel like one of Socrates' pupils, forced to think about the very nature of ‘The Bad’ (J. Bezinelli, p. 65), of ‘Love’ (F. Flaiszman, p. 185), of ‘Human compassion’ (J. Giglio & Zula Giglio Garcia, p. 202). While a scientist does not question the existence of the universe but, having postulated it, passes to the study of its laws and properties, the philosopher is very much preoccupied with the very nature of things and the existence of their intrinsic qualities. In a sort of parallel I, a Jungian from the other side of the moon (as it were), am used to looking at the laws and properties of suffering, while my Latin American colleagues are preoccupied with its very nature and existence. My language reflects my approach; their language theirs.

I re-open the book. South America re-appears to me now as a wounded country, the real patient South American analysts are trying to heal. Walter Boechat (p. 83), for example, describes succinctly the difficulty of being a South American analyst: his patient, a continent whose soul has deep wounds and needs healing. Elisabete Christofoletti (p. 125) talks about the problems encountered in Amazonia while Da Silvera Dartiu (p. 150) those of drugs and AIDS in a Brazilian context and Helena Guerra (p. 217) deals with the afterma