|
|
Therapist Directory: Find a Psychologist, Find a Therapist, Find a Marriage Counselor
PSYCHOLOGY TOPICS
Selected topics in psychology
and mental health.
|
|
|
|
THE THERAPIST PSYCHOLOGIST BOOK STORE
 | |
 View Larger |
The Undiscovered Self By C. G. Jung ( Princeton University Press )
Release Date: 1990-10-18
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|  Add to Cart |
|
|
Product Description
Together for the first time in one paperback volume are two of Jung's major late works, in the version published in The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, as rendered by Jung's official translator. "The Undiscovered Self" (1957) integrates many of Jung's lifelong social and psychological concerns and addresses the uneasy relation between the individual and mass society. The survival of civilization, he maintains, depends on individual awareness of both the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human psyche. The exploration of the unconscious, in particular, leads to self-knowledge and with it recognition of the duality of human natureits potential for evil as well as for good. Jung believes that it is this self-knowledge that enables the individual to resist the collective power of mass society and the state and to cope with their possible threats. Jung's reflections on self-knowledge and the exploration of the unconscious carry over into his essay "Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams," completed shortly before his death in 1961. (It is the original version of his introduction to the symposium Man and His Symbols, conceived as a popular presentation of Jungian ideas.) Describing dreams as communications from the unconscious--as expressions of aspects of the individual that have been neglected or unrealized--Jung explains how the symbols that occur in dreams compensate for repressed emotions and intuitions. In a world dehumanized, in Jung's view, by scientific "progress" and the loss of emotional participation in natural events, symbols recall our original nature, its instincts and peculiar way of thinking. This essay brings together Jung's fully evolved thoughts on the analysis of dreams and the healing of the rift between consciousness and the unconscious, in the context of his system of psychology.
|
|
 Phenomenally accessible.
Jung addresses the modern individual's failure and to cultivate and understand the self - the whole self, including those dark crevices of the Unconscious that we'd rather pretend don't exist.
According to Jung, self-knowledge occurs through spiritual experience. While modern mass religion ("creeds") attempts to connect the individual to the "unknowable," a true, meaningful understanding of the self is generally excluded from the formula. This results in a religious understanding that ends up consisting of little else other than rote, external experience occurring outside of oneself and only within predefined parameters. There is no personal connection or life context within such arrangements and no knowledge of self can be gained.
Jung asserts that our lack of self understanding makes us susceptible to replacing true spiritual experience with the fake and prefabricated. The innate human drive to seek out the "unknowable" is channeled into mindless, impersonal acceptance of rigid dogmas, fanaticism, absolutism, herd mentality, etc. This lack also leaves us lost in the shuffle of the mass mentality, sans any meaningful self identity or will/strength to resist the current. We have no anchor within ourselves.
I loved reading this and found it to be far less esoteric and dense than other Jung works.
|
Finding Self ( rrussel52 )
C.G. Jung - within the works of CGJ one may find something extremely important --- SELF ---- Jung assist in the pealing away of societal myths that hide the spiritual part of SELF. This is not for quick reading but - for contemplation. Be still and know thy self.
|
The power to stand against the World ( oakshaman )
_In this book Jung correctly predicted that Communism had to collapse from within. No one else saw that coming. Why should they? For, as he points out, the mass state had all the force of the big battalions on their side- politics, science, and technology were their natural allies. And yet they collapsed.
_Should we rejoice in this? Why? Jung points out that the West is every bit as materialistic as our former Communist opponents. Our spiritual base is gone- in the place of true religion we have aging cults that serve the status quo. There is no inner power there. Every place Jung uses the term Communist, you can substitute Corporate and you have the same animal. That is because both are hierarchical structures where the individual counts for nothing. Indeed, the self-knowledge or individualization that would produce true men and women capable of standing up to the hierarchy is actively discouraged. They are trapped in the illusion of statistical man and of the organization- neither of which really exist. Only a few at the top can exercise the power of a true individual, and even they are usually no more than mouthpieces for the undeveloped masses and their unconscious drives.
_The hope for Jung lies in true religion. The freedom and autonomy of the individual depends on deep inner experience of a metaphysical nature. This is not "faith"; it is direct knowing. Even the deepest faith may melt away with time and circumstances- but not direct experience. It is only this that gives the individual the power to stand up to mass tyranny- and to the World itself. When you haven't made this breakthrough (which requires deep introspection, effort, and, yes, suffering) then other things get deified and charged with demonic energy- money, work, political influence...
_The shallow, rootless mass-man and his organizations are always going to lose, eventually, to the man with deep religious connection to the Macrocosm. Jung the Gnostic, Jung the Christian, Jung the Alchemist, Jung the Magician saw this. The individuated man has the cosmic correspondence within himself.
|
 Awkward presentation but important concerns ( calmly )
Somewhat rambling but wise speculations and judgments regarding:
* developing individuality at a time favoring being lost amongst the masses
* the lack of self-knowedge including disregard for the unconscious
* problems of creeds and of religious literalism obscuring intended myth.
The style of presentation seems dated and perhaps pompous: perhaps the translation could be improved. Nevertheless, the concerns are quite worthwhile. Solutions aren't offered but there seems value in emphasizing the nature of the problem.
Released in 1957 (or before), Jung's concerns seem more applicable in the United States (at least) now than ever before: who would have expected a mass movement trying to override good science and the U.S. Constitution? American focus being on the economic value of education, little is done to encourage sound psychological development.
The more I think about this book, the more I realize the importance of the issues Jung raises in it. I was put off some by its style, but there's a lot more profound substance here than in most of the books I read.
|
Man versus Men ( viggo37 )
The ideas presented by Jung in this book are fascinating, coherent, intelligent and, in many ways still original. They are also important ideas in a century that is just as full of moronic and potentially dangerous causes as the last century was.
It is a short book but it made me say "wow" out loud more than once.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addiction
