Erich Neumann: A Jungian Developmental Relational and Metapsychological Theoretician

Abstract

This hermeneutic study traces the developmental theory that emerges from Erich Neumann’s writings. The research revisions reevaluates and consolidates the emerging theory, in the hope of reviving interest in Neumann’s writings, and to indicate his importance as a Jungian theoretician. This dissertation shows that Neumann’s archetypal developmental relational and metapsychological theory, which effectively supplements Jung’s original writings, is relevant to both theory and therapeutic practice. The study presents Neumann’s formulations divided between the two poles of psychological development: early life and the zenith of the advanced stages of the individuation process. Neumann’s developmental theory is presented as a synthesis of his various writings. The books The Origins and History of Consciousness, The Great Mother, Jacob and Esau, and Depth Psychology and a New Ethic, together with his posthumous book The Child, are at the center of focus. Some of Neumann’s metapsychological Eranos articles serve to support and amplify the central ideas. The study also indicates similarities and complementary between Neumann’s formulations and leading subsequent theoreticians, mainly but not solely, Michael Fordham and Donald Winnicott for early life theory and Lawrence Kohlberg for advanced stages of individuation, outlining the advanced stages of the individuation processes and a Jungian archetypal child psychological developmental theory.