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William James and C.g. Jung: Doorways to the Self
Steven Herrmann engages us with the story of two great explorers of human psyche, taking us beyond ordinary conscious William James, Harvard Professor of Philosophy and the Founder of the academic discipline of Psychology in America, and, C.G. Jung the Swiss psychiatrist who introduced Freud to the world and then broke with him. Each went beyond conventional beliefs about what was possible. Herrmann uncovers ways that the younger man, Jung, was influenced by James. Based on historical research and a nuanced reading of their works, Steven Herrmann elucidates their reflections on the streams of consciousness, psychophysics, pragmatism, pluralism, yoga, spiritual democracy, vocational dreams, synchronicity, transmarginal fields, and the Self. Doorways to the Self is not a mere metaphor but an invitation to recognize the living spiritual reality that exists in every person. This book is an important contribution to the history of psychology in America and the influence of James on C. G. Jung, as well as a fascinating exploration of what it means to be fully human.
354 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2020
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August 3, 2021
Written by a Jungian psychoanalyst, this book is primarily about Jung, and only about James to the extent that he influenced Jung. While the two men do have some ground in common, namely a willingness to interpret religion in terms of the unconscious or subconscious, they come at it in very different ways. Jung is interested in discovering the Self behind the self, the unconscious Self, which could be said to be God, or at least a personalized sliver of God. James is interested in describing religious experience in a scientific way, aiming not at individual truth but at what can be said in general about religious experience. While Jung claims to follow a scientific approach, he is more interested in following a personal quest, a search for vocation, either in his own life, or in the lives of his analysands.
Jung and James also have a common interest in “spiritual democracy,” in which everyone looks to their own personal religious experience, ceases to be hostile to other viewpoints and religious traditions, and realizes that all religions have in common “religious experience,” which is distinct from ecclesiasticism (institutional norms) and theology. Both Jung and James believe that by looking within oneself one finds guidance or vocation, which can be described as religious, and that all religions are built on this fundamental experience.
The project as Jung conceives of it strikes me as a fascinating enterprise, one even central to a person’s life. One wants to know what one’s inner Self reveals about oneself, and to what vocation it calls one. Jung’s interpretation of dreams and use of unconscious archetypes are an interesting and useful way of doing this, but sometimes I think this is a personal quest and does not necessarily reveal anything in general about the mind, or about nature, or about religion.
Jung’s general view of religion, beyond individual religious experience, I find interesting: He says that creeds and theology, if taken literally, are not credible. But the function of religion is myth-making. “Jung saw… that there were no absolutes. There were only myths, fictions, God-images. All religions were emanations of the one myth-making function of human beings, a religious function of the psyche that dreamed the myth onward.” If religion is myth-making to help us envision our futures, and the lives we are called to live, then that certainly is an important activity, though not what institutional religion is often understood to be.
I find Jung’s dream interpretations to be highly arbitrary. His ideas about the mother and father archetypes seem dated to me, and therefore suspect. Jung thinks of God, as revealed by his unconscious, as inherently violent. While Jung may have been interpreting his own Self correctly, he has little ground to generalize to everyone. For Jung, dreams seem to be deadly serious and menacing. I find my own dreams (which I have interpreted using Freudian techniques) to be often playful and creative. Jung was doing a fascinating Self-exploration, but I do not think he was doing science or philosophy.
William James is the underappreciated character in this book. His accomplishments as a philosopher are little touched upon. The author refers several times to James’s theory of truth, as for example when he says, “For James reality is in the future,… and this is the magnificent inclusive view that James’s psychology is after. Elsewhere he calls it his theory of Truth.” But the discussion of the pragmatic conception of truth, a major topic of James’s work, is spotty and tendentious at best.
In other places, the author misleadingly refers to James’s theory of emotion (known as the “James-Lange Theory of Emotion”), an influential theory that relates emotion to the experience of physical reactions, elaborated in James’s pioneering “Principles of Psychology.” The author quotes Jung as responding, “The question of whether the body or the mind is the predominating factor will always be unanswered according to temperamental differences." This leaves the misleading impression that James has not addressed the issue.
While I enjoy this book as an adventure in discovering Jung’s (and my own) inner Self, what I was after was some kind of philosophical investigation of psychology or religion. I most appreciated the idea of “spiritual democracy,” also supported by James, in which all religious traditions confront the shadow sides of themselves and cease to demonize each other. But even if one discovers one’s own inner Self, that individual truth (which may be invented or created) is not necessarily the same as truth about the world.
Jung and James also have a common interest in “spiritual democracy,” in which everyone looks to their own personal religious experience, ceases to be hostile to other viewpoints and religious traditions, and realizes that all religions have in common “religious experience,” which is distinct from ecclesiasticism (institutional norms) and theology. Both Jung and James believe that by looking within oneself one finds guidance or vocation, which can be described as religious, and that all religions are built on this fundamental experience.
The project as Jung conceives of it strikes me as a fascinating enterprise, one even central to a person’s life. One wants to know what one’s inner Self reveals about oneself, and to what vocation it calls one. Jung’s interpretation of dreams and use of unconscious archetypes are an interesting and useful way of doing this, but sometimes I think this is a personal quest and does not necessarily reveal anything in general about the mind, or about nature, or about religion.
Jung’s general view of religion, beyond individual religious experience, I find interesting: He says that creeds and theology, if taken literally, are not credible. But the function of religion is myth-making. “Jung saw… that there were no absolutes. There were only myths, fictions, God-images. All religions were emanations of the one myth-making function of human beings, a religious function of the psyche that dreamed the myth onward.” If religion is myth-making to help us envision our futures, and the lives we are called to live, then that certainly is an important activity, though not what institutional religion is often understood to be.
I find Jung’s dream interpretations to be highly arbitrary. His ideas about the mother and father archetypes seem dated to me, and therefore suspect. Jung thinks of God, as revealed by his unconscious, as inherently violent. While Jung may have been interpreting his own Self correctly, he has little ground to generalize to everyone. For Jung, dreams seem to be deadly serious and menacing. I find my own dreams (which I have interpreted using Freudian techniques) to be often playful and creative. Jung was doing a fascinating Self-exploration, but I do not think he was doing science or philosophy.
William James is the underappreciated character in this book. His accomplishments as a philosopher are little touched upon. The author refers several times to James’s theory of truth, as for example when he says, “For James reality is in the future,… and this is the magnificent inclusive view that James’s psychology is after. Elsewhere he calls it his theory of Truth.” But the discussion of the pragmatic conception of truth, a major topic of James’s work, is spotty and tendentious at best.
In other places, the author misleadingly refers to James’s theory of emotion (known as the “James-Lange Theory of Emotion”), an influential theory that relates emotion to the experience of physical reactions, elaborated in James’s pioneering “Principles of Psychology.” The author quotes Jung as responding, “The question of whether the body or the mind is the predominating factor will always be unanswered according to temperamental differences." This leaves the misleading impression that James has not addressed the issue.
While I enjoy this book as an adventure in discovering Jung’s (and my own) inner Self, what I was after was some kind of philosophical investigation of psychology or religion. I most appreciated the idea of “spiritual democracy,” also supported by James, in which all religious traditions confront the shadow sides of themselves and cease to demonize each other. But even if one discovers one’s own inner Self, that individual truth (which may be invented or created) is not necessarily the same as truth about the world.
July 30, 2023
“Steven Herrmann is one of those rare individuals who can brilliantly bring intellectual prowess and visionary depth together in a graceful dance of prose and poetry. In this work he presents the many cross-overs and parallels between two similarly gifted thinkers, C.G. Jung and William James. A comparative study of these two giants of modernity is long overdue, and Steven Herrmann is perfectly prepared to cover this match in all its splendor.”
―Murray Stein, Ph.D., author of Transformation: Emergence of the Self (1998), president of the International School for Analytical Psychology (ISAP) in Zürich, and past president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP).
"At last! This ground-breaking book is long overdue―how two of the greatest psychological geniuses that dominate twentieth century psychology on two continents coalesce in their thought and influence! Steven Hermann is clearly the perfect writer to make this important connection and bring James and Jung together. A rich and profound and necessary book―can we understand one without knowing the other?"
―Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
"I have been receiving spontaneous feedback from readers who are excited about this book and could not put it down! “Doorways to the Self” is a rare book about ideas written with the feeling function as a guide. Brief chapters tell a fascinating story, weaving together the essential points that only a true scholar could cull from vast literature. Among many fascinating revelations, we discover how two remarkable men recognized and took seriously the domain of unique, real, and meaningful experience, which to this day has remained beyond the purview of mainstream academic psychology."
-Dyane Sherwood, Editor of Analytical Psychology Press
Analyst Member, IAAP
Teaching Member STA/ISST
"This is a very rich and substantial book—which one would expect since it treats the psychological truth-seeking and interaction of two giants of the twentieth century—William James and Carl Jung while stirring in the in-depth mysticism of Meister Eckhart who was so influential on Jung. The author is well qualified for the ambitious task he has laid out for himself, having offered substantive treatments in previous books on Bill Everson on Shamanism, Walt Whitman on Spiritual Democracy and shamanism, and Emily Dickinson as a medicine woman for our times.
Bringing this extensive body of work in addition to his years as a child therapist and now Jungian analyst, Herrmann offers insight after insight about how Jung and James complement each other. Such topics as “the Fight with the Shadow,” “Doorways to the Self,” “The Call to Vocation,” “The Child archetype and the God behind the Door,” “Jung in America,” “James’s Experience of the San Francisco Earthquake,” “Jung’s Views on Yoga,” “The Radical Empirical Psychology of William James” and much more constitute the 44 chapter titles. This book is an intellectual and psychological and spiritual feast. It is sure to satisfy the hunger of many who care to heal and be healed."
―Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
"Steven Herrmann does not shy away from an intellectual challenge: Juxtaposing Carl Jung and William James is by no means an easy task. The two of them met briefly in 1909, but in their encounter, two worlds, two ways of thinking, came head-to-head with each other. The book traces the deeper impact of this encounter, and it also shows how a contemporary Jungian analyst from California integrates these two worlds for himself. The book is well-written, with the authority of someone who did his homework and who can write clearly. Steven Herrmann is an expert on Jung and on the American tradition, as the list of his prior publications demonstrates. It is a real pleasure to read for a variety of reasons: It brings to life the history and circumstances of the birth of psychology and psychoanalysis, and it shows how various lines of thought during the early 20th century influenced each other. It unfolds the story of how psychoanalysis was adopted in America, and how American ideas influenced the founders, Freud and Jung. It also leaves many questions to be pursued further. For instance: Where is the “radical empiricism” in Jung’s system? How is teleological thinking anchored in the psyche? Are we beginning to see the roots of a field theory of consciousness? The reader (at least in my case) wants to know more, which is a good sign: this book is stimulating; it will create an interest to read some of the primary texts for yourself. The author weaves in his own history, which brings the book to life even more. It is not a dry and objective academic performance: We get a good sense of the writer and his journey through the field of psychoanalysis. The author’s intention is to build a bridge, not to highlight the discrepancies. His reading is not critical, it is integrative. But because of it, I get the impression that he overestimates James’ influence on Jung and underplays the real differences between these two systems of thought. The last part of the book is fascinating. Steven Herrmann develops themes that define him as an independent thinker in his own right: What is the future of analytical psychology? How do we integrate these Western concepts of the psyche with Asian philosophies and practices like Yoga? How do we delineate them from religion? What are the sources and forms of non-ordinary experience? And is there a deeper synchronicity at work in Jung’s encounter with William James?"
―Jürgen Braungardt, Ph.D., MFT
“A wonderful synthesis of the seminal ideas of Carl Jung and William James against the backdrop of author, Jungian Analyst and a Child psychologist Dr. Steven Herrmann. Dr. Herrmann weaves his own dreams, his clinical work and the psychospiritual matrix of our times to create a magical mosaic of analytical thought. The book should be enjoyed like a fine wine - over time. It is presented in self-contained nuggets of inspiration.”
―Ashok Bedi, Jungian Analyst
―Murray Stein, Ph.D., author of Transformation: Emergence of the Self (1998), president of the International School for Analytical Psychology (ISAP) in Zürich, and past president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP).
"At last! This ground-breaking book is long overdue―how two of the greatest psychological geniuses that dominate twentieth century psychology on two continents coalesce in their thought and influence! Steven Hermann is clearly the perfect writer to make this important connection and bring James and Jung together. A rich and profound and necessary book―can we understand one without knowing the other?"
―Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
"I have been receiving spontaneous feedback from readers who are excited about this book and could not put it down! “Doorways to the Self” is a rare book about ideas written with the feeling function as a guide. Brief chapters tell a fascinating story, weaving together the essential points that only a true scholar could cull from vast literature. Among many fascinating revelations, we discover how two remarkable men recognized and took seriously the domain of unique, real, and meaningful experience, which to this day has remained beyond the purview of mainstream academic psychology."
-Dyane Sherwood, Editor of Analytical Psychology Press
Analyst Member, IAAP
Teaching Member STA/ISST
"This is a very rich and substantial book—which one would expect since it treats the psychological truth-seeking and interaction of two giants of the twentieth century—William James and Carl Jung while stirring in the in-depth mysticism of Meister Eckhart who was so influential on Jung. The author is well qualified for the ambitious task he has laid out for himself, having offered substantive treatments in previous books on Bill Everson on Shamanism, Walt Whitman on Spiritual Democracy and shamanism, and Emily Dickinson as a medicine woman for our times.
Bringing this extensive body of work in addition to his years as a child therapist and now Jungian analyst, Herrmann offers insight after insight about how Jung and James complement each other. Such topics as “the Fight with the Shadow,” “Doorways to the Self,” “The Call to Vocation,” “The Child archetype and the God behind the Door,” “Jung in America,” “James’s Experience of the San Francisco Earthquake,” “Jung’s Views on Yoga,” “The Radical Empirical Psychology of William James” and much more constitute the 44 chapter titles. This book is an intellectual and psychological and spiritual feast. It is sure to satisfy the hunger of many who care to heal and be healed."
―Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
"Steven Herrmann does not shy away from an intellectual challenge: Juxtaposing Carl Jung and William James is by no means an easy task. The two of them met briefly in 1909, but in their encounter, two worlds, two ways of thinking, came head-to-head with each other. The book traces the deeper impact of this encounter, and it also shows how a contemporary Jungian analyst from California integrates these two worlds for himself. The book is well-written, with the authority of someone who did his homework and who can write clearly. Steven Herrmann is an expert on Jung and on the American tradition, as the list of his prior publications demonstrates. It is a real pleasure to read for a variety of reasons: It brings to life the history and circumstances of the birth of psychology and psychoanalysis, and it shows how various lines of thought during the early 20th century influenced each other. It unfolds the story of how psychoanalysis was adopted in America, and how American ideas influenced the founders, Freud and Jung. It also leaves many questions to be pursued further. For instance: Where is the “radical empiricism” in Jung’s system? How is teleological thinking anchored in the psyche? Are we beginning to see the roots of a field theory of consciousness? The reader (at least in my case) wants to know more, which is a good sign: this book is stimulating; it will create an interest to read some of the primary texts for yourself. The author weaves in his own history, which brings the book to life even more. It is not a dry and objective academic performance: We get a good sense of the writer and his journey through the field of psychoanalysis. The author’s intention is to build a bridge, not to highlight the discrepancies. His reading is not critical, it is integrative. But because of it, I get the impression that he overestimates James’ influence on Jung and underplays the real differences between these two systems of thought. The last part of the book is fascinating. Steven Herrmann develops themes that define him as an independent thinker in his own right: What is the future of analytical psychology? How do we integrate these Western concepts of the psyche with Asian philosophies and practices like Yoga? How do we delineate them from religion? What are the sources and forms of non-ordinary experience? And is there a deeper synchronicity at work in Jung’s encounter with William James?"
―Jürgen Braungardt, Ph.D., MFT
“A wonderful synthesis of the seminal ideas of Carl Jung and William James against the backdrop of author, Jungian Analyst and a Child psychologist Dr. Steven Herrmann. Dr. Herrmann weaves his own dreams, his clinical work and the psychospiritual matrix of our times to create a magical mosaic of analytical thought. The book should be enjoyed like a fine wine - over time. It is presented in self-contained nuggets of inspiration.”
―Ashok Bedi, Jungian Analyst
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews