Carl Jung

From Metapedia

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychoanalyst and psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology, which is sometimes considered distinct from Freudian psychoanalysis, but heavily influenced by it, and analytical psychology has been criticized for some of the same reasons as psychoanalysis, such as for being a pseudoscience.

Jung's approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in countercultural movements across the globe. He emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, much of his life's work was spent exploring other areas, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. His most notable ideas include the concept of psychological archetypes, the collective unconscious and synchronicity.

Jung emphasized the importance of balance and harmony. He cautioned that modern people rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of unconscious realms. His work in spirituality helped to inspire Alcoholics Anonymous as he found spirituality helps people quit addiction.

Main Theories

• The concept of introversion and extroversion (although he did not define these terms as they are popularly defined today).^[1]
• The concept of the complex.
• The concept of the collective unconscious, shared by all people. It includes the archetypes. The group hive-like behavior of people socially is a manifestation of the collective unconscious.
• Synchronicity as a mode of relationship that is not causal, an idea that has influenced Wolfgang Pauli (with whom he developed the notion of unus mundus in connection with the notion of non-locality) and some other physicists.^[2]

References