History of SAAJA

Birth of SAAJA

In 1991, an anonymous donor made possible the purchase of a house as a permanent home for the C.G. Jung Centre on Linray Road in Rosebank. Laurens van der Post formally opened the building on 29 October 1991, and planted a Ginkgo Biloba tree in the garden to commemorate the auspicious occasion.

In March 1992, Dr. Thomas Kirsch visited South Africa, and assessed the first group of candidates for final qualification. Eight candidates of the first 13 applied, and at the IAAP conference in Chicago in August of the same year, they were accepted as IAAP members. They were: Carole Abramovitz, Rod Anderson, Dr. Astrid Berg, Stephen Bloch, Dr. Bruce Lakie, Renee Ramsden, Dr. David Trappler and Gerald Stonestreet. Along with the other already qualified analysts, Dr. Joan Anderson, Dr. Vera Bührmann, Julian David, Dr. Gerwin Davis, Dr. Peter Reid and Patrick Tummon the Southern African Association of Jungian Analysts (SAAJA) was formed. Over the next two years this group of 14 analysts created the formal structures of the new organisation. (See the SAAJA constitution, and ethics document.)

Brief overview of developments in SAAJA

The period from 1992 – 1994 was a transitional period, prior to SAAJA being granted training status by the IAAP, therefore assistance from overseas visitors for selection of new candidates was still required. In May 1992, Dr. J Groesbeek came to South Africa to assess potential candidates for acceptance into the new training programme. At this time six candidates were selected – Lyn Adamson (Cook), Ian Donald, Dr. Peter Hodson, Dr. Tony Kelly, Dr. Gill Mudie, Fernand Schaub.

1992

Dr. Avi Bauman and Dr. Mara Sidoli were visiting analysts who offered workshops and lectures to professionals and the public.

1994 – 1996

First Presidents of SAAJA were appointed: Dr. Gerwin Davis and Gerald Stonestreet (joint presidents). Gerwin resigned in 1995 after six months. Dr. Mario Jacobi and Barbara Stevens Sullivan were visiting analysts in 1994/95.

1995

SAAJA was granted training status at the IAAP Zurich Congress. At the same congress, four more candidates – Lesley Clark, Ian Donald, Dr. Ian McCallum, and Dr. Tony Teggin – graduated as analysts. Two more candidates, Dr. Peter Hodson, Dr. Tony Kelly, graduated that same year, this time through SAAJA’s own training programme.
SAAJA independently selected their first training group: Dr. Paul Ashton, Sheila Cowburn, Joy Jobson, Dr. Chris Milton, Colleen Smith, Catherine van Dyk, and Annalise von Schach.
Zurich-trained analyst Elizabeth Martiny became a member of SAAJA and settled in Gauteng.

1996 – 1998

Second President of SAAJA: Dr. David Trappler.

1998 – 2003

Third President of SAAJA: Dr Astrid Berg. Astrid was also a member of the IAAP Executive Committee from 1998 to 2007 and served as Vice President for the last three years of her term during which she was also chair of the Academic Sub-Committee.

1999

The following candidates graduated: Dr. Paul Ashton, Lyn Adamson (Cook), Sheila Cowburn, Joy Jobson, Dr. Chris Milton, Dr. Gill Mudie, Fernand Schaub, Colleen Smith, Catherine van Dyk, and Annalise von Schach.

2000

The following candidates were selected for the next four year course: Fred Borchardt, Dr. Philippa Colinese, Caroll Faull, Grace Reid and Dr. Annette Wessels.

2003 – 2008

Fourth President of SAAJA: Rod Anderson

2004

Fred Borchardt, Dr. Philippa Colinese, Caroll Faull, Grace Reid and Dr. Annette Wessels graduated.

Dr. John Gosling, who was originally from South Africa but who relocated to New York in 1982 and trained at the C.G. Jung Institute of New York, returned to settle in Cape Town.

2005

Two new candidates were selected for training: Dr. Ester Haumann and Dr. Helise le Roux. Leslie Zimmermann qualified as an analyst in Zurich, joined SAAJA membership soon afterwards and settled in Gauteng.

2007

The XVII International Congress for Analytical Psychology was held in Cape Town.

2007/8

Marian Campbell and Dain Peters commenced their training and joined the existing group of candidates.

2008 – 2011

Fifth President of SAAJA: Dr. Peter Hodson.

2009

Dr. Ester Haumann and Dr. Helise le Roux graduated.

2010

Distance Training Programme Initiated
In 2010, SAAJA decided to embark on a distance training programme, an innovative new training programme that allowed those not resident in Cape Town to participate in the training. The programme attracted a sizeable group of candidates – Fiona Geddes, Lindy Greyvenstein, Marita de Wet, Dr. Loura Griessel, Alan Fourie, Gary Read, Jolita Jansen van Rensenburg, and Dr. Pauline Close – most of whom are currently in the last stages of their training. Lindy unfortunately had to resign from the programme due to health reasons.

2011

Marian Campbell and Dain Peters graduated.

2011 – 2015

Sixth President of SAAJA: Dr. John Gosling.

2013

Dr. Suzan Hojdar from Gauteng who trained as an Individual Router through IAAP graduated at the IAAP Conference in Copenhagen and was accepted as a SAAJA member. Mariaan Nielson from Gauteng is continuing her training as an Individual Router through IAAP.

2015

The final year of John Gosling’s presidency of SAAJA saw several significant changes take place for the organization.

• We welcomed the next group of candidates into the training programme, which had been successfully converted by the Curriculum and Assessment and Review Committees from weekly evening seminars into training weekends taking place every six weeks. This made it possible to accommodate training candidates from other parts of the country and the continent.
• The new candidates were: Denise Grobbelaar, Charlotte Hoffmann, Austin Smith, Melanie Silove, Nici Partridge, Juju Soga, Julie Manegold, Margaret Poynton.
• Johann Graaff, a Zurich-trained analyst who qualified in 2014, was accepted as a SAAJA member. Alan Fourie and Jolita Jansen van Rensenburg graduated.
• A major re-visioning and modification of our physical space took place. The library, previously housed in an outside room, was moved into the main room of the Centre, and the out-building demolished, to make way for the creation of five parking bays and two indigenous trees.
• The resulting library/meeting room was transformed into a warm, welcoming space where training seminars and other activities could take place. This new space was named The Jean Albert Library in honor of our original and long-serving librarian, and a plaque was installed to commemorate this acknowledgement of her.
• SAAJA initiated the Jung and Film Evenings programme, an initiative created by Renee Ramsden, John Gosling, and Fernand Schaub. These evenings of excellent catering by Janis of Lush Foods, a film, and lively discussions based on notes written by the analyst facilitators, quickly gained popularity in an interested public and professional audience.
• The Curriculum Committee completed SAAJA’s original history document, which can be found on the relevant page of this website.
• SAAJA’s website was redesigned and updated.
• The audio/visual equipment was upgraded to improve the quality of our presentations.
• Participation via Skype was offered for meetings and seminars
• An inverter system was installed to ensure continuity despite load shedding.
• Stephen Bloch and Marian Campbell published chapters in an international book project edited by Michael Eigen (For further details see website, under Resources, Publications).
• An extensive outreach programme in disadvantaged primary schools and their communities, the Expressive Sandwork Project, was coordinated and implemented by John Gosling and Philippa Colinese. Further information on this initiative is available on the website.

2016

The first year of Fred Borchardt’s presidency focused on how to step into the technology age, and how to stay relevant in the post-colonial world of social media.

• To this end, SAAJA-sponsored events more frequently that took place in a webinar format, enabling us to present international speakers such as James Hollis and Luigi Zoja.
• In keeping with an increasing international focus, several members attended the 2016 International Association of Analytical Psychologists (IAAP) Congress in Kyoto, Japan. John Gosling presented a combined paper by him and Ester Haumann: “Making a Decision about the Use of Telecommunications in Distance Training: Moving Towards the Transformation of Institutional Culture”. He also presented feedback to the IAAP grant committee on the Expressive Sandwork Project taking place in disadvantaged primary schools on the Cape flats.
• Through SAAJA’s association with the South African Psychoanalytic Confederation (SAPC), John Gosling and Philippa Colinese presented a paper at the SAPC congress on SAAJA’s Expressive Sandwork project.
• Collaboration with the Associate Professional Member’s Group in Gauteng continued.
• Another significant SAAJA outreach programme began, with the establishment of the Traditional Health Practitioner’s (THP) dialogue group by several SAAJA analysts and African Traditional Healers. The aim of this project is an ongoing engagement with traditional healers, to find common ground between Traditional Health Practitioners and Jungian Analysts. More detailed information can be found under ‘Projects’ on the website.
• We welcomed three new analysts who graduated from SAAJA’s training programme: Marita de Wet, Loura Griessel and Fiona Geddes.
• Sadly, we suffered the loss of two of our founder members: Gerwin Davis (June 2016) and Patrick Tummon (August 2016) (See our ‘In Memoriam’ page on the website).

2017

This was a year of coming of age: SAAJA moved from its origins as a small informal group, into a publicly-recognized organization.

• SAAJA was formally registered as an NPO.
• The calendar of SAAJA’s AGM and organizational year was shifted to correspond with the financial year, moving the AGM from November to May.
• Fred Borchardt presented the three recommendations for an organization to remain in healthy functioning: 1) work toward inclusivity and unity, 2) run the administrative aspects well, and 3) support the creation and efficient functioning of creative projects to add interest and energy.
• With these recommendations in mind, SAAJA saw progress on all fronts. A new administrative assistant position was created and filled, the Public Programme was re-energized by new leadership from Renee Ramsden and John Gosling (who introduced livestreaming to venues inside and outside SA), Grace Reid joined the Film Evenings following Fernand Schaub’s move to Bulgaria, the trainers of the volunteers in the Sandwork Project received international accreditation, and outdoor furniture was purchased to facilitate larger attendance at events hosted at the Centre.
• Another big event in 2017 was the IAJS conference, which was well attended by SAAJA members. Several of our members, candidates and associate members presented at the conference, and SAAJA co-sponsored the welcome cheese and wine event.
• A Jungian presence in Harare was working well. Thanks to donations by SAAJA members and others, the Harare Jung group now have a library of more than 400 books, and they meet on a regular basis to discuss Jungian Psychology.
• The Curriculum Committee organized a successful online and in-person Open Day, for welcoming and informing interested members of the public about our training and other programmes.
• The redesign of the new SAAJA website continued, with a new understanding of the importance of an online presence.
• With the increased record-keeping required by our new status as an NPO came a further realization of the responsibilities of functioning as a complex organization in post-colonial South Africa. Conversations about further outreach, offering low-fee analysis, greater participation in the SAPC, and re-organizing of the training and certification of analysts began to take place.
• 2017 was the last time our AGM was held in November. Following our switch to have the AGM correspond with the financial year, our next AGM was therefore scheduled for May 2019.

2018

• We successfully changed our CPD accreditor from the UCT psychiatry department to the UFS psychology department.
• The current candidate group completed the didactic portion of their training in November, and applications for a new intake of candidates were invited for 2019.
• SAAJA employed an IT assistant to increase the professional performance of online attendance at SAAJA events.
• The monthly initiative, “Let’s Talk Jung”, making use of material supplied by Centrepoint, was begun by Marita de Wet, and attracted enthusiastic therapists and members of the interested public.
• The Ethics Committee took an active role in revising the procedure for processing ethical matters. The Committee also expanded its mandate from only disciplinary matters, to providing support to members and candidates in decision-making about ethical concerns.
• Following an injection of funding from the Susan Bach Foundation, the Sandwork Project expanded to Blomvlei Primary School, using a combination of newly trained and more experienced volunteers.
• The Traditional Healers Project conducted a phenomenally successful second conference in November at the Monkey Valley Conference Centre in Noordhoek. We conceived this as a small beginning, a small group of people from both disciplines who could get to know, and thus to trust each other, and thus create new pathways towards mutual respect between our healing traditions.
• The Jung and Film Evenings remained very poplar, taking place six times a year.
• Mantis Weekend took place making use of advertising on Facebook for the first time.

2019

This was the year our organizational calendar changed to correspond with the financial year. For the first time, the AGM was held in May, rather than November.

This year also saw a continued focus on three major organizational challenges: 1) To fulfill our regulatory obligations as an NPO; 2) To meet the increased administrative workload, including the provision of CPD points to attendees of our events; and 3) To become and remain relevant in modern South Africa.

• SAAJA welcomed three new analysts: Margaret Poynton, Gary Read, and Pauline Close.
• Following the death of Bruce Lakie, we held a memorial gathering and remembered his contributions as a founding member of SAAJA. (see link in In Memorium page).
• The requirements of our status as an NPO initiated changes in how SAAJA recorded and reported on meetings. We sharpened our processes of documenting changes in office bearers and committee members. All financial statements were prepared by an accountant and are open to scrutiny, as are the minutes of our meetings.
• The A&R Committee accepted six new candidates into the training, to begin their training programme in February 2019. These candidates are: Carmella Bonita-Atwood, Fawn Daniels, Mitchell Gates, Felicity van der Ruit, Konrad van Staden, Elizabeth Vos.
• The Curriculum Committee hosted a closure lunch for the previous group of candidates, during which the candidates donated a Spekboom tree to SAAJA’s garden.
• A successful Mantis Weekend took place and was well attended..
• The Public Programme presented a rich and varied programme of public lectures, including international speakers Julian David and Peter Ammann. All these lectures are posted and available on the SAAJA website, as well as on our Facebook page. The Public Programme Committee also offered several enriching Saturday workshops.
• The African Traditional Healers dialogue group continued its work following the November 2018 conference, which featured prominently in the preparation of a report on the initiative presented at a plenary session at the IAAP Congress in Vienna, August 2019.
• In July 2019 SAAJA presented a workshop on the crossover between Traditional Health Practitioners and psychotherapy, by Nompumelelo Kubeka and Vella Maseko.
• The Journal Club and the Durbanville-based reading groups continued to meet monthly.
• A record number of SAAJA members, eleven, attended the IAAP Congress in Vienna, August 25-30. The theme of the Congress, “Encountering the Other, Within us, Between Us, and in the World,” was especially relevant to current issues in South Africa. SAAJA was asked by the IAAP President to present our thoughts at a panel on diversity at the Congress.
• SAAJA’s Traditional Health Practitioners (THP) dialogue group presented their work in a plenary session of the Congress, titled “Encountering the Other: Jungian analysts and Traditional Healers in South Africa.” This presentation included contributions from analysts and traditional healers and received a standing ovation from the audience. The presentation included video excerpts from the two conferences of the THP dialogue group and was later produced in DVD form by Peter Amman of Zurich. The presentation was also published in the February 2020 edition of the Journal of Analytical Psychology.
• A Diversity Working Group was created to discuss in monthly meetings ongoing issues related to diversity in SAAJA.
• Philippa Colinese and John Gosling facilitated a sold-out pre-conference workshop based on the Expressive Sandwork Project, which was enthusiastically received. They also presented the results of their small research pilot study on the outcome of the Expressive Sandwork intervention in Hanover Park, which was also v well received.
• The Expressive Sandwork Project continued to offer several programmes in the underserved area of Hanover Park.
• SAAJA continued its collaborative support of the Associate Professional Member Group in Gauteng.
• The Jung and Film group continued to present six well attended films plus discussions during the year.
• SAAJA also sadly lost a member, Fernand Schaub, who passed away in October 2019, in Bulgaria. (See our In Memoriam)

2020

2020 was overshadowed by the Covid pandemic. As a result, the AGM was postponed to June.

Fred Borchardt completed his term as president and Ester Haumann assumed the position of president of SAAJA.

• SAAJA welcomed three new members: Denise Grobbelaar, Charlotte Hoffman, and Austin Smith.
• Upon commencement of the strict lockdown in late March, SAAJA activities successfully migrated to the Zoom format, including the Public Program Analytical Lecture Series, the Journal Club, the Durbanville Reading Group, as well as the Jung and Film evenings.
• For the first time, seminars on Traditional Health Practices and Psychotherapy were offered by Traditional Health Practitioners, Ms Maseko and Kubeka, to SAAJA candidates as a part of the training programme.
• In August 2020, SAAJA established a Social Media Committee to redesign the website and to increase SAAJA’s presence on Instagram and Facebook. This resulted in a creative and inspiring cluster of offerings on Analytical Psychology to the public, which is still continuing.
• Our founder Librarian, Jean Albert, passed away peacefully on 5th August. Condolences from colleagues and friends were added to her Obituary on the website.
• SAAJA continued its collaborative support of the Associate Professional Member Group in Gauteng.
• The Mantis Weekend successfully migrated to Zoom in October, offering a stimulating series of seminars.
• Unfortunately, the Expressive Sandwork Project could not migrate to Zoom, and had to be suspended due to Covid restrictions until it can be safely resumed, hopefully soon.
• The Jung and Film group continued to present six well attended films plus discussions via Zoom during the year.

2021

Ester Haumann welcomed two new graduates of SAAJA, Melanie Silove and Nici Partridge. We also welcomed Peter Ammann as an honorary member of SAAJA, in recognition of how his work for SAAJA through the years has contributed to the functioning and legacy of our organization. We are particularly grateful for his initiating the dialogue between Traditional Health Practitioners and Jungian analysts in 2016, which is still on-going.

Moving all our activities online to Zoom certainly has had drawbacks and we missed contact with our colleagues, but it also brought unexpected benefits. It has been an equalizer of membership meetings, enabling greater participation from membership in other areas in South Africa, Africa, and abroad. It has been helpful for our budget to be able to save on venue expenses for our events.

• In terms of our Public Program presentations, Mantis Week, and Jung and Film, we were able to create profitable Zoom seminars with hard work and dedication from our different committees. Attendance at these events was facilitated through the work of our social media committee, who excelled in forming media platforms on Facebook and Instagram that advertised all the events. The Curriculum Committee managed to continue the training programme on Zoom. Marita “bridged the gap” by her support of presenters at every Zoom seminar, which was a huge task. The Assessment and Review Committee also continued their work via Zoom.
• After the Library had been closed during lockdown, our librarian, Debra, managed its opening in October 2020, with all necessary Covid safety measures in place.
• Our website committee has matured into a new Media Committee, chaired by Renee Ramsden.
• The Traditional Healer project presented an online workshop run by Vella and Nomumelelo, as part of the last training weekend in November 2020. Vella Maseko and Nompumelelo Kubeka, were invited by SAAJA to teach our candidates on African Traditional Healing in South Africa. Their specific focus was the Worldview of Abantu, core beliefs and spiritual practices, and the process of Ukuthwasa.
• Fred Borchardt chaired our Diversity Group where readings are used as a means to discuss issues about diversity. At the beginning of this year a small group of SAAJA members also formed a Transformation Task Team to consider how SAAJA may be repositioned within the current South African context to expand membership to be more inclusive and diverse.
• Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all Expressive Sandwork projects had to be placed on hold. The project will hopefully continue in 2022.

2022

This was our third AGM online, since a new wave of Covid made meeting in-person impossible.

• We welcomed our new graduate, Julie Manegold.
• SAAJA paid respect to Julian David, who died in September 2021. He was the first analyst of the first training group in SAAJA. He started offering analysis in January 1989, and continued his support of SAAJA and the Gauteng group on an annual basis for the next 30 years.
• Astrid represented SAAJA at the UCT symposium about Vera Buhrmann and responded to Andre Landman’s paper on behalf of SAAJA.
• Due to new rules for CPD accreditation, SAAJA needed to find a new CPD provider. John Gosling and Jolita Jansen van Rensenburg did a sterling job of eventually finding a new provider in Wits University.
• A&R: During the year the professional body of SAAJA voted in favour of broadening the criteria for application to the training. Specifically, this involved allowing prospective candidates with a four year degree, essentially an Honours degree, to apply for the training. This was instituted to enable persons in the nursing profession and counselling psychologists to be eligible for admission to the training.
• Curriculum: The first training weekend in February 2022 was a joyous occasion when candidates met in person after two years on Zoom. Unfortunately, in anticipation of the fourth wave of Covid infections, training reverted to the Zoom platform for the June weekend.
• Mantis seminars were again offered on the online platform and comprised 5 seminars
• Public Programme ran a successful series of lectures – this programme will remain online in future. Public Program lectures were well attended thanks to the marketing efforts of the media committee.
• Jung and Film continued to offer six well-attended online film evenings. The film evenings now regularly attract several attendees outside of Cape Town and South Africa.
• Media Committee’s focus has been to get our online shop functioning. The shop will replace the function of the Mantis Journal, since our seminars and lectures will be published online in the form of edited zoom recordings.
• Our Social Media group have posted 157 additional posts in 2022, with our total posts since the launch standing at 444. The number of people who follow our Facebook page increased from 1061 to 1328. Instagram’s following increased from 2040 to 3621.
• The Traditional Health Practitioners and Jungian Analysts Dialogue held a third in person conference in March 2022 at Mont Fleur in Stellenbosch, thanks to a generous donation from the Susan Bach Foundation; we hosted a lecture and workshop presented by Vella Maseko and Nompumelelo Kubeka, exploring the destruction of traditional Indigenous belief systems through the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1957; we welcomed two members of the Khoisan community into our group.
• Expressive Sandwork: On 12th April 2022 an Expressive Sandwork project was launched at Blomvlei Primary School. This is the first project to be set up since schools were closed due to Covid in 2020. The next project will start in the third term of 2022 at Parkfields Primary. Both schools are in Hanover Park.
• The SAAJA Diversity working group was established to consciously examine strategies and make proposals to SAAJA membership to facilitate greater diversity within the organization. In June 2021 SAAJA had a formal discussion with the Psychoanalytic Groups about their diversity structures. In February 2022 there was a discussion with Sally Schwartz, where SAAJA members were invited to reflect on the history of the organization against the context of the racist history of the country. In March 2022, there was a lecture by Wahbie Long, which examined the structural racism inherent in SA society as well as ways to address this.
• GAPMG in discussion with SAAJA modified the GAPMG’s mission and SAAJA’s Conditions of Membership in a meeting in May 2022. It was also suggested that all current Associate Professional Candidate Members (APCM’s) become full Associate Professional Members from June 2022, due to their long-standing participation and active commitment to GAPMG’s activities.
• Zimbabwe Group: recently this group graduated from the status of ‘Reading group’ into a more formalised structure with a committee and a constitution. This structure is more in line with the Status of a ‘Society’ rather than a ‘Reading group’. By consolidating the structure of the Jung group in Zimbabwe we aim to help this group grow and shape itself into a Society that serves the needs of its members in Zimbabwe.

Relationships to other organizations

International Association of Analytical Psychology (IAAP)

When SAAJA was constituted in 1992 it became a member group of IAAP. According to the IAAP constitution, the eight positions on the Executive Committee (EC) for each three year administrative term are filled by group members who are elected by IAAP Membership at the tri-annual IAAP conference. In 1998 SAAJA was elected for this position and re-elected in 2001 for a second term. The representative from SAAJA for these two terms was Astrid Berg. At the end of her two terms as representative, she was elected for a further term as one of the two Vice-Presidents of the IAAP in 2004. She was responsible for the organization of the 17th World Congress of the IAAP which was held in Cape Town in August 2007. In 2010 and 2013 SAAJA was once again elected to serve on the EC, the representative for these two terms was Fred Borchardt.

The South African Psychoanalytic Confederation (SAPC)

The SAPC was launched on 22nd November 2009. SAAJA was an integral part of this Confederation from its beginnings, first represented by Astrid Berg, followed by Dain Peters and subsequently an additional member, Fred Borchardt.

Gauteng Developing Group (DG) and Associate Professional Membership (of SAAJA) Group (GAPMG)

Interest in Jung in Gauteng was initiated by Mario Schiess (who died in 1998, in photo left) in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He was a playwright and friend of Ian Player, with a deep commitment to Wilderness experiences. He promoted Jung through dream workshops, television and radio programmes in collaboration with Peter Ammann. From this impetus grew the Gauteng Developing Group, assisted by Helmut von Schach, and nurtured by Elizabeth Martiny, a Zurich-trained analyst who has been resident in Gauteng since 1995. This group officially was given Developing Group (DG) status by the IAAP in 1999. In mid-1998 Fernand Schaub moved to Gauteng, where he lived and worked for the next 12 years, after which he returned to Cape Town. In 2013, Dr Suzan Hojdar, who had been a member of the DG for many years, qualified as a Jungian analyst via IAAP’s Individual Router Programme. That same year, with SAAJA’s distance training programme having been established in 2010, the IAAP withdrew the Individual Router programme from South Africa. SAAJA then became the umbrella body for further development of the study of Jung in Gauteng. Since 2014 the DG has become the Gauteng Associate Professional Membership (of SAAJA) Group (GAPMG). A training programme for this group of interested professionals was worked out by the GAPMG in liaison with SAAJA.