Jung

By Anthony Stevens

Newsletter, Vol. 20, No. 7, June 1995

Jung. By Anthony Stevens. (Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 1994, 128 pages.)

Anthony Stevens’s book is remarkable in that he undertakes in 128 pages to give a comprehensive biographical account of the man C. G. Jung as well as the seminal aspects of his analytical psychology—and he succeeds! Stevens begins by linking events in Jung’s life to the development of his psychological concepts. This method gives clarity to many of the concepts such as archetypes and the collective unconscious and eases the reader into the intricacies of both the man and his work. The concept of projection, for example, stems from Jung’s childhood fantasies.

His childhood was basically lonely and unhappy. His pastor father was distant and cold, while his mother’s illnesses made it difficult for her to fulfill the warm and nurturing role he needed. As a result, he turned to the imagination to create a safe and happy world. From this came imaginative games such as one he played “as he sat on a large stone in the garden. He would intone, ‘I am sitting on top of this stone and and it is underneath.’ The stone would answer, ‘I am lying here on this slope and he is sitting on me.’ This would be followed by the question, ‘Am I the one who is sitting on the stone, or am I the stone on which he is sitting?’” (Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 33) (Jung, p. 4) Stevens goes on to say that Jung knew that there was a connection between the stone and himself, and further tells us that this was the origin of Jung’s mature insight into the mysteries of alchemy.

Another childhood fantasy dealt with an imaginary castle located on a rock in a lake. It had a watchtower “which was solely his and in that tower was a copper column in the image of a tree trunk with branches extending into air. The branches took ‘spiritual essence’ from the environment which was transported through the copper column to the basement where he changed it to gold.” (MDR, p. 87) These two examples foreshadowed Jung’s fascination with alchemy, and his research into psychic transformation.

As a lonely and unhappy boy and adolescent, Jung needed the security of his watchtower and the imaginative games which brought him to the realization that he was made up of two separate personalities. He called these ‘No. 1’ and ‘No. 2’. (MDR, p. 92) No. 1 refers to Jung as son and student who “coped with life as well as he could.” (Jung, p. 5) No. 2, however, “was much older, remote from the world of human society, but close to nature and animals, to dreams, and to God.” As a psychiatrist, he came to realize that “these two personalities were not unique to himself but present in everyone.” (p. 5)

At Basel University the shy, lonely adolescent began to emerge from his private world through the study of literature, philosophy and the history of religion, and it was here that he realized his calling to study psychology and to take it up as a lifetime commitment. His cousin, Helene Preiswerk, was also an influence on him at this time through her work as a medium. From witnessing her trances, Jung developed two central ideas in the practice of analytical psychology. First, “that part-personalities (complexes) existing in the unconscious psyche can ‘personate’ in trances and dreams and hallucinations.” Second, “that the real work of personality development proceeds at the unconscious level.” (p. 9-10) The first became the concept of active imagination and the second, individuation.

Perhaps the most influential force in Jung’s early professional life was his meeting and friendship with Sigmund Freud. Given their personalities, however, it was inevitable that sooner or later they would clash. This came about as a result of Freud’s entrenched belief that all motivation is sexual and that the unconscious mind is personal and individual. The severing of their friendship arose over different interpretations of the Oedipus myth and the incest taboo. “Jung’s view was that a child became attached to his mother, not because she was the object of incestuous passion, as Freud maintained, but because she was the provider of love and care.” (p. 15) He further reasoned that the incest taboo was primary and that it existed a priori. It was a “consequence of incest prohibition rather than its cause” and he concluded that the “oedipal complex was not the universal phenomenon that Freud declared it to be.” (p. 15)

The split with Freud left Jung, once again, alone and an outsider, but it also permitted him to go on to develop his theory of individuation. However, the transformation process was preceded by a painful and potentially dangerous illness in which horrifying dreams and visions haunted him and threatened his sanity. Yet, as Stevens tells us, “he regarded the disaster as if it were an experiment being performed on him: a psychiatrist was having a breakdown thus providing a golden opportunity for research.” (p. 19) He loosed the powerful energy of the unconscious by turning inward to “encounter his No. 2 personality.” (p. 19) The years spent in this encounter were considered by him to be the most important in his life and work. It also resulted in a hallmark book, Psychological Types, in which he “concluded that two fundamental psychological orientations are apparent—introverted and extraverted attitudes.” (p. 24)

Jung’s cathartic experience left him with the knowledge that personal growth and transformation is a lifelong process. It also confirmed the twofold nature of the human psyche and it renewed his dedication to analysis “as a means to produce personal growth rather than as a technique for treating mental disorder.” (p. 28) Stevens is at pains to point out that Jung is one of the few psychologists to take this position.

Having laid the groundwork for a study of the work of Jung, the focus appears to change to one of an apologia. Stevens goes on to define, explain, and compare Jung’s key concepts to Freudian theories of psychoanalysis, often to the detriment of the latter. Stevens begins with Jung’s “hypothesis of the collective unconscious as being his most significant departure from Freud and his most important single contribution to psychology.” (p. 33) And he then goes on to the second key concept which is the archetypes. These two aspects (collective unconscious and archetypes) are essential for the integration of the personality which Jung called the Self. The lack of recognition for these seminal works in the field of psychology is deplored by Stevens and he goes on to cite how valuable and broad they were, given recent similar conclusions from research done in the fields of ethology and physics.

Jung’s theory of typology is a useful device for determining personalities for initial analysis. He posited four psychological types: sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition which apply to all humankind. Pure types, of course, are not to be found. But these qualities, along with introvert and extravert attitudes, can be useful to an analyst. Typology is widely used in education, social work and allied fields, but Jung’s contribution is often forgotten.

Stevens concludes his book with a defence of Jung against the accusation of anti-semitism, an accusation that has haunted and tarnished the achievements of Jung’s life work. He is convinced of Jung’s innocence in this regard and argues the case quite convincingly. However, this does not exhaust the litany of criticisms. It seems that seminal thinkers are fated to endure the barbs of their parasitic interpreters. Some find fault with him because he reflects the time in which he lived; some because his theories were determined by his introverted personality; some because his therapy did not deal closely enough with personal relationships; others found his spiritual insights too parochial and therefore out of step with the 1990’s.

To his credit, however, Jung perceived the basis of the modern malaise to be a loss of soul caused through losing touch with religion and therefore being cut off from myth and the power of symbols. The whole spiritual spectrum is lost to us and we are condemned to live an empty, meaningless existence. Jung says the result is “spiritual decay.” (Collected Works, IV, par. 331) The 21st century might do well to heed this warning. Perhaps then, the work of this strange, brilliant man will be awarded the attention it deserves. In the meantime, one will find it preserved in university departments of religion and liberal arts.

This book is an excellent introduction to the life and works of C. G. Jung and should be required reading for all those interested in understanding this branch of psychology.

—Lila Stonehewer