Journal of Analytical Psychology 1991, 36, 241-244 OBITUARY NOTICE ELIE HUMBERT Err Humserr died on 15 September 1990, leaving us to our grief at the loss of a friend, one who had occupied a most important place in our Jungian activities, both in our French Society and as editor of our journal, Cahiers Jungien de Psychanalyse. He was a founder member of the Société Francaise de Psychologie Analytique in 1969, a project very close to his heart, since he had the privilege of knowing Jung and of having been in analysis with him, before he analysed with Maria Louise von Franz, and he was anxious to pass on to the new generation of analysts the ideas of Jung, which remained so alive and valued inside him, and which were central in all his reflections and to his continuing and fruitful quest. Refusing himself the comfort of established certitude, he gave a chance to everything that was a living source of renewal. Through his writings and lectures everybody was able to appreciate the fruits of his work and to follow him on his journeys; and, because his researches were rooted in his daily lived experience, they were felt as testifying to the kind of man that he was. Shortly before his death, continuing his long meditation on life, he was able to say ‘Tout cela doit avoir un sens’ (‘There must be a meaning in all this’), thus expressing how the experience of the self continued to make its way in him throughout his awareness of the deepening pain of his body. For Elie, as for Jung, meaning was seen to reside in the experience one dares to live. But we shall also remember Elie as the man who loved life intensely in all its forms, and who was always enthusiastically open to new encounters and new discoveries. Genevitve Guy-Gillet Exe G. Humperr died 15 September 1990. I first met Elie at a confer- ence in Quebec City in 1984. At the time, I had seen, but not yet read, his book Jung which had just appeared in France. At the conference, he spoke quite movingly of desire, relating that Lacanian concept to Jung’s ideas on the anima/animus, It was at this time that I first came to know Elie’s agility in getting to the essence of a concept and his 0021 ~874/91/02/241/$3.00/r © 1091 The Society of Analytical Psychology242 Obituary openness to the polyphony of experience and to the subtleties of ana- lytic concepts. It was at this chance meeting that I offered to translate his book into English as Elie had an interest in making it available to a broader audience. His enthusiasm for intellectual work was infectious. His sensitivity to matters psychological and his intellectual astuteness, which Jung had not failed to notice, invited listeners or participants to explore along with him. He trained with Jung himself, putting him into the category of first-generation analysts. What do we know of Elie Humbert the man? The French have a saying, from Buffon, Le style, est ’homme méme, (‘Style is the man’). What Elie left of himself, his spirit, is alive in his writings, even though the dialogue many of us had with him has been painfully interrupted. We are left with the memories of his manner, his way of questioning, the capacity to look and explore from different vantage points, in the best tradition of a phenomenologist and analyst. I observed on many occasions, as I struggled to translate particular passages of his, that his style had the elements of a haiku: conciseness, economy of expression, evocation of experience, and clarity of thought. His writing, like the man, was at once scientific and poetic. Any lack of clarity in ideas suggested far more the newness of exploration than inability on his part to think clearly. Concepts, as Kant tells us, can only be as clear as the subject matter will allow. Elie’s writing style has the effect of inviting dialogue, or, at the very least, reflection. The reader is called upon to make an effort to take up the subject matter at hand, to analyse, understand, probe, and remain open to personal experience that alone can give grounding to analytic ideas. Elie had the uncanny ability to find something new in any Jungian concept, such as the self, narcissism, dreams, active imagination, or animus/anima. He situated himself unmistakably in the Jungian tra~ dition, while extending the limits of its concepts, pointing to forgotten fragments or drawing out some of the therapeutic and theoretical implications of the ideas that we thought had already been thoroughly investigated and understood. His writings inevitably surprise and cast well-known ideas into a completely fresh light. Elie spoke with the authority of one who lived his convictions but he always remained open to other views. He exemplified the intrinsic marriage of self-knowledge and self-questioning. His concern was for a return to origins, beginnings, never taking anything for granted. When reviewing translations for publication, he frequently thought of another way to express an idea, confessing changes in his thinking, always to integrate more truthfully data that emerged from his self- scrutiny, clinical experience, and dialogue with others. His openness was the necessary consequence of his firm belief that the true natureObituary 243 of the psyche is found in the humblest of everyday experiences and not merely in the exceptional manifestations of the grand themes of. religion, myth, and folklore, though he remained sensitive to these as well. He guarded against resorting to facile interpretations of psychic phenomena and was judicious in his references to archetypal patterns, synchronistic phenomena, or genetic understanding of psychic material. Yet he did not hesitate to invoke any of these when appropri- ate. He was keenly aware that part of the strength of the Jungian approach was its appreciation of the importance of the irrational dimen- sion in human experience. The vision that he maintained was one that respected the entirety of Jung’s work, not one that favoured one part at the expense of another, the younger Jung for the later, the scientist Jung for the visionary, or the other way around. In discussions with him, one knew that he stood firmly in the Jungian tradition, and only in this way could one go beyond Jung’s discoveries, contributing from within the tradition and extending its frontiers. Elie was receptive to the cultural concerns of his day, particularly epistemological questions. He knew best how to ask questions, in the true Socratic fashion: the questions he raised were not intended merely to instruct but to reveal his self-questioning, which inspired and guided the way for those who struggled along with him. He became the spokesman for the French Jungian community having co-founded the Société Francaise de Psychologie Analytique in 1969 and established, in 1974, the Cahiers de Psychologie Jungienne (now known, since 1987, as the Cahiers Jungiens de Psychanalyse). He was a great teacher and an outstanding lecturer. He managed to write numer- ous articles and a book. Transcriptions of his conferences are due to be published in French in the not too distant future. His writings are not a replacement for the man so many of us knew and loved. At best they are but an aide-mémoire to the spirit that he embodied and an invitation to continue the work so dear to him and to Jungians. He thought clearly and well and with the heart, which gave depth to what he had to say. Jargon was brought in only if it clarified. He did not have a need to impress. One could no more remain indifferent to his warmth and graciousness as a human being than to the ideas that he elaborated. He had a good sense of humour, and displayed a joie de vivre in the best of French traditions. He did not hesitate to acknowledge the part that his wife, Myrtha—herself an established psychiatrist and clinician—played in the development of his work. He did not idealise Jung, but respected his accomplishments and continued the unfinished tasks of exploring the psyche where Jung left off. He was very encour- aging of dialogue with other analytic schools or other disciplines, but he was insistent on not losing or diluting Jungian thought by indiscriminately importing ideas from other schools without first244, Obituary having made sure that the Jungian framework did not allow for an accounting of the phenomenon in question. He wanted to preserve an epistemological consistency, but one that best did justice to experience. As I was returning from my last visit to Elie, just a few months before his death, I read a book entitled Awakening Osiris. There is something of this awakening, surely, that lies beyond the grieving that we who knew him well still have to do. Ronald G. Jalbert