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Psychology and the Occult
Over his long career, Jung maintained a compelling interest in occult phenomena as a subject of psychological concern. His very first publication, in 1902, was a psychiatric study of a medium, and his letters and autobiography frequently comment on parapsychological phenomena. This collection brings together Jung's writing on the occult, beginning in 1902 and concluding in 1960, the year before his death. Included is the text of a public lecture 'On Spiritualist Phenomena', in which he surveyed the history and psychology of the subject in America and Europe, and told of his experience in investigating eight mediums in Zurich.
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First published January 1, 1982
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About the author
C.G. Jung
1,879 books11.6k 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 5, 2013
jung's writing style is simple and extremely likeable. however, he often uses scientific terminologies that succeed in confusing me. this was a wonderful book, though, that kept up my interest. i'm looking forward to reading more of his work.
January 12, 2011
This book should be required reading for anyone interested in both psychology and paranormal phenomena. An even better title might have been "Psychology and the Supernatural". I say that because the word "occult" is often closely associated with concepts of evil. In this book Jung describes his experiences while studying spirit phenomena and provides (sometimes) plausible scientific explanations for many of the various "paranormal" events that he witnessed. What I found most interesting was the way Jung's earlier writings differed from his later ones. He was quite skeptical of spiritual explanations early in his career, but his later writings clearly indicate his belief that reality may actually include spiritual components, and that doubters ought to open their minds and objectively examine the existing evidence in favor of paranormal explanations. If you haven't read any Jung yet, start with something else. But those who have read his basic writings would do well to continue with this excellent book.
June 2, 2020
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2024
Jung's work has hitherto been a mixed bag for me. Since becoming more convinced that naturalism as a paradigm does not sufficiently account for holistic reality, I find myself siding with his enterprise of the unconscious, mythology, and paranormal matters.
The first section of the book is Jung's dissertation on a woman experiencing a multitude of parapsychological symptoms that himself Jung witnessed. It is an interesting case study, if not a little dry. What I like about Jung in his dissertation (and throughout this collection) is that he does not advocate for a strictly empirical investigation of paranormal phenomena. Because, rightly so, he understands that if something is supernatural then why should it comply to materialistic standards of analysis? Therefore, to have an "empirically consistent" picture of the supernatural is analogous to chasing one's shadow. As self-evident as it reads, the very basis of supernaturalism goes beyond naturalism. Jung is well aware of this axiom, which I respect. He is already far ahead of most modern thinkers by acknowledging this.
The rest of the sections are shorter writings on broader parapsychological matters that were full of variety. Below are quotes and passages I personally found worthy of contemplation:
“Psychology cannot establish any metaphysical “truths”, nor does it try to. It is concerned solely with the phenomenology of the psyche.” (p. 2)
“All mythological ideas are essentially real, and far older than any philosophy.” (p. 2)
“In general, the heart seems to have a more reliable memory for what benefits the psyche than does the head, which has a rather unhealthy tendency to lead an “abstract” existence, and easily forgets that its consciousness is snuffed out the moment the heart fails in its duty.” (p. 3)
“Ideas are not just counters used by the calculating mind; they are also golden vessels full of living feeling.” (p. 3)
“The other part of the unconscious is what I call the impersonal or collective unconscious. As the name indicates, its contents are not personal but collective; that is, they do not belong to one individual alone but to a whole group of individuals, and generally to a whole nation, or even to the whole of mankind. These contents are not acquired during the individual's lifetime but are products of innate forms and instincts. Although the child possesses no inborn ideas, it nevertheless has a highly developed brain which functions in a quite definite way. This brain is inherited from its ancestors; it is the deposit of the psychic functioning of the whole human race. The child therefore brings with it an organ ready to function in the same way as it has functioned throughout human history. In the brain the instincts are preformed, and so are the primordial images which have always been the basis of man's thinking — the whole treasure — house of mythological motifs. It is, of course, not easy to prove the existence of the collective unconscious in a normal person, but occasionally mythological ideas are represented in his dreams. These contents can be seen most clearly in cases of mental derangement, especially in schizophrenia, where mythological images often pour out in astonishing variety. Insane people frequently produce combinations of ideas and symbols that could never be accounted for by experiences in their individual lives, but only by the history of the human mind. It is an instance of primitive, mythological thinking, which reproduces its own primordial images, and is not a reproduction of conscious experiences.” (p. 139-40)
“I think science has to impose this restriction on itself. Yet one should never forget that science is simply a matter of intellect, and that the intellect is only one among several fundamental psychic functions and therefore does not suffice to give a complete picture of the world. For this another function — feeling — is needed too. Feeling often arrives at convictions that are different from those of the intellect, and we cannot always prove that the convictions of feeling are necessarily inferior. We also have subliminal perceptions of the unconscious which are not at the disposal of the intellect and are therefore missing in a purely intellectual picture of the world. So we have every reason to grant our intellect only a limited validity. But when we work with the intellect, we must proceed scientifically and adhere to empirical principles until irrefutable evidence against their validity is forthcoming.” (p. 148-9)
“Youth — we should like to think — has purpose, future, meaning, and value, whereas the coming to an end is only a meaningless cessation. If a young man is afraid of the world, of life and the future, then everyone finds it regrettable, senseless, neurotic; he is considered a cowardly shirker. But when an ageing person secretly shudders and is even mortally afraid at the thought that his reasonable expectation of life now amounts to only so and so many years, then we are painfully reminded of certain feelings within our own breast; we look away and turn the conversation to some other topic. The optimism with which we judge the young man fails us here. Naturally we have a stock of suitable banalities about life which we occasionally hand out to the other fellow, such as "everyone must die sometime," "you can't live forever," etc. But when one is alone and it is night and so dark and still that one hears nothing and sees nothing but the thoughts which add and subtract the years, and the long row of those disagreeable facts which remorselessly indicate how far the hand of the clock has moved forward, and the slow, irresistible approach of the wall of darkness which will eventually engulf everything I love, possess, wish for, hope for, and strive for, then all our profundities about life slink off to some undiscoverable hiding-place, and fear envelops the sleepless one like a smothering blanket.” (p. 151)
“Life is an energy-process. Like every energy-process, it is in principle irreversible and is therefore directed towards a goal. That goal is a state of rest. In the long run everything that happens is, as it were, no more than the initial disturbance of a perpetual state of rest which forever attempts to re-establish itself.” (p. 152)
“Natural life is the nourishing soil of the soul. Anyone who fails to go along with life remains suspended, stiff and rigid in midair. That is why so many people get wooden in old age; they look back and cling to the past with a secret fear of death in their hearts. They withdraw from the life-process, at least psychologically, and consequently remain fixed like nostalgic pillars of salt, with vivid recollections of youth but no living relation to the present. From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life. For in the secret hour of life's midday the parabola is reversed, death is born. The second half of life does not signify ascent, unfolding, increase, exuberance, but death, since the end is its goal. The negation of life's fulfilment is synonymous with the refusal to accept its ending. Both mean not wanting to live, and not wanting to live is identical with not wanting to die. Waxing and waning make one curve.” (p. 153)
“Since the Age of Enlightenment a point of view has developed concerning the nature of religion which, although it is a typically rationalistic misconception, deserves mention because it is so widely disseminated. According to this view, all religions are something like philosophical systems, and like them are concocted out of the head. At some time someone is supposed to have invented a God and sundry dogmas and to have led humanity around by the nose with this "wish-fulfilling" fantasy. But this opinion is contradicted by the psychological fact that the head is a particularly inadequate organ when it comes to thinking up religious symbols. They do not come from the head at all, but from some other place, perhaps the heart; certainly from a deep psychic level very little resembling consciousness, which is always only the top layer. That is why religious symbols have a distinctly "revelatory" character; they are usually spontaneous products of unconscious psychic activity. They are anything rather than thought up; on the contrary, in the course of the millennia, they have developed, plant-like, as natural manifestations of the human psyche. Even today we can see in individuals thé spontaneous genesis of genuine and valid religious symbols, springing from the unconscious like flowers of a strange species, while consciousness stands aside perplexed, not knowing what to make of such creations. It can be ascertained without too much difficulty that in form and content these individual symbols arise from the same unconscious mind or "spirit" (or whatever it may be called) as the great religions of mankind. At all events experience shows that religions are in no sense conscious constructions, but that they arise from the natural life of the unconscious psyche and somehow give adequate expression to it. This explains their universal distribution and their enormous influence on humanity throughout history, which would be incomprehensible if religious symbols were not at the very least truths of man's psychological nature.” (p. 156)
“A psychological truth is therefore just as good and respectable a thing as a physical truth, which limits itself to matter as the former does to the psyche.” (p. 157)
“[I]t would seem to be more in accord with the collective psyche of humanity to regard death as the fulfilment of life's meaning and as its goal in the truest sense, instead of a mere meaningless cessation. Anyone who cherishes a rationalistic opinion on this score has isolated himself psychologically and stands opposed to his own basic human nature.” (p. 157)
“It looks as though Kant will be proved right for a long time to come when he wrote nearly two hundred years ago: "Stories of this kind will have at any time only secret believers, while publicly they are rejected by the prevalent fashion of disbelief." He himself reserved judgment in the following words: "The same ignorance makes me so bold as to absolutely deny the truth of the various ghost stories, and yet with the common, although queer, reservation that while I doubt any one of them, still I have a certain faith in the whole of them taken together." I wish that very many of our bigots would take note of this wise position adopted by a great thinker.” (p. 173)
“Rationalism and superstition are complementary. It is a psychological rule that the brighter the light, the blacker the shadow; in other words, the more rationalistic we are in our conscious minds, the more alive becomes the spectral world of the unconscious. And it is indeed obvious that rationality is in large measure an apotropaic defence against superstition, which is ever present and unavoidable. The daemonic world of primitives is only a few generations away from us, and the things that have happened and still go on happening in the dictator states teach us how terrifyingly close it is.” (p. 173)
The first section of the book is Jung's dissertation on a woman experiencing a multitude of parapsychological symptoms that himself Jung witnessed. It is an interesting case study, if not a little dry. What I like about Jung in his dissertation (and throughout this collection) is that he does not advocate for a strictly empirical investigation of paranormal phenomena. Because, rightly so, he understands that if something is supernatural then why should it comply to materialistic standards of analysis? Therefore, to have an "empirically consistent" picture of the supernatural is analogous to chasing one's shadow. As self-evident as it reads, the very basis of supernaturalism goes beyond naturalism. Jung is well aware of this axiom, which I respect. He is already far ahead of most modern thinkers by acknowledging this.
The rest of the sections are shorter writings on broader parapsychological matters that were full of variety. Below are quotes and passages I personally found worthy of contemplation:
“Psychology cannot establish any metaphysical “truths”, nor does it try to. It is concerned solely with the phenomenology of the psyche.” (p. 2)
“All mythological ideas are essentially real, and far older than any philosophy.” (p. 2)
“In general, the heart seems to have a more reliable memory for what benefits the psyche than does the head, which has a rather unhealthy tendency to lead an “abstract” existence, and easily forgets that its consciousness is snuffed out the moment the heart fails in its duty.” (p. 3)
“Ideas are not just counters used by the calculating mind; they are also golden vessels full of living feeling.” (p. 3)
“The other part of the unconscious is what I call the impersonal or collective unconscious. As the name indicates, its contents are not personal but collective; that is, they do not belong to one individual alone but to a whole group of individuals, and generally to a whole nation, or even to the whole of mankind. These contents are not acquired during the individual's lifetime but are products of innate forms and instincts. Although the child possesses no inborn ideas, it nevertheless has a highly developed brain which functions in a quite definite way. This brain is inherited from its ancestors; it is the deposit of the psychic functioning of the whole human race. The child therefore brings with it an organ ready to function in the same way as it has functioned throughout human history. In the brain the instincts are preformed, and so are the primordial images which have always been the basis of man's thinking — the whole treasure — house of mythological motifs. It is, of course, not easy to prove the existence of the collective unconscious in a normal person, but occasionally mythological ideas are represented in his dreams. These contents can be seen most clearly in cases of mental derangement, especially in schizophrenia, where mythological images often pour out in astonishing variety. Insane people frequently produce combinations of ideas and symbols that could never be accounted for by experiences in their individual lives, but only by the history of the human mind. It is an instance of primitive, mythological thinking, which reproduces its own primordial images, and is not a reproduction of conscious experiences.” (p. 139-40)
“I think science has to impose this restriction on itself. Yet one should never forget that science is simply a matter of intellect, and that the intellect is only one among several fundamental psychic functions and therefore does not suffice to give a complete picture of the world. For this another function — feeling — is needed too. Feeling often arrives at convictions that are different from those of the intellect, and we cannot always prove that the convictions of feeling are necessarily inferior. We also have subliminal perceptions of the unconscious which are not at the disposal of the intellect and are therefore missing in a purely intellectual picture of the world. So we have every reason to grant our intellect only a limited validity. But when we work with the intellect, we must proceed scientifically and adhere to empirical principles until irrefutable evidence against their validity is forthcoming.” (p. 148-9)
“Youth — we should like to think — has purpose, future, meaning, and value, whereas the coming to an end is only a meaningless cessation. If a young man is afraid of the world, of life and the future, then everyone finds it regrettable, senseless, neurotic; he is considered a cowardly shirker. But when an ageing person secretly shudders and is even mortally afraid at the thought that his reasonable expectation of life now amounts to only so and so many years, then we are painfully reminded of certain feelings within our own breast; we look away and turn the conversation to some other topic. The optimism with which we judge the young man fails us here. Naturally we have a stock of suitable banalities about life which we occasionally hand out to the other fellow, such as "everyone must die sometime," "you can't live forever," etc. But when one is alone and it is night and so dark and still that one hears nothing and sees nothing but the thoughts which add and subtract the years, and the long row of those disagreeable facts which remorselessly indicate how far the hand of the clock has moved forward, and the slow, irresistible approach of the wall of darkness which will eventually engulf everything I love, possess, wish for, hope for, and strive for, then all our profundities about life slink off to some undiscoverable hiding-place, and fear envelops the sleepless one like a smothering blanket.” (p. 151)
“Life is an energy-process. Like every energy-process, it is in principle irreversible and is therefore directed towards a goal. That goal is a state of rest. In the long run everything that happens is, as it were, no more than the initial disturbance of a perpetual state of rest which forever attempts to re-establish itself.” (p. 152)
“Natural life is the nourishing soil of the soul. Anyone who fails to go along with life remains suspended, stiff and rigid in midair. That is why so many people get wooden in old age; they look back and cling to the past with a secret fear of death in their hearts. They withdraw from the life-process, at least psychologically, and consequently remain fixed like nostalgic pillars of salt, with vivid recollections of youth but no living relation to the present. From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life. For in the secret hour of life's midday the parabola is reversed, death is born. The second half of life does not signify ascent, unfolding, increase, exuberance, but death, since the end is its goal. The negation of life's fulfilment is synonymous with the refusal to accept its ending. Both mean not wanting to live, and not wanting to live is identical with not wanting to die. Waxing and waning make one curve.” (p. 153)
“Since the Age of Enlightenment a point of view has developed concerning the nature of religion which, although it is a typically rationalistic misconception, deserves mention because it is so widely disseminated. According to this view, all religions are something like philosophical systems, and like them are concocted out of the head. At some time someone is supposed to have invented a God and sundry dogmas and to have led humanity around by the nose with this "wish-fulfilling" fantasy. But this opinion is contradicted by the psychological fact that the head is a particularly inadequate organ when it comes to thinking up religious symbols. They do not come from the head at all, but from some other place, perhaps the heart; certainly from a deep psychic level very little resembling consciousness, which is always only the top layer. That is why religious symbols have a distinctly "revelatory" character; they are usually spontaneous products of unconscious psychic activity. They are anything rather than thought up; on the contrary, in the course of the millennia, they have developed, plant-like, as natural manifestations of the human psyche. Even today we can see in individuals thé spontaneous genesis of genuine and valid religious symbols, springing from the unconscious like flowers of a strange species, while consciousness stands aside perplexed, not knowing what to make of such creations. It can be ascertained without too much difficulty that in form and content these individual symbols arise from the same unconscious mind or "spirit" (or whatever it may be called) as the great religions of mankind. At all events experience shows that religions are in no sense conscious constructions, but that they arise from the natural life of the unconscious psyche and somehow give adequate expression to it. This explains their universal distribution and their enormous influence on humanity throughout history, which would be incomprehensible if religious symbols were not at the very least truths of man's psychological nature.” (p. 156)
“A psychological truth is therefore just as good and respectable a thing as a physical truth, which limits itself to matter as the former does to the psyche.” (p. 157)
“[I]t would seem to be more in accord with the collective psyche of humanity to regard death as the fulfilment of life's meaning and as its goal in the truest sense, instead of a mere meaningless cessation. Anyone who cherishes a rationalistic opinion on this score has isolated himself psychologically and stands opposed to his own basic human nature.” (p. 157)
“It looks as though Kant will be proved right for a long time to come when he wrote nearly two hundred years ago: "Stories of this kind will have at any time only secret believers, while publicly they are rejected by the prevalent fashion of disbelief." He himself reserved judgment in the following words: "The same ignorance makes me so bold as to absolutely deny the truth of the various ghost stories, and yet with the common, although queer, reservation that while I doubt any one of them, still I have a certain faith in the whole of them taken together." I wish that very many of our bigots would take note of this wise position adopted by a great thinker.” (p. 173)
“Rationalism and superstition are complementary. It is a psychological rule that the brighter the light, the blacker the shadow; in other words, the more rationalistic we are in our conscious minds, the more alive becomes the spectral world of the unconscious. And it is indeed obvious that rationality is in large measure an apotropaic defence against superstition, which is ever present and unavoidable. The daemonic world of primitives is only a few generations away from us, and the things that have happened and still go on happening in the dictator states teach us how terrifyingly close it is.” (p. 173)
October 23, 2015
My boy Hot Carl steps up to the plate in order to bust some ghosts. Unfortunately, he was working with the incredibly limited toolkit they had around the turn of the century, so he took a good, hard, squinty look at this shrieking possession case -- nowadays it would be diagnosed as DID or Histrionic, depending on whether or not the headshrinker general believed the patient was malingering or not -- and he said "My prognosis is this bitch is so hysterical that her brain went defective."
Still, he stuck it out until she shook it off in like, 6 weeks, and now she's a productive member of society. So that's a much happier ending than any of Freud's case studies I've read.
Still, he stuck it out until she shook it off in like, 6 weeks, and now she's a productive member of society. So that's a much happier ending than any of Freud's case studies I've read.
January 2, 2018
"...in this age of materialism - the inevitable consequence of rationalistic enlightenment - there has been a revival of the belief in spirits, but this time on a higher level."
"Rationalism and superstition are complementary. It is a psychological rule that the brighter the light, the blacker the shadow; in other words, the more rationalistic we are in our conscious minds, the more alive becomes the spectral world of the unconscious."
Despite his dissertation, "On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena" being rather dull; the essays following were incredibly illuminating concerning the psychologization of the occult.
"Rationalism and superstition are complementary. It is a psychological rule that the brighter the light, the blacker the shadow; in other words, the more rationalistic we are in our conscious minds, the more alive becomes the spectral world of the unconscious."
Despite his dissertation, "On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena" being rather dull; the essays following were incredibly illuminating concerning the psychologization of the occult.
June 10, 2015
This selection or writings reveals an interesting shift in Jung's thinking on so-called occult phenomena.
Moving from an overtly scientific and rational viewpoint to one of attempting to conceptualize the experiences of the unconscious, one can follow (in ways) Jung's transitional transcendence of reason into a thought functioning through the conjunction of opposites.
Moving from an overtly scientific and rational viewpoint to one of attempting to conceptualize the experiences of the unconscious, one can follow (in ways) Jung's transitional transcendence of reason into a thought functioning through the conjunction of opposites.
May 2, 2012
I love how Freud and Jung referred privately to occultism as spookery.
March 4, 2022
Se riandiamo con la mente alla storia passata dell’uomo, troviamo, tra molte altre convinzioni religiose, una fede universale nell’esistenza di fantasmi o esseri eterei che sono vicini agli uomini ed esercitano su diredi un’influenza invisibile ma possente. In genere si crede che tali esseri siano spiriti o anime dei trapassati. È una credenza che si trovi tanto tra popoli altamente civilizzati, quanto tra gli aborigeni dell’Australia, che vivono ancora nell’età della pietra. Però, tra i popoli occidentali la credenza negli spiriti è stata combattuta dal razionalismo e dall’ illuminismo scientifico degli ultimi centocinquanta anni, per cui, presso la maggioranza delle persone istruite di oggi (1920), tale credenza è stata repressa insieme con altre opinioni metafisiche.”
Psicologia dei fenomeni occulti è il primo saggio del noto psicoanalista Jung. Vengono affrontati temi quali il sonnambulismo, l’isteria e alcuni aspetti paranormali (medium); nel saggio vengono riportati molti casi ed esperienze vissute in prima persona con i suoi pazienti. Assurdo come nei primi del ‘900 si parlasse così apertamente di “poteri paranormali” e ci fossero persone quotate, come Jung e Freud, a studiarne la scientificità di ciò, quando nel 2022 se uno anche solo pensa un po’ fuori dalle righe, viene additato come pazzo (o come un hippie-drogato). È comunque un’analisi molto professionale, in quanto viene fatta con rigore e criticità, ma anche con grande apertura mentale.
Interessante, di rapida lettura ma assolutamente non di facile comprensione.
4 stelle.
Psicologia dei fenomeni occulti è il primo saggio del noto psicoanalista Jung. Vengono affrontati temi quali il sonnambulismo, l’isteria e alcuni aspetti paranormali (medium); nel saggio vengono riportati molti casi ed esperienze vissute in prima persona con i suoi pazienti. Assurdo come nei primi del ‘900 si parlasse così apertamente di “poteri paranormali” e ci fossero persone quotate, come Jung e Freud, a studiarne la scientificità di ciò, quando nel 2022 se uno anche solo pensa un po’ fuori dalle righe, viene additato come pazzo (o come un hippie-drogato). È comunque un’analisi molto professionale, in quanto viene fatta con rigore e criticità, ma anche con grande apertura mentale.
Interessante, di rapida lettura ma assolutamente non di facile comprensione.
4 stelle.
October 21, 2023
Grateful for the fact that i came across this book of C. Jung, explaining perfectly, openly about his view as research on spiritualism in psychology and it’s ever questionable topic. It is to remain open and understand the many views through psychological aspects.
“The birth of a human being is pregnant with meaning, why not death?”
“The birth of a human being is pregnant with meaning, why not death?”
August 21, 2024
Interestingly skeptical given his later writings on the topic. Though he does leave it open ended in the last section, giving some clues to where his thoughts were leading him.
June 2, 2024
Harvoja suomennettuja Jungeja, jonka löysin mainiosta rajatiedon kirjoihin keskittyneestä Aioni-kirjakaupasta Helsingin Kaartinkaupungista. Vain hieman yli satasivuinen teos kuvaa Jungin potilassuhdetta spiritismissä kunnostautuneeseen 16-vuotiaaseen tyttöön.
Jung käy läpi hyvin yksityiskohtaisesti ja neutraalisti kuvauksen jokaisesta spiritismi-istunnosta ja taustoittaa ensin hieman "yliluonnollisen" psykologiaa yleisesti: Mistä mahdollisesti transsitilassa nähdyt näyt ja käydyt keskustelut syntyvät, miten se vertautuu (1900-luvun alkupuolen) psykologisessa kirjallisuudessa dokumentoituihin ilmiöihin. Lopulta Jung purkaa pala palalta näkijätytön istunnot ja löytää niille psykologisen selityksen.
Kirja edustaa Jungin tuotantoa ajalta ennen hänen kollektiivisen alitajuntateorian kirkastumista, ja on aika yksinkertainen ja tylsä opus verrattuna joihinkin myöhempiin kirjoituksiin tai tutkimuksiin (Aion, Undiscovered Self, Man and His Symbols)
Jung käy läpi hyvin yksityiskohtaisesti ja neutraalisti kuvauksen jokaisesta spiritismi-istunnosta ja taustoittaa ensin hieman "yliluonnollisen" psykologiaa yleisesti: Mistä mahdollisesti transsitilassa nähdyt näyt ja käydyt keskustelut syntyvät, miten se vertautuu (1900-luvun alkupuolen) psykologisessa kirjallisuudessa dokumentoituihin ilmiöihin. Lopulta Jung purkaa pala palalta näkijätytön istunnot ja löytää niille psykologisen selityksen.
Kirja edustaa Jungin tuotantoa ajalta ennen hänen kollektiivisen alitajuntateorian kirkastumista, ja on aika yksinkertainen ja tylsä opus verrattuna joihinkin myöhempiin kirjoituksiin tai tutkimuksiin (Aion, Undiscovered Self, Man and His Symbols)
October 6, 2018
Jung is such a fascinating mess . . . his case studies are interesting (i.e., the actual psychology stuff), but then he interprets the case studies according to the most batshit "dorm room theology" imaginable, like an undergraduate reading Nietzsche, Boehme, and the Kabbalah for the first time and thinking he's figured out a new 'science' of human existence, instead of just warmed-over nineteenth-century German mysticism (with a dash of Joseph Campbell’s shallow mythological word-salad ‘analysis’, which is in the Jungian tradition, I suppose).
January 23, 2016
This collection of writings, spanning over sixty years, is slight but provocative. Jung's handling of the questions of belief and proof (as psychological phenomena in themselves), his report of a haunting experienced by himself and a friend, and the utter gems of expression in pieces such as "The Soul and Death" inspire one (or at least me) to pursue his work.
February 17, 2016
Good start but the copy I read was short and I know there has got to be a lot more in Jung's writing about the paranormal. The most interesting part was his first published piece, his dissertation On the Psychology and the Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena, just because it was so nebulous.
September 29, 2011
An interesting read, but not the greatest.
February 21, 2026
Carl Jung was fascinated with the occult. In his book Psychology and the Occult, Jung ventures into this shadowy territory not to affirm his supernatural assertions but to uncover the psychological foundations of the occult phenomena. Through a blend of case studies and theoretical explorations, Jung reveals how the human mind can generate experiences that appear to defy the ordinary. This work stands as a thought-provoking examination of how phenomena such as mediumship, ghostly apparitions, telepathy, and symbolic dreams can be understood as expressions of the unconscious mind.
The Medium’s Trance as a Gateway to the Unconscious
One of the most striking cases Jung explores involves a medium that claims to channel spirits during trance states. Jung proposes that the trance state serves as a portal to the unconscious mind, where repressed memories, unacknowledged desires, and archetypal imagery reside. The “spirits” the medium communicates with, Jung contends, are not external beings but projections of the medium’s own unconscious, offering a window into their psychological landscape.
Ghostly Apparitions as Projections of the Unconscious
Jung also addresses the perennial occult phenomenon of ghostly apparitions. In one illustrative case, he examines reports of hauntings tied to a specific location. Instead of attributing these visions to disembodied spirits, Jung interprets them as manifestations of the collective unconscious. He argues that certain environments or objects can become charged with psychological significance, prompting individuals to project their inner fears, guilt, or unresolved traumas onto their surroundings.
Telepathic Connections and the Concept of Synchronicity
Jung scrutinizes telepathy, the apparent transmission of thoughts or experiences between individuals without conventional communication. He recounts two instances where people report uncanny mental connections, such as two friends sharing identical dreams on the same night. Jung might argue that this coincidence reflects a shared psychological resonance rather than a literal transfer of thoughts, highlighting a profound unity beneath surface separation.
Occult Symbols in Dreams as Expressions of the Collective Unconscious
Jung describes how dreamers frequently encounter enigmatic imagery, such as alchemical symbols, serpents, or mythical beings, that carry a sense of profound significance. Jung interprets these symbols as emanations of the collective unconscious. For instance, a dreamer who envisions a serpent might be engaging in an archetype transformation, signaling a period of personal evolution or inner renewal.
In Psychology and the Occult, Carl Jung masterfully bridges two seemingly disparate realms: the disciplined sphere of psychology and the elusive domain of the occult. Through his nuanced analyses, he reveals that occult phenomena are intricately tied to the workings of the human psyche.
I completed this book in January 2025
8/10
The Medium’s Trance as a Gateway to the Unconscious
One of the most striking cases Jung explores involves a medium that claims to channel spirits during trance states. Jung proposes that the trance state serves as a portal to the unconscious mind, where repressed memories, unacknowledged desires, and archetypal imagery reside. The “spirits” the medium communicates with, Jung contends, are not external beings but projections of the medium’s own unconscious, offering a window into their psychological landscape.
Ghostly Apparitions as Projections of the Unconscious
Jung also addresses the perennial occult phenomenon of ghostly apparitions. In one illustrative case, he examines reports of hauntings tied to a specific location. Instead of attributing these visions to disembodied spirits, Jung interprets them as manifestations of the collective unconscious. He argues that certain environments or objects can become charged with psychological significance, prompting individuals to project their inner fears, guilt, or unresolved traumas onto their surroundings.
Telepathic Connections and the Concept of Synchronicity
Jung scrutinizes telepathy, the apparent transmission of thoughts or experiences between individuals without conventional communication. He recounts two instances where people report uncanny mental connections, such as two friends sharing identical dreams on the same night. Jung might argue that this coincidence reflects a shared psychological resonance rather than a literal transfer of thoughts, highlighting a profound unity beneath surface separation.
Occult Symbols in Dreams as Expressions of the Collective Unconscious
Jung describes how dreamers frequently encounter enigmatic imagery, such as alchemical symbols, serpents, or mythical beings, that carry a sense of profound significance. Jung interprets these symbols as emanations of the collective unconscious. For instance, a dreamer who envisions a serpent might be engaging in an archetype transformation, signaling a period of personal evolution or inner renewal.
In Psychology and the Occult, Carl Jung masterfully bridges two seemingly disparate realms: the disciplined sphere of psychology and the elusive domain of the occult. Through his nuanced analyses, he reveals that occult phenomena are intricately tied to the workings of the human psyche.
I completed this book in January 2025
8/10
December 21, 2023
I started this with high hopes - it's the great Jung, after all - and I was still very much on the fence on whether I agreed more with that of Freud or Jung, and had my hesitations about both. But this... this pushed me over the edge.
Now don't get me wrong - some parts were absolutely phenomenal - particularly the 'The Soul and Death' chapter, which blew my mind and offered so much on death as well as aging that gave me considerable amounts for speculation and philosophical consolation (with a particular emphasis for pg ~154/155 .
But the rest. God. What a nightmare. Much of it made me realise that Jung was the one who needed help - and shouldn't be teaching or treating patients. Combining paranormal superstitions and spiritual issues with psychology and calling it empirical science is truly despicable, as one relies on faith whilst the other relies on experiment, demonstrable truth through obtainable evidence, and NO poppycock.
And don't get me started on those last chapters which try to justify paranormal shite. Nah...
Can't believe I nearly pursued training as a Jungian analyst. Cringe beyond cringe. What a waste. Long live Freudian analysts, honestly!
Now don't get me wrong - some parts were absolutely phenomenal - particularly the 'The Soul and Death' chapter, which blew my mind and offered so much on death as well as aging that gave me considerable amounts for speculation and philosophical consolation (with a particular emphasis for pg ~154/155 .
But the rest. God. What a nightmare. Much of it made me realise that Jung was the one who needed help - and shouldn't be teaching or treating patients. Combining paranormal superstitions and spiritual issues with psychology and calling it empirical science is truly despicable, as one relies on faith whilst the other relies on experiment, demonstrable truth through obtainable evidence, and NO poppycock.
And don't get me started on those last chapters which try to justify paranormal shite. Nah...
Can't believe I nearly pursued training as a Jungian analyst. Cringe beyond cringe. What a waste. Long live Freudian analysts, honestly!
December 7, 2022
Being “afraid of ghosts” is a key component of my personality. Growing up, and even as an adult, I’ve spent countless sleepless nights just laying with the certainty that there are ghosts closeby. Mind you, nothing really supernatural has ever happened to me; and even when I am in the middle of a “ghost-ful” night, I have no clear idea what kind of harm is coming my way.
The older I get, the more I feel like the ghost-concerned part of my psyche is being taken over by more mundane “real-life” concerns. What is really interesting (to me) is that the middle of the night anxiety about, say, some work issue, *feels* very similar (physiologically, psycologically..) to the fear of ghosts.
Jung’s attempts at connecting spiritualism and occult phenomena to more “down-to-earth” psychological experiences (and research) is really illuminating. I’ve rarely read anything nonfiction that made me learn this much about myself.
The older I get, the more I feel like the ghost-concerned part of my psyche is being taken over by more mundane “real-life” concerns. What is really interesting (to me) is that the middle of the night anxiety about, say, some work issue, *feels* very similar (physiologically, psycologically..) to the fear of ghosts.
Jung’s attempts at connecting spiritualism and occult phenomena to more “down-to-earth” psychological experiences (and research) is really illuminating. I’ve rarely read anything nonfiction that made me learn this much about myself.
September 16, 2023
A short audiobook, highly technical but still fairly comprehensible to me, a lay person in psychology. Thanks be to Google, and Bing, for that. The book is a set of interesting descriptions of several clinical cases of people with apparent supernatural experiences from ghost sightings to spiritism practice and the like, which Jung could trace back to mental states induced by a series of mental abnormalities or diseases. Terms like histeria, somnambulism, epilepsy, twilight mental states, cryptomnesia, automatisms, subconscious and unconscious personalities, suggestion both self and external and others are used in the case descriptions. Apparently all cases were cured or were manageable, some even with simple overwork and stress relief or simply in time. The explanations in the book are good support for a rational skepticism about supernatural phenomena.
April 12, 2021
Jung explores the psychological side of the occult practices of his time, including clairvoyance, psychometry, somnambulism (at that time, considered "otherworldly"), and corpse bothering (speaking to the dead) with easy explanations that are not condescending nor ignorant of the facts of the situation.
I find it funny that I had just finished Fight Club where some of these items are discussed at length in regard to the narrator (protagonist) but won't specify here as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.
I find it funny that I had just finished Fight Club where some of these items are discussed at length in regard to the narrator (protagonist) but won't specify here as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.
August 20, 2021
The first half of the book was whack af with Carl Jung clowning on S.W.
but the second half is great.
"But when one is alone and it is night and so dark and still that one hears nothing and sees nothing but the thoughts which add and subtract the years, and the long row of those disagreeable facts which remorselessly indicate how far the hand of the clock has moved forward, and the slow, irresistible approach of the wall of darkness which will eventually engulf everything I love, possess, wish for, hope for, and strive for, then all our profundities about life slink off to some undiscoverable hiding place, and fear envelops the sleepless one like a smothering blanket.
but the second half is great.
"But when one is alone and it is night and so dark and still that one hears nothing and sees nothing but the thoughts which add and subtract the years, and the long row of those disagreeable facts which remorselessly indicate how far the hand of the clock has moved forward, and the slow, irresistible approach of the wall of darkness which will eventually engulf everything I love, possess, wish for, hope for, and strive for, then all our profundities about life slink off to some undiscoverable hiding place, and fear envelops the sleepless one like a smothering blanket.
August 30, 2022
Not an easy read… he presents an experiment (which can be done by supposedly anyone) which entails some sort of hypnosis while being sat at the table. But I didn’t understand how it works. And I asked other people and they didn’t understand either.
Also in the later chapter in the book presents people that simulate insanity which I believe it has little to nothing to do with the occult or the supernatural. Or I might’ve misunderstood. That could be the case too.
But after all I give it a 4 star because I love Jung and the way he writes.
Also in the later chapter in the book presents people that simulate insanity which I believe it has little to nothing to do with the occult or the supernatural. Or I might’ve misunderstood. That could be the case too.
But after all I give it a 4 star because I love Jung and the way he writes.
January 15, 2024
Jung loses me a lot of the time when he gets really broad, but he's much more convincing (and measured) when he has space to talk at length about a particular case study. This was a really interesting read.
January 8, 2021
Utterly fascinating. I also admire that author despite all his intelligence avoids making final conclusions and admits that there is a lot we don't yet know.
April 12, 2024
Expected to be more on the occult side.
October 6, 2024
dreams are messages from the deep
August 10, 2025
remarkable
October 4, 2025
Pewnie naczytałam się za dużo podobnej literatury, znudziła mnie ta monografia.
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