Carl Jung Depth Psychology

Gerhard Wehr on Carl Jung and Freud 'The First Man of Real Importance' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology :  Sigmund Freud-“The First Man of Real Importance”   Freud was the first man of real importance I had encountered; in my experience up to that time, no one else could compare with him. There was nothing the least trivial in his attitude. I found him extremely intelligent, shrewd, and altogether remarkable. And yet my …

Gerhard Wehr on Carl Jung and 'The Inevitable Break' with Freud - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : The Inevitable Break   Predictably, Freud and Jung’s visit to America brought far-reaching consequences for the reception psychoanalysis received in the United States. Abraham A.   Brill translated Jung’s lectures, which had been given in German, and published them in American professional periodicals that had also reprinted Freud’s texts. From then on the number …

I regard these parallels as important because it is possible, through them, to relate so-called metaphysical concepts, which have lost their root connection with natural experience, to living, universal psychic processes, so that they can recover their true and original meaning. In this way the connection is reestablished between the ego and projected contents now formulated as "meta- physical" ideas. Unfortunately, as already said, the fact that metaphysical ideas exist and are believed in does nothing to prove the actual existence of their content or of the object they refer to, although the coincidence of idea and reality in the form of a special psychic state, a state of grace, should not be deemed impossible, even if the subject cannot bring it about by an act of will. Once metaphysical ideas have lost their capacity to recall and evoke the original experience they have not only become useless but prove to be actual impediments on th...

The development of science, which is so extraordinarily characteristic for the West, owes its origin in a great measure to the experimental attitude of mind in alchemy. Alchemy is founded on the conviction of the spontaneity of the spirit and of inspiration, and strives, in untiring speculative meditation, to explore the unbound spirit of nature and to give it expression. The methods, which I described in my earlier lectures, attempt to imprint a predetermined form on the soul, working from outside inwards; whereas alchemy endeavours to assist a psychical potentiality, hidden in unconscious nature, to develop and unfold to the greatest possible extent, in that it removes, working from inside outwards, the obstacles in the path of the hidden soul striving towards the light. "Hab et omnia in se, quo indiget" (it has everything which it needs in itself) was the principle on which this art or philosophy worked. Carl Jun...

Lecture 5 Questions and Discussion No written questions were handed in. The following verbal question was asked: “When you were in the process of investigating the unconscious, as you described it last time, did you have al- ways the sense of being in control of your tools?” Dr. Jung: It was as if my tools were activated by my libido. But there must be tools there to be activated, that is, animated images, images with libido in them; then the additional libido that one supplies brings them up to the surface. If I had not given this additional libido with which to bring them to the surface, the activity would have gone on just the same, but would have sucked my energy down into the unconscious. By putting libido into it, one can increase the speaking power of the unconscious. Mr. Aldrich: Is that tapas? Dr. Jung: Yes, that is the Indian term for that type of concentration. A further elaboration of the method might...

Perhaps crystals and stones are especially apt symbols of the Self because of the "just-so-ness" of their nature. Many people cannot refrain from picking up stones of a slightly unusual color or shape and keeping them, without knowing why they do this. It is as if the stones held a living mystery that fascinates them. Men have collected stones since the beginning of time and have apparently assumed that certain ones were the containers of the life-force with all its mystery. The ancient Germans, for instance, believed that the spirits of the dead continued to live in their tombstones. The custom of placing stones on graves may spring partly from the symbolic idea that something eternal of the dead person remains, which can be most fittingly represented by a stone, for while the human being is as different as possible from a stone, yet man’s innermost center is in a strange and special way akin to it (perhap...

To Herbert Read Dear Sir Herbert, 22 October 1960 I ask your pardon for bothering you again with a letter. I have just read the review of your book The Form of Things Unknown in The Listener of September 22nd, 1960. Alloway asks the silly question "what do the archetypes communicate?" In case you should like to answer him I should like you to point out his remarkable ignorance. One knows a great deal about what archetypes communicate even if one has never been inside a Catholic Church. It is really a bit too much that an educated person of today does not even know what an archetype communicates. It is only yesterday that I wrote to a young artist who has sent me one of his abstract pictures, which very clearly suggests the archetype of the Dragon, though a bit distorted and hollowed out to make it unrecognizable. Thus obviously the religious views which were ejected through the f...

Gerhard Wehr on Carl Jung's 'Night Sea Journey' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : The “Night Sea Journey” and the Confrontation with the Unconscious   The split with Sigmund Freud represented a profound, decisive break in C. G. Jung’s life. Freud, of course, was deeply affected by it himself, but for him the basic positions of his work had long been firmly established.   The founder of …

Thus Spake Zarathurstra XXXI. THE NIGHT-SONG. ’Tis night: now do all gushing fountains speak louder. And my soul also is a gushing fountain. ’Tis night: now only do all songs of the loving ones awake. And my soul also is the song of a loving one. Something unappeased, unappeasable, is within me; it longeth to find expression. A craving for love is within me, which speaketh itself the language of love. Light am I: ah, that I were night! But it is my lonesomeness to be begirt with light! Ah, that I were dark and nightly! How would I suck at the breasts of light! And you yourselves would I bless, ye twinkling starlets and glow-worms aloft!—and would rejoice in the gifts of your light. But I live in mine own light, I drink again into myself the flames that break forth from me. I know not the happiness of the receiver; and oft have I dreamt that stealing must be more blessed than re- ceiving. It is my poverty that my h...

To Patrick Whitaker Dear Sir, 8 October 1960 Thank you very much for your kind letter of August 21st. Unfortunately my answer is late. I have been ill in the meantime and unable to take care of my correspondence. I have studied your "proposal"1 with much interest. Frankly, such a plan would be quite impossible in Europe, but with reference to the "land of unlimited possibilities" one feels differently. Your basic assumption that a Museum of Sanctuary is needed for the preservation of religious phenomena is quite correct. Our present state of civilization becomes more and more unable to understand what a religion means. Europe has already lost half of its population to a mental state worse than ancient paganism. There is however a grave doubt in my mind: just as the accumulation of masterworks of art threatens to kill each individual work, so the accumulation...

Dear Sir, 14 September 1960 Your letter of May 7th, 1960, is so vast that I don’t know where to begin answering you. The way towards a solution of our contemporary problems I seem to propose is in reality the process I have been forced into as a modern individual confronted with the social, moral, intellectual, and religious insufficiencies of our time. I recognize the fact that I can give only one answer, namely mine, which is certainly not valid universally, but may be sufficient for a restricted number of contemporary individuals inasmuch as my main tenet contains nothing more than: Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own, i.e., the true expression of your individuality. As nobody can become aware of his individuality unless he is closely and responsibly related to his fellow be- ings, he is not withdrawing to an egoistic desert when he tries to find himself. He can only discover himse...

The living mystery of life is always hidden between Two, and it is the true mystery which cannot be betrayed by words and depleted by arguments. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 581 Also, Christmas day is a Mithraic feast. In early days, Christmas came on the 8th of January, and was a day taken over from the Egyptians, being the day celebrating the finding of the body of Osiris. ~Carl Jung, 1925 Seminar, Page 113 To the early Christians, Christmas was the resurrection of the sun, and as late as Augustine, Christ was identified with the sun. ~Carl Jung, 1925 Seminar, Page 113 There is no man who could not exist without a woman—that is, he carries the necessary balance within himself if he be obliged to live his life that way, and the same thing applies to a woman with respect to a man, but if either sex is to have a complete life, it requires the other as a compensatory side. ~Carl Jung, 1925 Seminar, Page 114 Primitives show a much more balanced psychology than we do fo...

To Heinrich Berann Dear Herr Berann, 27 August 1960 Thank you very much for the samples you have sent me of your Paintings. Although you may not know it, I find it very difficult, both as a psychologist and a human being, to establish any relationship with modern abstract art. Since one’s feelings seem to be a highly unsuitable organ for judging this kind of art, one is forced to appeal to the intellect or to intuition in order to gain any access to it. But even then most of the little signs and signals by which human beings relate to one another seem to be absent. The reason for this, it seems to me, is that in those depths from which the statements of the modern artist come the individual factor plays so small a role that human communication is abolished. " I remain I and you remain you"-the final expression of the alienation and incompatibility of individuals. These strange messages are well sui...

Gerhard Wehr on Carl Jung's 'Work' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : The Work In the early years of his activity as a psychiatrist and analytical psychologist, Jung repeatedly found himself pressed to define his position and to distinguish it from those of Freud’s “psychoanalysis” and Adler’s “psychology of the individual.”   Distinctions of this kind had already been made before his formal separation from the …

Gerhard Wehr on Carl Jung: 'Again and Again, the Religious Question' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : Again and Again, the Religious Question   The basis of analytical psychology’s significance for the psychology of religion, including its practical therapeutic application, lies in C. G. Jung’s discovery of how archetypal images, events, and experiences, individually and in groups, are the essential determinants of the religious life in history and in the present.   …

Gerhard Wehr on Carl Jung and the Mysterium Coniunctionis - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : Mysterium Coniunctionis Since C. G. Jung had come into contact with alchemy in the course of the twenties, he had been like a wanderer in the high mountains. After a diligent search for materials in preparation and after a laborious ascent, he had climbed-menaced by steep precipices-peak after peak. Roping down ahead of schedule was …

Gerhard Wehr on Carl Jung's 'Answer to Job' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : Answer to Job   On the whole there are three publications which stand out from the work of C. G. Jung’s later years.   These had to do partly with the subject of self-development, represented in alchemical symbolism as the Mysterium Coniunctionis.   This two-volume work, supplemented by a third volume of texts, …

Jung: A Biography by Gerhard Wehr - Quotations - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : If thou wouldst into the infinite stride, Explore the finite on every side. ~Goethe, cited in Jung by Gerhard Wehr, Page 4 Intuition provides us with perception and orientation in situations where sense, understanding, and feeling are completely useless to us …. This is an enormously important function if you live in more primitive circumstances …

Carl Jung Depth Psychology Support Page - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : Funds are being raised to pay for a one year subscription for the Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog on WordPress. To purchase further research materials related to the Life, Work and Legacy of Dr. Jung which have already been published. To purchase forthcoming publications from the Philemon Foundations Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog [WordPress]  …

Gerhard Wehr on the Death of Emma Jung - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : One could tell by looking at her that she had overcome a serious illness not long ago. In the spring she had had to undergo surgery. And because her recovery dragged on for some time, Ruth Bailey had come from England to take over the management of the household. It had been agreed that …

C.  G. Jung in Dialogue and Dispute - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : C.  G. Jung in Dialogue and Dispute Considering that C. G. Jung belonged to the introverted attitude type and that consequently his manifold and often extraordinary inner experiences were bound to have provided special meaning, his great readiness for conversation and meetings, and also for confrontation and debate, might be surprising. Those who …

Aniela Jaffe on Dr. Jung's 'Letters' - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : Even when Aniela Jaffe, his part-time secretary since 1955, lent a hand with the writing and organizing, the correspondence absorbed much of his strength.   “Jung’s correspondence was terribly extensive and therefore often the cause of complaints and grumblings,” she recalled.   “It was obvious that the letters tired him out.   But they held …

Ruth Bailey on Carl Jung's Vision before his Death - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : And Ruth Bailey added the personal note:  “Throughout that whole day I must have known that he had now left me. Probably I knew it inside, but repressed it. And that was good; I would hardly have been able to do what needed to be done for him. All I could do was watch …

Dr. Jung's Death: Under the Sign of Wholeness: The End - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : Under the Sign of Wholeness: The End G. Jung’s end lay immediately ahead-only a few weeks and days of further declining strength. For some months he knew and even occasionally said that he “had his marching orders,” as he put it. One more time he had himself taken out for a drive in his …

Carl Jung and Erich Fromm - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : With Erich Fromm, who had openly voiced his aversion to Jung since the mid-thirties, as with Paul J. Stern after him, Jung rose to the status of “prophet of the unconscious.” But as such-as Fromm attempted to portray him-he had not proclaimed prophetic wisdom but rather, and this with regard to the tension-filled thirties, produced …

Carl Jung on 'Theosophy' - Anthology - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn theosophy by heart, or mechanically repeat mystic text from the literature of the whole world – all because they cannot get on with …

Ruth Bailey on Carl Jung's Vision before his Death - Carl Jung Depth Psychology : And Ruth Bailey added the personal note: “Throughout that whole day I must have known that he had now left me. Probably I knew it inside, but repressed it. And that was good; I would hardly have been able to do what needed to be done for him. All I could do was watch …

To Jolande Jacobi Dear Dr. Jacobi, 25 August 1960 I was very impressed and pleased to hear that my autobiographical sketches have conveyed to you something of what my outer side has hitherto kept hidden. It had to remain hidden because it could not have survived the brutalities of the outside world. But now I am grown so old that I can let go my grip on the world, and its raucous cries fade in the distance. The dream you have called back to my memory anticipates the content and setting of the analysis in a miraculous way. Who knew that and who arranged it? Who envisioned and; grasped it, and forcibly expressed it in a great dream-image? He who has insight into this question knows whereof he speaks when he tries to interpret the psyche. With cordial greetings, Yours sincerely, C.G. Jung, Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 585 Note: J . retold a "big dream" of hers in 1927 which had the character of an initiation. It i...

To the Rev. W. P. Witcutt Dear Sir, 24 August 1960 I must apologize for not having answered your Letter of July 18th. I hasten therefore to answer this time at once. I was very interested in your letter, as you can imagine. Since 1924 I have done much work with the I Ching and I have discussed it with my late friend Richard Wil- helm, who had first-hand knowledge of its workings. As you have found out for yourself, the I Ching consists of readable archetypes, and it very often presents not only a picture of the actual situation but also of the future, exactly like dreams. One could even define the I Ching oracle as an experimental dream, just as one can define a dream as an ex- periment of a four-dimensional nature. I have never tried even to describe this aspect of dreams, not to speak of the hexagrams, because I have found that our public today is incapable of understanding. I considered it therefore my first duty to talk ...

To Herbert Read Dear Sir Herbert, 2 September 1960 I have just read the words of a Man, that is, the statement of your views about m y work. Courage and honesty have won out, two qualities the absence of which in my critics hitherto has hindered ev- ery form of understanding. Your blessed words are the rays of a new sun over a dark sluggish swamp in which I felt buried. I often thought of Meister Eckhart who was entombed for 600 years. I asked myself time and again why there are no men in our epoch who could see at least what I was wrestling with. I think it is not mere vanity and desire for recognition on my part, but a genuine concern for my fellow-beings. It is presumably the ancient functional relationship of the medicine-man to his tribe, the participation mys- tique and the essence of the physician’s ethos. I see the suffering of mankind in the individual’s predicament and vice versa. As a medical psychologist I do not merely assu...