Friendship and its Paradoxes

Book excerpt: This collection of essays brings together papers written for, and presented at, the VI Latin American Congress of Jungian Psychology, held in Florianopolis, Brazil, in September 2012. The reader will find contributions by leading Jungian analysts in the continent from Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile, to Venezuela and Mexico. The essays here share discussions on issues pertinent to the social and cultural climate of different parts of Latin America, as well as the constantly challenging questions of psychotherapy. They present detailed psychological reflections on the specific theme chosen for the meeting at that time: friendship and its paradoxes. Fraternity, conflicts, tolerance and intolerance, mutuality, conjugal relationships, empathy, sympathy, self-esteem and envy, issues of psychotherapy, mythological amplifications, and perspectives on the possibilities of dialogue between people and nations are among the wide range of topics explored here. As such, this book will appeal to practitioners of psychotherapy, psychologists, and anthropologists, as well as the reader interested in how Jungian psychology is currently meeting the difficult challenges of a changing world.