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Jung's Collected Works #5
Symbols of Transformation
Esta es la versión completa y definitiva de una de las obras más revolucionarias y centrales de C. G. Jung. A partir de la reconstrucción y examen de los procesos semiconscientes e inconscientes del caso de una joven, Jung muestra que la psicología no puede prescindir de la historia del espíritu humano. La fantasía creadora dispone del espíritu primitivo, con sus imágenes específicas, que se manifiestan en las mitologías de todos los pueblos y épocas e integran lo inconsciente colectivo.
590 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
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4751 people want to read
About the author
C.G. Jung
1,871 books11.3k followersCarl Gustav Jung (/jʊŋ/; German: [ˈkarl ˈɡʊstaf jʊŋ]), often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of extraversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, philosophy, archeology, anthropology, literature, and related fields. He was a prolific writer, many of whose works were not published until after his death.
The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.
Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.
Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.
The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.
Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.
Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.
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June 7, 2018
Jung based this book on the self-published dream-fantasies of an American girl at the turn of the 20th century, but he admits to "have stumbled upon problems of such enormous proportions" that he himself is unsure if he's right about them.
Reading this book was a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes I wanted to put it down because jumping from unsourced Polynesian religious rites to interpreting *everything* as a symbol of the Mother sounded like bullshit; at other times, I felt the underlying relationships between image, symbol and myth were so real they could just be true.
What cannot be denied to Jung is - dreams and fantasy images have a rhyme and reason based on archetypes, and contain evocative symbols that can be explained and interpreted. Jung looks at the world through the optics of "libido" or creative will. When libido encounters an obstacle in adolescence it regresses to a more primitive form of relationship - to childhood, or infancy. Sacrificing this libido, and facing up against the unconscious, whether willingly or unwillingly, allows us to either move forward in life or wade into neurosis.
If that sounds like esoteric bullshit to you, read it just for the cool theories: how fire was invented, what the first spoken words were, and how myths calm our nervous minds. Apparently even Egyptians had trouble falling asleep.
Reading this book was a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes I wanted to put it down because jumping from unsourced Polynesian religious rites to interpreting *everything* as a symbol of the Mother sounded like bullshit; at other times, I felt the underlying relationships between image, symbol and myth were so real they could just be true.
What cannot be denied to Jung is - dreams and fantasy images have a rhyme and reason based on archetypes, and contain evocative symbols that can be explained and interpreted. Jung looks at the world through the optics of "libido" or creative will. When libido encounters an obstacle in adolescence it regresses to a more primitive form of relationship - to childhood, or infancy. Sacrificing this libido, and facing up against the unconscious, whether willingly or unwillingly, allows us to either move forward in life or wade into neurosis.
If that sounds like esoteric bullshit to you, read it just for the cool theories: how fire was invented, what the first spoken words were, and how myths calm our nervous minds. Apparently even Egyptians had trouble falling asleep.
August 7, 2011
As intense and difficult as this work is, it enlightened my understanding of Jung's psychology of the unconscious by providing a clear and thorough path through the the use of one woman's (Miss Miller of NYC) fantasies/dreams. Now I can better focus on my aim as a psychotherapist: to bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious of my patients by giving them access to the meanings their symbols suggest; thereby making it possible for them to "assimilate at least part of the unconscious and to repair the menacing dissociation by just that amount."
Profound book.
Profound book.
October 25, 2019
Carl Jung's "Symbole der Wandlung" is a key work from the author's substantial corpus, laying out in detail and for the first time the core elements of the author's mature theory. In a decisive break with Freud, Jung argues that his storied predecessor overemphasized the instinctual and reproductive character of psychological drives, and specifically regards the libido as embodying human creativity as a general phenomenon that pertains not just to sexual reproduction, but to artistic and spiritual creativity as well. From that starting point, Jung examines the personal journal of one Miss Miller, an English woman who recorded in her diary various dreams and visions she experienced over a period of years before she was overwhelmed by schizophrenia.
In this book, Jung gives an account for one perplexing empirical fact: there exists a pervasive and striking similarity in the structure, character, and meaning of the dreams of healthy persons, the delusions of the mentally ill, and artistic and mythological symbols the world over. He recounts numerous examples of delusions and hallucinations that closely resemble obscure myths of which the patient could not possibly have had direct knowledge. It is equally well known to the student of mythology and folklore that various motifs are found the world over. As Jung notes in this volume, perhaps Christianization by the latter-day Norse authors could explain why Odin, like Christ, hung from the tree in torment; but what then does one say about Quetzalcoatl?
There are two mechanisms by which deep structural similarities in mythological motifs may be explained. The first is diffusion, which explains, for example, why Shiva and Poseidon are both deities who carry tridents and are associated with the bull and the moon - they both evolved from a common ancestor found in the Indo-European pantheon before Proto-Indo-European speakers migrated into India and Greece, respectively.
The other explanation is that certain common symbols are rooted in the common biological inheritance of all human beings, who all share a common set of conditions and developmental crises, such as birth, dependence on caregivers, waxing and waning of individual powers, and a confrontation with the reality of death.
This explanation must be invoked when similarities are pervasive and persuasive, and no diffusion can account for it, such as in the case of Christ and Quetzalcoatl - the motif of the savior who dies and is resurrected for the salvation of the community has been found in hundreds of of societies the world over, as chronicled copiously in Frazer's "Golden Bough." Other common archetypes Jung identifies are the shadow, the anima/animus, the old man helper, the devouring mother, and so forth.
Note that this conception of archetypes is not original to Jung, nor does he claim it to be. Perhaps the first to speculate on what Jung would call archetypes of the collective unconscious was the anthropologist Adolf Bastian, who posited what he called "Elementargedanken," of "basic ideas," in the nineteenth century.
It is also worth noting that what Jung terms the collective unconsciousness is nothing more than the common heritage of images and symbols that are latent in the unconscious of all human beings as part of their biological heritage. They are instinctual patterns similar to the imprints that allow baby chickens to recognize the shape of a hawk, even when they have never seen a hawk. It should be emphasized that this conception is completely devoid of any metaphysical or transpersonal resonance or implication. Owing to some of Jung's deep interests in esoteric fields such as astrology and alchemy as a fertile ground of study for the symbology of the unconscious, his own esotericism is often greatly exaggerated. But there is not one word in this long book that is anything other than empirically and rationally motivated.
Jung's interest in this book is to explain and illustrate how the conscious mind functions in dialog with the unconscious, and accordingly, how symbols are to be interpreted, using Miss Miller's journal as a primarily orientation. Along the way he takes a deep look at numerous mythological and literary artifacts of relevant import, such as Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" and Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen," along with various myths and the work of poets and philosophers such as Nietzsche and Hölderlin. He also directly ties his analysis to Christianity to a degree I have often not found in his work - I believe he was later concerned to avoid the charge that he was reducing Christianity, or indeed any religious or psychological system, to a mere epiphenomenon of psychodynamic processes, as Freud was interested to do. That is clearly not his intent.
I find Jung's thinking and writing to be of monumental importance, and this book in particular spells out the core theory persuasively and comprehensively in a way I haven't found in the numerous other books I've read by the author. These days Jung's theory is waning in popular interest, which is too bad, because his thought is groundbreaking and completely relevant, as much so today as when it was written.
It's also worth noting that he is a scholar of rare depth and breadth, and writes beautifully - so much cannot be said of Freud. His knowledge of comparative religions is immense, greater than that boasted by many specialists working in the field, and that's in addition to his deep medical, psychological, and clinical knowledge and experience. He was a scholar of a rare breed, and has been one of the formative influences on my basic approach to symbolic material, and to life.
In this book, Jung gives an account for one perplexing empirical fact: there exists a pervasive and striking similarity in the structure, character, and meaning of the dreams of healthy persons, the delusions of the mentally ill, and artistic and mythological symbols the world over. He recounts numerous examples of delusions and hallucinations that closely resemble obscure myths of which the patient could not possibly have had direct knowledge. It is equally well known to the student of mythology and folklore that various motifs are found the world over. As Jung notes in this volume, perhaps Christianization by the latter-day Norse authors could explain why Odin, like Christ, hung from the tree in torment; but what then does one say about Quetzalcoatl?
There are two mechanisms by which deep structural similarities in mythological motifs may be explained. The first is diffusion, which explains, for example, why Shiva and Poseidon are both deities who carry tridents and are associated with the bull and the moon - they both evolved from a common ancestor found in the Indo-European pantheon before Proto-Indo-European speakers migrated into India and Greece, respectively.
The other explanation is that certain common symbols are rooted in the common biological inheritance of all human beings, who all share a common set of conditions and developmental crises, such as birth, dependence on caregivers, waxing and waning of individual powers, and a confrontation with the reality of death.
This explanation must be invoked when similarities are pervasive and persuasive, and no diffusion can account for it, such as in the case of Christ and Quetzalcoatl - the motif of the savior who dies and is resurrected for the salvation of the community has been found in hundreds of of societies the world over, as chronicled copiously in Frazer's "Golden Bough." Other common archetypes Jung identifies are the shadow, the anima/animus, the old man helper, the devouring mother, and so forth.
Note that this conception of archetypes is not original to Jung, nor does he claim it to be. Perhaps the first to speculate on what Jung would call archetypes of the collective unconscious was the anthropologist Adolf Bastian, who posited what he called "Elementargedanken," of "basic ideas," in the nineteenth century.
It is also worth noting that what Jung terms the collective unconsciousness is nothing more than the common heritage of images and symbols that are latent in the unconscious of all human beings as part of their biological heritage. They are instinctual patterns similar to the imprints that allow baby chickens to recognize the shape of a hawk, even when they have never seen a hawk. It should be emphasized that this conception is completely devoid of any metaphysical or transpersonal resonance or implication. Owing to some of Jung's deep interests in esoteric fields such as astrology and alchemy as a fertile ground of study for the symbology of the unconscious, his own esotericism is often greatly exaggerated. But there is not one word in this long book that is anything other than empirically and rationally motivated.
Jung's interest in this book is to explain and illustrate how the conscious mind functions in dialog with the unconscious, and accordingly, how symbols are to be interpreted, using Miss Miller's journal as a primarily orientation. Along the way he takes a deep look at numerous mythological and literary artifacts of relevant import, such as Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" and Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen," along with various myths and the work of poets and philosophers such as Nietzsche and Hölderlin. He also directly ties his analysis to Christianity to a degree I have often not found in his work - I believe he was later concerned to avoid the charge that he was reducing Christianity, or indeed any religious or psychological system, to a mere epiphenomenon of psychodynamic processes, as Freud was interested to do. That is clearly not his intent.
I find Jung's thinking and writing to be of monumental importance, and this book in particular spells out the core theory persuasively and comprehensively in a way I haven't found in the numerous other books I've read by the author. These days Jung's theory is waning in popular interest, which is too bad, because his thought is groundbreaking and completely relevant, as much so today as when it was written.
It's also worth noting that he is a scholar of rare depth and breadth, and writes beautifully - so much cannot be said of Freud. His knowledge of comparative religions is immense, greater than that boasted by many specialists working in the field, and that's in addition to his deep medical, psychological, and clinical knowledge and experience. He was a scholar of a rare breed, and has been one of the formative influences on my basic approach to symbolic material, and to life.
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August 20, 2013Jung es uno de mis gurús. Su literatura me ha ayudado a conocerme más. En una especie de autoanálisis me ha permitido conocer mucho acerca de mi origen emocional y de las formas de pensar y actuar de la gente que me es cercana. Me ha acercado a cierto equilibrio vital. En este libro hay varias de las ideas clave de Jung así como de los conceptos a los cuales llegó en base al estudio y comparación de los orígenes de la cultura religiosa, así como de la familia y de las influencias que ésta implanta en los seres pequeños. Basándose en el análisis de una mujer esquizofrénica, Jung borda una serie de ideas que compendian sus ideas principales: el arquetipo madre padre, el inconsciente colectivo (la disposición innata de ciertas ideas que son comunes a lo humano), la transición de lo infantil a lo maduro y el desprendimiento de la familia nuclear y el terror que esto causa, la construcción del yo y sus diversos componentes. Jung abreva en diversas manifestaciones culturales: semiótica, cultura religiosa, historia, mitología y se sirve de las mismas para ejemplificar como los humanos no somos tan diversos como pretendemos, tenemos una historia emocional común de ahí que tenemos coincidencias, por ejemplo en los mitos, independientemente de la etnia en que se originen. Jung es occidental, por lo tanto está enraizado en esta cultura geográfica y aunque su literatura pretende ser científica no lo logra a cabalidad. Sí tiene ideas brillantes y útiles para la comprensión y tratamiento conversacional de los conflictos emocionales, pero tratándose de las enfermedades cerebrales de origen bioquímico y estructural, que afectan el comportamiento y la conciencia, el psicoanálisis es absolutamente inútil. Jung va más allá de Freud, Adler, Pearls, Erikson y quizá otros, pero a estos los he leído y siempre me dejaban una cierta desconfianza en sus pretendidas explicaciones de la conducta desquiciada. Jung me abre los ojos.
September 11, 2017
თუკი დრამის ფინალური აქტი დედის მუცელში დბრუნებას გულისხმობს, თუკი უნდა ვეცადოთ ყველანაირად დავშორდეთ საკუთარ ოჯახს, გადასარჩენად, მაშინ რაღატომ უჩნდება ინდივიდს კვლავ წრის დასაწყისს მიუბრუნდეს და ყველაფერი თავიდან დაიწყოს, დაქორწინდეს. იუნგი მეტყოდა, რომ ეს ილუზია და ბიოლოგიურად ჩამოყალიბებული წრფივი ხაზია, სადაც კოლექტიური არაცნობიერი, დროებით დაშოშმინებულია. + რამდენი ადამიანი იფიქრებს იუნგის ან ზოგადი ფსიქოლოგიის საკითხებზე და აქედან რამდენი გაიგებს იმ სისწორეს, რაც ხდება. რა გარანტია მაქვს, რომ მე სწორად დავინახე ის, მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ ჩემი გრძნობა და ინტუიცია არასოდეს შემცდარა, რისთვისაც მადლობელი ვარ, რომ მებოძა და ვგრძნობდი, ჩემიდან.
ყველაფერი, სიმბოლოები, ალეგორიები, პოეზია, მითები, ლეგენდები, რიტუალები, სულ სულ პირველყოფილ ამბებთან მიგვიყვანს, მატრიარქატ-პატრიარქატთან, პენისთან და ვაგინასთან. საძირკველი ესაა. ბიოლოგიას ვერსად წაუხვალ: ყველა საშოდან ვიბადებით. ამ გადმოსახედიდან ადამიანის ფორთხიალი კიდევ უფრო სავალალო და უსუსური ჩანს. არ ვიცი, ჯერ-ჯერობით იუნგი შვების ნაცვლად, მწუხარებას უფრო აღვიძებს. იმედგაცრუებას ჰგავს ეს ყველაფერი, რომ ყველაფერი იმას, რასაც აღფრთოვანებით შევყურებთ, მისტიკურს, საიდუმლოსა და მიღმიერს შევნატრით, სხვა უთქმელი, გამოუხატავი გრძნობებთ ვფიქრობთ, უბრალოდ, ფსიქიკის ერთი რიგითი, ათასწლეულებში ჩამოყალიბებული თამაშია. "დედისკენ მიმართული ლიბიდი მსხვერპლად უნდა გაიწიროს, რათა სამყარო შეიქმნას". და რას მომიტანს ეს ახალი გამუდმებული, განმეორებადი სამყარო, რომელიც უნიკალურიც კი არაა, მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ მხოლოდ ჩემი შექმნილია, ჩემი გონებისაა.
იმედად დავიტოვებ - "ადამიანს ეჩვენება, რომ ღვთაებრივ სიმაღლეს აღწევს, მაგრამ სიმანდვილეში ადამიანურობას კარგავს".
ყველაფერი, სიმბოლოები, ალეგორიები, პოეზია, მითები, ლეგენდები, რიტუალები, სულ სულ პირველყოფილ ამბებთან მიგვიყვანს, მატრიარქატ-პატრიარქატთან, პენისთან და ვაგინასთან. საძირკველი ესაა. ბიოლოგიას ვერსად წაუხვალ: ყველა საშოდან ვიბადებით. ამ გადმოსახედიდან ადამიანის ფორთხიალი კიდევ უფრო სავალალო და უსუსური ჩანს. არ ვიცი, ჯერ-ჯერობით იუნგი შვების ნაცვლად, მწუხარებას უფრო აღვიძებს. იმედგაცრუებას ჰგავს ეს ყველაფერი, რომ ყველაფერი იმას, რასაც აღფრთოვანებით შევყურებთ, მისტიკურს, საიდუმლოსა და მიღმიერს შევნატრით, სხვა უთქმელი, გამოუხატავი გრძნობებთ ვფიქრობთ, უბრალოდ, ფსიქიკის ერთი რიგითი, ათასწლეულებში ჩამოყალიბებული თამაშია. "დედისკენ მიმართული ლიბიდი მსხვერპლად უნდა გაიწიროს, რათა სამყარო შეიქმნას". და რას მომიტანს ეს ახალი გამუდმებული, განმეორებადი სამყარო, რომელიც უნიკალურიც კი არაა, მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ მხოლოდ ჩემი შექმნილია, ჩემი გონებისაა.
იმედად დავიტოვებ - "ადამიანს ეჩვენება, რომ ღვთაებრივ სიმაღლეს აღწევს, მაგრამ სიმანდვილეში ადამიანურობას კარგავს".
April 22, 2020
This is Jung's most accessible work and the first of his books I encountered. In English it is entitled "Symbols of Transformation". Jung's introduction has a great explanation about the emotional/psychic power behind words: a must read for anyone interested in the working mechanics of practical magic. First written in 1912 when still collaborating with Freud, this volume was Jung's first, tentative, excursion into the archetypes. The original essay ("Symbols and Transformations of the Libido"), was published in Freud's psychoanalytic journal, "Imago". The name of the journal was Freud's tribute to the concept of the archetypes which, at that point, Jung named the 'imago'. It was at this point that Freud introduced the concept into psychoanalysis and continued to use the term 'imago' in his writings. Jung later used the more well-known term; 'archetype'. Therefore this book has an important place in the history of depth psychology.
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May 11, 2024Took me about 4 years to finish this one volume of Jung's complete works. Symbols of Transformation deals with the dreams and fantasies of a certain Miss Miller which Jung uses as scaffold to explore psychological symbols. I can't really rate this book but I am happy I finally managed to finish it. Now onto the next one and probably another 4 years.
November 28, 2017
I've read this twice now and I can't say I really understand it. But wouldn't mind reading it again to find out.
I get the feeling that Jung himself felt, even knew, he'd discovered something of great importance but didn't really know how to state it clearly, or maybe, which parts needed to be emphasized and which glossed over.
I don't think that trying to extract some kind of concrete formula is the way to go with this book. This is an exploratory effort, as the author admits. But try thinking along with a few of the chapters here and you may get a sense of Jung's extraordinary intellectual ambitions.
He really wanted to understand the meaning of life, in the best interpretation of that phrase he could set out, and there are few that could match his drive or ability in pursuing that goal. That in itself is worth seeing, regardless of what in particular an individual might pull from this substantial volume.
I get the feeling that Jung himself felt, even knew, he'd discovered something of great importance but didn't really know how to state it clearly, or maybe, which parts needed to be emphasized and which glossed over.
I don't think that trying to extract some kind of concrete formula is the way to go with this book. This is an exploratory effort, as the author admits. But try thinking along with a few of the chapters here and you may get a sense of Jung's extraordinary intellectual ambitions.
He really wanted to understand the meaning of life, in the best interpretation of that phrase he could set out, and there are few that could match his drive or ability in pursuing that goal. That in itself is worth seeing, regardless of what in particular an individual might pull from this substantial volume.
July 8, 2023
იუნგის წინა წიგნის განხილვებიდანაც შეამჩნევდით, რომ უფრო ფროიდისკენ ვიხრები ხოლმე და დიდი უთანხმოება მაქვს იუნგის პოზიციებთან დაკავშირებით (განსაკუთრებით იმ ნაწილში და სადაც ფროიდს აძაგებს :დ) მაგრამ იქიდან გამომდინარე, რომ მინდა ყოველთვის ობიექტურად შევაფასო წიგნი რა თქმა უნდა გავაგრძელე იუნგის შემოქმედების გაცნობა.
რაში ვეთანხმები:
1. იუნგი იკვლევს ადამიანის გონების სიღრმეებს, ხსნის რთულ ურთიერთობას ჩვენი არსების ცნობიერ და არაცნობიერ ასპექტებს შორის. სიზმრების, სიმბოლოების და არქეტიპების გამოკვლევის საშუალებით გვაწვდის დამაფიქრებელ ინტერპრეტაციებს, რომლებიც ნათელს ჰფენს ადამიანის ფსიქიკის ტრანსფორმაციულ ბუნებას.
2.ძლიერი მხარე მდგომარეობს იუნგის უნარში, დააკავშიროს ფსიქოლოგიური ცნებები მითოლოგიურ და რელიგიურ სიმბოლიზმთან. უძველესი ისტორიებისა და კულტურული სიმბოლოების ანალიზით ის ავლენს გარკვეული ფსიქოლოგიური ფენომენების უნივერსალურ ბუნებას. ეს ინტეგრაცია მის თეორიის სიღრმეებს მეტად უფრო ნათელს და გასაგებს ხდის.
3. იუნგის ინდივიდუაციის კონცეფცია, თვითრეალიზაციის პროცესი და საკუთარი თავის ნამდვილ მეად გახდომის პროცესი, წიგნის მთავარი მომენტია. იუნგის ინდივიდუაციის კვლევა მკითხველს სთავაზობს ჩარჩოს საკუთარი თავის აღმოჩენის მოგზაურობის გასაგებად.
რაში არ ვეთანხმები:
1. მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ იუნგის კოლექტიური არაცნობიერის კონცეფცია უზრუნველყოფს დამაჯერებელ ჩარჩოს ადამიანური გამოცდილების და არქეტიპების საერთო რეზერვუარის გასაგებად, ის მოკლებულია კონკრეტულ მტკიცებულებებს და პირადად ჩემთვის ზედმეტად სპეკულარულიცაა. ამის საპირისპიროდ, ფროიდის აქცენტი ადრეული ბავშვობის გამოცდილებისა და პიროვნული არაცნობიერის გავლენას ემყარება დაკვირვებად ფენომენებსა და კლინიკურ შემთხვევებს. ფროიდის თეორიები იძლევა უფრო ხელშესახებ და გადამოწმებულ ახსნას ინდივიდუალური ფსიქოლოგიური შაბლონების ფორმირებისთვის.
2.იუნგის ინტერპრეტაციები ხშირად უმეტესწილად ეყრდნობა სუბიექტურ ასოციაციებსა და პირად გამოცდილებას, რაც მათ მიკერძოებულობისა და გაურკვევლობისადმი მიდრეკილს ხდის. ფროიდის მიდგომა სიზმრების ანალიზისადმი კი ხაზს უსვამს საფუძვლიან სექსუალურ და აგრესიულ ინსტინქტებს, როგორც სიზმრების სიმბოლიზმის უმთავრეს მამოძრავებელ ძალებს. სიზმრების ახსნის ფროიდისეული ვერსია უფრო სტრუქტურირებული და სპეციფიკურია რაც თავის მხრივ გვთავაზობს უფრო კონკრეტულ და ემპირიულ მიდგომას არაცნობიერის გასაგებად.
3. იუნგის თეორიებს ხშირად კრიტიკებენ კულტურული და გენდერული მიკერძოების შეზღუდული აღიარების გამო. ის უფრო კონცენტრირებულია დასავლურ, ევროცენტრულ პერსპექტივაზე და ძირითადად აქედან გამოაქვს დასკვნა კოლექტიურად რაც ჩემი აზრით ძალიან არასწორია, კულტურული ფაქტორების გავლენა ფსიქიკაზე საკმაოდ დიდია. ამის საპირისპიროდ, ფროიდის თეორიები უფრო ნათლად ეხება კულტურული და სოციალური ფაქტორების გავლენას ინდივიდუალურ ფსიქოლოგიაზე. ფროიდის ცნებები, როგორიცაა მაგალითად, ოიდიპოსის კომპლექსი ითვალისწინებს კულტურული ნორმების და ოჯახური დინამიკის როლს ინდივიდის ფსიქოლოგიურ განვითარებაში.
მოკლედ Freud>Jung.
რაში ვეთანხმები:
1. იუნგი იკვლევს ადამიანის გონების სიღრმეებს, ხსნის რთულ ურთიერთობას ჩვენი არსების ცნობიერ და არაცნობიერ ასპექტებს შორის. სიზმრების, სიმბოლოების და არქეტიპების გამოკვლევის საშუალებით გვაწვდის დამაფიქრებელ ინტერპრეტაციებს, რომლებიც ნათელს ჰფენს ადამიანის ფსიქიკის ტრანსფორმაციულ ბუნებას.
2.ძლიერი მხარე მდგომარეობს იუნგის უნარში, დააკავშიროს ფსიქოლოგიური ცნებები მითოლოგიურ და რელიგიურ სიმბოლიზმთან. უძველესი ისტორიებისა და კულტურული სიმბოლოების ანალიზით ის ავლენს გარკვეული ფსიქოლოგიური ფენომენების უნივერსალურ ბუნებას. ეს ინტეგრაცია მის თეორიის სიღრმეებს მეტად უფრო ნათელს და გასაგებს ხდის.
3. იუნგის ინდივიდუაციის კონცეფცია, თვითრეალიზაციის პროცესი და საკუთარი თავის ნამდვილ მეად გახდომის პროცესი, წიგნის მთავარი მომენტია. იუნგის ინდივიდუაციის კვლევა მკითხველს სთავაზობს ჩარჩოს საკუთარი თავის აღმოჩენის მოგზაურობის გასაგებად.
რაში არ ვეთანხმები:
1. მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ იუნგის კოლექტიური არაცნობიერის კონცეფცია უზრუნველყოფს დამაჯერებელ ჩარჩოს ადამიანური გამოცდილების და არქეტიპების საერთო რეზერვუარის გასაგებად, ის მოკლებულია კონკრეტულ მტკიცებულებებს და პირადად ჩემთვის ზედმეტად სპეკულარულიცაა. ამის საპირისპიროდ, ფროიდის აქცენტი ადრეული ბავშვობის გამოცდილებისა და პიროვნული არაცნობიერის გავლენას ემყარება დაკვირვებად ფენომენებსა და კლინიკურ შემთხვევებს. ფროიდის თეორიები იძლევა უფრო ხელშესახებ და გადამოწმებულ ახსნას ინდივიდუალური ფსიქოლოგიური შაბლონების ფორმირებისთვის.
2.იუნგის ინტერპრეტაციები ხშირად უმეტესწილად ეყრდნობა სუბიექტურ ასოციაციებსა და პირად გამოცდილებას, რაც მათ მიკერძოებულობისა და გაურკვევლობისადმი მიდრეკილს ხდის. ფროიდის მიდგომა სიზმრების ანალიზისადმი კი ხაზს უსვამს საფუძვლიან სექსუალურ და აგრესიულ ინსტინქტებს, როგორც სიზმრების სიმბოლიზმის უმთავრეს მამოძრავებელ ძალებს. სიზმრების ახსნის ფროიდისეული ვერსია უფრო სტრუქტურირებული და სპეციფიკურია რაც თავის მხრივ გვთავაზობს უფრო კონკრეტულ და ემპირიულ მიდგომას არაცნობიერის გასაგებად.
3. იუნგის თეორიებს ხშირად კრიტიკებენ კულტურული და გენდერული მიკერძოების შეზღუდული აღიარების გამო. ის უფრო კონცენტრირებულია დასავლურ, ევროცენტრულ პერსპექტივაზე და ძირითადად აქედან გამოაქვს დასკვნა კოლექტიურად რაც ჩემი აზრით ძალიან არასწორია, კულტურული ფაქტორების გავლენა ფსიქიკაზე საკმაოდ დიდია. ამის საპირისპიროდ, ფროიდის თეორიები უფრო ნათლად ეხება კულტურული და სოციალური ფაქტორების გავლენას ინდივიდუალურ ფსიქოლოგიაზე. ფროიდის ცნებები, როგორიცაა მაგალითად, ოიდიპოსის კომპლექსი ითვალისწინებს კულტურული ნორმების და ოჯახური დინამიკის როლს ინდივიდის ფსიქოლოგიურ განვითარებაში.
მოკლედ Freud>Jung.
July 7, 2013
Jung's gigantic dissertation-book is a mixture of all the positive and negative aspects of his work in general. Jung's language remains concise throughout the book and weaves (like Adriane? ;)) his way through myths, anecdotes, and a long case study.
Some negatives: I was specifically reading the book to find his interpretation of Diana the Huntress, Diana Ephesus, and/or Artemis (or Apollo, or Dionysus, or Wotan, etc... I was researching for a very broad paper). While there were many references to all the mentioned deities, all of the references to them were in passing. The book has an optimistic and an exhaustive glossary - towards the center of the book, as Jung "picks up speed" his analyses are explained less to the reader and, maybe as a result, become somewhat hard to follow. For example, he would mentioned Diana several times in his chapter on Mothers/Goddesses (I forget the title and don't have the book right now, sorry!) but never explains her relationship to the Mother/Goddess archetype. As stated, I paid special attention to Diana references in my reading of the book, but I know that under-explaining connections is a trait that some early psycho-analytic tomes have. Symbols of Transformation seems to share this trait.
Reading every chapter of this book is necessary. Jung's theories are very complex and so they progress as the book moves forward. Reading the entire book is a bit of a commitment, but the introductory chapters cannot explain the entire book's thesis statement.
Some positives: The book is clearly and cleverly written! Jung keeps the pace moving forward and guides the reader through his theory using many myths, case studies, and anecdotes. He comes up with great examples, rhymes, etc, and at one point describes a "Jonah and the Whale Complex" (!!). Read the book to find out more.
Some negatives: I was specifically reading the book to find his interpretation of Diana the Huntress, Diana Ephesus, and/or Artemis (or Apollo, or Dionysus, or Wotan, etc... I was researching for a very broad paper). While there were many references to all the mentioned deities, all of the references to them were in passing. The book has an optimistic and an exhaustive glossary - towards the center of the book, as Jung "picks up speed" his analyses are explained less to the reader and, maybe as a result, become somewhat hard to follow. For example, he would mentioned Diana several times in his chapter on Mothers/Goddesses (I forget the title and don't have the book right now, sorry!) but never explains her relationship to the Mother/Goddess archetype. As stated, I paid special attention to Diana references in my reading of the book, but I know that under-explaining connections is a trait that some early psycho-analytic tomes have. Symbols of Transformation seems to share this trait.
Reading every chapter of this book is necessary. Jung's theories are very complex and so they progress as the book moves forward. Reading the entire book is a bit of a commitment, but the introductory chapters cannot explain the entire book's thesis statement.
Some positives: The book is clearly and cleverly written! Jung keeps the pace moving forward and guides the reader through his theory using many myths, case studies, and anecdotes. He comes up with great examples, rhymes, etc, and at one point describes a "Jonah and the Whale Complex" (!!). Read the book to find out more.
January 31, 2023
This entire book is Jung analyzing the patient of another doctor, based off of the patient’s brief diary and poems The patient’s name is Frank Miller and she is in an American in her early 20s. The source material is only a dozen or two pages and was written while she was on vacation in Europe, the rest of the ~600 pages is Jung amplifying the material through analysis of selections of mythology and literature.
The amount of amplification was overwhelming. He would take a single poem of the patient’s and then bring in folktales and mythologies from a dozen cultures, analyzing these like dreams to gain insight into the collective unconscious, and then showing the meaning beneath the patient’s writing.
In the introduction to one of the revisions, Jung himself defends that the book is actually meant to analyze the patient, and the patient is not just a framing device or jumping off point for him to geek out on mythology. I can see why he made this statement as it does feel like he goes off on long and winding tangents, with the source material long since faded over the horizon. However, he leads you through his entire thought process for every rapid fire example used, allowing one to get the sense of how and why he reached the conclusions he did.
The amount of amplification was overwhelming. He would take a single poem of the patient’s and then bring in folktales and mythologies from a dozen cultures, analyzing these like dreams to gain insight into the collective unconscious, and then showing the meaning beneath the patient’s writing.
In the introduction to one of the revisions, Jung himself defends that the book is actually meant to analyze the patient, and the patient is not just a framing device or jumping off point for him to geek out on mythology. I can see why he made this statement as it does feel like he goes off on long and winding tangents, with the source material long since faded over the horizon. However, he leads you through his entire thought process for every rapid fire example used, allowing one to get the sense of how and why he reached the conclusions he did.
June 16, 2020
When Jung published this book at the age of 37, he made sure to send Freud a copy of it for him to peruse. It marked a crossroads of sorts in how each would ago about Psychological therapy. Psychoanalysis in Freud’s case, and Analytical Psychology in Jung’s. Jung knew that Freud would not like the references to myths and religion in his works, which Freud felt were psychological security blankets that more mature minds really didn’t need. Throughout the book, Jung argues for their importance in that they seem to hint at universal ideas shared among the human race. He would come to call this The Collective Unconscious in future works. But here in “Symbols of Transformation” we see the seeds of a lot of his major ideas that he would elaborate on over the course of his future works. The manner in which he presents these ideas is also interesting. This book is written as an analysis of an article by American Journalist Miss Miller of her dreams and visions that he saw in “Archives de Psychologie” magazine in Geneva. Jung had never treated this woman himself, and that is why he felt it would make a good case study as he could not be accused of influencing her thinking. What struck Jung about Miss Miller’s fantasies were that a lot of the symbols and ideas seemed to echo ancient ideas of old religions, myths, and legends, which Miss Miller could not have possibly known about herself at the time. Jung also noted that a lot of these fantasies also seemed to echo those of some of his patients suffering from psychosis. All this in turn showed Jung the importance of these symbols, and symbols in general. They serve a purpose both in the myths and legends, as well as in our dreams. Certain symbolical ideas even seem to have a life of their own and can seem independent of their dreamer who sees them. He calls these Archetypes... As you can see this book lays the groundwork for Jung’s theories to come. And this book marks only the beginning of the development of these theories.
The book itself is quite dense. Although the basis of each section is one of Miss Miller’s fantasies, we see Jung go on long but interesting tangents into Manicheanism, Polynesian myths, American and British Literature... Just to name a few. I have to admit that some of the ideas seem far-fetched and as a struggle to link very disparate things together... But overall, the effect is interesting in that he does seem to make a case for universal ideas that all people seem to have subconscious access too. He believes that if we are able to understand these symbols when they arise in our dream, we can learn a lot about ourselves, specifically our subconscious which most tend to be afraid of and ignore. But to become truly integrated we have to find a way to integrate our subconscious into our conscious lives. And symbols can help us through this transformation. It’s not an easy process, and we often have to confront aspects of ourselves that we would rather not. But the rewards of doing so if you are able are psychologically rich indeed.
Much later in his career he was able to go back and re-edit “Symbols of Transformation” expanding on a couple of the ideas and linking the chapters together in a more satisfying way. When he first wrote the book he felt rushed to get the ideas out and he felt the original had suffered for it. Shortly after first writing this book, Jung himself went through a “creative disorder” or psychosis of his own. This experience would greatly inform his later works to come, and helped to confirm, at least to himself, a lot of the ideas laid down in this particular book. It is the later edition that remains in publication today.
The book itself is quite dense. Although the basis of each section is one of Miss Miller’s fantasies, we see Jung go on long but interesting tangents into Manicheanism, Polynesian myths, American and British Literature... Just to name a few. I have to admit that some of the ideas seem far-fetched and as a struggle to link very disparate things together... But overall, the effect is interesting in that he does seem to make a case for universal ideas that all people seem to have subconscious access too. He believes that if we are able to understand these symbols when they arise in our dream, we can learn a lot about ourselves, specifically our subconscious which most tend to be afraid of and ignore. But to become truly integrated we have to find a way to integrate our subconscious into our conscious lives. And symbols can help us through this transformation. It’s not an easy process, and we often have to confront aspects of ourselves that we would rather not. But the rewards of doing so if you are able are psychologically rich indeed.
Much later in his career he was able to go back and re-edit “Symbols of Transformation” expanding on a couple of the ideas and linking the chapters together in a more satisfying way. When he first wrote the book he felt rushed to get the ideas out and he felt the original had suffered for it. Shortly after first writing this book, Jung himself went through a “creative disorder” or psychosis of his own. This experience would greatly inform his later works to come, and helped to confirm, at least to himself, a lot of the ideas laid down in this particular book. It is the later edition that remains in publication today.
June 22, 2024
If you plan to read this book you should at least be familiar with: Erich Neumann's, The Origins and History of Consciousness and Joseph Campbells The Hero With A Thousand Faces. A basic familiarity of Christianity and Greek mythology would also be useful. Ideally an exceptionally deep and broad knowledge of world mythology would be yet more beneficial, although this is admittedly an unrealistic expectation for the average reader, myself included.
A significant portion of this books content is a kind of journey through the psychological significance of various mythological symbolism with many, often long digressions that amplify associated symbols. This oftentimes makes for difficult reading, leaving the main thread of thought hard to follow. As a consequence of which this book challenges the readers' perseverance and motivation to keep reading.
However, after having persevered through this book I can say, I think the utility of Jung's often difficult style, is itself a demonstration of the way in which the mode of communication between the unconscious and conscious is a kind of obscure flow of symbolic associations. The chief point is of course, that it is possible, necessary even, to derive psychological meaning from an individuals personal symbolic content.
In addition one major consequence of this work leaves us with a tentative sketch of a kind of universal hero story, these ideas have been developed further by the previously mentioned authors Campbell and Neumann.
A significant portion of this books content is a kind of journey through the psychological significance of various mythological symbolism with many, often long digressions that amplify associated symbols. This oftentimes makes for difficult reading, leaving the main thread of thought hard to follow. As a consequence of which this book challenges the readers' perseverance and motivation to keep reading.
However, after having persevered through this book I can say, I think the utility of Jung's often difficult style, is itself a demonstration of the way in which the mode of communication between the unconscious and conscious is a kind of obscure flow of symbolic associations. The chief point is of course, that it is possible, necessary even, to derive psychological meaning from an individuals personal symbolic content.
In addition one major consequence of this work leaves us with a tentative sketch of a kind of universal hero story, these ideas have been developed further by the previously mentioned authors Campbell and Neumann.
December 19, 2013
The original 1912 edition of this work is of central importance in pointing out the direction in which Jung's "analytical psychology" diverged from psychoanalysis. The issue was, narrowly, libido theory and, broadly, religion. Jung was primarily a discursive, connotative thinker, his mind working by association, glorying in the riches of native imagination. He was, in this sense, an artist. For him, libido was simply the energetic principle of the psyche. Freud was more the scientist, seeking explanatory models in the field of psychology much as a physicist attempts to describe laws adequate to explain physical phenomena. For him, libido was the erotic drive, his models all being self-consciously related to evolutionary theory. It is perhaps relevant to note that there was a two decade age difference between the two men at the time of their break and that while Freud apparently was sexually distant from his wife and not prone to affairs (there's only evidence for one), Jung, the younger, had a far more active and wide-ranging sex life.
I have not read the original text, only things about it. This text is a substantially revised expansion of the original.
I have not read the original text, only things about it. This text is a substantially revised expansion of the original.
August 25, 2020
I finally get it. Everything Jung's been trying to tell me collapsed on me like an avalanche and did so exactly when I needed to. This book has come to me precisely when I need it, at that stage when one has a foot out the family and the other still lingering behind. Jung explores the hero's journey of becoming independent from the mother imago. The hero must learn to overcome his desire to return back to the mother's womb when life becomes demanding; he must forego the temptation of dissolving into an eternal state of the longing of childhood. When the libido does regress back to the mother image, one must explore without being devoured by the mother and appropriately cut the childish ties that keeps him in bondage. This the process of gaining independence from the family, independence from the archetypal mother image.
September 4, 2020
"If, like Peirithous, he tarries too long in this abode of rest and peace, he is overcome by apathy, and the poison of the serpent paralyses him for all time. If he is to live, he must fight and sacrifice his longing for the past in order to rise to his own heights. And having reached the noonday heights, he must sacrifice his love for his own achievement, for he may not loiter. The sun, too, sacrifices its greatest strength in order to hasten onward to the fruits of autumn, which are the seeds of rebirth."
-C.G. Jung
-C.G. Jung
August 13, 2025
Jung analyserar i detta verk anteckningar från en Miss Miller; en för honom okänd fransk kvinna som under tidigt 1900-tal valde att dokumentera de drömmar hon hade under en längre Europaresa. Jung undersöker vilken betydelse dessa drömmar har för Miss Miller, och varför de specifika symboliska bilder hon sett har uppstått. För att göra detta tar han oss på en lång resa där man nästan drunknar i de överväldigande vågor av mytologi, semiotik och religionslära som Jung kastar över en. Boken är ibland rentav labyrintisk i hur den i ett och samma stycke kan hoppa mellan Jesus, afrikansk folktro, Upanishaderna, Freudiansk djuppsykologi och sammanväva detta med någon underlig symbol från Millers fantasi.
För boken var mer svårläst än jag föreställt mig. Inte minst på grund av den stora mängd teologi och analys av mytologi; stundvis går det knappt att kalla det ett psykologiskt verk. Det är inte sällan även svårt att följa med i Jungs resonemang och de slutsatser han drar. Ibland köper jag det rakt av, ibland känns det på tok för långdraget och ibland anar jag att det finns en poäng under ytan men att den densa texten var för svårpenetrerad.
Vad kommer då Jung fram till? Som jag förstår det är Jungs huvudpoäng att vår libido (vår totala psykiska energi) kan omvandlas och omriktas till alltmer komplexa och större mål genom att vi interagerar med de symboler som flödar från vårt undermedvetna. Ett klyschigt exempel som kan förstås ur detta perspektiv är hur man kan växa som person efter en stor sorg i sitt liv. Detta genom att identifera sig med en symbol som både representerar den smärta man genomgått, men som också pekar mot en väg ur smärtan, mot en ljusare framtid. Exempel på sådana symboler skulle kunna vara fenixen, Jesus, eller den egyptiska guden Osiris, som plockas isär för att sedan sättas ihop igen, starkare. Det underliggande antagandet är att det undermedvetna är klokare än vi (i "västvärlden") tror, och vi borde lyssna på vad det försöker berätta genom sina symboler! Jung skriver i epilogen:
"Our civilization has long since forgotten how to think symbolically" och ""The aim of psychotherapy is therefore to narrow down and eventually abolish the dissociation by integrating the tendencies of the unconscious into the conscious mind".
Med ovan sagt ger Jung enligt mig en mycket tydligare (och nyttigare) förklaring av vad ett "integrerat, hälsosamt psyke" är än Freud.
Den huvudsakliga kritiken är att Jung, likt de flesta tidiga psykologer, är för långrandig, samt att det inte sällan dras förhastade slutsatser som får stora konsekvenser för patienter ifall de accepteras utan granskning. Genomgående anar man en viss osäkerhet kring hur strikt Jung anser att man bör vara gällande hur mycket och vilket slags stöd som krävs för ett påstående. Men det är inte så konstigt i vaggan av ett fält där detta än idag är omdiskuterat! Ibland tar han saker som nästan ur luften, ibland anför han långa mytologiska samband, och ibland blir han till och med vetenskaplig i en mening vi hade accepterat även idag, framförallt då han använder sig av sofistikerade "Word Association Tests".
Jungs idéer är otroligt insiktsfulla och orginella. Men de kommer här i ett svårsmält paket. Jag är själv väldigt intresserad av Jung; trots detta var läsningen kämpig och jag var ofta sugen på att gå vidare till nästa verk. Kan jag då verkligen rekommendera boken till någon med endast ett milt intresse för Jung, eller psykologi i allmänhet? Kanske. Den unika kombination av psykologi/spiritualitet/mytologi som finns häri är svårhittad någon annanstans. Men jag förstår hen som inte läser hela.
För boken var mer svårläst än jag föreställt mig. Inte minst på grund av den stora mängd teologi och analys av mytologi; stundvis går det knappt att kalla det ett psykologiskt verk. Det är inte sällan även svårt att följa med i Jungs resonemang och de slutsatser han drar. Ibland köper jag det rakt av, ibland känns det på tok för långdraget och ibland anar jag att det finns en poäng under ytan men att den densa texten var för svårpenetrerad.
Vad kommer då Jung fram till? Som jag förstår det är Jungs huvudpoäng att vår libido (vår totala psykiska energi) kan omvandlas och omriktas till alltmer komplexa och större mål genom att vi interagerar med de symboler som flödar från vårt undermedvetna. Ett klyschigt exempel som kan förstås ur detta perspektiv är hur man kan växa som person efter en stor sorg i sitt liv. Detta genom att identifera sig med en symbol som både representerar den smärta man genomgått, men som också pekar mot en väg ur smärtan, mot en ljusare framtid. Exempel på sådana symboler skulle kunna vara fenixen, Jesus, eller den egyptiska guden Osiris, som plockas isär för att sedan sättas ihop igen, starkare. Det underliggande antagandet är att det undermedvetna är klokare än vi (i "västvärlden") tror, och vi borde lyssna på vad det försöker berätta genom sina symboler! Jung skriver i epilogen:
"Our civilization has long since forgotten how to think symbolically" och ""The aim of psychotherapy is therefore to narrow down and eventually abolish the dissociation by integrating the tendencies of the unconscious into the conscious mind".
Med ovan sagt ger Jung enligt mig en mycket tydligare (och nyttigare) förklaring av vad ett "integrerat, hälsosamt psyke" är än Freud.
Den huvudsakliga kritiken är att Jung, likt de flesta tidiga psykologer, är för långrandig, samt att det inte sällan dras förhastade slutsatser som får stora konsekvenser för patienter ifall de accepteras utan granskning. Genomgående anar man en viss osäkerhet kring hur strikt Jung anser att man bör vara gällande hur mycket och vilket slags stöd som krävs för ett påstående. Men det är inte så konstigt i vaggan av ett fält där detta än idag är omdiskuterat! Ibland tar han saker som nästan ur luften, ibland anför han långa mytologiska samband, och ibland blir han till och med vetenskaplig i en mening vi hade accepterat även idag, framförallt då han använder sig av sofistikerade "Word Association Tests".
Jungs idéer är otroligt insiktsfulla och orginella. Men de kommer här i ett svårsmält paket. Jag är själv väldigt intresserad av Jung; trots detta var läsningen kämpig och jag var ofta sugen på att gå vidare till nästa verk. Kan jag då verkligen rekommendera boken till någon med endast ett milt intresse för Jung, eller psykologi i allmänhet? Kanske. Den unika kombination av psykologi/spiritualitet/mytologi som finns häri är svårhittad någon annanstans. Men jag förstår hen som inte läser hela.
August 17, 2022
I'll admit, I thought these collected works would deliver me comfortably from one book to another. Symbols of Transformation broke that illusion and threw me into the deep end. This work explores the fantasies of Mrs. Miller, and as such explores the myths and symbolism of... Basically everything. There are pages and pages of comparisons of more myths than I believed possible, to the extent I became dizzy in the reading. And yet through this Jung touches on areas that seem to explain all of life's conditions, not just Mrs. Miller's fantasies. I'm glad I read this work, for sure. Maybe one day I'll have explored enough to reread and absorb the work in it's entirety.
March 2, 2025
To read and seek a genuine understanding of this text is to undergo one’s own personal journey of transformation. This book was an exploration into Ms. Miller’s unconscious self, but, in many ways, it was so much more. Jung treated her unconscious and conscious relation to her inner self as a mirror to the psyche of humanity as a whole. To become a part of this examination, one inevitably and irresistibly ends up examining their own hidden selves, while contemplating the grander purpose behind the existence of such conscious compulsions, as well as the spiritual implications this can have on mankind and their relationship to “enlightenment” or transcendence. As I read this book, in an almost intuitive sort of way, my dream symbolism seemed to coincide with Jung’s text in a nearly predictive manner. I could feel myself consciously and unconsciously assimilating this information, as I actively and consciously sought a deeper understanding of the implications behind Jung’s assertions and myriad connections. Rightly, I also went through a period of potential stagnation as I journeyed into my own unconscious, as Jung elaborates on the dangers of becoming so enamored or overwhelmed by the union of conscious and unconscious self, one fails to assimilate and bring a new understanding back into the conscious sphere.
The hero is a hero just because he sees resistance to the forbidden goal in all life’s difficulties and yet fights that resistance with the whole-hearted yearning that strives towards the treasure hard to attain, and perhaps unattainable–a yearning that paralyses and kills the ordinary man.
Coming into my own form of understanding about my inner processes and being able to successfully bring those processes into the light of my own consciousness, requiredtranslating such formerly unconscious mechanisms into positive forward action. One such instance was, as I was reading and actively felt myself engaging with the feeling of being consumed by the “mother,” a symbol Jung uses to express the both loving and guiding nature of the unconscious, while acknowledging its propensity for destruction, I kept having dreams and sudden imagery of horses that were laced with a feeling of near urgency, as if it was being pressed upon me. This dream imagery was further accompanied with dreams that centered around the concept of a revolution or underground revolt. The following day, I read in Chapter 5, “The vision of the swarm of people undergoes further development: horses appear, and a battle is fought.” As I continued to explore this concept through Jung’s understanding, and the ways in which my unconscious could be utilizing these images to prompt me into action, I was able to come into the understanding within myself what it was my psyche needed from me in order to prevent me from falling into stagnation or inner turmoil. Growth was required. An active participation in the physical world to use the new insights I had gained. For me, this took the form of engaging in creative writing and exploring a deeper connection with nature.
However, understanding the text and Jung’s assertions was a challenging endeavor, especially as someone whose knowledge around Greek mythology, various religious perspectives, philosophy, and history are somewhat limited, an understanding that proved essential in comprehending the overall meaning behind his texts. Google and, sometimes, AI discussions were necessary in quickly helping me to gain this understanding and seeing its connection to the overall complexity of Jung’s assertions. Jung presented a complex consilience of thoughts, ideas, and musings ranging from various philosophical and religious theories and practices to help unify the metaphysical properties of the mind. Throughout ‘Symbols of Transformation’, Jung reaches back to Greek mythology and philosophical thinking to exemplify the continued influence and connections of the psyche throughout history, as well as its consistent relevance and symbolism in modern times.
Jung generally speaks with the assumption that the reader already has some basis of understanding in Greek mythology, history, psychology, and metaphysical theories. So, without it, I often found myself spending hours exploring things like ‘Neoplatonism’, ‘Eros in Hesiod’, and Schopenhauer’s Will, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning behind Jung’s thought processes and overall conclusions. However, by exploring these associations, I think the reader is well-rewarded in not only expanding their view of the metaphysical properties of the psyche, but in opening themselves up to another world of thought and awareness of the relational influence between the psychic energy (or libido), and the way in which the external environment is perceived through its “phenomenal manifestations” (a Schopenhauer term I had to look up haha).
Jung continuously alludes to this concept of an “inner God” within each of us. An idea that contains an ultimate sense of “knowing” that, when tapped into, can provide a guide to spiritual and psychological healing and expansion. A quote from Seneca’s letter to Lucilius, that particularly spoke to Jung, as well as me when reading this:
You are doing an excellent thing, one which will be wholesome for you, if…you persist in your effort to attain sound understanding; it is foolish to pray for this when you can acquire it from yourself. We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol’s ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. God is near you, he is with you, he is within you. This is what I mean, Lucilius; a holy spirit indwells within us, one who works our good and bad deeds, and he is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, so we are treated by. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. Can one rise superior to fortune unless God helps him to rise? He it is that gives noble and upright counsel. In each good man ‘a god doth dwell, but what god we know not.
This was a long and dense book that caused me to continuously pause in self-reflection, but, at times, felt a bit arduous to read! It was part philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, mythology, theology and history. A sort of culmination of the symbolic and historical influences and origins of human concepts, thought-projections, and associations that we have developed collectively as the human race, which continues to be expressed as the main medium of communication through the collective unconscious today. Being able to comprehend and articulate the symbolic language our unconscious selves speaks from is essential to understanding the hidden mechanisms behind our inner workings. By doing so, it brings on a whole new meaning to the maxim “Know Thyself.” To know thyself, requires a continuous desire to understand the inner workings of your unconscious self, and the symbols that it draws from that connects us to the underlying fabric of human growth and potential transcendence from our baser natures toward a more purposeful act of living.
The hero is a hero just because he sees resistance to the forbidden goal in all life’s difficulties and yet fights that resistance with the whole-hearted yearning that strives towards the treasure hard to attain, and perhaps unattainable–a yearning that paralyses and kills the ordinary man.
Coming into my own form of understanding about my inner processes and being able to successfully bring those processes into the light of my own consciousness, requiredtranslating such formerly unconscious mechanisms into positive forward action. One such instance was, as I was reading and actively felt myself engaging with the feeling of being consumed by the “mother,” a symbol Jung uses to express the both loving and guiding nature of the unconscious, while acknowledging its propensity for destruction, I kept having dreams and sudden imagery of horses that were laced with a feeling of near urgency, as if it was being pressed upon me. This dream imagery was further accompanied with dreams that centered around the concept of a revolution or underground revolt. The following day, I read in Chapter 5, “The vision of the swarm of people undergoes further development: horses appear, and a battle is fought.” As I continued to explore this concept through Jung’s understanding, and the ways in which my unconscious could be utilizing these images to prompt me into action, I was able to come into the understanding within myself what it was my psyche needed from me in order to prevent me from falling into stagnation or inner turmoil. Growth was required. An active participation in the physical world to use the new insights I had gained. For me, this took the form of engaging in creative writing and exploring a deeper connection with nature.
However, understanding the text and Jung’s assertions was a challenging endeavor, especially as someone whose knowledge around Greek mythology, various religious perspectives, philosophy, and history are somewhat limited, an understanding that proved essential in comprehending the overall meaning behind his texts. Google and, sometimes, AI discussions were necessary in quickly helping me to gain this understanding and seeing its connection to the overall complexity of Jung’s assertions. Jung presented a complex consilience of thoughts, ideas, and musings ranging from various philosophical and religious theories and practices to help unify the metaphysical properties of the mind. Throughout ‘Symbols of Transformation’, Jung reaches back to Greek mythology and philosophical thinking to exemplify the continued influence and connections of the psyche throughout history, as well as its consistent relevance and symbolism in modern times.
Jung generally speaks with the assumption that the reader already has some basis of understanding in Greek mythology, history, psychology, and metaphysical theories. So, without it, I often found myself spending hours exploring things like ‘Neoplatonism’, ‘Eros in Hesiod’, and Schopenhauer’s Will, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning behind Jung’s thought processes and overall conclusions. However, by exploring these associations, I think the reader is well-rewarded in not only expanding their view of the metaphysical properties of the psyche, but in opening themselves up to another world of thought and awareness of the relational influence between the psychic energy (or libido), and the way in which the external environment is perceived through its “phenomenal manifestations” (a Schopenhauer term I had to look up haha).
Jung continuously alludes to this concept of an “inner God” within each of us. An idea that contains an ultimate sense of “knowing” that, when tapped into, can provide a guide to spiritual and psychological healing and expansion. A quote from Seneca’s letter to Lucilius, that particularly spoke to Jung, as well as me when reading this:
You are doing an excellent thing, one which will be wholesome for you, if…you persist in your effort to attain sound understanding; it is foolish to pray for this when you can acquire it from yourself. We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol’s ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. God is near you, he is with you, he is within you. This is what I mean, Lucilius; a holy spirit indwells within us, one who works our good and bad deeds, and he is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, so we are treated by. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. Can one rise superior to fortune unless God helps him to rise? He it is that gives noble and upright counsel. In each good man ‘a god doth dwell, but what god we know not.
This was a long and dense book that caused me to continuously pause in self-reflection, but, at times, felt a bit arduous to read! It was part philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, mythology, theology and history. A sort of culmination of the symbolic and historical influences and origins of human concepts, thought-projections, and associations that we have developed collectively as the human race, which continues to be expressed as the main medium of communication through the collective unconscious today. Being able to comprehend and articulate the symbolic language our unconscious selves speaks from is essential to understanding the hidden mechanisms behind our inner workings. By doing so, it brings on a whole new meaning to the maxim “Know Thyself.” To know thyself, requires a continuous desire to understand the inner workings of your unconscious self, and the symbols that it draws from that connects us to the underlying fabric of human growth and potential transcendence from our baser natures toward a more purposeful act of living.
December 9, 2022
Oooookey, that'll be enough Jung for a while for me, thank you very much.
My version of the book is 770 pages long. In those pages, I learned, repeated over and over again, about three things :
1) Every symbol can mean anything and everything if you squint hard enough
2) We yearn to return to the eldritch and cavernous MOTHERWOMB, and (shocker!) it's better to detach yourself from your parents and to not regress into reintegrating the MOTHERWOMB, and thus turning yourself away from outside life (what a profound psychology lesson than definitely needed over 700 pages to be explained : growing up means going forward)
3) The sun has some BDE. It's a God, it's libido, it's eternal Love, it's the Self, etc.
The weird thing is, if you only take this book as an encyclopedia of mythic motifs, symbols and etymology, it can be pretty great and amusing. I'd recommend taking some mind expanding/numbing substances and opening any page and start reading from there. You won't miss anything, and will have a good time learning a bit of everything related to symbols and religious rites and mythologies around the world.
But for god's sake, I never want to see another etymology discussion that goes on for 10 pages around just one word, relates it to everything else in the universe, derives it from every other word, and explains to you how in ancient Avestan its meaning might be penis-related after all, all the while completely losing the main thread (which is, as a remainder, the RETURN TO THE MOTHERWOMB and why it's bad). Please no.
My version of the book is 770 pages long. In those pages, I learned, repeated over and over again, about three things :
1) Every symbol can mean anything and everything if you squint hard enough
2) We yearn to return to the eldritch and cavernous MOTHERWOMB, and (shocker!) it's better to detach yourself from your parents and to not regress into reintegrating the MOTHERWOMB, and thus turning yourself away from outside life (what a profound psychology lesson than definitely needed over 700 pages to be explained : growing up means going forward)
3) The sun has some BDE. It's a God, it's libido, it's eternal Love, it's the Self, etc.
The weird thing is, if you only take this book as an encyclopedia of mythic motifs, symbols and etymology, it can be pretty great and amusing. I'd recommend taking some mind expanding/numbing substances and opening any page and start reading from there. You won't miss anything, and will have a good time learning a bit of everything related to symbols and religious rites and mythologies around the world.
But for god's sake, I never want to see another etymology discussion that goes on for 10 pages around just one word, relates it to everything else in the universe, derives it from every other word, and explains to you how in ancient Avestan its meaning might be penis-related after all, all the while completely losing the main thread (which is, as a remainder, the RETURN TO THE MOTHERWOMB and why it's bad). Please no.
March 13, 2020
Quite the transformative trip, reading a translated version of an American woman as she noted down dreams and images from her travels and social life, all the while Jung connects to a rich matrix of soul symbols and cultural artifacts. Neither seemed to have much to do with the other on a conscious level, but together creates a fascinating synthesis of ideas thus proving that there is something more than just repressed sexual instincts happening in the unconscious - as some noted psychologists would have people believe. While part of the analysis delved deep into Egyptian myth or Biblical passages, it was a bolt out of the blue when Miss Miller mentioned Cassius from Julius Caesar and Jung takes a couple of pages to expand upon this meaningful scene.
March 1, 2025
Miss Miller’s soliloquies, as analyzed by Jung, reveal a psychological process wherein libido, initially directed towards man, becomes obstructed and subsequently diverted into archaic imagery. Her fantasies are populated by divine personas and solar motifs, embodying the deficit principle of fructification and the generative function of libido.
Whatever the underlying cause of Miss Miller’s repression of desire, its psychological necessity manifests through symbolic preoccupation. Jung introduces the crucial concept that neurosis—and in extreme cases, psychosis—arises from the negative canalization of libido, wherein psychic energy regresses into primitive, infantile imagoes. This regression fosters an infantile mode of relating, where the individual first engages with a symbol before extending this connection to its real-world counterpart. Analogous to how an infant initially perceives the maternal principle rather than a specific mother, psychic energy gravitates towards archetypal constructs before anchoring itself in tangible relationships.
Healthy development, by contrast, entails the positive canalization of libido into the communal sphere of culture. Jung illustrates this through the maternal symbolism of the city—an entity that contains and nurtures its inhabitants as a mother does her children. Proper cultivation of libido within civic life enables the individual to transcend the maternal fixation, integrating into the broader cultural framework.
A critical implication of this theory is that sexual symbols are not ends in themselves but serve a functional role. Culture does not merely culminate in sexuality; rather, sexuality represents one among various impulses requiring structured integration. For instance, the Wachindi ritual, wherein participants chant about a hole as a woman’s genitalia, is not inherently sexual but functions to redirect libido towards communal expression. Freudians might interpret such a ritual as evidence of maternal fixation, whereas Jungians regard it as the sublimation of maternal impulses. In this view, symbols are not static endpoints but transformative mechanisms.
Thus, Jung’s perspective stands in direct opposition to Freud’s assertion of sexuality as the foundational principle of culture. Instead, maternal symbols must be transformed rather than merely intended towards. The goal is not to return to the mother but to sublimate the maternal principle into a broader psychological and cultural function. Sun myths and rebirth motifs exemplify this, as they generate maternal analogies to channel libido into new forms, preventing regressive incestuous longing. Culture, in essence, serves to sublimate the automatic tendency to regress to the maternal, shifting the psychic focus towards rebirth rather than cohabitation with the mother.
The incest taboo and symbolic canalization stimulate creative imagination, gradually opening avenues for the self-realization of libido. This process leads to an imperceptible spiritualization of psychic energy. Water, as the maternal substratum, and fire, as the paternal transformer, represent the interplay between regression and transformation. Societies lacking symbolic structures inevitably seek new outlets, such as consumerism, to redirect their psychic energies.
Suicide, in this context, represents a perversion of the rebirth symbol. When rejected by the maternal principle, an individual may yearn for a return to infancy—a chance to be accepted anew. In extreme cases, this yearning manifests in a fatal regression, where the psychic retreat becomes literal. Institutions such as confession, submission to God, and psychotherapy exist to canalize this blocked libido, offering symbolic rebirth rather than pathological regression.
Jung thus delineates the process of libido canalization: in response to tribulation, an individual instinctively regresses to primitive imagoes. By reenacting these regressions in ritual and civic structures, individuals avoid succumbing to pathology. Furthermore, Jung emphasizes that both regression and progression are necessary for psychological growth. The paternal principle fosters ego differentiation but, if overemphasized, leads to sterile over-specialization. Figures such as the ascetic or the lone alchemist embody this imbalance.
The hero’s journey encapsulates this dynamic. Confronted with tribulation, the hero undergoes a symbolic regression to the mother-imago—an Edenic, nourishing space. Yet, to achieve true growth, he must ultimately escape the mother’s grasp. Like Odysseus resisting the temptations of the Lotus-Eaters or Circe, the hero must transcend the maternal realm to reclaim his conscious life. Failure to do so results in a state of puer aeternus, the eternal child, trapped in perpetual dependence.
The hero’s triumph lies in slaying the dragon, a being that hoards untapped potential, thus releasing its transformative fire. However, the hero’s return to consciousness is fraught with peril. Certain taboos must be observed to complete the journey successfully. If the transition is incomplete—if he, like Izanagi, glances back at Izanami—he will be struck by horror at the decayed form of the mother. This signifies the failure to transform the maternal imago into the anima, resulting in psychic fragmentation. The hero must not merely escape the mother but integrate her essence into a higher order. The true goal is not regression but sublimation—the mother must not be clung to but transfigured into a broader, more functional symbol within the psyche and culture alike.
Whatever the underlying cause of Miss Miller’s repression of desire, its psychological necessity manifests through symbolic preoccupation. Jung introduces the crucial concept that neurosis—and in extreme cases, psychosis—arises from the negative canalization of libido, wherein psychic energy regresses into primitive, infantile imagoes. This regression fosters an infantile mode of relating, where the individual first engages with a symbol before extending this connection to its real-world counterpart. Analogous to how an infant initially perceives the maternal principle rather than a specific mother, psychic energy gravitates towards archetypal constructs before anchoring itself in tangible relationships.
Healthy development, by contrast, entails the positive canalization of libido into the communal sphere of culture. Jung illustrates this through the maternal symbolism of the city—an entity that contains and nurtures its inhabitants as a mother does her children. Proper cultivation of libido within civic life enables the individual to transcend the maternal fixation, integrating into the broader cultural framework.
A critical implication of this theory is that sexual symbols are not ends in themselves but serve a functional role. Culture does not merely culminate in sexuality; rather, sexuality represents one among various impulses requiring structured integration. For instance, the Wachindi ritual, wherein participants chant about a hole as a woman’s genitalia, is not inherently sexual but functions to redirect libido towards communal expression. Freudians might interpret such a ritual as evidence of maternal fixation, whereas Jungians regard it as the sublimation of maternal impulses. In this view, symbols are not static endpoints but transformative mechanisms.
Thus, Jung’s perspective stands in direct opposition to Freud’s assertion of sexuality as the foundational principle of culture. Instead, maternal symbols must be transformed rather than merely intended towards. The goal is not to return to the mother but to sublimate the maternal principle into a broader psychological and cultural function. Sun myths and rebirth motifs exemplify this, as they generate maternal analogies to channel libido into new forms, preventing regressive incestuous longing. Culture, in essence, serves to sublimate the automatic tendency to regress to the maternal, shifting the psychic focus towards rebirth rather than cohabitation with the mother.
The incest taboo and symbolic canalization stimulate creative imagination, gradually opening avenues for the self-realization of libido. This process leads to an imperceptible spiritualization of psychic energy. Water, as the maternal substratum, and fire, as the paternal transformer, represent the interplay between regression and transformation. Societies lacking symbolic structures inevitably seek new outlets, such as consumerism, to redirect their psychic energies.
Suicide, in this context, represents a perversion of the rebirth symbol. When rejected by the maternal principle, an individual may yearn for a return to infancy—a chance to be accepted anew. In extreme cases, this yearning manifests in a fatal regression, where the psychic retreat becomes literal. Institutions such as confession, submission to God, and psychotherapy exist to canalize this blocked libido, offering symbolic rebirth rather than pathological regression.
Jung thus delineates the process of libido canalization: in response to tribulation, an individual instinctively regresses to primitive imagoes. By reenacting these regressions in ritual and civic structures, individuals avoid succumbing to pathology. Furthermore, Jung emphasizes that both regression and progression are necessary for psychological growth. The paternal principle fosters ego differentiation but, if overemphasized, leads to sterile over-specialization. Figures such as the ascetic or the lone alchemist embody this imbalance.
The hero’s journey encapsulates this dynamic. Confronted with tribulation, the hero undergoes a symbolic regression to the mother-imago—an Edenic, nourishing space. Yet, to achieve true growth, he must ultimately escape the mother’s grasp. Like Odysseus resisting the temptations of the Lotus-Eaters or Circe, the hero must transcend the maternal realm to reclaim his conscious life. Failure to do so results in a state of puer aeternus, the eternal child, trapped in perpetual dependence.
The hero’s triumph lies in slaying the dragon, a being that hoards untapped potential, thus releasing its transformative fire. However, the hero’s return to consciousness is fraught with peril. Certain taboos must be observed to complete the journey successfully. If the transition is incomplete—if he, like Izanagi, glances back at Izanami—he will be struck by horror at the decayed form of the mother. This signifies the failure to transform the maternal imago into the anima, resulting in psychic fragmentation. The hero must not merely escape the mother but integrate her essence into a higher order. The true goal is not regression but sublimation—the mother must not be clung to but transfigured into a broader, more functional symbol within the psyche and culture alike.
March 10, 2017
Pirmoji rimta Jungo studija, kurioje tyrinėjama gausa mitologinės bei mitopoetinės medžiagos. Analizuojamas klinikinis pacientės atvejis: remiantis lyginamosios religijotyros bei analitinės psichologijos metodais siekiami suprasti sapnai, haliucinacijos, kūryba, elgesys.
Jungo kolektyvinės pasąmonės bei archetipų koncepciją, remiantis griežtu moksliniu metodu, labai nesunku išmesti į šiukšlių dėžę: konstruktai neįmanomi nei falsifikuoti, nei verifikuoti. Tačiau perskaičius šią knygą nekyla abejonių, jog mitopoetinės vaizduotės turiniai yra neatskiriama psichinio gyvenimo dalis.
Jungo kolektyvinės pasąmonės bei archetipų koncepciją, remiantis griežtu moksliniu metodu, labai nesunku išmesti į šiukšlių dėžę: konstruktai neįmanomi nei falsifikuoti, nei verifikuoti. Tačiau perskaičius šią knygą nekyla abejonių, jog mitopoetinės vaizduotės turiniai yra neatskiriama psichinio gyvenimo dalis.
January 1, 2025
Although we naturally believe in symbols in the first place, we can also understand them, and this is indeed the only viable way for those who have not been granted the charisma of faith. The religious myth is one of man's greatest and most significant achievements, giving him the security and inner strength not to be crushed by the monstrousness of the universe. Considered from the standpoint of realism, the symbol is not of course an external truth, but it is psychologically true, for it was and is the bridge to all that is best in humanity.
The libido that will not flow into life at the right time regresses to the mythical world of the archetypes, where it activates images which, since the remotest times, have expressed the non-human life of the gods, whether of the upper world or the lower. If this regression occurs in a young person, his own individual life is supplanted by the divine archetypal drama, which is all the more devastating for him because his conscious education provides him with no means of recognizing what is happening, and thus with no possibility of freeing himself from its fascination. Herein lay the vital importance of myths: they explained to the bewildered human being what was going on in his unconscious and why he was held fast. The myths told him: "This is not you, but the gods. You will never reach them, so turn back to your human avocations, holding the gods in fear and respect."
This God is characterized as being himself innocent and a self-sacrificer. The conscious projection at which Christian education aims therefore brings a double psychic benefit: firstly, one keeps oneself conscious of the conflict ("sin") of two mutually opposing tendencies, thus preventing a known suffering from turning into an unknown one, which is far more tormenting, by being repressed and forgotten; and secondly, one lightens one's burden by surrendering it to God, to whom all solutions are known.
The reason why Jesus’ words have such great suggestive power is that they express the symbolical truths which are rooted in the very structure of the human psyche. The empirical truth never frees a man from his bondage to the senses; it only shows him that he was always so and cannot be otherwise. The symbolical truth, on the other hand, which puts water in place of the mother and spirit or fire in place of the father, frees the libido from the channel of the incest tendency, offers it a new gradient, and canalizes it into a spiritual form. Thus man, as a spiritual being, becomes a child again and is born into a circle of brothers and sisters: but his mother has become the "communion of saints," the Church (pl. xxxa), and his brothers and sisters are humanity, with whom he is united anew in the common heritage of symbolical truth. It seems that this process was especially necessary at the time when Christianity originated; for that age, as a result of the appalling contrast between slavery and the freedom of the citizens and masters, had entirely lost consciousness of the unity of mankind.
When we see how much trouble Jesus took to make the symbolical view of things acceptable to Nicodemus, as if throwing a veil over the crude reality, and how important it was—and still is—for the history of civilization that people should think in this way, then one is at a loss to understand why the concern of modern psychology with symbolism has met with such violent disapprobation in many quarters. It is as necessary today as it ever was to lead the libido away from the cult of rationalism and realism—not, indeed, because these things have gained the upper hand (quite the contrary), but because the guardians and custodians of symbolical truth, namely the religions, have been robbed of their efficacy by science. Even intelligent people no longer understand the value and purpose of symbolical truth, and the spokesmen of religion have failed to deliver an apologetic suited to the spirit of the age. Insistence on the bare concretism of dogma, or ethics for ethics' sake, or even a humanization of the Christ-figure coupled with inadequate attempts to write his biography, are singularly unimpressive. Symbolical truth is exposed undefended to the attacks of scientific thought, which can never do justice to such a subject, and in face of this competition has been unable to hold its ground. The truth, however, still remains to be proved. Exclusive appeals to faith are a hopeless petitio principii, for it is the manifest improbability of symbolical truth that prevents people from believing in it. Instead of insisting so glibly on the necessity of faith, the theologians, it seems to me, should see what can be done to make this faith possible. But that means placing symbolical truth on a new foundation—a foundation which appeals not only to sentiment, but to reason. And this can only be achieved by reflecting how it came about in the first place that humanity needed the improbability of religious statements, and what it signifies when a totally different spiritual reality is superimposed on the sensuous and tangible actuality of this world.
At a time when a large part of mankind is beginning to discard Christianity, it may be worth our while to try to understand why it was accepted in the first place. It was accepted as a means of escape from the brutality and unconsciousness of the ancient world. As soon as we discard it, the old brutality returns in force…
The libido that will not flow into life at the right time regresses to the mythical world of the archetypes, where it activates images which, since the remotest times, have expressed the non-human life of the gods, whether of the upper world or the lower. If this regression occurs in a young person, his own individual life is supplanted by the divine archetypal drama, which is all the more devastating for him because his conscious education provides him with no means of recognizing what is happening, and thus with no possibility of freeing himself from its fascination. Herein lay the vital importance of myths: they explained to the bewildered human being what was going on in his unconscious and why he was held fast. The myths told him: "This is not you, but the gods. You will never reach them, so turn back to your human avocations, holding the gods in fear and respect."
This God is characterized as being himself innocent and a self-sacrificer. The conscious projection at which Christian education aims therefore brings a double psychic benefit: firstly, one keeps oneself conscious of the conflict ("sin") of two mutually opposing tendencies, thus preventing a known suffering from turning into an unknown one, which is far more tormenting, by being repressed and forgotten; and secondly, one lightens one's burden by surrendering it to God, to whom all solutions are known.
The reason why Jesus’ words have such great suggestive power is that they express the symbolical truths which are rooted in the very structure of the human psyche. The empirical truth never frees a man from his bondage to the senses; it only shows him that he was always so and cannot be otherwise. The symbolical truth, on the other hand, which puts water in place of the mother and spirit or fire in place of the father, frees the libido from the channel of the incest tendency, offers it a new gradient, and canalizes it into a spiritual form. Thus man, as a spiritual being, becomes a child again and is born into a circle of brothers and sisters: but his mother has become the "communion of saints," the Church (pl. xxxa), and his brothers and sisters are humanity, with whom he is united anew in the common heritage of symbolical truth. It seems that this process was especially necessary at the time when Christianity originated; for that age, as a result of the appalling contrast between slavery and the freedom of the citizens and masters, had entirely lost consciousness of the unity of mankind.
When we see how much trouble Jesus took to make the symbolical view of things acceptable to Nicodemus, as if throwing a veil over the crude reality, and how important it was—and still is—for the history of civilization that people should think in this way, then one is at a loss to understand why the concern of modern psychology with symbolism has met with such violent disapprobation in many quarters. It is as necessary today as it ever was to lead the libido away from the cult of rationalism and realism—not, indeed, because these things have gained the upper hand (quite the contrary), but because the guardians and custodians of symbolical truth, namely the religions, have been robbed of their efficacy by science. Even intelligent people no longer understand the value and purpose of symbolical truth, and the spokesmen of religion have failed to deliver an apologetic suited to the spirit of the age. Insistence on the bare concretism of dogma, or ethics for ethics' sake, or even a humanization of the Christ-figure coupled with inadequate attempts to write his biography, are singularly unimpressive. Symbolical truth is exposed undefended to the attacks of scientific thought, which can never do justice to such a subject, and in face of this competition has been unable to hold its ground. The truth, however, still remains to be proved. Exclusive appeals to faith are a hopeless petitio principii, for it is the manifest improbability of symbolical truth that prevents people from believing in it. Instead of insisting so glibly on the necessity of faith, the theologians, it seems to me, should see what can be done to make this faith possible. But that means placing symbolical truth on a new foundation—a foundation which appeals not only to sentiment, but to reason. And this can only be achieved by reflecting how it came about in the first place that humanity needed the improbability of religious statements, and what it signifies when a totally different spiritual reality is superimposed on the sensuous and tangible actuality of this world.
At a time when a large part of mankind is beginning to discard Christianity, it may be worth our while to try to understand why it was accepted in the first place. It was accepted as a means of escape from the brutality and unconsciousness of the ancient world. As soon as we discard it, the old brutality returns in force…
August 14, 2011
A must read for anyone seeking to know the nature of the human psyche and its relationship with the world. You should probably not tackle this one without at least some cursory introductory study in Jungian psychology.
April 14, 2022
What a monument.
July 15, 2024
mastma gvitxra ro incesti mosula mara tqven ver gaigebto
October 4, 2023
In “Symbols of Transformation” C.G. Jung marked his divergence from the theories of Sigmund Freud. Freud was not pleased when his former acolyte formed a rival priesthood.
Freud’s achievement, along with his more questionable assertions, was to discover the personal unconscious. This consists of memories that have been forgotten or suppressed, but which continue to influence the way a person thinks and behaves, usually unfortunately. By hypnotism Freud would uncover these memories. When his patients came out of hypnotism Freud would remind them of memories they had suppressed. This enabled Freud’s patients to overcome irrational fears.
Jung, following Freud, hypnotized some of his patients. He believed he discovered motifs that could not be explained by the patients’ lives, but which were found in the delusions of schizophrenics, as well as in myths, legends, and fairy tales. Jung called these “the collective unconsciousness.”
A social thinker should be read for insight, rather than doctrine. After a reasonably extensive study of the writings of Jung I believe that there is a collective unconscious, but that it is less detailed than Jung maintained. Moreover, he hardly mentioned the most important archetypical figure of the collective unconsciousness. This is the myth of the dragon.
Dragons appear in the myths and legends of many cultures. Dragons are long, reptilian creatures that are sometimes called “serpents.” They shoot fire from their mouths. I believe that the dragon is the archetypical image of the instinctive fear of snakes that humans share with other primates. The fire that comes from the dragon’s mouth is the archetypal image of the snakes’ poison fangs.
For a mythical creature to be considered part of the collective unconscious it must be connected to an instinct that has survival value, or did have during human evolution. Jung’s archetypes rarely have that value.
For example, in his chapter “The Song of the Moth” Jung writes:
“I once came across the following hallucination in a schizophrenic patient. He told me he could see an erect phallus on the sun. When he moved his head from side to side, he said, the sun’s phallus moved with it, and that was where the wind came from.”
From that delusion Jung claimed to find similar delusions among a few writers.
How is this delusion associated with survival instincts? Anyone who looks at the sun endangers his eye sight.
Jung claims to find much archetypal imagery in the poetry of an obscure poet he names “Miss Miller.” If his concepts had more validity we would expect to find archetypical imagery in popular literature written from the oral tradition, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer, and the East Indian epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Jung rarely mentions these. His archetypical images do not appear in them. Jung appears not to have read the Ramayana, and to be unaware of the Mahabharata.
When I was in my late twenties and early thirties I was fascinated by the writing of Jung. During the 1970’s historical romances written for and by women were popular. I wanted to write a historical romance with a man as the protagonist. I thought that if I included archetypical people and situations in my story I would give it more resonance.
I first became mildly skeptical of Jung’s description of the collective unconscious when he wrote in Chapter VII, “The Dual Mother,” in Symbols of Transformation:
“Whatever [Hiawatha] kills generally lies by or in the water, or better still, half in water and half on land.”
I had not noticed that motif in the writings of Homer, or in the abridgments of The Ramayana that I had read.
Longfellow based “The Song of Hiawatha” on folk tales written a generation earlier by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft lived among the Iroquois They had oral traditions of a legendary Iroquois named “Hiawatha.”
When I read Schoolcraft’s accounts of animals and people Hiawatha killed there was no mention of them laying “half in water and half on land.” I thought that if Jung’s concepts had validity, the closer one got to the oral tradition the more evidence one would find of the collective unconscious. In this case, the motif “half in water and half on land” originated with Longfellow, and not with what could be identified as the collective unconscious.
As I have already mentioned, I think there is a collective unconscious, but that it is less populated than Jung claims.
A better explanation of Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious can be found in his book ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Jung is most valuable in his description of introversion and extraversion. His book on that subject is entitled “Psychological Types.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Freud’s achievement, along with his more questionable assertions, was to discover the personal unconscious. This consists of memories that have been forgotten or suppressed, but which continue to influence the way a person thinks and behaves, usually unfortunately. By hypnotism Freud would uncover these memories. When his patients came out of hypnotism Freud would remind them of memories they had suppressed. This enabled Freud’s patients to overcome irrational fears.
Jung, following Freud, hypnotized some of his patients. He believed he discovered motifs that could not be explained by the patients’ lives, but which were found in the delusions of schizophrenics, as well as in myths, legends, and fairy tales. Jung called these “the collective unconsciousness.”
A social thinker should be read for insight, rather than doctrine. After a reasonably extensive study of the writings of Jung I believe that there is a collective unconscious, but that it is less detailed than Jung maintained. Moreover, he hardly mentioned the most important archetypical figure of the collective unconsciousness. This is the myth of the dragon.
Dragons appear in the myths and legends of many cultures. Dragons are long, reptilian creatures that are sometimes called “serpents.” They shoot fire from their mouths. I believe that the dragon is the archetypical image of the instinctive fear of snakes that humans share with other primates. The fire that comes from the dragon’s mouth is the archetypal image of the snakes’ poison fangs.
For a mythical creature to be considered part of the collective unconscious it must be connected to an instinct that has survival value, or did have during human evolution. Jung’s archetypes rarely have that value.
For example, in his chapter “The Song of the Moth” Jung writes:
“I once came across the following hallucination in a schizophrenic patient. He told me he could see an erect phallus on the sun. When he moved his head from side to side, he said, the sun’s phallus moved with it, and that was where the wind came from.”
From that delusion Jung claimed to find similar delusions among a few writers.
How is this delusion associated with survival instincts? Anyone who looks at the sun endangers his eye sight.
Jung claims to find much archetypal imagery in the poetry of an obscure poet he names “Miss Miller.” If his concepts had more validity we would expect to find archetypical imagery in popular literature written from the oral tradition, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer, and the East Indian epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Jung rarely mentions these. His archetypical images do not appear in them. Jung appears not to have read the Ramayana, and to be unaware of the Mahabharata.
When I was in my late twenties and early thirties I was fascinated by the writing of Jung. During the 1970’s historical romances written for and by women were popular. I wanted to write a historical romance with a man as the protagonist. I thought that if I included archetypical people and situations in my story I would give it more resonance.
I first became mildly skeptical of Jung’s description of the collective unconscious when he wrote in Chapter VII, “The Dual Mother,” in Symbols of Transformation:
“Whatever [Hiawatha] kills generally lies by or in the water, or better still, half in water and half on land.”
I had not noticed that motif in the writings of Homer, or in the abridgments of The Ramayana that I had read.
Longfellow based “The Song of Hiawatha” on folk tales written a generation earlier by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft lived among the Iroquois They had oral traditions of a legendary Iroquois named “Hiawatha.”
When I read Schoolcraft’s accounts of animals and people Hiawatha killed there was no mention of them laying “half in water and half on land.” I thought that if Jung’s concepts had validity, the closer one got to the oral tradition the more evidence one would find of the collective unconscious. In this case, the motif “half in water and half on land” originated with Longfellow, and not with what could be identified as the collective unconscious.
As I have already mentioned, I think there is a collective unconscious, but that it is less populated than Jung claims.
A better explanation of Jung’s theories on the collective unconscious can be found in his book ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Jung is most valuable in his description of introversion and extraversion. His book on that subject is entitled “Psychological Types.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
October 4, 2020
A very long book, but unbelievably profound. It took me over two months to complete it, although that is partly because I was reading another book alongside this one. If you are reading it online, it would be prudent to open the footnotes in another tab beside it, because the book has a lot of references, and will need you to keep track of ideas being discussed by other philosophers and psychologists.
Nietzsche has been quoted extensively throughout the text, so some prior knowledge with his works might be useful, but not essential. In long books with so many references, one runs the risk of getting distracted by other texts cited in the book, so it might be worth consideration to make notes of texts quoted in the book that you would like to explore further. A range of very subtle but profound ideas have been discussed in very simple language so users whose native language is not English can easily understand.
All in all, a really great book, and one that might need to be reread in order to fully grasp the depth of concepts discussed. For maximum retention, one can write notes in reference to specific quoted lines in each chapter followed by one's own interpretations. This book will help you understand the core of life dramas across cultures.
Nietzsche has been quoted extensively throughout the text, so some prior knowledge with his works might be useful, but not essential. In long books with so many references, one runs the risk of getting distracted by other texts cited in the book, so it might be worth consideration to make notes of texts quoted in the book that you would like to explore further. A range of very subtle but profound ideas have been discussed in very simple language so users whose native language is not English can easily understand.
All in all, a really great book, and one that might need to be reread in order to fully grasp the depth of concepts discussed. For maximum retention, one can write notes in reference to specific quoted lines in each chapter followed by one's own interpretations. This book will help you understand the core of life dramas across cultures.
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