The author explores and defends the bold thesis that the idea of the collective unconscious can be reconciled with a scientific world outlook as he sketches a big picture from Jung's psychological viewpoint. In his examination of Jung's archetypes, Shelburne considers the chief critical views of the scientific import of Jung's thesis as he discusses the issue of rationality posed by the theory. There is also a discussion of how the ideas of James Hillman contrast with those of Jung on the issue of the scientific nature of archetypes. Shelburne presents scientific evidence for the existence of archetypes and shows how the theory fits in with modern evolutionary biology.

At least three major questions can be asked of myth: what is its subject matter? what is its origin? and what is its function? Theories of myth may differ on the answers they give to any of these questions, but more basically they may also differ on which of the questions they ask. C. G. Jung's theory is one of the few that purports to answer fully all three questions. This volume collects and organizes the key passages on myth by Jung himself and by some of the most prominent Jungian writers after him: Erich Neumann, Marie-Louise von Franz, and James Hillman. The book synthesizes the discovery of myth as a way of thinking, where it becomes a therapeutic tool providing an entrance to the unconscious. In the first selections, Jung begins to differentiate his theory from Freud's by asserting that there are fantasies and dreams of an "impersonal" nature that cannot be reduced to experiences in a person's past. Jung then asserts that the similarities among myths are the result of the projection of the collective rather than the personal unconscious onto the external world. Finally, he comes to the conclusion that myth originates and functions to satisfy the psychological need for contact with the unconscious--not merely to announce the existence of the unconscious, but to let us experience it.

The landmark text about the inner workings of the unconscious mind—from the symbolism that unlocks the meaning of our dreams to their effect on our waking lives and artistic impulses—featuring more than a hundred images that break down Carl Jung’s revolutionary ideas “What emerges with great clarity from the book is that Jung has done immense service both to psychology as a science and to our general understanding of man in society.”—The Guardian “Our psyche is part of nature, and its enigma is limitless.” Since our inception, humanity has looked to dreams for guidance. But what are they? How can we understand them? And how can we use them to shape our lives? There is perhaps no one more equipped to answer these questions than the legendary psychologist Carl G. Jung. It is in his life’s work that the unconscious mind comes to be understood as an expansive, rich world just as vital and true a part of the mind as the conscious, and it is in our dreams—those personal, integral expressions of our deepest selves—that it communicates itself to us. A seminal text written explicitly for the general reader, Man and His Symbolsis a guide to understanding the symbols in our dreams and using that knowledge to build fuller, more receptive lives. Full of fascinating case studies and examples pulled from philosophy, history, myth, fairy tales, and more, this groundbreaking work—profusely illustrated with hundreds of visual examples—offers invaluable insight into the symbols we dream that demand understanding, why we seek meaning at all, and how these very symbols affect our lives. By illuminating the means to examine our prejudices, interpret psychological meanings, break free of our influences, and recenter our individuality, Man and His Symbols proves to be—decades after its conception—a revelatory, absorbing, and relevant experience.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was never more insightful and intriguing than when he discussed mythology. The key to understanding the Jungian approach to mythology lies in the concept of the image, which provides the basis for his theory of the unconscious. By emphasizing the image over the word, Jungian psychology distinguishes itself dramatically from Freudian, Lacanian, and other psychologies that stress the task of interpreting the language- the words- of the unconscious. In Jung and the Jungians on Myth, Steven Walker carefully leads the reader through the essential lines of thought in Jungian psychology before developing his method for using Jungian ideas to approach mythological texts. Whether one is sympathetic toward Jung's ideas or critical of them, one will find in Walker's discussion a lucid introduction to Jungian perspectives on myth and psychology.

The unique contribution of this work is essentially threefold. First, it provides a theoretical framework for the study of synchronistic phenomena—a framework that enables us to view these phenomena in relation to Jung's model of the psyche and his concept of psychic compensation. Second, this book explores the significant role that these events played in Jung's life and work. And third, by way of a careful examination of the synchronicity theory in relation to the process Jung terms individuation, an examination in which considerable case material is presented, the specific import of this seminal concept for Jung's psychology of religion is disclosed.

Swiss-born Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was one of the pioneers of psychology, largely responsible for the introduction of now-familiar psychological terms such as “introvert,” “extrovert,” and “collective unconscious.” But in spite of this, Jung has often remained on the fringes of academic discourse. Seeking to understand Jung in view of not only his life, but also in light of his extensive reading and prolific writing, this new biography reclaims Jung as a major European thinker whose true significance has not been fully appreciated. Paul Bishop follows Jung from his early childhood to his years at the University of Basel and his close relationship—and eventual break—with Sigmund Freud. Exploring Jung’s ideas, Bishop takes up the psychiatrist’s suggestion that “the tragedies of Goethe’s Faust and Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra . . . mark the first glimmerings of a breakthrough of total experience in our Western hemisphere,” engaging with Jung’s scholarship to offer one of the fullest appreciations yet of his distinctive approach to culture. Bishop also considers the role that the Red Book, written between 1914 and 1930 but not published until 2009, played in the progression of Jung’s thought, allowing Bishop to provide a new assessment of this divisive personality. Jung’s attempt to synthesize the different parts of human life, Bishop argues, marks the man as one of the most important theorists of the twentieth century. Providing a compelling examination of the life of this highly influential figure, the concise and accessible Carl Jung will find a place on the shelves of students, scholars, and both clinical and amateur psychologists alike.

Explores the life and work of psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein through a feminist and mytho-poetic lens. Long stigmatized as Carl Jung’s hysterical mistress, Sabina Spielrein (1885–1942) was in fact a key figure in the history of psychoanalytic thought. Born into a Russian Jewish family, she was institutionalized at nineteen in Zurich and became Jung’s patient. Spielrein went on to earn a doctorate in psychiatry, practiced for over thirty years, and published numerous papers, until her untimely death in the Holocaust. She developed innovative theories of female sexuality, child development, mythic archetypes in the human unconscious, and the death instinct. In Sabina Spielrein, Angela M. Sells examines Spielrein’s life and work from a feminist and mytho-poetic perspective. Drawing on newly translated diaries, papers, and correspondence with Jung and Sigmund Freud, Sells challenges the suppression of Spielrein’s ideas and shows her to be a significant thinker in her own right. “This book is a major, perhaps a definitive, contribution to the literature. Angela Sells documents both the demonization of a great psychoanalytic theorist—mainly because she was a woman and worse still, was once Carl Jung’s patient. The book’s greatest strength is its power to enlighten and inform and in so doing, to arouse indignation and amazement at Spielrein’s brilliance and tenacity.” — Phyllis Chesler, author of Women and Madness “This is a pathbreaking piece of research that not only begins to rehabilitate the reputation of a woman patient of Jung’s, but also suggests that Spielrein was an important contributor in her own right to the beginnings of psychoanalysis.” — Carol P. Christ, coauthor of Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology