Erich Neumann (psychologist)

Erich Neumann
Born	January 23, 1905 Berlin, German Empire
Died	November 5, 1960 Tel Aviv, Israel
Fields	Psychologist
Alma mater	University of Berlin
Known for	Developmental psychology
Influences	Carl Jung
Influenced	Camille Paglia

Erich Neumann (Hebrew: אריך נוימן‎; January 23, 1905 – November 5, 1960), was a psychologist, writer, and student of Carl Jung.

Career

Neumann was born in Berlin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1927. He later moved to Tel Aviv. For many years, he regularly returned to Zürich, Switzerland to give lectures at the C. G. Jung Institute. He also lectured frequently in England, France and the Netherlands, and was a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology and president of the Israel Association of Analytical Psychologists. He practiced analytical psychology in Tel Aviv from 1934 until his death in 1960.

Contributions

Erich Neumann contributed greatly to the field of developmental psychology and the psychology of consciousness and creativity. Neumann had a theoretical and philosophical approach to analysis, contrasting with the more clinical concern in England and the United States. His most valuable contribution to psychology was the empirical concept of "centroversion", a synthesis of extra- and introversion. However, he is best known for his theory of feminine development, a theory formulated in numerous publications, most notably The Great Mother. His works also elucidate the way mythology throughout history reveals aspects of the development of consciousness that are parallel in both the individual and society as a whole.

Works

His most enduring contributions to Jungian thought are The Great Mother and The Origins and History of Consciousness. Another work, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, reflects on human destructiveness and the way the human mind relates to its own shadow.

Neumann further developed his studies in feminine archetypes in his Art and the Creative Unconscious, The Fear of the Feminine, and Amor and Psyche.

See also

• Matriarchal religion
• Mother goddess

References

• Meier-Seethaler, C (October 1982). "The child: Erich Neumann's contribution to the psychopathology of child development". The Journal of Analytical Psychology (ENGLAND) 27 (4): 357–79. ISSN 0021-8774. PMID 6754672. 
• Neumann, Erich. Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. Shambhala; Reprint edition (1990). ISBN 0-87773-571-9.
• Ortíz-Osés, Andrés. La Diosa madre. Trotta; (1996). ISBN 84-8164-099-9
• Neumann, Erich. The Child. English Translation by Ralph Manheim, C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Inc.; Hodder and Stoughton (1973). ISBN 0-340-16516-2.