The Aion Lectures: Exploring the Self in C.G. Jung's Aion

Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts #71

by Edward F. Edinger

Title #71. Jung's Aion laid the foundation for a whole new scholarly discipline that could be called archetypal psychohistory. It applies the insights of depth psychology to the analysis of cultural development, here focusing on the idea of the God-image, or Self, as it has evolved over 2,000 years of Western thinking. An edited transcript of the lecture series given at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, 1988-89.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Edward F. Edinger was a medical psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and American writer.
Edward F. Edinger Jr. was born on December 13, 1922, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, earning his Bachelor of Arts in chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington and his Doctor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine in 1946. In November 1947, as a first lieutenant, he started a four-week Medical Field Service School at the Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He became a military doctor in the United States Army Medical Corps and was in Panama. In New York in 1951, he began his analysis with Mary Esther Harding, who had been associated with C.G. Jung.
Edinger was a psychiatrist supervisor at Rockland State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York, and later founder member of the C.G. Jung Foundation in Manhattan and the CG Jung Institute in New York. He was president of the institute from 1968 until 1979, when he moved to Los Angeles. There he continued his practice for 19 years, becoming senior analyst at the CG Jung Institute of Los Angeles.
He died on July 17, 1998, at his home in Los Angeles at age 75, according to family members due to bladder cancer.

Reviews

[J. Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody among the Jungian commentators presents Jung's work to the intelligent layperson like Edinger. His lectures on Jung's major works, as well as his own independent authorship, are consistently trustworthy, a touchstone for our understanding in the inner journey. The value of his contributions to Jung's opus cannot be overstated.

[Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost necessary companion to Jung’s Aion. Jung writes in a way that expects the reader to be fully versed in every topic Jung was involved with, which is a high bar. Edinger explains the material Jung used, cross-references the topics amongst Jung’s other works, and gives his own interpretation and supplementary information. I found it very useful reading both works together.

Edinger can come off a little cringe or sycophantic at times - equating Jung with the leader of the religion of mankind for the new age and saying:

“I think that one of the things it means is that Jung is the first representative of the new aeon, and it was his experience to go through the initiation of being identified with the god Aion. Jung is the new Aion, he is the harbinger of the new aeonwhat I call and what I think will in the future be called the Jungian aeon. Jung could not have perceived and summarized the content of the aeon of Pisces unless he was already outside it. You cannot see something in its totality, objectively, until you are already out of it. Jung was already in the next aeon, so to speak. Just as Christ was the first person to enter the aeon of Pisces, so Jung is the first to inaugurate the aeon of Aquarius.”

Are there huge implications within Aion if true - big time. Jung does reinterpret religion and history psychologically as the result of the evolving and unconscious Self. Jung clearly is trying to unite science/psychology with religion/God, so maybe Edinger is correct in just how monumental an impact it will be. That being said, this discussion is a sliver of the content discussed, I just found it striking.

[Mark Mazelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an indispensable companion to Aion in the Collected Works.

[Citizin.Brain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is great to read right after finishing Aion. Many things are clarified, expounded upon and related in a more practical way to analysis.

[Bigjim46 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading it was the most valuable thing I’ve done 🖤