Carl Jung: Travels through North Africa

    Carl Jung was a renowned Swiss psychologist, perhaps most widely known for his concept of the “collective unconscious”, and his other contributions to related fields. Carl Jung was a man who kept extensive diaries of his travels, such as his journey through Africa discussed in class.  Through his writing it can be observed that Jung traveled through Tunisia with an open mind in order to better understand both the people that lived there, that he considered very different, and in some way himself.  As with any normal person, he wasn’t successful in completely eliminating any bias from his thoughts, but his writing tells us of his self-awareness with regards to his own prejudice, and gives valuable insight to the differences between his European point of view, and how he perceives the natives.

    Jung travels through the Saharan countryside with his guide, and is intrigued with the different attitude present towards gender and sexuality. In the village where they stop, he notices the stark separation of genders present throughout. This is not to say that Europeans didn’t have segregation of genders in some aspects at the time, but we can tell that it wasn’t anywhere near the level present in the Arab tribes. Another aspect found to differ even more was that of male homosexuality. The Arabs openly allowed these relationships, at one point even offering Jung himself to take part. This of course came as a shock to Jung, who had probably never seen such behavior openly in Europe. Instead of allowing himself to be overcome with prejudice at the thought of what at that time Europeans must have considered a great taboo, Jung instead keeps his composure and allows the reader an almost unbiased view of a star contrast between the Middle East and Europe at the time. If anyone reading this is curious about the history of Homosexuality in the Middle East, I suggest they start by reading the following link.