6th Annual Karl Stern Lecture on Religion and Psychoanalysis - The Jungian Analyst in Between Life and Death: Clinical Ethics in an Age of Pandemic

Though death anxiety is a widely acknowledged unconscious factor in psychological life, one greatly amplified in an age of pandemic, helpful clinical approaches to death anxiety are difficult to find. In this presentation, views of Robert Langs, Carl Jung, and examples from ancient philosophy are examined, including parallels between indications of death anxiety and what ancient philosophers sometimes termed the “death of the soul,” a notion closely linked to the ethical concept of “vice.” Through analyzing parallels between Jung and ancient philosophers, a basic clinical virtue ethics is developed, suggesting the analyst should stand “in between” life and death