Abstract

In this article, the author explores several themes that emerge from the correspondence between C.G. Jung and his Jewish disciple, James Kirsch, focusing on their discussions of Jung’s purported anti-Semitism, and their exchanges on the Lurianic Kabbalah and related developments in Jewish mystical theology. Letters between Jung and Kirsch that treat the relationship between the Jews and Christ are placed in the context of those that consider Jung’s interpretation of the Kabbalah. The question of Kirsch’s relationship to Jung, Jung’s 1944 “Kabbalistic Visions,” the ensuing transformation in Jung’s attitude toward Judaism, and the reasons for his late-life claim that a Hasidic rabbi, the Maggid of Mezirich, anticipated his entire psychology, are explored. Finally, the author offers his reflections on Jung’s “paradoxical affinity” to Judaism and the contemporary relationship between Judaism and Jungian psychology.

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