We are pleased to bring a portrait of Sonu Shamdasai who has been interviewed by Emilija Kiehl.

Sonu Shamdasani was welcomed as an Honorary Member of IAAP at the XXIII International Congress of Analytical Psychology held in August of this year in Zurich. This distinction marks official recognition of his profound and influential contributions to the understanding of Jungian thought and the evolution of analytical psychology across time and cultures.

It is my great pleasure and honour to present Professor Shamdasani in the Spotlight of this issue.
Emilija Kiehl

EK: Congratulations on your Honorary Membership of IAAP, and thank you for finding the time in your very busy schedule for a short-notice interview for the Bulletin.

SS: You are welcome.

EK: Your work is widely known and respected within the Jungian community and beyond.  It would be interesting for our readers to find out about Sonu Shamdasani, the author. Let’s go back in time. Tell us about your background; how did it all begin?

SS: My family were part of the post-partition Sindhi diaspora. I was born in Singapore, and we came to England when I was six, where I have been ever since.

EK:  You came across Jung’s work as a young man,…

SS: I first heard mention of Jung – together with Nietzsche and Heraclitus – when I was travelling in India in my teens. Trying to read the fragments of Heraclitus and Thus Spoke Zarathustra led me to study philosophy at Bristol. The first work of Jung’s that I read was his “Commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower.” I was taken by this, as it opened the vista of a middle way between Eastern mysticism and Western rationality. It was also the first work of psychology that I encountered. The dissertations I wrote for my philosophy degree were on synchronicity, and on the relation of archetype theory to Chomsky’s linguistics. I was fortunate to have tutors that let me explore these topics.

EK: Your interest in Jung continued, and many years later, you discovered Liber Novus…. 

Click HERE to read Emilija Kiehl’s full presentation of Sonu Shamdasani.