The Red Book Dialogues: Philosopher Cornel West and Analyst Ann Ulanov

WNYC Culture
Author: Miranda Shafer

Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Ann Belford Ulanov  recently discussed Jung’s unconscious mind for the Red Book Dialogues series at the Rubin Museum of Art. As the author of Race Matters, West is known as one of America’s most provocative public intellectuals, but, the good doctor was left speechless by one of the images in Carl Jung’s Red Book. “I’m just dog pedaling in dark high water, because this thing is a mind-blowing image,” said West when he was given one of the two Red Book drawings by Dr. Ann Belford Ulanova.

The provocative images chosen by Ulanov (she and West were colleagues at Union Theological Seminary) sparked a lively conversation between the two professors that covered jazz, religion, philosophy and West’s own battle with cancer. This discussion took place December 20. Ulanov is a psychoanalyst in private practice, a member of the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association, and the Christine Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary.

Talk To Me: The Doctor Gets Analyzed