Connecting with South Africa : cultural communication and understanding

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Title:

Author:

Berg, Astrid, 1950-

ISBN:

9781603444309

9781603445801

Personal Author:

Berg, Astrid, 1950-

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

College Station : Texas A&M University Press, c2012.

Physical Description:

xii, 137 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

Series:

Carolyn and Ernest Fay series in analytical psychology ; no. 16

Carolyn and Ernest Fay series in analytical psychology ; no. 16.

General Note:

Formerly CIP.

Contents:

Building bridges : infants and parents in a Cape Town community -- And what about the infant? -- The baby's name was not understood : a case of failed and possibly successful mother-infant psychotherapy -- Ancestor reverence -- An adolescent rite of passage : what can we learn from African culture? -- Ubuntu : an African contribution to the "civilization as a whole".

Subject Term:

Social psychology -- South Africa.

Psychoanalysis and culture -- South Africa.

Psychoanalysis and racism -- South Africa.

Infant psychology -- South Africa.

Developmental psychology -- South Africa.

Jungian psychology -- South Africa.

Ubuntu (Philosophy)

Group identity -- South Africa.

Intercultural communication -- South Africa.

Geographic Term:

South Africa -- Social life and customs -- 21st century.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025557881	302.0968 B493C 2012	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Available electronically in an open-access, full-text edition from the Texas A&M University Libraries' Digital Repository at http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/146845 .

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.