Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875
– June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder
of the neopsychoanalytic school of psychology. At university, he was a student of Krafft-Ebing. For a time, Jung was Freud's heir-apparent in the
psychoanalytic school. After the publication of Jung's
Symbols of Transformation (1912), Jung and Freud endured a painful parting of ways:
Jung seemed to feel confined by what he believed was Freud's narrow, reductionistic, and rigid view of libido. Freud held that all libido was at base sexual, while Jung's psychological work continued to explore
libido as multiple and often synthetic.
Jungian psychology
Jung was wary of founding a 'school' of psychology, and his co-workers
recall many occasions on which he made statements along the lines of "thank God I am Jung and not a Jungian." This being the
case, the term 'Jungian' is a bit of a misnomer. Jung himself preferred the term 'analytical psychology'.
Contemporary analytical psychology has diversified considerably in recent decades, establishing a range of methods and
viewpoints, and exploring areas that were insufficiently studied by Jung himself (most notably child psychology).
After the break with Freud, Jung questioned how such divergent views as Freud's,
Alfred Adler's and his own could develop out of Psychoanalysis. The result of his questionings was Psychological Types
(volume 6 of the Collected Works), in which Jung outlines a framework within which psychological orientations can be identified.
The now much 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 finds it within. Jung also identified four modes of experience, four
functions: thought, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Broadly speaking, we tend to work from our most developed function, and we
need to widen our personality by developing the others. In addition, the unconscious often tends to manifest through the inferior function, so that encounter with the unconscious and
development of the inferior function(s) can tend to progress together.
The four functions may be extroverted or introverted.
This model has been amended by some subsequent analytical psychologists.
Central to analytical psychology is the encounter with the unconscious. The result is greater adaptation to reality (both
inner and outer), and more developed consciousness. We experience the
unconscious through symbols, and an essential part of the process is to learn its
language. Jung recalled how during his time with Freud he was looking one day at a notice in a foreign language, and he reflected
on how the notice doesn't conceal its meaning, but simply requires us to learn how to read it. He considered that maybe Freud had
attributed a concealing and distorting function to the unconscious when in fact what's required is to understand how the
unconscious expresses itself.
Blocked or distorted development of the personality is characteristic of
neurosis, and in psychosis
consciousness is overwhelmed by the unconscious. The aim of psychotherapy
in Jung's view is to develop a situation where consciousness is not swamped by the unconscious, but neither is it shut off from
it. The encounter between consciousness and the symbols arising from the unconscious enriches life and promotes psychological
development, individuation.
Jung's concept of the collective unconscious is
often misunderstood as some kind of race memory, with the archetypal symbols being somehow transmitted, perhaps genetically. In fact, what Jung
meant by the term is that we share a common psychological heritage, just as we share a common physical one. Symbols have a
certain similarity and fall into similar patterns in different places and times, simply because all human minds are basically
similar. Thus we can often understand the symbols arising from the unconscious by comparing them with similar processes occurring
elsewhere. Jung said that it isn't a matter of inherited images, but rather of an inherited predisposition to experience certain
images. Many of the commonly repeated criticisms of Jung's work seem to be based on a misunderstanding of this last point.
Jungian psychology was geared largely toward the nature of
symbolism and the effects of attachment upon the ability of people to live their lives in ignorance of their deeper "symbolic"
natures. His ideas center around the understanding that a symbol loses its symbolic
power when it is "attached" to a static meaning. The attached, and therefore static meaning renders an amorphous symbol (like the
sphere or the ourobouros) to a mere definition; no longer does it have the
ability to be active in the mind as a "transformer of consciousness," free to associate with new experiences and thinking.
"Symbolic power" transcends and permeates through all conscious thinking.
Influence
Jung has had an enduring influence on psychology as well as wider society. Many key psychological concepts were originally
proposed by Jung, including:
More examples can be found here.
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 Christian 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 Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Thatcher 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.
Influence 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 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, Negredo, Rubedo, etc.
Related publications
- Jung, C. G. (1933). Modern man in search of a soul. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner.
- Jung, C. G. (1936). The psychology of dementia praecox. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Publ. Co.
- Jung, C. G. (1938). Psychology and religion. New Haven: Yale university press.
- Jung, C. G. (1947). Essays on contemporary events. London: Kegan Paul.
- Jung, C. G. (1953). Collected works. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Jung, C. G. (1959). The Undiscovered self. New York: American Library.
- Jung, C. G. (1966a). The practice of psychotherapy : essays on the psychology of the transference and other subjects
(2nd ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- Jung, C. G. (1966b). Two essays on analytical psychology (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
- Jung, C. G. (1968). Psychology and alchemy (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
- Jung, C. G. (1969). Studies in word-association (1st ed.). London: Routledge & K. Paul.
- Jung, C. G. (1970a). Four archetypes; mother, rebirth, spirit, trickster. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- Jung, C. G. (1970b). Mysterium coniunctionis : an inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in
alchemy (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
- Jung, C. G. (1973). Synchronicity : an acausal connecting principle (2nd ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press.
- Jung, C. G. (1974a). Dreams. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- Jung, C. G. (1974b). The Psychology of dementia praecox. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- Jung, C. G. (1986a). Four archetypes; mother, rebirth, spirit, trickster. London: ARK Paperbacks.
- Jung, C. G. (1986b). Psychology and the East. London: Ark.
- Jung, C. G. (1987a). Dictionary of analytical psychology. London: Ark Paperbacks.
- Jung, C. G. (1988b). On the nature of the psyche. London: Ark Paperbacks.
- Jung, C. G. (1988c). Psychology and Western religion. London: Ark Paperbacks.
- Jung, C. G. (1991a). The Development of personality. London: Routledge.
- Jung, C. G. (1991c). The psychogenesis of mental disease. London: Routledge.
- Jung, C. G., & Baynes, H. G. (1923). Psychological types, or, The Psychology of individuation. London: K. Paul Trench
Trubner.
- Jung, C. G., Baynes, H. G., & Baynes, C. F. (1928). Contributions to analytical psychology. London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul.
- Jung, C. G., & Campbell, J. (1976). The portable Jung. New York: Penguin Books.
- Jung, C. G., & Chodorow, J. (1997). Jung on active imagination. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- 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., & Dell, S. M. (1940). The Integration of the personality. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- 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.
- 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.
- Jung, C. G., & Hull, R. F. C. (1991). Psychological types (A revision / ed.). London: Routlege.
- Jung, C. G., & Jaffe A. (1963). Memories, dreams, reflections. London: Collins.
- 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., & Long, C. E. (1917). Collected papers on analytical psychology (2nd ed.). London: Balliere Tindall &
Cox.
- 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., & Sabini, M. (2002). The earth has a soul : the nature writings of C.G. Jung. Berkeley, Calif.: North
Atlantic Books.
- Jung, C. G., & Shamdasani, S. (1996). The psychology of Kundalini yoga : notes of the seminar given in 1932 by C.G.
Jung. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- 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.
External links
|
