Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms and Concepts

By Daryl Sharp

Newsletter; Volume 16, No. 8, Summer 1991

Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms and Concepts. By Daryl Sharp. (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1991, 159 pages.)

I remember how years ago I put a lot of effort into trying to understand all I could of Jung’s psychology. I was reading everything related to it that I could put my hands on and as I progressed with this self-appointed task, I recall developing my own lexicon of the terms constantly encountered in these readings. They seemed unique to the field. My definitions were probably mere excerpts initially, expanded and reworked subsequently as my understanding grew. Eventually, though the avid reading coursed on, my practice of noting definitions and concepts was dropped. I must have felt I had mastered the basics.

After a time, I noted with approval the insertion at the back of Inner City Publications of brief listings of basic terms and succinct definitions; the idea seemed most appropriate as a quick reference for the beginning reader of Jungian material. More recently still, I came upon two new publications intended to provide a fuller treatment of Jungian terms and concepts. Both seemed quite impressive to me.

The first, A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Terms and Concepts, by Samuels, Shorter and Plaut (1986: Routledge & Kegan Paul) is a careful, satisfyingly informative survey of the field; it presents in alphabetical order terms that go from “Abaissement du niveau mental” to “Wounded healer.” Its list of sources includes the works not only of Jung himself, but of nearly one hundred other important authors. Though one finds in this book few direct quotations from these works, ongoing developments in Jungian thought and practice in Jung’s own time and since seem most adequately reviewed.

Robert Hopcke’s A Guided Tour of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung (1989: Shambala Publications, Inc.) is composed of forty chapters whose headings alone read like a non-alphabetical lexicon; the related definitions are found in each chapter’s graceful explanatory exposition. Further reading suggestions are grouped at the end of each chapter under four headings: “To begin”, “To go deeper”, “Related works” and “Secondary sources”. The first two refer to selections from Jung’s Collected Works, while the next two list works of others. In all it’s an easy read and an informative one.

Now Daryl Sharp of Inner City Books presents his own Primer of Terms and Concepts with reference basically to Jung’s Collected Works. The terms presented in alphabetical order are disconcertingly similar to the Samuels, Shorter and Plaut Dictionary: both books start and end with the same terms and a closer comparison reveals some 80 to 85% of the same ones showing up in both works. However, their difference lies in the definitions. While the Dictionary is a more ambitious attempt to cover the whole literature, the avowed intent of Daryl Sharp’s book is to review and clarify Jung’s own definitions. He quotes directly from Jung and expands upon the subject just enough to ensure a clear, concise and readily graspable definition. His references to the Collected Works are easy-to-find footnotes on each page. The result is a seemingly accurate and definitely user-friendly reference book that stands respectably beside the two other works.

To continue now on a personal note. I opened this book less in the hope of better comprehension than as a means of verifying my present understanding of the material. I had expected to spend just a short while glancing at some of its entries, yet when I put it down, I realized nearly two hours had passed. If for the most part the text rolled easily along, there were pauses here and there as my mind toyed with an evoked thought, feeling, or image. The activity of reviewing, maybe deepening my understanding, had proven slow-paced and quietly satisfying.

My perusal of this Primer had had for me the long forgotten feeling, and something of the effect, of fingering a rosary; each entry that I had read had been like one more bead first to be said then allowed to slip away silently and rapidly, in a somewhat rhythmic and almost unconscious way. A quite surprising piece of personal imagery. I credit this unexpected result to the appropriateness and pleasantly smooth flow of Daryl Sharp’s text which he has succeeded in integrating most effectively with Jung’s own words.

—Jocelyne Tanner