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From
The Publisher:
This
comprehensive collection of writings
by the epoch-shaping Swiss psychoanalyst
Dr. Carl Jung
was edited by Joseph Campbell,
himself the most famous of Jung's American followers.
It
comprises Jung's pioneering studies
of the structure of the psyche -
including the works that introduced such notions as
the collective unconscious, the Shadow,
Anima and Animus -
as well as inquries into
the psychology of spirituality and creativity, and
Jung's influential "On Synchronicity",
a paper whose implications extend from
the I Ching to Quantum Physics.
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Campbell's introduction completes this
compact volume,
placing Jung's astonishingly wide-ranging oeuvre
within the context of his life and times.
--- a review
by:
L.
J. Abshire, Jr. (louj@chevron.com)
January 22, 1999
The
introduction to this volume, written by Joseph Campbell,
promises that anyone who proceeds through it faithfully from the
first page to the last will emerge with a substantial understanding
of Analytical Psychology and a new realization of the psychological
relevance of mythic lore to his or her psychological development.
Having
read its nearly 700 pages from the first to the last, I can attest
that it has lived up to its promise. The Campbell introduction
provides a good overview of Jung’s life along with a detailed
chronology.
The
English translation by R. F. C. Hull is very readable; however,
Jung’s writings are very scholarly and contain a good deal of
Latin and Greek. Most of the Latin and Greek terminology is parenthetically
translated, but not all. Not being adept at those languages, I
found it helpful to have a Latin-English and a Greek-English dictionary
available for reference. Although Jung can be very abstruse at
times, for the most part his concepts are clearly expressed and
supported with concrete examples.
The
book begins with a selection of works designed to help the novice
learn Jung’s terminology and basic concepts. After building the
appropriate foundation, it then ranges through a cross section
of his life’s work including the psychological aspects of marriage,
personality types, art, dream symbolism, science, religion, and
Eastern and Western culture.
Jung
was first and foremost, an empiricist. He offers no metaphysical
theories to explain the psyche, but he takes great pains in documenting
and correlating its tremendous variety of conscious and unconscious
content. He establishes the reality of the psyche as a
whole (conscious and unconscious) on its observable effects.
His
concepts of the collective unconscious with its archetypal
images, the transcendental function, synchronicity, his
views on God, and other insights are amazing and engagingly fascinating.
He manages to entangle the reader in a bewildering world of arcane
images from mythology and alchemy in his dream interpretation
sequences. In spite of the natural skepticism one may feel toward
the relevance of these unconscious archetypes, it is difficult
to avoid the discomfiting feeling that there is, after all, a
great deal of relevance there.
For
anyone wishing to broaden his or her consciousness and understanding
of the human psyche, the time and effort needed to purchase the
results promised in the introduction is well spent.
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