The enchanted unconscious, impasses, negotiation and surrender: Jeremy Safran in dialogue with the Rebbes of Ishbitz/Radzin

Dr. Jeremy Safran had a unique talent to seamlessly weave together clinical work with his broad knowledge of philosophy, history, and theology. Alongside his commitment to researching the minutest clinical interactions, he was conscious of the broad values of the nature of the good life that underpinned his analytic approach. This paper will explore the concepts of the enchanted unconscious, clinical impasses, negotiation, and surrender, suggesting that these concepts together provide insight into Safran’s larger philosophy of life. It will then provide the approach to these concepts of the Rebbes of Ishbitz/Radzin, a school of Polish Hasidic thought. It will conclude with an exploration of how both Safran’s psychoanalytic approach and the Ishbitz/Radzin Rebbes’ Hasidic approach to the Torah provide distinct insights and applications of these concepts, which can be mutually enriching for both disciplines.