Peter Ammann, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst and filmmaker in Aarau, Switzerland. He currently works as a lecturer, training analyst and supervisor at the International School of Analytical Psychology in Zürich (ISAPZURICH) where he is also in private practice.
After training as a cellist in Paris, he attended the University of Zürich where he earned a Ph.D. in musicology and in the history of religion and ethnology. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the musical theory and philosophy of Robert Fludd.
While in analysis with Jolande Jacobi, Dr. Ammann was encouraged by Jung himself to pursue analytic training. He eventually went on to attend the C.G. Jung Institute Zürich where his training analyst was Marie-Louise von Franz.
He spent four years in Rome working alongside Federico Fellini, and later became an independent filmmaker and collaborator of Télévision Suisse Romande in Geneva and a member of the Swiss Film Board.
His work on Fellini’s film, The Satyricon, is beautifully detailed in an article by Giovanni Sorge titled A Swiss Analyst in Cinecittà: Peter Ammann Speaks of Fellini, Mastorna, Satyricon & Africa in Vol. 25:3 of the San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal.
Inspired by the work of Sir Laurens van der Post, whom he met in 1984, Dr. Ammann traveled throughout South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia where he made several documentary films on the Bushmen, including Spirits of the Rocks and Living in Two Worlds: Communication Between a White Healer & Her Black Counterparts.
At the request of psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Vera Bührmann, Dr. Ammann went to South Africa in 1990 to begin giving seminars and lectures at the Jung Centre in Cape Town which he still continues to this day. At the IAAP Congress in 2007, he organized workshops that brought together Jungian psychotherapists and traditional African healers.
In the February 2020 issue of the Journal of Analytical Psychology, a four-part series by Dr. Ammann, two other analysts and an African healer was published entitled, Encountering the other: Jungian analysts and traditional healers in South Africa. Videos of his dialogues in Cape Town are available on the Southern African Association of Jungian Analysts website.
This interview was recorded on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. It’s 01:21:59 long and 74.7 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. It’s also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. You can now listen to this episode on your Amazon Echo device. Simply say, “Alexa, play Speaking of Jung on Apple Podcasts (or on TuneIn).” Just be sure to pronounce Jung with a hard J.
SHOW NOTES
International School of Analytical Psychology Zürich, Switzerland
Field Film: Jung, Carl Gustav, 1925-1926, East Africa Produced/photographed by Helton Godwin “Peter” Baynes; available at the Library of Congress
Dialogue with Traditional Health Practitioners Establishing a dialogue between the South African Traditional Health Practitioners and Jungian Analysts
Cape Town 2007 The 17th Triannual Congress of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) took place in Cape Town, South Africa from August 12‑17, 2007. The theme of Journeys, Encounters: Clinical, Communal, Cultural was reflected in events and presentations throughout the week. The plenary presentations are printed in this volume, and a CD with all of the Congress presentations and numerous illustrations is included inside the back cover.
DVDS
Jungians Speaking: Conversations with Jungian Analysts in Zürich Luis Moris’ interview with Dr. Ammann at his home in Switzerland; entire series of DVDs available individually or as a set from Chiron Publications
Signposts of My Days, Stars of My Nights: 85th Birthday Lecture Peter Ammann’s personal homage to people whose imagination and intuition inspired him as well as many others: C.G. Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, Laurens van der Post, Winston Churchill, Federico Fellini, Pablo Casals, Vera Bührmann, Nomfundo Mlisa; please contact him directly to purchase
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Based on The Seed & the Sower by Laurens van der Post (see the Books section below)
Matter of Heart: The Extraordinary Journey of C.G. Jung Into the Soul of Man Includes footage of Laurens van der Post as well as Jung’s expedition in Africa
Satyricon Film by Federico Fellini
8 1/2 Film by Federico Fellini
BOOKS
The Psychology of C.G. Jung by Jolande Jacobi, Ph.D., Jungian analyst; Foreword by C.G. Jung
Federico Fellini: The Book of Dreams New Edition released in January 2020 on the occasion of Fellini’s 100th birthday
Federico Fellini: The Book of Dreams First American Edition published in 2008
The Seed & the Sower by Laurens van der Post
Jung & the Story of Our Time by Laurens van der Post
Jung in Africa by Blake Burleson
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung
The Collected Works of C.G. Jung
Living in Two Worlds: Communication Between a White Healer & Her Black Counterparts by Vera Bührmann, Ph.D., Jungian analyst
Marie-Louise von Franz Amazon Author Page
ARTICLES
Encountering the Other: Jungian Analysts & Traditional Healers in South Africa by Peter Ammann, Fred Borchardt, Nomfundo Mlisa, and Renee Ramsden; Journal of Analytical Psychology, 2020, Vol. 65:1, 198-205
A Swiss Analyst in Cinecittà: Peter Ammann Speaks of Fellini, Mastorna, Satyricon & Africa San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, 2006, Vol. 25:3, 74-94
In Memoriam: Ian Player by Margaret Phillips Johnson; Psychological Perspectives, 2015, Vol. 58:2, 122-123
Music & Melancholy: Marsilio Ficino’s Archetypal Music Therapy Journal of Analytical Psychology, 1998, Vol. 43, 571-588
FILMS
Marie-Louise von Franz: Bollingen 1982
Laurens van der Post: The Bushmen & Their Stories
Healing in Two Worlds: Jungian Psychotherapists Encounter African Traditional Healers
Living in Two Worlds: Communication Between a White Healer and Her Black Counterparts
Spirits of the Rocks (South Africa, Botswana & Namibia)
Hlonipa: Journey Into Wilderness
Films & DVDs by Peter Ammann List on the Mercurius Prize website
LAURA’S LINKS
Lenny Foster’s Gallery One Forty Four Contemporary fine art photography gallery in St. Augustine, Florida
Fellini: Considering the Ideal Blog post by Ep. 52 guest Norman Buckley; “I want to suggest to modern man a road of inner liberation, to accept and love life the way it is without idealizing it, without creating concepts about it, without projecting oneself into idealized images on a moral or ethical plane. I want to try to give back to man a virginal availability, his innocence as he had in childhood.”
Amazon Online Shopping You can help support Speaking of Jung ~ at no extra cost to you! ~ just by shopping online at Amazon.com after clicking on any of our Amazon links
Online Video Courses Offered by the Jung Society of Washington, D.C.; includes four courses with Jungian analyst James Hollis, Ph.D. and three courses with writing instructor Susan Tiberghien
This episode is dedicated to the brilliant photographer Lenny Foster