It is a great pleasure to review this new collection of essays by the Jungian psychoanalyst Julienne McLean, author of the earlier ‘Towards Mystical Union’ (St Paul’s, 2017), which explored Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle from the perspective of modern Jungian archetypes, analysis and related themes. In many ways this new book is a companion piece to the earlier one, which looked at Carmelite spirituality from a Jungian perspective. The new book looks at Jungian psychology from a Carmelite perspective, which makes for a neat symmetry between the two.
The essays reproduced here span a period of twenty years and were written for a variety of occasions: talks to Jungian analysts and Christian pastors alike, academic articles and indeed some of the key chapters from the earlier book. However, although the editing of the material is light, there is a consistency throughout and McLean’s gentle voice can be heard in the whole collection.
What is that voice? Well, simply put, that just as Christians should not be afraid of the sage of Küsnacht, so, equally, analysts, especially Jungian analysts, should not be afraid of Christianity, and especially what has been called the ‘Christian mystical tradition’. Jung himself, to put it mildly, had a somewhat complicated relationship with what he once termed ‘The Soothsaying God of the Vine’ and many of his followers and adherents have expressed these difficulties – the Dominican friar Victor White OP, the Jesuit priest Hugo Rahner SJ and the American ‘archetypal psychologist’ James Hillman all come to mind.
McLean does not concern herself much with these heated controversies but rather sees in both texts ‘sources of healing for the modern soul’ attested both in her writings and in her long‑established practice as a therapist and spiritual guide. As a book, the essays are varied and there is some repetition and perhaps a little more contextualisation may have helped. But as a bravura attempt to synthesise these two ‘worldviews’, it is to be applauded.
How might it appeal to readers of Mount Carmel? Well, a quarter of the essays were previously published in this august journal so the style will be both consonant and resonant with that of the journal’s readers. For those familiar with the Carmelite tradition but unacquainted with the practices of Jungian analysis it will serve as a helpful guide. For those already engaged in these practices it will, I am sure, illuminate and create interesting analogies for each reader to pursue in their own way.
At one point McLean states that one of the consequences of the deep spiritual hunger of our generation is to foster ‘an overwhelming need for the depth dimension of the Christian tradition.’ If I may indulgently quote from the preface I provided for the book: ‘those looking for this depth dimension need look no further; they will find it in this set of priceless essays – indeed, a diamond of great price.’
