In this episode, I’m joined by Elisabeth Schilling for a slow, careful conversation about Eros—not as romance or scandal, but as a force that shaped the early history of psychoanalysis itself. Using A Dangerous Method as a starting point, we explore Carl Jung’s relationships with Sabina Spielrein and Toni Wolff, and the ethical, psychological, and relational tensions that emerge when desire enters spaces meant for healing, learning, and transformation. We talk about transference and countertransference before they were fully theorized, about intimacy before professional boundaries were clearly named, and about how early analysts struggled to hold erotic energy without being overtaken by it. This is not an episode offering verdicts or moral simplifications. Instead, it’s an attempt to sit with paradox: how Eros animates creativity and depth, how it destabilizes certainty, and why the frame—in therapy, academia, and relationships—matters precisely because Eros is real. Along the way, we reflect on monogamy and polyamory as relational architectures, the danger of spiritualizing desire, the cost of boundary violations, and what Jung’s unfinished struggles still teach us about intimacy, responsibility, and human limitation. This conversation is for listeners interested in depth psychology, ethics, and the complex terrain where desire, care, and power intersect.
