Connecting with South Africa: Cultural Communication and Understanding

Abstract

Child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Astrid Berg states in her introduction that “South Africa is a microcosm.” It is a modern nation, yet many of its inhabitants follow ancient traditions. It is a nation with a colonial past marked by periods of violence, yet it has managed to make a largely peaceful transition to majority rule. It is a nation with eleven official languages embracing a great diversity of cultures and customs, and yet it is also a land where public debate is vigorous, free, and ongoing. In short, South Africa is a place where connections are being built and maintained—both those among people with long kinship and common culture, and those that reach across historical, racial, and class divides. “The western world is undeniably more advanced in certain areas of science and economic development,” Berg states, “but in other areas it seems to lag behind and could learn from” places like South Africa. In her work with children and infants, Berg has become instrumental in building connections with and among her fellow South Africans of all ethnicities. Based upon Berg’s 2010 Fay Lectures in Analytical Psychology at Texas A&M University, Connecting with South Africa: Cultural Communication and Understanding is both a self-reflective, subjective account and a scientific discourse on human development and intercultural communication. This volume will be warmly welcomed not only by psychoanalysts and those interested in Jungian thought and practice but also by anyone seeking more effective ways to learn from other cultures. Connecting with South Africa provides sensitive direction for those wishing to find healing and connection in a fractured society. ASTRID BERG, a Jungian analyst as well as a specialist in child and infant psychiatry, hosted the first conference on infant mental health in South Africa in 1995. Instrumental in founding the C. G. Jung Centre of Cape Town, she has also served as president of the Southern African Association of Jungian Analysts.