C.G. JUNG, J.J. HONEGGER, AND THE CASE OF EMIL SCHWYZER (THE ‘SOLAR PHALLUS’ MAN)

The case of Emil Schwyzer, a.k.a. the ‘Solar-Phallus Man’, was foundational in giving shape to Jung’s early reflections on the concept of the collective unconscious. In 1906 Schwyzer identified a tail of light coming off the sun as a phallus, which Jung interpreted as a particularly important example of ‘the fantasies or delusions of…patients…[being] paralleled in mythological material of which they knew nothing’ (Bennet 1985:69). This was because it represented not only a single mythological symbol or idea that Schwyzer could not have known but an entire passage from an ancient document known as the Mithras Liturgy. According to Jung, Schwyzer’s ‘vision’ also paralleled a rare theme in Medieval art. Jung’s student J.J. Honegger gave a paper on the Schwyzer case at the March 1910 Second Psychoanalytic Congress in Nuremberg. In it he again discussed Schwyzer’s description of the light tail on the sun but especially his concept of a Ptolemaic flat earth. Relying largely on archival material not previously discussed, the present article provides a history of the Schwyzer case along with a thoroughgoing evaluation of what Jung and Honegger made of it. KEYWORDS J.J. Honegger, Emil Schwyzer, ‘Solar-Phallus Man’, Mithras Liturgy, Collective unconscious, Inherited ideas, Hortus Conclusus.

Perfect Sampling of Hawkes Processes and Queues with Hawkes Arrivals

In this paper we develop to our best knowledge the first perfect sampling algorithm for queues with Hawkes input (i.e., single-server queues with Hawkes arrivals and independent and identically distributed service times of general distribution). In addition to the stability condition, we also assume the excitation function of the Hawkes process has a light tail and the service time has finite moment-generating function in the neighborhood of the origin. In this procedure, we also propose a new perfect sampling algorithm for Hawkes processes with improved computational efficiency compared with the existing algorithm. Theoretical analysis and numerical tests on the algorithms’ correctness and efficiency are also included.

A cryptic new species of hummingbird of the Campylopterus largipennis complex (Aves: Trochilidae)

A new species of Campylopterus sabrewing is described from eastern Brazilian tropical dry forests occurring below 900 m asl. Its holotype (MZUSP 99024) is an adult female from Sítio Duboca (16°43’19’’S, 43°58’20’’W, elevation 840 m), municipality of Montes Claros, state of Minas Gerais. A taxonomic revision based on more than 1,000 museum specimens revealed that the new taxon, together with C. largipennis, C. diamantinensis and C. obscurus (with C. aequatorialis considered as a subjective junior synonym) should be ranked as species. We provide a key to permit easy identification of the four species. The new species is very similar to the parapatric C. diamantinensis of high altitude “campos rupestres” above 1,000 m asl, differing from it by its smaller size and longer light tail tips, as well as by sternum measurements. Given the several threats faced by the habitat to which the new species is endemic, we propose to consider it as Vulnerable under the IUCN criteria.

Shape theorems for Poisson hail on a bivariate ground

We consider an extension of the Poisson hail model where the service speed is either 0 or ∞ at each point of the Euclidean space. We use and develop tools pertaining to sub-additive ergodic theory in order to establish shape theorems for the growth of the ice-heap under light tail assumptions on the hailstone characteristics. The asymptotic shape depends on the statistics of the hailstones, the intensity of the underlying Poisson point process, and on the geometrical properties of the zero speed set.