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Carl Jung


Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875June 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.

Contents

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, 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 'extravert' and 'introvert' derive from this work. In Jung's original usage, the extravert 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 extraverted or introverted.

This model has been amended by some subsequent analytical psychologists.

Central to analytical psychology is 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 Jungs life.
  • The concept of the collective unconscious is one of the main topics in the Dune novel series.
  • The Alt-rock band, Tool have incorporated Jung's work into their album, Ænima. Additionally, The Police made references to Carl Jung in their album Synchronicity.

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. (1987b). Tan suo xin ling ao mi de xian dai ren. Beijing: She hui ke xue wen xian.
  • Jung, C. G. (1987c). Xian dai ling hun de zi wo zheng jiu. Beijing: Gong ren chu ban she.
  • Jung, C. G. (1987d). Xin li xue yu wen xue. Beijing: San lian.
  • Jung, C. G. (1987e). Xun qiu ling hun de xian dai ren.  : .
  • Jung, C. G. (1988a). Hui yi, meng, si kao : Rongge zi zhuan. Shenyang: Liaoning ren min.
  • 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. (1988d). Ren lei ji qi xiang zheng = Renleijiqixiangzheng (Di 1 ban. ed.). Shenyang shi: Liaoning jiao yu chu ban she.
  • Jung, C. G. (1988e). Ren, yi shu he wen xue zhong de jing shen. Beijing: Gong ren.
  • Jung, C. G. (1989). Zen yang wan shan ni de ge xing : Ren ge de kai fa. Beijing: Zhongguo guo ji guang bo.
  • Jung, C. G. (1990). Xun qiu ling hun de xian dai ren.  : .
  • Jung, C. G. (1991a). The Development of personality. London: Routledge.
  • Jung, C. G. (1991b). Fen xi xin li xue de li lun yu shi jian : Tazasituoke jiang yan. Beijing: San lian.
  • Jung, C. G. (1991c). The psychogenesis of mental disease. London: Routledge.
  • Jung, C. G. (1992). Fen xi xin li xue : li lun yu shi qian (Di 1 ban. ed.). Shanghai: Shanghai yi wen chu ban she.
  • Jung, C. G. (1993). Dong yang ming xiang de xin li xue : cong Yi jing dao chan (Di 1 ban. ed.). Taibei Shi: Shang ding wen hua chu ban she.
  • Jung, C. G. (1997). Hui yi, meng, sheng si : Rongge zi zhuan : wo de yi sheng shi yi ge qian yi shi chong fen fa hui de gu shi. Taibei: Zhang lao shi wen hua shi ye gu fen you xian gong si.
  • Jung, C. G. (1999). Ren ji qi xiang zheng : Rongge si xiang jing hua de zong jie = Man and his symbols. Taibei: Li xu wen hua shi ye you xian gong si.
  • 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., & Feng, C. (1997). Rongge wen ji (Di 1 ban. ed.). Beijing shi: Gai ge chu ban she.
  • 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., & Jaff? 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., & Liang, L.-q. (1989). Xing yu meng : wu yi shi jing shen fen xi yuan li.  : .
  • 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.
  • Jung, C. G., & Wu, K. (1989). Xin li lei xing xue. Xi'an: Hua yue wen yi chu ban she.

See also

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Carl Jung
  • Jung Biography and Theories http://brainmeta.com/personality/jung.php
  • C.G. Jung Page http://www.cgjungpage.org/
  • Psychovision, Synchronicity page (Carl Jung / Wolfgang Pauli / M.-L. von Franz) http://www.psychovision.ch/rfr/contrib_SYNC.htm
  • The Nautis Project http://www.nautis.com/
  • A short bio of Jung is in here http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/jung.html
  • Influence on Friesian philosophy http://www.friesian.com/jung.htm
  • Jung and the Nazis http://www.sfu.ca/~wwwpsyb/issues/1996/winter/medweth.htm
  • Myth in Psychotherapy http://www.folkstory.com/articles/myth_in_therapy.html







Last updated: 02-05-2005 13:35:22
Last updated: 04-25-2005 03:06:01