Man and His Symbols

Book Description

Illustrated throughout with revealing images, this is the first and only work in which the world-famous Swiss psychologist explains to the layperson his enormously influential theory of symbolism as revealed in dreams.

Customer Reviews:

This book changed my life.......2007-10-13

I picked up a copy of this book in Mendocino, CA just after I graduated from college and was trying to figure out what to do with my life. For those of you who are somewhat introverted, academic, or artistic, you may find that his book changes your view and helps begin the process of what Jung (and now other therapists) call the "individuation" process, or normal unfolding of human life. I ended following my bliss and doing all kinds of things that have made me a very happy, very satisfied and yet unendingly curious person. I am now studying to be a therapist, and whether or not I graduate is not the point. The journey and the dream images and meaning we assign to them are the whole point. Life became a meaningful joy for me and (no kidding) this book was the ONLY source of that inspiration.

I have the coffetable version of this book, which is much larger and in color, but the smaller paperback will also do...I'm sure the pictures are good enough. It is the words, not the pictures, that change your life. Who knew that western individualistic humanism was such a powerful and compelling force of psychology?

This book changed my life for the better permanently. Read it.

How about a quality book?.......2007-09-11

The content is classic and deserves better quality presentation. How about a hardcover? The paper is cheap and already turning brown. The print is miniscule and could be a font size or two larger. I want to buy books to continue building a quality library, not a cheap throw-away.

Here are some of Carl Jung's most advanced theories.......2006-12-01

This anthology of essays by Jung and his colleagues yields great insights into Jung's school of depth psychology and the psychology of archetypes. This is a must read for any magician and other workers of the mind. One of the later essays reports the revelation that the visions of certain attuned minds answer to some of the images of the quantum realm drawn from experiments in quantum physics. Consciousness is a quantum phenomenon expanded to the human scale of size by the central nervous system.

Get the Hardback version. It is vastly superior!.......2006-10-02

This book was originally conceived of and designed in the manner of an illuminated manuscript. The images are combined with the text to convey meaning. In the paperback most of the images are gone and the ones remaining are converted to black and white and shoved into the middle of the book where they lose their context.

42 years and still going!.......2006-07-03

As other reviewers have pointed out, the editor did not make it sufficiently clear that Dr. Jung only wrote one chapter of this book and that his role was largely in editing it. Nevertheless, the authors that were chosen did a wonderful job of presenting his ideas, and they're as fresh today as they were in the early 60s when the book was written. One cannot help but reflect on the Jungian notions of balance between the collective consciousness and unconscious as we reflect on some of the world events taking place today. The rise of raw fundamental Islam as shadow juxtaposed with the sterile West frequently came to mind. The role of dreams and symbols in processing our ongoing issues was also well developed.

As with all things related to Jung this is not the kind of book that is easily read. However, if you want to become aware of Jungian thought as it pertains to the universality of symbols, the dynamics of dreams and the collective unconscious, this is your book. For a more complete look at Jungian psychology as a whole I would also recommend The Portable Jung.

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Intensity-his mind was flooded with profound ideas
Reflections
Read and Reread
The correct understanding of Jung's compensation theory
An incredible chronicle of an amazing inner journey!

Memories, Dreams, Reflections
C.G. Jung
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679723951
Release Date: 1989-04-23

Book Description

An autobiography put together from conversations, writings and lectures with Jung's cooperation, at the end of his life.

Customer Reviews:

Intensity-his mind was flooded with profound ideas.......2007-09-14

This book is sublime, a GEM. In his subjective view of the world -"with half closed eyes and somewhat closed ears, to see and hear the form and voice of being" he arrived at an inspiring insight about life: supreme meaning of being can consist only in the fact that is,not that it is not or is no longer; nature, the mystery of love, the psyche, life, human beings, a state of lively contemplation of images is divinity unfolded (the greatest of miracles)-being conscious of this can come to you not through emptiness, imagelessneess or wanting to be freed from nature or yourself.
Here's a passage of the book that reflects the quintessence of his wisdom:
No language is adequate for this paradox. Whatever one can say, no words reflect the whole; for only the whole is meaningful...love "bears all things" and "endures all things". These words say all there is to be said; nothing can be added to them. For we are in the deepest sense the victims and the instruments of cosmogonic "love"- a unified and undivided whole. Being a part man cannot grasp the whole. He is at its mercy. He may assent to it, or rebel against it; but he is always caught by it and enclosed within it. He is dependent upon it and is sustained by it. Love is his light and his darkness, whose end he cannot see. "Love ceases not"-whether he speaks with the "tongue of angels", or with scientific exactitude traces the life cell down to its uttermost source. Man can try to name love, showering upon it all the names at his command, and still he will involve himself in endless self-deceptions. If he possesses a grain of wisdom, he will lay down his arms and name the unknown by the more unknown- ignotum per ignotius-that is, by God. That is a confession of his subjection, his imperfection, and his dependence; but at the same time a testimony to his freedom to choose between truth and error.
If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change.

Reflections.......2007-07-08

Jung's work is often difficult to read. This is an excellent introduction to his thinking, and a fine outline of his life. Man and his Symbols is also a good intro to Jungian thought.

However, over long, somewhat pompous comments are really not appropriate. Jungians would call this inflation.

Read and Reread.......2007-05-18

This is a book that I read with intense interest, I walked around the house , this book in hand.

C.G. Jung is caught here , his childhood, his quirks. He remains a very fascinating man. This is the only book about C.G. Jung I've read.

I particularly liked the chapter 'Late Thoughts", though the book in whole is very curiosity inspiring.

Loved it.

The correct understanding of Jung's compensation theory.......2007-05-17

According to Jung, the unconscious tries to "compensate" the "lopsidedness" in the conscious attitude, and dreams are part of this process. He says: "The relation between conscious and unconscious is compensatory. This is the best proven rule of dream interpretation" (Collected Works, Vol. 16). The examination of Jung's dream interpretations reveals that what he calls "lopsidedness" is a harmful mistake, or a harmful mental/behavioral failure, and "compensation" means the correction of the mistake, or the termination of the mental/behavioral failure.

As I explained elsewhere, the compensation of the lopsidedness in the conscious attitude by the unconscious is only a particular manifestation of the general truth that all functions of the mind, or all of its "topographical parts" in Freud's words, complement each other and constitute an integrated system, in contradiction with Freud's theory of conflict. In fact, Jung's theory was produced as a reaction to Freud's conflict theory. Consequently, we can equally say that consciousness sometimes compensates the lopsidedness in the unconscious attitude. Besides, it is most natural to expect such cooperation to work even when it is not possible to talk about any lopsidedness in the conscious or unconscious attitude. I described this cooperation in much detail elsewhere in my chapter on cerebral lateralization.

Again as I explained elsewhere, Jung's conception of the function of dreams is basically correct and constitutes a very fruitful idea. But he did not apply this idea adequately to dream interpretation, apparently because he did not express it clearly and used instead obscure ideas like lopsidedness and compensation. His major mistake was to assume that every dream presented the compensated state of the lopsidedness, or the corrected state of the mistake.

Jung could be able to produce a correct theory of dreams if he tried to answer the following questions: (a) What is the content of lopsidedness in general but clear terms? (b) How does the conscious attitude become lopsided and why it cannot correct its lopsidedness itself? (c) What makes the unconscious fit to compensate the lopsidedness of the conscious attitude? (d) In what measure the unconscious succeeds or fails in doing the compensation work, and why? (e) Most importantly, how does the unconscious do the job of compensation, or the correction of the harmful mistake? It is evident that in the absence of especially the answer to the last question, it is not possible to discover all the thoughts expressed by a dream.

As I explained elsewhere, a complete dream contains three types of thought: (a) the presentation of the lopsidedeness, or the mistake, which is treated by the dream; (b) the explanation of the cause of the mistake, or failure, which is often in the form of the external attribution of the failure; and (c) the correction of the mistake, or the termination of the failure. A complete dream begins either with thought (a) or (b) and ends with thought (c). Thoughts (b) and/or (c) may be missing in a dream or may be implicit in another part of the dream, but thought (a) is always present in explicit or implicit form because it is the reason why the dream is produced. In reality, this understanding of dreams is implied by Jung's compensation idea, because the fact that the unconscious can compensate the lopsidedness in the conscious attitude means that the unconscious is rational enough to do that, and the above three types of thought are the ones produced consciously and rationally when dealing with failures in the waking state.

Jung was not able to see these facts, because he could not free himself sufficiently from Freud's influence. Just as Freud interpreted everything in a dream as meaning wish fulfillment, Jung interpreted every dream as presenting the compensated state of the lopsided that it treated. In reality, a dream may present the lopsidedness instead of its compensated state, as exemplified below.

Jung's dream about his patient (p. 133): In his dream, Jung looks up at his female patient who is "sitting on a kind of balustrade," "on the highest tower" of a castle "at the top of a steep hill;" he bends his head back too far to see her properly and wakes up with a crick in the back of his neck.

Jung's interpretation based on the compensation hypothesis was this: "If in the dream I had to look up at the patient in this fashion, in reality I had probably been looking down on her." So, he assumed that the dream was telling him not to look down on her. This interpretation was based on the assumption that the dream scene represented what Jung had to do in real life, which means the solution of his problem, or the compensation of the lopsidedness in his conscious attitude. This interpretation contradicts the fact that Jung hurt himself in the dream by looking up at his patient and also by the fact that he considered his patient in real life "a highly intelligent woman." These contradictions can be eliminated by assuming that the dream scene represented the mistake that Jung was making in real life, or his problem, not its solution as he assumed. So, the correct message of the dream appears to be this: "You are making a mistake and hurting your interests by overestimating your patient." The implied advise was to stop overestimating her, which is the exact opposite of what Jung thought the dream was advising him. This interpretation is supported not only by the pain that Jung felt in the back of his neck at the end of the dream and his waking state evaluation of his patient as a highly intelligent woman but also by the fact that he was unable to realize progress in the therapy of his patient, evidently because he considered her a highly intelligent woman. This dream shows that the compensation hypothesis can cause a wrong interpretation even when the subject matter of a dream is approximately recognized, which is not always the case, and that therefore this hypothesis may also say nothing about the meaning of a dream. In such cases, Jung introduced obscure ideas in the interpretations, such as mandala, archetype, and collective unconscious, without explaining why these appear in the dream and what they precisely mean in relation to the dreamer's life. In fact, many of Jung's ideas are found "mystical." In opposition to this, Freud's interpretations are always clear and detailed but always wrong basically. But despite this fact, Freud's dream theory is more popular than Jung's, because it is found plausible due to the fact that it is produced by likening dreams to daydreams which mean wish fulfillment as everyone knows.

Jung's understanding of dreams needs to be corrected, or completed, also concerning the language of dreams. He criticized Freud's idea of dream symbolism saying that what Freud meant when he said "symbol" was "sign," and that a symbol was something more complex than a sign. Today the widely accepted view is that dream language is concrete-analogic, or concrete-metaphoric. In reality, most of Freud's dream symbols involved analogies, but many other writers abused the concept of dream symbolism and produced largely invalid dictionaries of dream symbols. Not only dream language but also dream cognition is concrete-analogic and therefore cannot use abstractions and logic. This is a consequence of the accepted view that dream thoughts are produced by the right brain which operates using concrete analogies instead of abstractions, speech, and logic. The verbal metaphors that are used in the waking state are also used in dreams in concrete pictorial form, because the source of both the waking state analogies, or metaphors, and dream analogies appear to be the right brain. Because of this, dictionaries of dream symbols can contain correct entries, but even the most common analogies can carry special meanings when used in dreams in relation to the dreamer's life experiences. Many otherwise correct dream interpretations by Jung and his followers are somewhat flawed because of they twisted the meanings of dream analogies in various ways. An example is below.

A man dreamed that as he came out of a meeting he put on somebody else's hat. Jung could say nothing about the relation of this dream to the dreamer's life experiences and claimed only that the hat represented the Mandela, which, according to him, is a concept present in every human mind. The analogic interpretation of this dream can be that the dreamer had easily accepted, or was in the habit of easily accepting, other people's ideas and views. This would be the presentation of a lopsidedness in his conscious attitude.

Jung was aware of the insufficiency of his theory and said: "There are still boundless opportunities for pioneer work in this field" (Collected Works, Vol. 16). Nevertheless, he and his followers produced many correct and nearly correct dream interpretations. Jung's readers can use his compensation theory better then he did by keeping in view the facts mentioned above and reading my books.

Jung's compensation theory can be seen as the solution of the problem of dream interpretation, and thereby of the problem of dream function, if the process by which compensation is realized and the analogic cognition and language of dreams are taken into consideration, both as explained above.

Cognitive-Behavioral Cybernetics of Symptoms, Dreams, Lateralization: Theory, Interpretation, Therapy

Theory Construction and Testing in Physics and Psychology

An incredible chronicle of an amazing inner journey!.......2007-02-24

I think Carl Jung was very ahead of his time and he was in sense an explorer like Columbus, except that his territory was the vast space of his own interior. My understanding of Jung is that he took his own explorations to the brink of psychosis in the service of understanding himself and the psyche. Whether you are a Jung fan or not, it has certainly been my experience that he has a lot of insight and wisdom to share with respect to the nature of the psyche.

This book is basically an autobiography and it is very dense reading. Jung was highly educated in a variety of fields and without some basic understanding of philosophy, major literary figures and mythology, it may be a difficult reading. However, if taken slowly, it is truly manageable and you will discover many gems.

I agree with some of the other excellent reviews that suggest that this volume presents Jung the legend more than being an objective account of his life. However, it offers a lot of insight into his thinking, major influences, etc. It is a fascinating story in itself.

I think this book is most useful and interesting to people who already know a lot about Jung. It is not the best introduction to Jung. If you want a good introduction, I would suggest Murray Stein's "Jung's Map of the Soul." Another concise introduction in Jung's own words is Aion. I would read one or both of these first before tackling this volume.

We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love

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Life changing
We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love
Cutting Through Romantic Materialism
Understanding is a first step, and almost half way!
Excellent book about love!

We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love
Robert A. Johnson
Manufacturer: HarperOne
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0062504363

Book Description

Provides an illuminating explanation of the origins and meaning of romantic love and shows how a proper understanding of its psychological dynamics can revitalize our most important relationships.

Customer Reviews:

Life changing.......2007-10-01

I knew before I read this book that it was going to share wisdom not only for my entire lifetime but a priceless piece of information and knowledge that I needed just at that time to help me understand and live through an excruciatingly painful chapter in my life and move forward with new insight and unimaginable growth. I think this book should be a mandatory piece of the western education tool kit for living a fulfilled and abundant life lived with true purpose. Nice job.....I'm eternaly grateful.

We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love.......2007-05-27

This book is for anyone truly ready to enter a relationship with a clear open mind and heart. In this time when intimate relationships cannot find their way, endless divorces, embittered men and woman, frustrated couples... this book will lead the way to the new paradigm of relationship. I highly recommend it.

Cutting Through Romantic Materialism.......2006-10-12

In this companion volume to Johnson's "He" & "She" books, he analyzes a medieval story (similar to Marie-Louise von Franz & Allan Chinen) in terms of Jungian psychology--but pursuing p. 195: "The task of salvaging love from the swamp of romance." He describes Western misinterpretation & overemphasis on being in love & its projection of the inner human soul (p. 63: "animus is the soul in woman just as anima is the soul in man") onto an external person--leading to later disaster. Interestingly, it closely parallels Trungpa's "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" that I read in parallel. I think Trungpa would agree with Johnson that: p. 32: "Many Western people, caught up in misunderstanding of Eastern religions or philosophy, make an ideal of getting rid of the ego. We need to understand that the ego is absolutely necessary; it has a vital role to play in the drama of evolving consciousness" & Johnson (p. 151) provides an enlightening, extraordinary definition of ego "death." Also, they both address the illusions/delusions of incorrect assumptions/preconceptions & the materialization of spiritual matters. Johnson's concluding chapters (an American Indian legend, a dream, & an analysis contrasting romantic love, human love, & friendship) rounded out his view since earlier chapters seemed a bit over-the-top via overgeneralization, over intellectualization (too much Thinker vs. Feeler), & a religious view of romance & spirituality (vs. Jungian individuation, balance, & integration). I'm uneasy with Johnson's "love the one you're with" (p. 129) philosophy & his praise of Eastern marriage. While he demonstrates how romantic love is egocentric vs. altruistic human love, he deemphasizes this in his story analysis. It seems to me that Tristan was a puer (Peter Pan) archetypal hero--not an adult. Much of what Johnson vilifies as romance could be attributed to narcissism instead--could romantic love merely be an implementation of narcissism? Further, archetypes form complexes by combining with human experience; thus, anima & animus are complexes as well as archetypes. An adult could apply archetypal spiritual love to a real person to form a (human) love complex. Thus, rather than an Eastern contractual marriage or Western falling-in-love, one could follow the Middle Way of human love, balancing one's inner & outer worlds without sacrificing personal affinity. Johnson seems to imply this without explicating it. He performs a most valuable service by exposing idealized romantic falling-in-love & facilitating modern understanding of human love & commitment in a society with a dearth of both.

Understanding is a first step, and almost half way!.......2006-05-08

If you are a man, and you are deeply suffering because either you are in love, or because you feel you are loosing one, this book is worth a hundred psycho-therapy sessions. It is very likely that it will help you to understand yourself, and therefore you would become much more likely to take control, or at least, to feel wide relief associated to deep understanding!

Excellent book about love!.......2005-11-08

It gives a great perspective as to how we humans experience love. It also gives a good explanation of what is the difference between romatic love and, true and mature love. It talks about expectations, desires, passion, commitment, fears, etc. It helped me to understand why my love parners acted the way they did in our relationships, as well as why I kept fighting for those unfruitful relationships. ¡Trully interesting!

Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 9, Pt. 1)

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DENSE AND OBTUSE BUT WORTH THE EFFORT
Dense and Obtuse, But Worth the Effort
Know your denizens
Symbols, Dreams, Mandalas, The Unconscious
An Essential Work by Jung.

Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 9, Pt. 1)
Carl Gustav Jung , and William McGuire
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691097615

Book Description

Essays which state the fundamentals of Jung's psychological system: "On the Psychology of the Unconscious" and "The Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious," with their original versions in an appendix.

Customer Reviews:

DENSE AND OBTUSE BUT WORTH THE EFFORT.......2006-12-15

I have a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion as well as a Th.D., so I'm no neophyte when it comes to arcane and occult themes. Carl Jung, however, is the penultimate obscurantist--at least in English translation--exceeded only by Martin Heidegger. So be prepared for a ride through verbal molasses. That said, this book is well worth the effort because understanding Jung is well worth the effort. His insights go far beyond psychology into that which is today called "spirituality" as opposed to religion.

Grasping the theories and insights of Jung is one of the most empowering things a person can do for themselves because he provides you with insights that will enable you to guide your own self-transformation.

Dense and Obtuse, But Worth the Effort.......2006-09-18

Know your denizens.......2006-06-06

Jung's books are not easy reads, but they are almost invariably eye-openers. I recommend first reading his student's works (von Franz, Barbara Hanna, Joland Jacobi), his "Man and His Symbols," & (especially with respect to this book) Joseph Campbell & Jean Shinoda Bolen. It helps a lot to understand mythology when exploring the collective unconscious. Jung goes to great lengths to show how the denizens of the collective unconscious (archetypes--universal images~Plato's view) map onto very different cultures throughout time & space--appearing in art, dreams, visions, etc. Bolen uses Greek goddesses & gods to depict these. Jung disliked neologisms (creating new words) instead he transplanted them from other disciplines to map into his psychological theories & constructs--thus, "archetypes" & "complexes"--paralleling General Systems Theory (cf. biologist von Bertalanfy's works). "Complex" comes from mathematics' complex numbers. Jung knew & conversed with physicist Pauli, Kabbalah professor Scholem, & many other famous, high-caliber scholars. It is important to realize, when reading this book, the important differences between archetypes of the collective unconscious & complexes of the personal unconscious--though they have the same names! Thus, the mother archetype is the pure image of motherhood--with both positive & negative aspects. But, each person has an actual, individual mother (or lack thereof--absent mother). The interaction or combination of these two forms one's mother complex. As in math, it has a rational part (actual mother) & an imaginary part (archetype). In math, the imaginary part is multiplied by i, the square root of minus 1--which cannot exist, yet mathematicians use it creatively! So does Jung. Even modern works by "post-Jungians" often confuse or confound these two. The Anima/animus is particularly prone to this confusion. Unfortunately, Jung added to this confusion IMHO by calling the anima soul & the animus spirit. The anima/animus use gender & projection to enable people attune to the Self, the overarching archetype (others are essentially subsets). It is the image of wholeness &, thus, the object of psychological individuation--not integration. Jung says one cannot integrate the entire unconscious--that is beyond human capability. This is more subtle than it seems--esp. regarding western mystics' unio mystica (union with God) & eastern enlightenment. Jung attempts to assist people evolve, ~the U.S. Army: "be all you can be," rather than a thin veneer of civilization--p. 269 "Outwardly people are more or less civilized, but inwardly they are still primitives." Further, p. 322 "The view that we can simply turn our back on evil & in this way eschew it belongs to the long list of antiquated naiveté's. This is sheer ostrich policy & does not affect the reality of evil in the slightest." Therefore, Jung includes the negative aspects of both archetypes & complexes. Finally, as scientific psychologist, Jung notes that p. 269 "We should never forget that in any psychological discussion we are not saying anything about the psyche, but that the psyche is always speaking about itself."

Symbols, Dreams, Mandalas, The Unconscious.......2004-01-19

It's a book of essays on a theme, like most of his other books. Here's an attempt to describe the whole theory in a few paragraphs. Jung suggests the existence of a 3-layered psyche consisting of (1) the conscious (active part of the mind), (2) the personal unconscious (thinking over which we have little or no control), and (3) the collective unconscious (unevolved, animal-instinctive mental activity). The collective unconscious is "collective" in the sense that humans resemble each other the most at the lowest, biological levels. "The body's carbon is simply carbon" (pg. 173). We inherit the collective unconscious from the common pool of human characteristics, like morphological aspects of the body such as arms, legs, etc.

The "archetypes" originate in the collective unconscious and are the psychological equivalents of Platonic Forms. (I realized about halfway through the book that archetype-figures also appear in the personal unconscious, where they're called "complexes"). The most important archetypes appear to be the Shadow (the inferior aspects of the self which we hide from others), the Anima/Animus (our object(s) of desire), and the Wise Old Man (e.g., teacher, medicine man). He also discusses a Mother archetype and a Child archetype and indicates the existence of numerous others. Identifying strongly with an archetype leads to psychosis.

The heart of the book is in the first essay, but the rest is useful in fleshing out descriptions and giving examples. The collective Anima archetype, for instance, can be found among movie stars and in the general pop culture. Devils and tricksters often represent the Shadow archetype. Tolkien's Gandalf is a good instance of the Wise Old Man. It's not so easy to identify a particular individual's Anima complex or Shadow complex.

A few things bothered me about the book. For one, Jung indicates that the "Primitive mentality differs from the civilized chiefly in that the conscious mind is far less developed in scope ... The Primitive cannot assert that he thinks; it is rather that something thinks in him" (pg. 153). This is a dubious kind of distinction between civilized and uncivilized states of mind that seems to have gone out of fashion over the decades. Also, I couldn't tell from this book what methodology Jung used to determine the significance of dream symbols. Does every dream about climbing a tree represent the psyche climbing the "World Tree" toward higher states of consciousness? Do snakes always represent the unconscious? Is every old woman in a dream an example of the Mother archetype? Etc.

One of the more interesting and also frustrating essays describes a case study of a woman who paints mandalas over a period of 16-plus years. Why mandalas? Jung says the mandala represents the Self, and painting them is useful for determining the contents of the psyche. He discusses the first dozen or so in detail (reprinted in color), but then glosses over the rest, which came into his hands after the patient had died from cancer!

An Essential Work by Jung........2003-05-28

This work, along with _Modern Man in Search of a Soul_, is one of the best places to start if you are new to reading Jung. It is also the companion piece and predecessor to _Aion_, which is another spectacular and groundbreaking work. If you want to read _Aion_, it would make sense for you to read this one first, since it is part 1 of volume nine, while _Aion_ is part two. Overall, I would say that both parts 1 and 2 of volume nine are absolutely essential reading for any Jungian, and if you're going to buy one, go ahead and buy both.

As for the actual content of _The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious_, I would describe it as an overview and recapitulation of many of Jung's key concepts. As the title implies, the main concepts are archetypal images (as revealed in to people in dreams) and the collective unconscious. These are trademark Jungian concepts, and Jung devoted a large portion of his writings to explaining what he meant by Archetypes and the collective unconscious. If I could explain it to you right here I would, but Jung spends a the first two hundred pages of this book simply explaining and defining "archetype" and "collective unconscious". These are key concepts in understanding the human mind, and may help unlock the mysteries of conscious existence; it is by no means superfluous to devote such rigorous study to these ideas. _The Archetypes and the Collcetive Unconscious_ is NOT a narrowly focused, specialized, or jargonistic work. It deals with ideas that are central to understanding the human psyche or soul, and applies universally to all of mankind.

There is also a pictorial section of the book in which Jung actually shows examples, in the form of paintings, of archetypal images that were seen by his patients in their dreams and subsequently drawn by the patients themselves. Some of these paintings are very artistic, and there are uncanny similarities among many of them. This pictorial section occurs about 200 pages in. After the pictures, Jung goes into a detailed explanation of each one, which I found to be somewhat tiresome, especially considering many of the paintings were extremely similar. Overall, the final, brief, section of the book in which the paintings are described is quite boring, and I would recommend that the reader simply look at the paintings and forego the final explanations, which are extremely redundant. In other words, read the first two hundred pages, look at the pictures, stop, and then move on to _Aion_. The weakness of this final section is not enough to justify removing a star from my ratings, however, simply because of the utter profundity and potency of the first 200 pages, which represents the majority of the book anyway. Keep in mind that the vast majority of Jung's writings consist of essays not more that 100 pages long each. You will find that most of his complete works contain numerous profound and insightful essays, occasionally laced with the odd, specialized, highly esoteric essays. When you come across one of these rare but unreadable essays the best idea is to just skip it rather than get bogged down. This is not to take anything away from Jung and his great, prophetic works; I am just trying to give you the heads up on how to avoid some of the rough patches.

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genius expressed

In Midlife: A Jungian Perspective (Seminar Series)
Murray Stein
Manufacturer: Spring Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction

Transformation: Emergence Of The Self (Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology)

The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts)

Principle of Individuation: Toward the Development of Human Consciousness

Creating a Life: Finding Your Individual Path

ASIN: 0882141155

Book Description

Midlife: crisis, anger, dissolution, adventure, change . . . Drawing on analytic experience, dreams, and myths, Murray Stein formulates the main features of the middle passage. First an erosion of attachments. Then hints of a fresh spirit—renegade and mischievous—that scoffs at routines. This new spirit—is it Hermes?—disrupts life, alarms family and friends, and brings messages from "elsewhere". Finally, with luck, transformation occurs; life begins again.

Murray Stein, past president of the International Association of Jungian Analysts, has written a best-selling, good-humored book, brimming with shrewd counsel, dreamwork, and cultural relevance.

Customer Reviews:

genius expressed.......2000-10-27

As midlife appears to be an unavoidable passage in all cultures of the world, (gratefully so), this compact book is packed with the insights midlifers need to reflect upon it with wisdom and patience. It is a keeper!

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An inside view of two brilliant minds
Archetypal splitting
A fight of Titans for primacy in the field of Psychanalisys.

The Freud/Jung Letters
Sigmund Freud , and C. G. Jung
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691036438

Book Description

This abridged edition makes the Freud/Jung correspondence accessible to a general readership at a time of renewed critical and historical reevaluation of the documentary roots of modern psychoanalysis. This edition reproduces William McGuire's definitive introduction, but does not contain the critical apparatus of the original edition.

Customer Reviews:

An inside view of two brilliant minds.......2007-05-12

I loved this book mostly because I have been fascinated by Freud for many years and now I am studying Jung. To have the privilege of reading their letter back and forth is a treat. Also there are insights into current problems that Psychology still grapples over.

Archetypal splitting.......2006-06-06

This is an amazing collection of letters which depict the relationship of two of the greatest psychologists of all time. Naturally, there are people who interpret this relationship in different ways, especially as a very specific situation, peculiar to the development of psychology or otherwise. I think otherwise. Life is rarely linear--it's usually Normally Distributed. Things tend to go in cycles, not straight lines. The relationship between Freud the mentor & Jung the mentee is just not that unusual. In fact, it parallels that of every child (especially males stereotypically seeking independence). There comes a time to leave the nest & for the mentee to strike out on his own--just as there is a time for a new paradigm (per Thomas Kuhn's classic, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"). This is precisely what occurred between Freud & Jung. It's almost archetypal. There's even something of a parallel between Jung & Father Victor White in Jung's "Letters." This book has some interesting quotes from each of the two psychologists:

By Freud:
p. 119 Take my urgent advice, arm yourself with ill temper against all unreasonable demands.
p. 121 One must try to learn something from every experience.
p. 169 I have long known that one can't change people. Everyone has something worthwhile in him. We must content ourselves with getting it out of him.

By Jung:
p. 84 What people don't know surpasses the imagination, and what they don't want to know is simply unbelievable.
p. 157 one likes human beings around one and not complex-masks.

And, very apropos: p. 462 Emma Jung: it is always the nearest thing that one sees worst.

A fight of Titans for primacy in the field of Psychanalisys........2003-04-23

This is a sad book to read. In fact, one would not expect that such a type of bad development would occur between the two most important figures of psychoanalisys. It is as if Marx and Engels had broken their friendship for life and began to fight for fame and glory in front of everybody. The spoil was huge: nothing more than the primacy for fame and glory in the first steps of psychanalisys.

Sure, the letters span a pretty much limited space of time of no more than 8 years (1906-1914) but the reader has to keep in mind that what was at stake was the establishing of the foundations of psychoanalisys all over Europe and also in the whole World.
What began as a cordial friendship and evolved into an almost father (Freud) to son (Jung) relationship, deteriorated into the most depressive fighting of personal primacy on many subjects. In this regard, it seems that the feud was initiated by Freud who considered Jung a type of his personal assistant to market the developments of his findings
THe fact that this is a abridged edition does not mean nothing except that here the common reader will find the most important material exchanged by the two great men and will be saved from some meaningless material of more burocratical tone.
Also of value is the introduction that ilustrates all the effort made by the two family sides to publish the letters, in spite the view by Jung that the ideal time for them to be published would be 20 to 30 years after his death.

THis is a must reading for anyone interested in the history of psychanalisys.

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human, all too human

In dubious triumph

A Most Dangerous Method

A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein
John Kerr
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Madness: A Brief History

My Name Was Sabina Spielrein

A Secret Symmetry

Sabina Spielrein: Forgotten Pioneer of Psychoanalysis

Freud And Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought

ASIN: 0679404120
Release Date: 1993-08-24

Customer Reviews:

human, all too human.......2004-01-11

Isn't it strange that although this well-researched and readable book has been out ten years now, not a single analyst, Jungian or Freudian, has reviewed it here?

During my training as a depth psychologist I heard and read a lot about the Freud-Jung relationship, about its shattering on the rocks of politicking and father complexes, and a bit about the unfortunate Sabina Spielrein, one-time patient of Jung. At this point nobody in the field is shocked to hear about the Founding Fathers having sex with their patients, however inappropriate or damaging it may have been (Freud seems to have been a rare exception to this kind of acting out).

What's troubling to read in this book is not so much Jung's having an affair with Spielrein--harmful enough all by itself--but the casual brutality in how he handled it: the resumption of it after she had attacked him and asked Freud for help, Jung's lame excuses for dropping her (even telling her at one point that he'd displaced an attraction to Freud's daughter onto Sabina--how nice), the coldness of his self-justification to Sabina's mother when she found out via letter from Emma Jung (basically: no fee was charged, so it wasn't really that bad--but if you wish to discuss it, that'll be ten francs an hour).... The shocking, manipulative sadism of Jung's repeated betrayals of Spielrein might make difficult reading for those who revere him, even granting that they took place before Jung's "confrontation with the unconscious."

The book also sheds light on the human background of Jung's theories about the anima. Plenty here for feminist critics.

Kerr also makes a convincing case for Freud's affair with his sister-in-law Minna, although this reader is not entirely sold on it (allow me to keep at least one post-doctoral illusion!). The affair matters because of Kerr's claim that Jung and Freud indulged in implied threats of mutual sexual blackmail toward the end of their correspondence (I won't show them yours if you don't show them mine).

I can see after reading this book why some of Jung's late letters to Freud alternate between aggression and what seems like paranoia. For six years I ran men's groups and often noticed that clients with a guilty conscience, especially about having had affairs, lived in the constant fear that someone would tell their current partner about it. Some of what Jung wrote to Freud is consistent with a man who knows his lover (Spielrein) has sent a full confession to a friend and colleague (Freud) but does NOT know just how full a confession it was. Jung's chronic uncertainty about what Freud did or did not know must have added tremendous stress to the ongoing battle of wills and egos. But the submergence of the gifted if borderline-prone Spielrein is the real tragedy in this unamusing comedy of errors.

This book is not only interesting reading, but a good history of psychoanalysis and its pioneers--very handy for a psychology course. Includes an index, an extensive bibliography, and a handy bibliographic essay explaining just where the author got what, and why.

In dubious triumph.......2003-10-01

Perhaps they were victims of their own unconscious. Certainly Freud and Jung were pioneers in dangerous terrain. Has hysteria ever been explicated. They found a key, but it seems to have frozen in the lock. But the portrait here is less than heroic, and is also very important history for anyone trying to debrief oneself on the legacy of psychoanalysis, whose paradigm grip on cultural mindset up to the seventies almost required an intellectual rebirth to escape from. Had one but known the quirky, almost sordid,details of the hyped promotion of a new research tradition one would have been spared a lot of mental spinning wheels.
This history is remarkable in many ways, and goes through the details of the emergence of the theories, followed by their ossification after the episodes of the Freud-Jung collision and the hapless but fascinating Speilrein.

A Most Dangerous Method.......2000-05-19

For a very solid piece of research, the book is a surprisingly easy read and gripping. Beneath the text, the author subtly raises important social questions for our times. Reflected through the personal histories and theories of Freud, Jung, and Spielrein, Kerr reveals both what was novel and liberating in psychoanalysis (the centrality of sexuality) and what was constricting to the three of them (the practical need to be preoccupied with themselves and their various careers). In this, he raises a very contemporary issue: though love remains desired by all, it is deeply problematical in the face of our culture's particular need for self-preservation.

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Jungian Anima and Animus
Revolution in small package
short, easy and interesting read
short, easy and interesting read
Invisible Partners

Invisible Partners
Sanford
Manufacturer: INGRAM BOOK COMPANY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0809122774

Book Description

An examination of the feminine and masculine qualities in every person.

Customer Reviews:

Jungian Anima and Animus .......2004-12-04

This book primarily addresses the Jungian concept of the contra-sexual in which men have a feminine archetype (called the anima) in their psyches, and women have a corresponding masculine archetype (called the animus) in their psyches. These unconscious forces have profound effects upon our lives, especially upon our relationships with persons of the opposite sex. This short book, while written some time ago, is still applicable today. It covers a lot of ground in a short space so it can be a bit difficult or even dense in places, especially if the reader is not intimate with Jungian psychology. Nevertheless, the concepts (or model, if you will) are valuable and useful in everyday life-not just with romantic relationships, but also with interpersonal communications and understanding.

In order to get the most out of this book, it is necessary to keep an open mind. This can be challenging; as stated on page 9: "Even the most elemental knowledge of oneself is something that most people resist with the greatest determination. Usually it is only when we are in a state of great pain or confusion, and only self-knowledge offers a way out, that we are willing to risk our cherished ideas of what we are like in a confrontation with the truth, and even then many people prefer to live a meaningless life rather than to go through the often disagreeable process of coming to know themselves."

Thus, recognition of animus/anima interplay can result in "being in love" which we resist analyzing and bringing into the everyday world. From pages 18-19: "Relationship founded exclusively on the being-in-love state can never last...being in love is a matter for the gods, not for human beings...it can endure only in a fantasy world where the relationship is not tested in the everyday stress of real life...To the extent that a relationship is founded on projection, the element of human love is lacking. To be in love with someone we do not know as a person, but are attracted to because they reflect back to us the image of the god or goddess in our soul, is in a sense, to be in love with oneself not with the other person...Real love begins only when one person comes to know another for who he or she really is as a human being, and begins to like and care for that human being."

Projection is not, however, a totally negative process because per page 20: "Each time projection occurs there is another opportunity for us to know our inner Invisible Partners, and that is a way of knowing our own souls." Thus, for example, on pages 53-4: "In learning to relate to a woman, a man also has to come to terms with the little boy in himself...We have no free choice unless we are psychologically conscious persons," and on page 55: "Of the choices every man and woman makes of his or her partner in life; in some way the partner represents something we need to understand about ourselves."

But it's not a bowl of roses either because per page. 83: "Projections can never be withdrawn completely, for they are out of our conscious control; nor can we ever become so conscious of the inner images of the anima and animus that projections do not occur. Withdrawing projections does not mean that they no longer occur, but that we understand them as images within ourselves when they do." But, (page 124) "We get well in direct proportion to the energy we put into our psychological development."

For additional reading on unconscious forces, see: George Weinberg "Invisible Masters: Compulsions and the Fear that Drives Them" Plume NY 1993 and Loren E. Pederson Dark Hearts-The Unconscious Forces that Shape Men's Lives Shambhala, Boston 1991

Revolution in small package.......2004-06-17

As one reviewer mentioned, this book is short. It is dense in places, and required a second read of parts of chapter 2.

It's interesting how important turning points in life can be traced back to seemingly inconsequential encounters. I dated a girl just once, and we never saw each other again. While we were discussing self-help books that had been important to us, she mentioned The Invisible Partners. Later I ordered the book from Amazon and it proved to be revolutionary. Finally, I have answers. I understand why/how I'd experienced certain disorienting emotional phenomena since I was a young man. And now I have ways to "right myself". The answers and tools didn't come directly from the text, but indirectly from doing the work suggested in the appendix. (I think the appendix is worth the price of the book.)

If you're open to Jungian thought and have found therapy helpful but maybe unable to answer some key questions, do yourself a favor and read The Invisible Partners. You may not find it revolutionary, but I can't imagine you won't find it helpful.

short, easy and interesting read.......2003-04-09

This book was a really interesting and thought provoking first contact with the Jungian concepts of projection, anima and animus and the roles (positive and negative) they play in intimate, heterosexual relationships.

It was a really wonderful read with lots of good and easy explanations (theoretical and practical) of the concepts and it's manifestations. And a wonderful outline of a positive and workable approach to dealing with projections and what their purpose is (in a nutshell, first to break through the barrier that exists between to people and secondly and more often than not just a way of your unconscious to tell you what you have to work on with yourself {if you have strong bigger-than-life-women projections --> get in touch with your inner female/emotions. If you have bigger-than-life-men projections --> get in touch with your inner man/creativity/strive; if you have are heavily attracted to artistic partners it might be that your own artistic potential needs to be worked out).

On the more negative side:
It seemed to treat the male/anima side of the whole equation a lot more indepth than the female/animus part. And there is hardly anything about people who don't match their own gender archetype much or to be more concrete match their opposite gender archetype more than their own. Which might be a result of it being a bit dated by now and it's shortness of only 120 pages.

I as well enjoyed the treatment of at the time rather current discussions about if men and women both have anima and animus. Or if their occurence is gendered.

All in all an excellent introduction though!

short, easy and interesting read.......2003-04-08

I as well enjoyed the treatment of at the time rather current discussions about if men and women both have anima and animus. Or if their occurence is gendered.

All in all an excellent introduction though!

Invisible Partners.......2000-05-20

Whenever friends plan to get married and we begin to think of gifts this book comes to mind. We were encouraged to read this when in couples counseling in the early months of our marriage 12 years ago. What a help it was for us. I realize that it would be good to read it again everytime someone we know begins those steps toward marriage.

Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction

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alcoholism & creativity
Inspiring
An Appreciation
Should be mandatory reading in any drug/alcohol counseling
A thorough look at creativity and psyche.

Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction
Linda Schierse Leonard
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0877735883
Release Date: 2001-06-05

Book Description

In Witness to the Fire, Linda Schierse Leonard, Ph.D., explores the dark and fiery journey of transformation from the bondage of addiction to the freedom of recovery through creativity. A Jungian analyst, Leonard studies the relationship of creativity and addiction in the lives of writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Eugene O'Neill, Jean Rhys, and Jack London, as well as the experiences of ordinary men and women. Leonard holds out the hope that anyone bound by addiction can reclaim the power that fuels dependency for a life of joy and creativity.

Customer Reviews:

alcoholism & creativity.......2002-01-12

Never have I seen anything quite like this. This is the definitive book on creativity. & When you don't create, ahhh, the ills that befall us. We fall into an addictive pattern trying desperatedly to recreate that atonement w/God. Failing that, one either drinks, or does whatever to replicate that feeling one more time. Again & again. This book revealed the essence alcoholism. Why certain people drink or create. Simple as that. I've reread this one @ least 2x now. Enjoy your journey.

Inspiring.......2000-10-10

This is a unique and courageous book, as heartening to the artist as to the addict in each of us. It is a marvelously distilled meditation on creativity's darkness en route to the light. Leonard has deftly woven literary, spiritual, and psychological treatments of the dark night of the soul into a seamless tapestry, and found precious meaning in some of the most devastating aspects of human experience. For anyone facing their own darkness, this book is a welcome and comforting companion, an inspiring guide, and a very wise friend.

An Appreciation.......2000-07-08

This is actually an appreciation - not a literary review. I am an alcoholic in recovery and have an immense gratitude to Linda for writing this book. In her book I found answers, or rather experiences I could relate to, so similar and fitting to many issues burning and un-explained within me. My daimon has been enriched and my recovery program enhanced as a result of reading her great work. I have become a survivor (witness) to the road less travelled up the ladder out of the Abyss - I am no longer terrified to visit that void of darkness because I understand the burning issues of Creativity and Addiction parallels and inter-relations all that much better for reading her book. I am able, daily, one step at a time, to unshackle myself as a hostage to my addiction and choose to harness my creativity productively as a result of being a student of "Witness to the Fire". And I am a student of her work still, and always will be, due to my acceptance of my powerlessness over my lifelong disease and my need for every tool I can find to keep me healthy and strong. But I have chosen to let My Higher Power guide my daily existence and can therefore cope and be creative once more. Linda's book is constantly next to my bedside along with my "Big Book" and "My Recovery Book" - in daily use during my prayers and meditations. You helped save my life Linda - Thank You. Colin Tatham

Should be mandatory reading in any drug/alcohol counseling.......1998-08-24

Should be mandatory reading in any drug/alcohol counseling course. I've read this book 2x and have savored it completely each and every time. I've gained new insights into myself. I finally understood the reaons for which I drank and how barren and empty my soul was for spirit. How badly I wanted to be "drunk" with spirit. And in my inability to replicate that experience, which fed my frustrations and in turn, lead me to drink. Understood the "voices" in my head that were there to punish me for every imagined infraction. Those harmful "parental voices" mocking approval and throwing tibits of love at me. My need to feel the connection to the spirit and the easy road that I took as a young adult. Every time I have re-read a page or two out of this book has always led me to create some form of art in some way.

A thorough look at creativity and psyche........1997-04-20

Linda Schierse Leonard provides anyone interested with the resources to look at psyche and archtype in relationship to being a creative person in "Witness to the Fire". For the "artist", this book is extremely helpful in providing a way of looking at onesself with the eye of an informed Jungian. You will come back to this book again and again as new issues come up in the creative process.
In particular, Leonard deals with addictive behaviors as they affect the psyche of the creative person. She outlines the lives of real people -- ranging from Dostoevsky to her own clients -- who have experienced the archtypal roles she describes.
Leonard's descriptions and analyses will assist the reader in understanding the behavior and thinking of anyone experiencing the struggles of creativity. She offers insights and descriptions that can be helpful to any reader who seeks to maximize their ability to truely live and create in a conscious manner.

The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead (Quest Books)

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A classic analysis of the subject
Jung the Pneumatic
The Modern Gnostic
Wake up... and read this book!
Beautiful, moving and true

The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead (Quest Books)
Stephan Hoeller
Manufacturer: Quest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 083560568X

Book Description

Jungian psychology based on a little known treatise he authored in his earlier years.

Customer Reviews:

A classic analysis of the subject.......2007-09-08

To date, Hoeller's detailed and sophisticated analysis of C.G. Jung as an authentic, albeit modern gnostic has not been surpassed. A great read - highly recommended.

Jung the Pneumatic.......2007-08-02

Carl Gustav Jung once studied under Sigmund Freud but separated based on philosophical differences mainly due to the belief in the spirit of man. Early in his life Jung had a mystic experience that lasted several years. Jung documented them but only one of the pieces of that period of his writing has been released. It consists of "The Seven Sermons to the Dead".

I am not quite sure "why" I am so interested in Gnosticism but when I found this book on Amzon.com, I had to get it. Carl Jung the Gnostic!

Carl Jung though not credited as the Father of psychology clearly saw what the Gnostics were experiencing, of course he had no problem making the connection between Gnosticism and psychology.

Since reading The Nag Hammadi Library's Gnostic scriptures, Jung's Gnostic definitions were extremely helpful to me. I especially enjoyed many references to the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Philip and of course the Gospel of Thomas. The following are some of those definitions:

-Abraxis: The God of Opposites. When opposites are combined nothing and everything is experienced.
-Archon: Ruler. An inferior cosmic being ruling over and imposing limitations on the human soul.
-The Demiurge: The stupid God and architect of the Earth plane. Also known as the ego.
-Gnosis: Spiritual knowledge arrived at intuitively.
-Syzygies: Polar opposites or duality.
-Pleroma: Fullness of being. Holiness. Wholeness.

From Hoeller "............the Gnostics, like psychologists, do not aim at the transformation of the world but at the transformation of the MIND, with its natural consequence----a changed attitude towards the world."

Hoeller explains that while Rome (which Jung refused to visit) was the spiritual center of Christianity, Alexandria was the spiritual center of Gnosticism. The Seven Sermons to the Dead appear to be written by Basilides, the purest known Gnostic Master, channeled thru Carl Jung!

From Hoeller "...............Jung's spiritual forebears in the early Christian centuries called Gnosis--------is never accomplished by beliefs in ideas but only by realization in the form of experience."

"Jung said in essence that human beings have a religious need, but that this need is not for religious BELIEF but rather for religious EXPERIENCE." Hoeller then goes on to say that this experience brings about the inner unity and wholeness (pleroma) of the human being.

From Hoeller "Only what man EXPERIENCES of the Devine is alive: what he BELIEVES about it is dead.

In my opinion Jung's greatest discovery is the concept of "Synchronicity". Synchronicity manifests itself in the seventh sermon as the "inner eternity" and the "outer eternity". In simple terms it is an event that occurs in the mind and the external world at that same time.....................Synchronicity. Once Synchronicity occurs, transcendence follows.

Finally, Hoeller devotes an entire chapter to the English translation of the Seven Sermons and then devotes a chapter to his analysis of each of the seven Sermons. I recommend that after you read each of his analysis's, go back and read each of Basilides' Sermon's separately and experience Carl Jung's Gnosis for yourself first hand!

The Modern Gnostic.......2003-12-24

After Carl Jung broke with Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis because of a difficult personal and intellectual dispute over specific tenets of the new discipline, it is known that Jung fell into a long period of depression and introspection. Separating proved to be much more complicated than either of the men first envisaged. Jung was heralded to be the "Crown prince" of the fledgling movement, but disagreements with the master over core doctrines proved to be far too radical for Jung to attempt to create reconciliation. After this break they never uttered a word to each other again. During this time Jung fell into a period of self-analysis that he has written about in his autobiography, 'Memories, Dreams and Reflection'. It was also during this time that he wrote a curious text that he titled ' The Seven Sermons of the Dead". He reports that strange phenomenon in his house began before the writing: loud retorts from invisible sources; a series of disturbing dreams experienced by Jung and his children. At one point he said the house seemed to fill with an invisible presence, a crowd. It was at this stage that he was compelled to write, ordered, in a sense, to scribe what is now known as this text. The esoteric, magical and ultimately Gnostic overtone of the work is without question. Curiously, Jung was not the 'author' of the text, but the ancient Alexandrian Gnostic heretic, Basilides. The work begins:

VII Sermones ad Mortuos

'Seven exhortations to the dead, written by Basilides in Alexandria, the city where East and West meet.'

In chapter three we are given the seven sermons in their entirety. The remaining chapters are devoted to interpreting and analysing the contents, sermon by sermon.

One does not necessarily need to have a strong acquaintance with Gnosticism in order to fully appreciate this book. Hoeller clearly provides the reader with enough background information on the subject in order to follow his well-written exegesis on the sermons themselves. Hoeller's arguments centre on the indisputable connection between the sermons and Jung's depth psychology with Gnosticism. The 'sermons' are clearly Gnostic and expound, symbolically, on the spirit and its relationship with the Divine.

Stephen Hoeller is an excellent writer and his passion and knowledge of philosophy and comparative religion shines forth from every page. He believes Jung to be the modern Gnostic, bringing the once and future Gnosis with us again. This is an important book as it guides us to look within ourselves to possibly discover what we all are consciously or unconsciously searching for.

Wake up... and read this book!.......2002-10-12

"The dead came back from Jerusalem, where they did not find what they were seeking." So begins the short esoteric treatise "The Seven Sermons to the Dead" by the late C.G. Jung, reproduced here with an introduction and extensive commentary and analysis by the learned and insightful Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller.

Who are the dead? They are really the living dead, the spiritually dead -- those who are ignorant of "the knowledge of the heart", or Gnosis. Why do they return from Jerusalem? Because it is the symbolic home of the dogmatism and "dead creeds" which have blinded men to their own true nature.

This book is part gnostic treatise and part academic exegesis of Jung's "Seven Sermons". It serves as an extremely enlightening introduction to both Gnosticism and Jungian psychology. Hoeller clears up many misunderstandings about the ancient Gnostics, who have been vilified by mainstream Christians as "heretics" since ancient times. He also restores dignity to the notion that we (post)moderns can draw on a store of "ancient wisdom". New Age gurus who can't hold a candle to Hoeller bandy this phrase about ad nauseum. Hoeller's knowledge of history and primary texts and his own insight and wisdom shine through to create a unique and vital synthesis that puts the New Age crowd to shame.

Hoeller's writing is intellectually sound and spiritually compelling. There is no dry analysis or tedious language here. Indeed, Hoeller clearly loves the English language and uses it more creatively and adeptly than many native speakers (English is not his first language). His style tends toward the esoteric, but such is the clarity of his thought that the sometimes archaic vocabulary doesn't distract one's attention for an instant. To give an example, Hoeller explains the symbolism of the rooster-head found on images of the ancient Gnostic "god" Abraxas as follows:

"The head of the rooster symbolizes vigilant wakefulness and is related to both the human heart and to universal heart, the sun, the rising of which is invoked by the matutinal clarion call of the chanticleer."

If such highbrow style isn't your cup of tea -- well, then, this book isn't for you. As for me, I found joy on every page and give Stephan Hoeller's "The Gnostic Jung" the highest possible recommendation.

Beautiful, moving and true.......2002-09-03

Many decades later Jung commented thus upon these sermons: "All my work, all my creative activity, has come from those initial fantasies ... everything that I accomplished in later life was already contained in them ..."

The seven sermons deal with the self as the androgynous being Abraxas, with the message that self-knowledge may be attained by the conscious assimilation of the contents of the subconscious, in order to achieve unity. The "dead" are those who stopped growing spiritually by not questioning their egos. By not growing, they are in essence the living dead.

Jung considered his own work a link in the golden chain from ancient gnosticism via philosophical alchemy to the modern psychology of the subconscious. Just as in those ancient texts, his work reveals a fragmented self in which the image of the divine may be found.

The author made his own translation of the sermons and provided a comprehensive preface, exegesis of the sermons and afterword in which he comments grippingly on Jung, gnosticism and the current era. His views on the survival of the pansophic/theosophic tradition (through the arts) are particularly enlightening.

Jung's central doctrine of individuation is an ancient concept of the western esoteric tradition - the tendency of the individual consciousness not to surrender its light into nothingness. Unlike many eastern spiritual systems, the Western tradition never knew the permanent dissolution of the individual consciousness in the divine.

Already in the first sermon this question is discussed, i.e. how to remain an individual while simultaneously achieving an optimal degree of unity with the ineffable greatness of the pleroma within us. Jung gives us an undivided model of reality in which both causal and acausal connections, spirit and matter, are reconciled.

As for belief, Jung convincingly argues that human beings have a religious need - not a need for belief, however, but one for religious experience. This is a psychical experience that leads to the integration of the soul. Inner wholeness - gnosis - is achieved not by belief in ideas, but by experience.

In the place of a god to believe in, Jung thus offers us an existential truth that we can experience. He rejects the "god of belief" in favor of a symbol of lasting validity, and instead of the much abused concept of "belief", he offers the power of the imagination as the way to gnosis, just as in the magickal and alchemical traditions.

The seven sermons are gripping and poetic, while the commentary is full of insight and enriched by quotes from inter alia the Nag Hammadi texts, Plotinus, Helena Blavatsky, Emerson and others. The most beautiful is a moving poem by the mystic Angelus Silesius, of which I quote a part:

"God is such as he is,
I am what I must be;
If you know one, in truth
You know both him and me.

I am the vine, which he
Doth plant and cherish most;
The fruit which grows from me
Is God, the holy ghost."

This text, and Basilides' thoughts on the pleroma (fullness of god), reminded me of Patti Smith's song "Hymn" on her album Wave:

"When I am troubled in the night
He comes to comfort me
He wills me through the darkness
And the empty child is free

To take his hand, his sacred heart
The heart that breaks the dawn, amen.
And when I think I've had my fill
He fills me up again."

I highly recommend this book as a bridge between psychology and religion, or rather the religious experience in the human psyche. It ought to be read together with William James' "The Varieties of Religious experience" and Richard Maurice Bucke's "Cosmic Consciousness", for a breathtaking metaphysical and metatextual experience.

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