Difference between revisions of "Carl Gustav Jung"

From No Subject - Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis
Jump to: navigation, search
 
m
Line 1: Line 1:
'''Carl Gustav Jung''' ([[July 26]], [[1875]] [[June 6]], [[1961]]) was a [[Swiss]] [[psychiatrist]] and founder of [[analytical psychology]].
+
'''Carl Gustav Jung''' (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss [[psychiatrist]] and founder of analytical [[psychology]].
  
 
== Introduction ==
 
== Introduction ==
Line 10: Line 10:
 
* [[Complex (psychology)|The Complex]]
 
* [[Complex (psychology)|The Complex]]
 
* [[Synchronicity]]
 
* [[Synchronicity]]
 
In addition, the popular [[Personality psychology|career test]] currently offered by high school and college career centers, the [[Myers-Briggs Type Indicator]], is entirely based upon Jung's theories.
 
 
==Jung's life==
 
Jung was born in Kesswil, in the Swiss canton of [[Thurgau]] on [[July 26]], [[1875]]. A very solitary [[introvert]]ed child, Jung was convinced from childhood that he had two personalities— a modern Swiss citizen, and a personality more at home in the eighteenth century. His father was a vicar, but, although Jung was close to both parents, he was rather disappointed in his father's academic approach to faith.  Jung wanted to study [[archaeology]] at university, but his family was too poor to send him further afield than [[Basel]], where they did not teach this subject, so instead Jung studied medicine at the [[University of Basel]] from  [[1894]]–[[1900]]. The formerly introverted student became much more lively here. Towards the end of studies here, his reading of [[Krafft-Ebbing]] persuaded him to specialise in psychiatric medicine. He later worked in the Burgholzi, a psychiatric hospital in [[Zurich]]. In [[1906]], he published ''The Psychology of Dementia Praecox'', and later sent a copy of this book to Freud, after which a close but brief friendship between these two men followed (see section on [[Carl Jung#Jung and Freud|Jung and Freud]]).
 
 
<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: [[Image:465px-Jung 1910.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Carl Jung around 1910, Source: Prints & Photographs Division Library of Congress]] -->
 
 
By [[1913]], however, especially after Jung had published ''Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido'' (known in English as ''The Psychology of the Unconscious'') their theoretical ideas had diverged so sharply that the two men fell out, each suggesting that the other was unable to admit he could possibly be wrong.  After this falling-out, Jung had some form of psychological transformative experience, exacerbated by news of the [[First World War]], which had a dire effect on Jung even in his own neutral [[Switzerland]]. [[Henri Ellenberger]] called Jung's experience a "creative illness" and compared it to Freud's period of what he called [[neurasthenia]] and [[hysteria]].
 
 
Following [[World War I]], Jung became a worldwide traveller, facilitated by the funds he realized through book sales, honoraria, and moneys received for sabbaticals from achieving seniority in the medical institutions at which he was employed.  He  visited Northern Africa shortly after, and [[New Mexico]] and [[Kenya]] in the mid-[[1920s]]. In [[1938]], he delivered the [[Terry Lectures]], ''Psychology and Religion'', at [[Yale University]]. It was at about this  stage in his life that Jung visited [[India]], and while there, had  dreams related to [[King Arthur]]. This convinced him that his agenda should be to  pay more attention to Western spirituality, and his later writings do show deep interests in Western mystery tradition and esoteric Christianity, and especially  [[alchemy]].
 
 
In [[1903]] Jung married [[Emma Rauschenbach]].  Together they had five children. Their marriage lasted until Emma's death in [[1955]], but certainly experienced emotional torments, brought about by Jung's relationships with women other than Emma. The most well-known women with whom Jung is believed to have had extramarital affairs are [[Sabina Spielrein]] and Toni Wolff. Jung continued to publish books until the end of his life, including a work showing his late interest in [[flying saucers]]. He also enjoyed a brief friendship with an English Catholic priest, Father Victor White, who corresponded with Jung after he had published his controversial study of the [[Book of Job]].
 
 
Jung died in 1961 in Zürich, Switzerland.
 
  
 
===Jung and Freud===
 
===Jung and Freud===
Line 62: Line 47:
  
 
However, unlike the quantifiable information that composes DNA (in the form of coded sequences of nucleotides), the collective unconscious is composed of archetypes.  In contrast to the objective material world, the subjective realm of archetypes can not be adequately understood through quantitative modes of research.  Instead it can only begin to be revealed through an examination of the symbolic communications of the human psyche&mdash;in art, [[dreams]], [[religion]], myth, and the themes of human relational/behavioral patterns.  Devoting his life to the task of exploring and understanding the collective unconscious, Jung discovered that certain symbolic themes exist across all cultures, all epochs, and in every individual.
 
However, unlike the quantifiable information that composes DNA (in the form of coded sequences of nucleotides), the collective unconscious is composed of archetypes.  In contrast to the objective material world, the subjective realm of archetypes can not be adequately understood through quantitative modes of research.  Instead it can only begin to be revealed through an examination of the symbolic communications of the human psyche&mdash;in art, [[dreams]], [[religion]], myth, and the themes of human relational/behavioral patterns.  Devoting his life to the task of exploring and understanding the collective unconscious, Jung discovered that certain symbolic themes exist across all cultures, all epochs, and in every individual.
 
===The shadow===
 
The shadow is an unconscious complex that is defined as the diametrical opposite of the conscious self, the ego. The shadow represents everything that the conscious person does not wish to acknowledge within themselves. For instance, someone who identifies as being kind has a shadow that is harsh or unkind. Conversely, an individual who is brutal has a kind shadow. The shadow of persons who are convinced that they are ugly appears to be beautiful.
 
 
The shadow is not necessarily good or bad. It simply counterbalances some of the one-sided dimensions of our personality.  Jung emphasized the importance of being aware of shadow material and incorporating it into conscious awareness. ''Otherwise we project these attributes onto others.''
 
 
The shadow in dreams is often represented by dark figures of the same gender as the dreamer, such as gangsters or prostitutes or beggars or liars.
 
 
===Anima and Animus===
 
Jung identified the [[Anima (Jung)|anima]] as being the unconscious feminine component of men and the animus as the unconscious masculine component in women.  (Many modern day Jungian practitioners believe that every person has both an anima and an animus).  Jung stated that the anima and animus act as guides to the unconscious unified Self, and that forming an awareness and a connection with the anima or animus is one of the most difficult and rewarding steps in psychological growth.  Jung reported that he identified his anima as she spoke to him, as an inner voice, unexpectedly one day.
 
 
Oftentimes, when people ignore the anima or animus complexes, the anima or animus vies for attention by projecting itself onto others.  This explains, according to Jung, why we are sometimes immediately attracted to certain strangers: we see our anima or animus in them.  Love at first sight is an example of anima and animus projection.  Moreover, people who strongly identify with their gender role (e.g. a man who acts aggressively and never cries) have not actively recognized or engaged their anima or animus.
 
 
==Psychological Types==
 
The often misunderstood terms [[extrovert]] and [[introvert]] derive from this work. In Jung's original usage, the extrovert orientation finds meaning outside the self, in the surrounding world, whereas the introvert is introspective and finds it within. Jung also identified four primary modes of experiencing the world: thought, feeling, sensation, and intuition. (He referred to these as the four functions.)  Broadly speaking, we tend to work from our most developed function, while we need to widen our personality by developing the others. Related to this, Jung noted that the [[unconscious]] often tends to reveal itself most easily through a person's least developed function.  The encounter with the unconscious and development of the underdeveloped function(s) thus tend to progress together.
 
 
Significant in Jung's theory is that "type preferences" are inborn and not socially constructed through interaction with the parents, family, culture and other external influences. Even so, the individual is impacted in the quality and strength of the development in her or his preferences. Nature ''and'' nurture are both at play. A supportive environment will support and facilitate inborn preference development; a contrary environment will impede or retard the natural development of inborn preferences. The research on the mental health problems of many left-handed children forced to be right-handed is not dissimilar to what often occurs for people "forced" into a non-preferred mode of personal orientation.
 
 
In the field of family systems theory, psychological type holds potential as another way to understand the internal conflicts and alliances within the family. Parents can often be seen to have concern about children who operate from type preferences different from theirs and run the risk of encouraging, and at times coercing, children into a false personality. As a child resists or naturally fails to adhere to the parental guidance, conflict readily occurs. "Type-alike" family members will naturally gravitate toward each other. One approach is to try to identify type preferences of all family members and to actively encourage those preferences, while training children, as well, in non-preferred functions.
 
 
===''Psychological Types'' &ndash; another view:===
 
Imagine a person (the subject) observing an object or event. For example, a house that he or she is considering buying. The introvert relates more to the subject – what would this house, as a home, do for their life experience? The extrovert relates more to the object – the house. What could be done with this particular building? The focus being on the building itself.
 
 
There are four psychological functions in Jung’s model: two rational functions (thinking and feeling), and two perceptive functions (sensation and intuition).
 
 
Sensation is the perception of facts. For example, "the house is well built", "it has a large garden", and "it is two miles from the shops."
 
 
Intuition is the perception of the unseen. For example, "the seller is hiding something", and "I’d be content here for the next twenty years."
 
 
Thinking is analytical, deductive cognition. For example, "compared to the house I viewed yesterday, this is overpriced, bigger, nearer to work, overall it would cost so much per month more on my mortgage, but I’d spend two hours less travelling each week."
 
 
Feeling is synthetic, all-inclusive cognition. For example, "I’ll have to sleep on it before I know whether this house could be home. Even then I may not know!" Feeling takes time. The feeling function is not the same as emotion, which Jungian psychology refers to as ''affect'' (emphasizing its physiological component) but the feeling function and affect (emotion) clearly do influence each other.
 
 
In any person, the degree of introversion/extroversion of one function can be quite different to that of another function. For example extroverted intuition&mdash; imagining endless means of political change; with relatively introverted thinking&mdash; "How would I fit into such a society?"
 
 
Introverted intuitives tend to be weak at extroverted sensation (and vice versa)&mdash; they have very good insight into themselves, their unseen motives and likely long term goals, but can’t find their [[adjustable spanner]] nine times out of ten. Intuition is often inspired, and other times completely wrong. It has to be checked with one of the rational functions - thinking or feeling. Introverted thinking types tend to be weak at extroverted feeling.
 
 
Note: As for training children, while it is a good thing to appreciate the psychological type of a child, or indeed of anyone, it is most productive to understand the psychological typology of children&mdash;then leave them alone. Leading anyone into their inferior function can be dangerous. Though it has its uses for mature persons with the assistance of an experienced therapist, it is not part of the educational or parental role. If a child has suppressed feeling, for example, it may be a survival strategy.
 
 
== Influence ==
 
Jung has had an enduring influence on psychology as well as wider society. He has influenced psychotherapy (see [[Jungian psychology]] and [[Analytical psychology]]).
 
* The concept of [[introversion]] vs. [[extroversion]]
 
* The concept of the [[complex (psychology)|complex]]
 
* [[Myers-Briggs Type Indicator]] (MBTI) and [[David Keirsey]] career tests were inspired by Jung's Psychological Types theory. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assesses people on extraversion and introversion, Jung's function types and also on judging-perceiving, a dimension not found in Jung's original taxonomy but germane to his distinction between rational and irrational functions.
 
* [[Socionics]], similar to MBTI, is also based on Jung´s Psychological Types.
 
 
=== Spirituality as a cure for alcoholism ===
 
Jung's influence can sometimes be found in more unexpected quarters. For example, Jung once treated an American patient suffering from chronic [[alcoholism]]. After working with the patient for some time, and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that occasionally such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics where all else had failed.
 
 
The patient took Jung's advice seriously and set about seeking a personal spiritual experience. He returned home to the United States and joined a [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] church. He also told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he told was [[Ebby Thatcher]], a long-time friend and drinking buddy of [[William Griffith Wilson|Bill Wilson]], co-founder of [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] (A.A.) Thacher told Wilson about Jung's ideas. Wilson, who was finding it hard to maintain sobriety, was impressed and sought out his own spiritual experience. The influence of Jung ultimately found its way in the [[12-step program]] of [[Alcoholics Anonymous]], drafted by Wilson, and from there into the whole 12-step recovery movement, which has touched the lives of millions of people. <!--source needed-->
 
 
Some AA members, however, dispute the factual basis of this claim.
 
 
  
 
==Notes==  
 
==Notes==  
Line 123: Line 55:
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
  
==See Also==
 
 
 
===Influences on culture===
 
* Jung had a 16-year long friendship with author [[Laurens van der Post]] from which a number of books and [[film]] were created about Jung's life.
 
 
* The concept of the collective unconscious is one of the main topics in the [[Dune (novel)|Dune]] novel series.
 
 
* The various Jungian ideals and archetypes heavily influenced the modern philosophical, surreal roleplaying game [[Persona]] and are one of the reasons cited for it's strong, intriguing plot.
 
 
* Jung's influence on noted Canadian novelist [[Robertson Davies]] is apparent in many of Davies's fictional works. In particular, [[The Cornish Trilogy]] and his novel ''[[The Manticore]]'' each base their design on Jungian concepts.
 
 
* Jung influenced much of [[Joseph Campbell]]'s thought.
 
 
* [[Ted Hughes]]'s 1971 collection '[[Crow]]' shows Hughes' interest in Jungian theory.
 
 
* The [[progressive metal]] band, [[Tool (band)|Tool]], have incorporated ideas from Jung's work into their albums, especially ''[[Ænima]]''. Songs such as "Forty Six & 2" and "Ænema" (the title of this song and the title of the album both being derived from Jung's anima) are particularly fraught with references. Additionally, [[The Police]] made references to Carl Jung in their album ''[[Synchronicity (album)|Synchronicity]]''.
 
 
* [[J. Michael Straczynski]]'s "[[Babylon 5]]" [[television]] series used many of Jung's concepts throughout the series.
 
 
* The video games [[Xenogears]] and [[Xenosaga]] utilize many of the ideas proposed by Carl Jung as major storyline components of the game, and even create physical manifestations of his notions within actual characters, Albedo, [[Nigredo]], Rubedo, etc.
 
 
* Jung's writing was introduced to Italian film maker Federico Fellini in the 1950s and had an effect on the way Fellini incorporated dreams into films after [[La Dolce Vita]].
 
 
* Jungian ideas make up a large part of the intellectual foundations of the [[Earthsea]] stories, the classic fantasy series written by [[Ursula le Guin]].
 
 
* [[Blue Man Group]]'s "Rock Concert Movement #237" is "Taking the audience on a Jungian journey into the collective unconscious by using the shadow as a metaphor for the primal self that gets repressed by the modern persona and also by using an underground setting and [[labyrinth]] office design to represent both the depths of the psyche and the [[dungeon]]-like isolation of our increasingly mechanistic society which prevents people from finding satisfying work or meaningful connections with others."
 
 
* In the movie ''[[Batman Begins]]'', the character of Jonathan Crane, aka "The Scarecrow", is a Jungian psychiatrist and at the same time personifies one of man's primal archetypes (the Scarecrow).
 
 
* In the popular television sitcom ''[[Frasier]]'', Dr Frasier Crane and his brother Dr Niles Crane are both eminent psychiatrists. However, whilst Frasier is from a Freudian mould, Niles is more a practitioner of Jung's methods. This is mentioned a number of times in the series, and from time to time forms a point of argument between the two brothers.
 
 
* Jung's theory of the shadow is of central importance in the modern horror roleplaying game [[Kult]], in which reality as humanity knows it is merely an illusion, built to deprive us of our natural divinity. The act of merging with one's shadow is the ultimate step on the path to transcending this spiritual prison.
 
 
* In ''[[The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test]]'', [[Tom Wolfe]] describes the classic experiment in which [[Ken Kesey]] and his [[Merry Pranksters]], under the influence of LSD, explore manifestations of synchronicity by listenning to a recording of a drug-induced monologue while watching the [[Ed Sullivan Show]]. Also, the central goal of the [[psychedelic movement]], openning the doors of perception, is repeatedly associated with Jungian conceipts throughout the book.
 
 
* Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' features an underlying theme about the duality of man throughout the action and dialogue of the film. One scene plays out this way: A Colonel asks a soldier, "You write 'Born to Kill' on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?" To which the soldier replies, "I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir... The Jungian thing, sir."
 
 
* The plot of [[James Kerwin]]'s [[scifi]] [[film noir|noir]] film ''[[Yesterday Was a Lie]]'' is said to contain multiple Jungian references, and press interviews with the cast and crew confirm that Jung's work in [[Hermetic Alchemy|alchemy]] and dream analysis played a pivotal role in the development of the screenplay.
 
 
*Jung is one of the main characters in Thomas Findley's novel, Pilgrim.
 
 
== Recommended Reading==
 
There is expansive literature on Jungian thought.  For a good, short and easily accessible introduction to Jung's thought read:
 
*Chapter 1 of ''[[Man and His Symbols]]'', conceived and edited by Jung.  (The rest of this book also provides a good overview.)
 
 
Other good introductory texts include:
 
*''The Portable Jung'', edited by [[Joseph Campbell]] (Viking Portable), ISBN 0140150706
 
*Edward F Edinger, ''Ego and Archetype'', (Shambala), ISBN 087773576X
 
*Another recommended tool for navigating Jung's works is Robert Hopcke's book, ''A Guided Tour of the Collected Works of C.G. Jung'', ISBN 1570624054.  He offers short, lucid summaries of all of Jung's major ideas and suggests readings from Jung's and others' work that best present that idea.
 
 
Good texts in various areas of Jungian thought:
 
*Edward F. Edinger, ''The Mystery of The Coniunctio'', ISBN 0919123678. A good explanation of Jung's foray into the symbolism of [[alchemy]] as it relates to individuation and individual religious experience. Many of the alchemical symbols recur in contemporary dreams (with creative additions from the unconscious e.g. space travel, internet, computers)
 
*James A Hall M.D., ''Jungian Dream Interpretation'', ISBN 0919123120. A brief, well structured overview of the use of dreams in therapy.
 
*[[James Hillman]], "Healing Fiction", ISBN 0-88214-363-8. Covers Jung, Adler, and Freud and their various contributions to understanding the soul.
 
*Andrew Samuels, ''Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis'', ISBN 0415059100
 
*June Singer, ''Boundaries of the Soul'', ISBN 0385475292. On psychotherapy
 
*[[Marion Woodman]], ''The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation'' ISBN 0919123201. The recovery of feminine values in women (and men). There are many examples of clients' dreams, by an experienced analyst.
 
 
And a more academic text:
 
*Andrew Samuels, ''The Political Psyche'' (Routledge), ISBN 0415081025. Difficult, but useful.
 
 
For the Jung-Freud relationship:
 
* Kerr, John. ''A Most Dangerous Method : The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein.'' Knopf 1993. ISBN 0679404120.
 
 
For critical scholarship on Jung from the perspective of an historian of psychiatry::
 
*[[Richard Noll]], The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement (Princeton University Press, 1994); and
 
*[[Richard Noll]], The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung (Random House, 1997)
 
 
==Jung bibliography==
 
Works arranged by original publication date if known:
 
*Jung, C. G. (1902&ndash;1905). ''Psychiatric Studies''. '''''Collected Works''''' Vol. 1. 1953 ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, and Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen. This was the first of 18 volumes plus separate bibliography and index. Not including revisions the set was completed in 1967.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1904&ndash;1907) ''Studies in Word Association''. London: Routledge & K. Paul. (contained in ''Experimental Researches'', Collected Works Vol. 2)
 
*Jung, C. G. (1907). ''The Psychology of Dementia Praecox''.  (2nd ed. 1936) New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Publ. Co. (contained in ''The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease'', Collected Works Vol. 3. This is the disease now known as [[schizophrenia]])
 
*Jung, C. G. (1907&ndash;1958). ''The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease''. 1991 ed. London: Routledge. (Collected Works Vol. 3)
 
*Jung, C. G., & Hinkle, B. M. (1912). ''Psychology of the Unconscious'' : a study of the transformations and symbolisms of the libido, a contribution to the history of the evolution of thought. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner. (revised in 1952 as ''Symbols of Transformation'', Collected Works Vol.5 ISBN 0691018154)
 
*Jung, C. G., & Long, C. E. (1917). ''Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology'' (2nd ed.). London: Balliere Tindall & Cox. (contained in ''Freud and Psychoanalysis'', Collected Works Vol. 4)
 
*Jung, C. G. (1917, 1928). ''Two Essays on Analytical Psychology'' (1966 revised 2nd ed. Collected Works Vol. 7). London: Routledge.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Baynes, H. G. (1921). ''Psychological Types'', or, ''The Psychology of Individuation''. London: K. Paul Trench Trubner. (Collected Works Vol.6 ISBN 0691018138)
 
*Jung, C. G., Baynes, H. G., & Baynes, C. F. (1928). ''Contributions to Analytical Psychology''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Shamdasani, S. (1932). ''The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga'': notes of a seminar by C.G. Jung. 1996 ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1933). ''Modern Man in Search of a Soul''. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner, (1955 ed. Harvest Books ISBN 0156612062)
 
*Jung, C. G., (1934&ndash;1954). ''The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious''. (1981 2nd ed. Collected Works Vol.9 Part 1), Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen. ISBN 0691018332
 
*Jung, C. G. (1938). ''Psychology and Religion'' The Terry Lectures. New Haven: Yale University Press. (contained in ''Psychology and Religion: West and East'' Collected Works Vol. 11 ISBN 0691097720). 
 
*Jung, C. G., & Dell, S. M. (1940). ''The Integration of the Personality''. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1944). ''Psychology and Alchemy'' (2nd ed. 1968 Collected Works Vol. 12 ISBN 0691018316). London: Routledge.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1947). ''Essays on Contemporary Events''. London: Kegan Paul.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1947, revised 1954). ''On the Nature of the Psyche''. 1988 ed. London: Ark Paperbacks. (contained in Collected Works Vol. 8)
 
*Jung, C. G. (1951). ''Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self'' (Collected Works Vol. 9 Part 2). Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen.  ISBN 069101826X
 
*Jung, C. G. (1952). ''Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle''.  1973 2nd ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691017948 (contained in Collected Works Vol. 8)
 
*Jung, C. G. (1956). ''Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy''. London: Routledge. (2nd ed. 1970 Collected Works Vol. 14 ISBN 0691018162) This was Jung's last book length work, completed when he was eighty.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1957). ''The Undiscovered Self (Present and Future)''. 1959 ed. New York: American Library. 1990 ed. Bollingen ISBN 0691018944 (50 p. essay, also contained in collected Works Vol. 10)
 
*Jung, C. G., & De Laszlo, V. S. (1958). ''Psyche and Symbol: A Selection from the Writings of C.G. Jung''. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
 
*Jung, C. G., & De Laszlo, V. S. (1959). ''Basic Writings''. New York: Modern Library.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Jaffe A. (1962). '''''Memories, Dreams, Reflections'''''. London: Collins. This is Jung's autobiography, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe, ISBN 0679723951
 
*Jung, C. G., Evans, R. I., & Jones, E. (1964). ''Conversations with Carl Jung and Reactions from Ernest Jones''. New York: Van Nostrand.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Franz, M.-L. v. (1964). ''[[Man and His Symbols]]''. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, ISBN 0440351839
 
*Jung, C. G. (1966). ''The Practice of Psychotherapy: Essays on the Psychology of the Transference and other Subjects'' (Collected Works Vol. 16). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1967). ''The Development of Personality''. 1991 ed. London: Routledge. Collected Works Vol. 17 ISBN 0691018383
 
*Jung, C. G. (1970). ''Four Archetypes; Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. (contained in Collected Works Vol. 9 part 1)
 
*Jung, C. G. (1974). ''Dreams''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press (compilation from Collected Works Vols. 4, 8, 12, 16), ISBN 0691017921
 
*Jung, C. G., & Campbell, J. (1976). ''The Portable Jung''. a compilation, New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140150706
 
*Jung, C. G., Rothgeb, C. L., Clemens, S. M., & National Clearinghouse for Mental Health Information (U.S.). (1978). ''Abstracts of the Collected Works of C.G. Jung''. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Antony Storr ed., (1983) ''The Essential Jung''. a compilation, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-02455-3
 
*Jung, C. G. (1986). ''Psychology and the East''. London: Ark. (contained in Collected Works Vol. 11)
 
*Jung, C. G. (1987). ''Dictionary of Analytical Psychology''. London: Ark Paperbacks.
 
*Jung, C. G. (1988). ''Psychology and Western Religion''. London: Ark Paperbacks. (contained in Collected Works Vol. 11)
 
*Jung, C. G., Wagner, S., Wagner, G., & Van der Post, L. (1990). ''The World Within'' C.G. Jung in his own words [videorecording]. New York, NY: Kino International : Dist. by Insight Media.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Hull, R. F. C. (1991). ''Psychological Types'' (a revised ed.). London: Routlege.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Chodorow, J. (1997). ''Jung on Active Imagination''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Jarrett, J. L. (1998). Jung's ''Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra'' (Abridged ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
 
*Jung, C. G., & Pauli, Wolfgang,  C. A. Meier (Editor). (2001). ''Atom and Archetype : The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932-1958'', Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691012075
 
*Jung, C. G., & Sabini, M. (2002). ''The Earth Has a Soul'': the nature writings of C.G. Jung. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books.
 
 
An early writing by Jung, dating from around [[1917]], was his poetic work, the ''Seven Sermons to the Dead''.  Written in the persona of the [[2nd century]] religious teacher [[Basilides]] of [[Alexandria]], it explores ancient religious and spiritual themes, including those of [[gnosticism]]. This work is published in some editions of ''Memories, Dreams, Reflections.''
 
 
== External links ==
 
{{wikiquote}}
 
* [http://aras.org''Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism'':] A pictorial and written archive of mythological, ritualistic, and symbolic images from all over the world and from all epochs of human history.
 
* [http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/jung.html A short bio of Jung]
 
* [http://www.friesian.com/jung.htm Influence on Friesian philosophy] 
 
* [http://amishthrasher.blogspot.com/2005/06/carl-jung-and-shadow.html Article on Carl Jung and the shadow archetype] 
 
* [http://www.folkstory.com/articles/myth_in_therapy.html Myth in Psychotherapy] 
 
* [http://www.geocities.com/astrologyages/jungageofaquarius.htm Jung and the Age of Aquarius]
 
* [http://www.analyticaconsultores.cl/frameset/documentacion1.htm Texts in spanish related to jungian thought]
 
* [http://www.junglibrary.org/index.htm C.G. Jung Center of New York and The Kathrine Mann Library]
 
* [http://www.thelifeboatforum.com Analytical Psychology Discussion Forum]
 
* [http://www.geocities.com/mark_lee_fu Jung and The Nazi Involvement] A Critique of  Jung's 'Ontogenesis recapitulates Phylogenesis' postulate on various grounds".
 
* [http://www.psychovision.ch/rfr/contrib_SYNC.htm Carl Jung, Wolfgang Pauli, and Marie-Louise von Franz]
 
*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2336 Carl Jung at Find-A-Grave]
 
* [http://jung.freudfile.org/ C.G. Jung - Life and Work]
 
* [http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/ Myths-Dreams-Symbols - The Psychology of Dreams]
 
* [http://junginla.org/ C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles]
 
  
[[Category:1875 births|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:1961 deaths|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Natives of Thurgau|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Swiss philosophers|Jung, Carl]]
 
 
[[Category:Psychiatrists|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Psychiatrists|Jung, Carl]]
[[Category:Swiss psychiatrists|Jung, Carl]]
 
 
[[Category:Psychologists|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Psychologists|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Jungian psychology|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Jungian psychology|Jung, Carl]]
[[Category:Neopsychoanalytic school|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Western mystics|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:New Age|Jung, Carl]]
 
[[Category:Astrologers]]
 
 
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 
[[Category:Freud]]
 
[[Category:Freud]]
 
[[Category:People]]
 
[[Category:People]]
 +
[[Category:Improve]]

Revision as of 03:23, 15 May 2006

Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology.

Introduction

Jung's unique and broadly influential approach to psychology emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he has become perhaps the most well known pioneer in the field of dream analysis. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician for most of his life, much of his life's work was spent exploring other realms: Eastern vs. Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung also emphasized the importance of balance. He cautioned that modern humans rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm. Interestingly, Jungian ideas are not typically included in curriculum of most major universities' psychology departments, but are occasionally explored in humanities departments.

Many pioneering psychological concepts were originally proposed by Jung. Some of these are:

Jung and Freud

Jung was thirty when he sent Sigmund Freud in Vienna his work Studies in Word Association. Half a year later, the then 50 year old Freud, reciprocated by sending a collection of his latest published essays to Jung in Zurich, which marked the beginning of an intense correspondence and collaboration lasting more than six years and ending shortly before World War I in May 1914, when Jung resigned as the chairman of the International Psychoanalytical Association.

Today Jung and Freud rule two very different empires of the mind, so to speak, which the respective proponents of these empires like to stress, downplaying the influence these men had on each other in the formative years of their lives. But in 1906 psychoanalysis as an institution was non-existent. And Jung, who had become interested in psychiatry as a student by reading Psychopathia Sexualis by Richard Krafft-Ebing, professor in Vienna, now worked as a doctor under the psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in the Burghölzli and became familiar with Freud's idea of the unconscious through Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and a proponent of the new "psycho-analysis". Freud at that time needed nothing more than collaborators and followers to validate and spread his ideas. The Burghölzli was a renowned psychiatric clinic in Zurich and Jung an aspiring young doctor there on the rise. Another problem Freud had was that his slowly growing followership in Vienna was almost exclusively Jewish and Eugen Bleuler and Carl Jung were not.

In 1908 Jung became editor of the newly founded Yearbook for Psychoanalytical and Psychopathological Research, the following year Jung traveled with Freud and Sandor Ferenczi to the U.S.A. to spread the news of psychoanalysis and in 1910 Jung became chairman for life of the International Psychoanalytical Association. While Jung worked on his Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (Symbols of Transformation), the tensions between him and Freud were rising, the nature of libido and religion playing an important role. In 1912 these tensions came to a peak, when Jung felt severely slighted by Freud visiting his colleague Ludwig Binswanger in Kreuzlingen without paying him a visit in nearby Zurich, an incident Jung at the time and in his autobiography referred to as the gesture of Kreuzlingen. Shortly thereafter Jung again traveled to the U.S.A. and gave the Fordham lectures, which were published as The Theory of Psychoanalysis and while they contain some remarks on the dissenting view of Jung about the nature of libido, if you read them today you'll be surprised to find largely a "psychoanalytical Jung" and not the Jung we've become used to in the following decades.

Jung and Freud personally met for the last time in September 1913 for the Fourth International Psychoanalytical Congress in Munich. Jung gave a talk on psychological types, the introverted and the extroverted type, in analytical psychology. This constituted the introduction of some of the key concepts which came to distinguish Jung's work from Freud's in the next half century.

The year before a strange incident had happened in the same city, when Jung and Freud met there with others in November 1912: At lunch there was a talk about a new psychoanalytic essay on Amenhotep IV, who introduced monotheism in ancient Egypt and who apparently had his father's name erased on all documents after his death. Relating this to actual conflicts in the psychoanalytic movement, Jung explicated his view on this, when Freud suddenly fainted and Jung carried him to a couch.

In the following years Jung experienced considerable isolation in his professional life, exacerbated through World War I. His Seven Sermons to the Dead (1917) reprinted in his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections (see Jung bibliography) can also be read as expression of the psychological conflicts which beset Jung around the age of forty after the break with Freud.

Jung's primary disagreement with Freud stemmed from their differing concepts of the unconscious. Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as incomplete and unnecessarily negative. According to Jung, Freud conceived the unconscious solely as a repository of repressed emotions and desires. Jung believed that the unconscious also had a creative capacity. The collective unconscious of archetypes and images which made up the human psyche was processed and renewed within the unconscious. In effect, Jung's unconscious, as opposed to Freud's, serves a very positive role: the engine of the collective unconscious essential to human society and culture.

Jung, Nazism and anti-Semitism

Though the field of psychoanalysis was dominated at the time by Jewish practitioners, and Jung had many friends and respected colleagues who were Jewish, a shadow hung over Jung's career due to allegations that he was a Nazi sympathizer. Jung was editor of the Zentralblatt fur Psychotherapie, a publication that eventually endorsed Mein Kampf as required reading for all psychoanalysts. Jung claimed that he did this to save psychoanalysis and preserve it during the war, believing that psychoanalysis would not otherwise survive because the Nazis considered it to be a "Jewish science" . He also claimed he did it with the help and support of his Jewish friends and colleagues. [1]

Jung also served as president of the Nazi-dominated International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy. Later in the war though, Jung resigned and joined the allied cause in the United States. In addition, in 1943 he aided the Office of Strategic Services by analyzing Nazi leaders for the United States.[2]

However, whether Jung's later reversal, and his arguments to save psychoanalysis mean that he did not actually believe these things is still a topic of debate, with several controversial books written on both viewpoints.

Jungian psychology

Template:Main articles Jung developed a distinctive approach to the study of the human mind. Through his early years working in a Swiss hospital with psychotic patients and collaborating with Sigmund Freud and the burgeoning psychoanalytic community, he gained a closer look at the mysterious depths of the human unconscious. Fascinated by what he saw (and spurred on with even more passion by the experiences and questions of his personal life) he devoted his life to the exploration of the unconscious. However, Jung did not feel that experimental natural science was the best means to understand the human soul. For him, a balance between hard science and the worlds of dream, myth, and spirit represented the most fascinating and promising road to deeper understanding.

The overarching goal of Jung's work was the reconciliation of the life of the individual with the world of the supra-personal archetypes. He came to see the individual's encounter with the unconscious as central to this process. The human experiences the unconscious through symbols encountered in all aspects of life: in dreams, art, religion, and the symbolic dramas we enact in our relationships and life pursuits. Essential to the encounter with the unconscious, and the reconciliation of the individual's consciousness with this broader world, is learning this symbolic language. Only through attention and openness to this world (which is quite foreign to the modern Western mind) is the individual able to harmonize his life with these suprapersonal archetypal forces.

"Neurosis" results from a disharmony between the individual's consciousness and the greater archetypal world. The aim of psychotherapy is to assist the individual in reestablishing a healthy relationship to the unconscious (neither being swamped by it--a state characteristic of psychosis--nor completely shut off from it--a state that results in malaise, empty consumerism, narcissism, and a life cut off from deeper meaning). The encounter between consciousness and the symbols arising from the unconscious enriches life and promotes psychological development. Jung considered this process of psychological growth and maturation (which he called the process of individuation) to be of critical importance to the human being, and ultimately to modern society.

In order to undergo the individuation process, the individual must be open to the parts of oneself beyond one's own ego. In order to do this, the modern individual must pay attention to dreams, explore the world of religion and spirituality, and question the assumptions of the operant societal worldview (rather than just blindly living life in accordance with dominant norms and assumptions).

The collective unconscious

Jung's concept of the collective unconscious has often been misunderstood. In order to understand this concept, it is essential to understand his idea of the archetype, something foreign to the highly rational, scientifically-oriented Western mind; the collective unconscious could be thought of as the DNA of the human psyche. Just as all humans share a common physical heritage and predisposition towards specific physical forms (like having two legs, a heart, etc.) so do all humans have a common psychological predisposition.

However, unlike the quantifiable information that composes DNA (in the form of coded sequences of nucleotides), the collective unconscious is composed of archetypes. In contrast to the objective material world, the subjective realm of archetypes can not be adequately understood through quantitative modes of research. Instead it can only begin to be revealed through an examination of the symbolic communications of the human psyche—in art, dreams, religion, myth, and the themes of human relational/behavioral patterns. Devoting his life to the task of exploring and understanding the collective unconscious, Jung discovered that certain symbolic themes exist across all cultures, all epochs, and in every individual.

Notes

[1]


References

  1. Žižek, S. (2000) The Fragile Absolute, or Why the Christian Legacy is Worth Fighting For, London and New York: Verso. p. 98