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He occupies a special place in the psychology of the twentieth century: a long-lived patriarch and a revolutionary innovator, a classic encyclopedist and an inspirer of the countercultural and transpersonal teachings of recent decades. Jung reconciles contradictions.
Even against the background of other brilliant teachers of life, the figure of Carl Jung never ceases to amaze – first of all, with his fantastic encyclopedia and productivity. What he did during his long life simply does not fit in the head – not so much in terms of volume, but in terms of the diversity, breadth and depth of coverage of research. His works (in addition to psychology and psychiatry) are cultural studies, philosophy, literary criticism, Western and Eastern religions, alchemy, occult knowledge, and in none of these areas Jung was an amateur. During his lifetime, an institute named after him was opened, but he himself was a man-institute. Jung was so ahead of his time that it has not yet caught up with him. Reading Jung is not easy. He dumps a huge amount of information on you, assuming you have a high level of basic culture and skills in complex mental work.
Read more:
- Carl Gustav Jung: “I know demons exist”
Finally, of all the classics of personality psychology, Jung is the most consistent dialectician. For him, everything has its opposite and complement, like yin and yang. This is exactly how, for example, his consciousness and the unconscious correlate: they do not conflict, as in Freud, but they are not synergistic, as in Adler, they reflect each other in an inverted form, like a photo negative and a positive, and complement each other.
Jung rejects the search for ultimate truth, he is looking for balance and harmony in everything. And even in the theories of his great contemporaries-competitors Freud and Adler, who destroy each other, he sees only annoying one-sidedness…
His dates
- July 26, 1875: born in Kesswil (Switzerland).
- 1900: graduated from the University of Basel with a medical degree, began to specialize in psychiatry.
- 1906: meets Sigmund Freud, becomes interested in psychoanalysis.
- 1909: Diagnostic Studies of Associations published.
- 1910-1914: President of the International Psychoanalytic Society.
- 1912: The Libido, Its Metamorphoses and Symbols is published; publicizing disagreements with Freud.
- 1913-1914: break with Freud, founding of the school of analytical psychology.
- 1921: The book Psychological Types is published.
- 1928: Begins to study alchemy.
- 1935: titular professor at the Technische Hochschule Zurich.
- 1948: Opening of the Jung Institute in Zurich.
- June 6, 1961: died in Küsnacht (Switzerland).
Read more:
- Analytical therapy (according to Jung)
Keys to Understanding
Psychological types
The most popular (more precisely, popularized) idea of Carl Jung is the typology of personality. It is based primarily on the difference between extroverts – outward-oriented people – and introverts – those who live more inwardly. To this he adds a classification based on the characteristics of several psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. Jung’s typology can easily be turned into an exciting intellectual game, which is what the discipline that calls itself “socionics” is doing today.
The structure of the unconscious
In understanding the unconscious, Jung took a lot from Freud, but changed a lot. Most importantly, along with the unconscious, which is formed in individual experience, Jung also discovered the collective unconscious, the elements of which are common to different people. The analysis of its structures (archetypes) forms the basis of Jung’s teachings.
Archetype Legacy
He describes the archetypes of the male and female principles, the shadow side of the personality, integrity, the archetypes of the house, the wise old man, the social mask-person – each essential category of human life has its own archetype. They influence the processes of cognition and action, like instincts in animals. An archetype is a peculiar form of packaging of human experience, which is inherited by each of us, but in the course of life it is filled with unique individual experience, which is different for everyone.
James A. Hall “Jungian interpretation of dreams”
Various psychotherapeutic schools
Path to individuation
The first of the psychologists, Carl Jung, spoke about the self-realization of the individual, but preferred a different (own) term – “individuation”. He had in mind the formation of an integral and unique individuality of a person due to the processes of consciousness. Social life, he believed, is dominated by unconscious interaction in collective patterns and forms of behavior.
Be true to your (inner) law
The process of growing up for Jung is a time of becoming a person. Therefore, it is so important to realize your destiny, to be true to your own (internal) law. On this path, loneliness will inevitably await us, because we will not be able to move forward if we do not listen to ourselves, but only follow the advice of other people. Personal development, Jung writes, is happiness, but not everyone is willing to pay a high price for it.
About it
- Carl Gustav Jung. “Psychological types”. Juventa, 1995.
- Carl Gustav Jung. “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”. Air Land, 1994.
- Gerhard Ver. “Carl Gustav Jung”. Ural LTD, 1998.