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The absence of a comma or colon in the title of Aldo Carotenuto's new book, To Love To Betray, is the first indication of the unity of his vision. Carotenuto, a Jungian analyst and professor of
personality at the University of Rome, is the author of many books on the art of psychotherapy, individuation, transformation, and healing, including A Secret Symmetry: Sabina Spielrein Between Jung and Freud. To the psychoanalytic reader unfamiliar with Jungian terminology, Carotenuto's language may occasionally pose problems, as when he uses words like anima and animus, the psychic archetypes which represent the unconscious heterosexual aspects of the masculine and feminine self, respectively. Another important Jungian concept appearing in the book is the Shadow, the repressed inferior aspects of one's personality. Carotenuto also avails himself of Freudian theory, and there are numerous references to the Oedipus complex, the repetition-compulsion principle, transference and countertransference, and narcissism.
Carotenuto is thoroughly grounded in a humanistic appreciation of literature, mythology, philosophy, theology, and of course psychoanalysis. His optimistic vision is evident throughout his writing. Like Jung, he sees no contradiction between psychoanalytic and spiritual truths. Unlike the tragic pessimist Freud, Carotenuto frames everything in positive terms, always affirming the possibility of transformation, growth, and rebirth. The many references to Jesus reveal the depth of Carotenuto's religious faith. He synthesizes Jungian psychoanalysis, Christian theology, and existentialism in interesting and productive ways. He never wavers in his conviction that “every death is a rite of passage to newer forms of existence” (p. 168).
Carotenuto's thesis in To Love To Betray is that from the moment we are born to the moment we die, we find ourselves in the position of betrayed and betrayer, and that if we can discover the positive uses of life's inevitable betrayals, we w