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On Jung; an updated edition with a reply to Jung's critics.
Explains the basic principles of Jungian psychology and relates them to Jung's own experiences throughout the life cycle
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1990
16 people are currently reading
187 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Stevens
70 books50 followersAnthony Stevens is a well known Jungian analyst and psychiatrist who has written extensively on psychotherapy and psychology.
Stevens has two degrees in psychology and a doctorate in medicine from Oxford University. He studied for a time under John Bowlby. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists. He lectures regularly in the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere.
Stevens is the author or co-author of many books and articles on psychology, evolutionary psychiatry, Jungian analysis and the significance of archetypal imagery.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Stevens has two degrees in psychology and a doctorate in medicine from Oxford University. He studied for a time under John Bowlby. He is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists. He lectures regularly in the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere.
Stevens is the author or co-author of many books and articles on psychology, evolutionary psychiatry, Jungian analysis and the significance of archetypal imagery.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 15, 2022
I’ve found it at last. This is the book I will recommend to anyone who wants to embark on a serious study of Jung and his psychology. It is not a quick and easy read, but if you know anything at all about Jung you wouldn’t expect it to be. Whether you agree with his theories or not, Carl Jung’s genius is indisputable. Stevens does a remarkable job of highlighting key elements of his psychology and correlating them to developments in Jung’s own life.
October 20, 2025
Semasa saya dalam usaha menterjemah Manusia Moden dalam Pencarian Jiwa, kata-kata seorang Profesor saya sentiasa terngiang-ngiang di fikiran. “Membaca Jung akan mengubah sesuatu dalam diri kita”.
Dan, percaya atau tidak, beberapa kejadian yang tidak dapat dijelaskan berlaku. Setiap kali saya mengendalikan sesi, saya akan memberi sedikit amaran kepada pesakit tentang bagaimana apabila kita menarik perkara yang sebelum ini tidak sedar menjadi sedar, ia mula akan berdiri di pinggir penglihatan kita. Saya tidak pernah menyangka bahawa apa yang saya sampaikan kepada pesakit dan dialami oleh mereka, juga berlaku kepada saya.
Ia membuatkan saya terfikir. Mengapa falsafah psikologi Jung begitu menyentuh jiwa, dan ini tidak berlaku apabila kita mengendalikan sesi menggunakan idea-idea pemikiran Freud?
Apabila membaca karya-karya kedua-dua tokoh ini, terlintas di fikiran saya bahawa Jung merangka idea beliau untuk pertamanya menjawab persoalan-persoalan kehidupan yang dialaminya sendiri. Freud, pula, tidak mempunyai pengembaraan introspeksi ini; sejajar dengan pemikiran yang lebih autoritarian ketika itu, lebih menumpu kepada apa yang kurang atau cela pada pesakit.
Dan latar belakang kedua-dua tokoh ini menyumbang kepada perbezaan pemikiran mereka. Jung dalam salah satu esei dalam Manusia Moden, mengakui bahawa setiap falsafah psikologi merupakan sebuah pengakuan subjektif daripada pemikirnya.
Freud dibesarkan dengan selesa oleh seorang ibu muda yang rupawan; seorang “anak mak”. Kehidupan kanak-kanak beliau yang seperti ditatang dengan minyak telah melahirkan seorang Freud yang begitu yakin dengan dirinya; beliau adalah seorang yang sempurna (tentulah sempurna, kerana ibuku menyanjungiku sepenuhnya) yang obses mencari rompong-rompong dalam kehidupan manusia lain yang difikirkan kurang sempurna.
Jung, pula, lahir dalam sebuah keluarga yang kelam. Ayahnya merupakan seorang paderi Protestan yang telah kehilangan kepercayaannya dalam agama, tetapi terpaksa meneruskan tugasnya demi membawa pulang duit. Ibunya pula sering mengalami tekanan emosi sehingga dimasukkan ke dalam institusi jiwa. Jung pula selalu dilawati oleh visi-visi aneh yang membentuk sifat introspektifnya.
Karya psikologi Jung, hakikatnya, merupakan sebuah perjalanan yang beliau sendiri lalui. Laluan untuk membentuk personaliti yang seimbang dinamakan Jung sebagai proses “individuasi”. Disebabkan itu, seseorang yang membaca Jung akan berkongsi rasa cita dan desakan beliau dalam mencari penyelesaian terhadap konflik kejiwaan.
Disebabkan itu, Jung menulis, seorang pengamal psikoterapi yang tidak membenarkan dirinya dipengaruhi, tidak akan berjaya mempengaruhi (dan menolong) pesakitnya. Jung menulis melalui satu sisi yang sama dengan pesakit-pesakitnya.
Beliau juga berbeza dengan ahli psikoterapi yang lain yang sesinya berakhir dengan selesainya gejala neurotik pesakit tersebut; bagi Jung, luruhnya gejala neurosis merupakan sebuah permulaan, kerana hanya selepas itu sahajalah seseorang akan bermula untuk meraih kesempurnaan jiwanya, dan bukan sekadar terbelenggu dengan kekurangannya.
Idea Freud, walaupun telah mempelopori gerakan psikoanalisis, merupakan sebuah falsafah tentang kekurangan dan kecelaan manusia. Jung menjawab, kita tidak patut berhenti dengan sekadar menunjukkan manusia bahawa dia tinggal di dalam paya kelam yang penuh penyakit; kita perlu juga menunjukkan kepada mereka cara untuk mengalirkannya keluar- dan menyuburkan kembali landskap suram ini.
Niat saya untuk mula menterjemah karya Jung adalah untuk memulakan usaha introspektif ini. Dalam zaman yang begitu memekakkan lagi meruntuhkan, kita masih memerlukan akan sebuah keheningan yang membina.
————————-
While I was in the midst of translating Modern Man in Search of a Soul, the words of one of my professors kept echoing in my mind:
“Reading Jung will change something within you.”
And, believe it or not, a few inexplicable events began to unfold. Each time I conducted a session, I would offer my patients a gentle warning — that when we draw something from the unconscious into consciousness, it begins to stand at the edge of our vision. I never imagined that what I used to tell my patients — and what they experienced — would one day happen to me as well.
It made me wonder: why does Jung’s psychological philosophy touch the soul so deeply, in a way Freud’s ideas never quite do, even when applied in session?
Reading the works of both men, it occurred to me that Jung’s ideas were first and foremost an attempt to answer the questions of life that he himself had faced. Freud, on the other hand, never undertook such an introspective journey. True to the authoritarian spirit of his age, he was more concerned with what was lacking or defective in his patients.
The biographical background of each thinker, I believe, shaped their differing psychologies. In one of his essays in Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Jung admits that every psychological philosophy is, in truth, a subjective confession of its author.
Freud was raised in comfort by a young, adoring mother — a true mother’s boy. His childhood, wrapped in tenderness and praise, produced a Freud supremely confident in himself: a man who, certain of his own completeness (for my mother adores me, therefore I must be perfect), became obsessed with locating the cracks in the lives of those he deemed less perfect.
Jung, by contrast, was born into a dim and troubled household. His father, a Protestant pastor, had lost his faith but continued preaching for the sake of income. His mother suffered recurrent emotional disturbances and was at times admitted to a psychiatric institution. Jung himself was haunted by strange visions that shaped his inward, contemplative nature.
Thus Jung’s psychology is, in essence, the record of a journey he himself undertook. The path toward psychic balance — what he called individuation — was not an abstract concept but a lived process. Hence anyone who reads Jung cannot help but share in his longing and his struggle to reconcile the conflicting forces within the soul.
For this reason, Jung wrote that a psychotherapist who does not allow himself to be affected will never truly be able to affect — or help — his patient. Jung wrote from the same side of the abyss as those he sought to heal.
He also differed from other psychotherapists whose work ended when the patient’s neurotic symptoms subsided. For Jung, the disappearance of neurosis marked not an end, but a beginning — for only then does one truly begin the work of attaining psychic wholeness, instead of merely being preoccupied with one’s deficiencies.
Freud’s vision, though pioneering in the birth of psychoanalysis, remained a philosophy of lack — a study of human defect and limitation. Jung’s reply was that it is not enough to show man that he dwells in a dark swamp of sickness; we must also show him how to drain it, and how to make the once-barren ground fertile again.
My intention in translating Jung’s work is to begin this introspective endeavour for myself. In an age so deafening and so dissolving, we are still in need of a silence that builds — a stillness that restores.
Dan, percaya atau tidak, beberapa kejadian yang tidak dapat dijelaskan berlaku. Setiap kali saya mengendalikan sesi, saya akan memberi sedikit amaran kepada pesakit tentang bagaimana apabila kita menarik perkara yang sebelum ini tidak sedar menjadi sedar, ia mula akan berdiri di pinggir penglihatan kita. Saya tidak pernah menyangka bahawa apa yang saya sampaikan kepada pesakit dan dialami oleh mereka, juga berlaku kepada saya.
Ia membuatkan saya terfikir. Mengapa falsafah psikologi Jung begitu menyentuh jiwa, dan ini tidak berlaku apabila kita mengendalikan sesi menggunakan idea-idea pemikiran Freud?
Apabila membaca karya-karya kedua-dua tokoh ini, terlintas di fikiran saya bahawa Jung merangka idea beliau untuk pertamanya menjawab persoalan-persoalan kehidupan yang dialaminya sendiri. Freud, pula, tidak mempunyai pengembaraan introspeksi ini; sejajar dengan pemikiran yang lebih autoritarian ketika itu, lebih menumpu kepada apa yang kurang atau cela pada pesakit.
Dan latar belakang kedua-dua tokoh ini menyumbang kepada perbezaan pemikiran mereka. Jung dalam salah satu esei dalam Manusia Moden, mengakui bahawa setiap falsafah psikologi merupakan sebuah pengakuan subjektif daripada pemikirnya.
Freud dibesarkan dengan selesa oleh seorang ibu muda yang rupawan; seorang “anak mak”. Kehidupan kanak-kanak beliau yang seperti ditatang dengan minyak telah melahirkan seorang Freud yang begitu yakin dengan dirinya; beliau adalah seorang yang sempurna (tentulah sempurna, kerana ibuku menyanjungiku sepenuhnya) yang obses mencari rompong-rompong dalam kehidupan manusia lain yang difikirkan kurang sempurna.
Jung, pula, lahir dalam sebuah keluarga yang kelam. Ayahnya merupakan seorang paderi Protestan yang telah kehilangan kepercayaannya dalam agama, tetapi terpaksa meneruskan tugasnya demi membawa pulang duit. Ibunya pula sering mengalami tekanan emosi sehingga dimasukkan ke dalam institusi jiwa. Jung pula selalu dilawati oleh visi-visi aneh yang membentuk sifat introspektifnya.
Karya psikologi Jung, hakikatnya, merupakan sebuah perjalanan yang beliau sendiri lalui. Laluan untuk membentuk personaliti yang seimbang dinamakan Jung sebagai proses “individuasi”. Disebabkan itu, seseorang yang membaca Jung akan berkongsi rasa cita dan desakan beliau dalam mencari penyelesaian terhadap konflik kejiwaan.
Disebabkan itu, Jung menulis, seorang pengamal psikoterapi yang tidak membenarkan dirinya dipengaruhi, tidak akan berjaya mempengaruhi (dan menolong) pesakitnya. Jung menulis melalui satu sisi yang sama dengan pesakit-pesakitnya.
Beliau juga berbeza dengan ahli psikoterapi yang lain yang sesinya berakhir dengan selesainya gejala neurotik pesakit tersebut; bagi Jung, luruhnya gejala neurosis merupakan sebuah permulaan, kerana hanya selepas itu sahajalah seseorang akan bermula untuk meraih kesempurnaan jiwanya, dan bukan sekadar terbelenggu dengan kekurangannya.
Idea Freud, walaupun telah mempelopori gerakan psikoanalisis, merupakan sebuah falsafah tentang kekurangan dan kecelaan manusia. Jung menjawab, kita tidak patut berhenti dengan sekadar menunjukkan manusia bahawa dia tinggal di dalam paya kelam yang penuh penyakit; kita perlu juga menunjukkan kepada mereka cara untuk mengalirkannya keluar- dan menyuburkan kembali landskap suram ini.
Niat saya untuk mula menterjemah karya Jung adalah untuk memulakan usaha introspektif ini. Dalam zaman yang begitu memekakkan lagi meruntuhkan, kita masih memerlukan akan sebuah keheningan yang membina.
————————-
While I was in the midst of translating Modern Man in Search of a Soul, the words of one of my professors kept echoing in my mind:
“Reading Jung will change something within you.”
And, believe it or not, a few inexplicable events began to unfold. Each time I conducted a session, I would offer my patients a gentle warning — that when we draw something from the unconscious into consciousness, it begins to stand at the edge of our vision. I never imagined that what I used to tell my patients — and what they experienced — would one day happen to me as well.
It made me wonder: why does Jung’s psychological philosophy touch the soul so deeply, in a way Freud’s ideas never quite do, even when applied in session?
Reading the works of both men, it occurred to me that Jung’s ideas were first and foremost an attempt to answer the questions of life that he himself had faced. Freud, on the other hand, never undertook such an introspective journey. True to the authoritarian spirit of his age, he was more concerned with what was lacking or defective in his patients.
The biographical background of each thinker, I believe, shaped their differing psychologies. In one of his essays in Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Jung admits that every psychological philosophy is, in truth, a subjective confession of its author.
Freud was raised in comfort by a young, adoring mother — a true mother’s boy. His childhood, wrapped in tenderness and praise, produced a Freud supremely confident in himself: a man who, certain of his own completeness (for my mother adores me, therefore I must be perfect), became obsessed with locating the cracks in the lives of those he deemed less perfect.
Jung, by contrast, was born into a dim and troubled household. His father, a Protestant pastor, had lost his faith but continued preaching for the sake of income. His mother suffered recurrent emotional disturbances and was at times admitted to a psychiatric institution. Jung himself was haunted by strange visions that shaped his inward, contemplative nature.
Thus Jung’s psychology is, in essence, the record of a journey he himself undertook. The path toward psychic balance — what he called individuation — was not an abstract concept but a lived process. Hence anyone who reads Jung cannot help but share in his longing and his struggle to reconcile the conflicting forces within the soul.
For this reason, Jung wrote that a psychotherapist who does not allow himself to be affected will never truly be able to affect — or help — his patient. Jung wrote from the same side of the abyss as those he sought to heal.
He also differed from other psychotherapists whose work ended when the patient’s neurotic symptoms subsided. For Jung, the disappearance of neurosis marked not an end, but a beginning — for only then does one truly begin the work of attaining psychic wholeness, instead of merely being preoccupied with one’s deficiencies.
Freud’s vision, though pioneering in the birth of psychoanalysis, remained a philosophy of lack — a study of human defect and limitation. Jung’s reply was that it is not enough to show man that he dwells in a dark swamp of sickness; we must also show him how to drain it, and how to make the once-barren ground fertile again.
My intention in translating Jung’s work is to begin this introspective endeavour for myself. In an age so deafening and so dissolving, we are still in need of a silence that builds — a stillness that restores.
November 5, 2025
I found this in the library somewhat randomly. I’ve been interested in Jung and this book seemed like a good summary since the others were checked out. I really enjoyed the overview of his works, the different eras, and from an author who clearly respects the ideas and wants to portray it as thoroughly as possible. That being said, I don’t know enough about Jung to know if he did it justice. It made me want to read his works and learn more. But he lost me when he got into all the alchemy stuff.
March 25, 2024
I found this an accessible intro to Jung's main ideas and his life. I liked how the book uses Jung's own development and life story in an attempt to explain the origins of his breakthroughs. It's an ambitious approach that makes for an entertaining read, yet at points it can overload the reader with information. I will need to read it again to solidify the main concepts.
July 17, 2018
As decent an introduction to Jung as you will find. Still pretty heavy going for someone new to his ideas, as I was. Much food for thought but not convinced I will have remembered much in a few months.
May 5, 2017
Gives a nice and Brief introduction about the Point of View from Jung. As well as the time and circumstances he evolved his theories.
June 8, 2017
Short but great introduction of Jung and his theories.
November 12, 2024
Bra introduktion. Fylld med insikter och aha-upplevelser. Vet dock inte hur vinklade den är. Läste den på svenska.
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March 10, 2025Letto nella versione italiana: "Su Jung. La nascita e lo sviluppo della psicologia analitica".
Edito da: "Astrolabio Ubaldini"
Non presente nel catalogo di Goodreads
Edito da: "Astrolabio Ubaldini"
Non presente nel catalogo di Goodreads
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2024
Spännande o läsvärd. Schysst intro till Jung
February 28, 2014
This is a book I read because I knew the proof reader, not often I say that. But it is a good introduction to Jung's live and ideas, and it attempts to do both linking Jung's psychology to his own personal development. Occasionally this structure wobbles a bit, but on the whole it works. Jung was a prolific writer and its hard to summarize his work concisely - not sure it is that easy to follow the stuff on alchemy - and some of the ideas on animus and anima might be hard for all readers to accept.
September 20, 2009
There's some sociobiology bullshit from Stevens here that is just too much over the top regarding gender differences. Apparently he emphasise this in another book, Archetype - a natural history of the self, talking about the biological base of Jung's theory. As far as I can tell though, this should be a pretty accurate rendition of what Jung's work was all about. There probably should be other biographies of Jung where the author isn't so inclined to push his own agenda like Stevens does.
November 26, 2016
A short biography of Carl Jung by a Jungian practicioner. Stevens seems to have a deeper understanding of Jung and the implications of Jung's writings than others with only academic insights into Jung's research. I found this a valuable book.
May 21, 2017
Jung okumaya başlamadan önce, bu kitap altlık yapılmalı. Jung'un bilinçdışı psikolojisi ile bilimsel gelişmeler (epigenetik) arasındaki bağlantı özellikle dikkatimi çekti.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews