Psychological And Philosophical Studies Of Jungs Teleology

This important new volume addresses an underappreciated dimension of Jung’s work, his concept of the teleology, or “future-orientation”, of psychic reality. The work, authored by an international group of Jungian scholars, expands upon the socio-cultural, psychological, therapeutic, and philosophical import of this key pillar of the Jungian oeuvre, offering a compelling alternative to current, culturally dominant ideas about how change occurs. The book addresses varied aspects of his teleological thought generally, and its application to the psychotherapeutic endeavor specifically, engaging Freudian, neo-Freudian, and related theoretical orientations in an informed dialogue about the critical issue of the emergent unfolding of subjectivity in treatment. This is an illuminating read for those interested in the study of Jungian theory, psychoanalysis, social psychology, religion, transpersonal psychology, indigenous wisdom traditions, and philosophical metapsychology.

This important new volume addresses an underappreciated dimension of Jung's work, his concept of the teleology, or "future-orientation", of psychic reality. The work, authored by an international group of Jungian scholars, expands upon the socio-cultural, psychological, therapeutic, and philosophical import of this key pillar of the Jungian oeuvre, offering a compelling alternative to current, culturally dominant ideas about how change occurs. The book addresses varied aspects of his teleological thought generally, and its application to the psychotherapeutic endeavor specifically, engaging Freudian, neo-Freudian, and related theoretical orientations in an informed dialogue about the critical issue of how change occurs in treatment. This is an illuminating read for those interested in the study of Jungian theory, psychoanalysis, social psychology, religion, transpersonal psychology, indigenous wisdom traditions, and philosophical metapsychology.

For the philosopher and psychologist this book offers the first thoroughly cross-disciplinary interpretation of Jung's psychology. Using the conceptual framework of traditional Western philosophy, Nagy studies the internal structure of Jung's theory. His epistemology, his ontology (archetypes), and his teleological views (individuation and theory of self) are analyzed in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century philosophical and scientific problems. Jung's psychology is a response to the challenge of Freud and to the rise of the empirical sciences.

Although the works of C.G. Jung have received worldwide attention, there has been surprisingly little engagement by philosophers. In this volume, internationally recognized philosophers, Jungian analysts, and scholars attempt to fill this void in the literature. Although Jung did not have a formalized, systematic philosophy, the philosophical implications of his thought are explored in relation to his key theoretical postulates on archetypes, the collective unconscious, the mind-body problem, phenomenology, epistemology, psychology of religion, alchemy, myth, ethics, aesthetics, and the question of transcendence. Through analyzing Jung philosophically, new vistas emerge for enhanced explication, theoretical refinement, revision, and redirecting shifts in emphasis that lend more proper cohesion to Jung’s philosophy. For the first time we may observe philosophers attempting to unpack the philosophical consequences of Jung’s thought applied to many traditional topics covered in the humanities and the social sciences. Given that Jung has not been historically taken up by philosophers, critiqued, nor applied to contemporary theories of mind, culture, and human nature, this is the first book of its kind. It is argued that a new generation of research in analytical psychology can benefit from philosophical scrutiny and theoretical fortification. Jung and Philosophy will be of interest to psychoanalysts, philosophers, cultural theorists, religious scholars, and the disciplines of depth psychology and post-Jungian studies.

Through this book, philosopher and psychoanalyst Aner Govrin demonstrates how psychoanalysis’ engagement with philosophy was crucial in the evolution of new psychoanalytic theories in three areas: perception of truth, developmental theories, and study of psychoanalytic treatment. Beginning with a Freudian perspective, through ego psychology to the intersubjective and the relational approach, Govrin shows that philosophy seeps into psychoanalytic theory itself, becoming a constitutive factor. When we discuss psychoanalysis, we cannot do it without reference to philosophy, since virtually every sentence it has generated harks back to and is embedded in philosophy. Moving onto the Post-psychoanalytic Schools Era in the second part, this seminal volume provides a model for understanding the evolution of psychoanalytic thought in the postmodern era, where “sensibilities” like the relational approach and infant research replaced the orthodox psychoanalytic schools. Govrin also explores whether psychoanalysis is a branch of philosophy, how psychoanalysis progresses, what a psychoanalytic innovation is, and why mainstream psychoanalysis rejects neuropsychoanalysis. Exploring the intricate relationship between psychoanalysis and philosophy, this book will be of interest to clinicians, scholars, teachers, and students of contemporary psychoanalysis across a broad spectrum of theoretical orientations, as well as those in philosophy of science, epistemology, and neuropsychoanalysis.

This book explores C. G. Jung's psychology through the perspective of the existential philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, drawing striking parallels between Jung's theory of individuation and Berdyaev's understanding of the person. Placing Jung and Berdyaev firmly within the context of secular humanism, Nicolaus draws on their personal experiences of individuation to show how both writers seek to enable a renewal of our self-understanding as persons in a post-religious society. Topics of discussion include: the foundations of Berdyaev's personalism Jung's psychological interpretation of the Christian God-image individuation and the ethics of creativity. C. G. Jung and Nikolai Berdyaev: Individuation and the Person offers a fresh perspective on the ethical implications of Jung’s theory and serves also as an introduction to Berdyaev’s thought. As such this book will appeal to analytical psychologists, scholars engaged with Jungian thought and all those interested in the interface between spirituality and depth psychology.

‘Jung’s Philosophy’ explores some of the controversial philosophical ideas that are both explicit and implicit within Jung’s psychology, comparing the philosophical assumptions between this and other psychotherapeutic traditions. Within this book, Corbett provides a useful introduction to the philosophical issues relevant to the practice of analytical psychology, and how these are viewed by different psychotherapeutic traditions. Most of the disagreement between schools of psychotherapy, and much of the comparative literature, centres around differences in theory and technique. This book takes a different, more fundamental approach by comparing schools of thought based on their underlying philosophical commitments. The author discusses the philosophical basis of various worldviews such as idealism and realism, beliefs about the nature of the psyche and the unconscious, and the mind-brain relationship, and focuses on the way in which Jung’s psychology addresses these and related issues, including the possible relevance of quantum mechanics to depth psychology. This text will be of value to practising psychotherapists and Jungian analysts, individuals undertaking the relevant training, and students in depth psychology.

For the philosopher and psychologist this book offers the first thoroughly cross-disciplinary interpretation of Jung's psychology. Using the conceptual framework of traditional Western philosophy, Nagy studies the internal structure of Jung's theory. His epistemology, his ontology (archetypes), and his teleological views (individuation and theory of self) are analyzed in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century philosophical and scientific problems. Jung's psychology is a response to the challenge of Freud and to the rise of the empirical sciences.

Romantic Metasubjectivity Through Schelling and Jung: Rethinking the Romantic Subject explores the remarkable intellectual isomorphism between the philosophy of Friedrich Schelling and Carl Jung’s analytical psychology in order to offer a crucial and original corrective to the "reflection theory" of subjectivity. Arguing that the reflection theory of the subject does not do justice to the full compass of Romantic thinking about the human being, Romantic Metasubjectivity sees human identity as neither discursive aftereffect nor centred around a self-transparent "I" but rather as constellated around the centripetal force of what Novalis calls "The Self of one’s self." The author begins with a unique reading of Schelling’s early Naturphilosophie as primal site rather than Freudian scene, thinking this site through his Philosophical Inquiries Into the Nature of Human Freedom to The Ages of the World. Reading Jungian metapsychology and its core concepts as therapeutic amplifications of Schelling, the author articulates an intellectual counter-transference in which Schelling and Jung contemporise each other. The book then demonstrates how Romantic metasubjectivity operates in the libidinal matrix of Romantic poetry through readings of William Wordsworth’s The Prelude and Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound. The book concludes with a discussion of the hit TV series Breaking Bad as a "case study" of the challenges Romantic metasubjectivity raises for fundamental ethical dilemmas which confront us in the twenty-first century. Romantic Metasubjectivity is a highly original work of scholarship and will appeal to students and scholars in German Idealism, Romanticism, philosophy, psychoanalysis, theory, Jung studies, and those with an interest in contemporary theories of the subject.

Rhetorical analysis of texts exposes plausible ‘truths’ and presumptions implied by the writer’s presentation. In this volume, Leslie Gardner analyses the master psychologist Jung, who claimed to be expert at uncovering personal, psychological truths. In his theoretical writings, his rhetoric reveals philosophical ramifications which bear strong similarities to those of the rhetorician of the 18th century, Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico. This book is driven by an interest in arguing that it is possible to read Jung’s works easily enough when you have a set of precepts to go by. The paradox of scientific discovery being set out in Jung’s grotesque and arcane imagery begins to seem a startling and legitimate psychology for the 21st century. It is time Jungian studies took on this most appropriate examination of analytical psychology. Bringing Vico to bear directly on Jung’s thought has only been cursorily attempted before although much alluded to. We find indeed that some of Jung’s ideas derive directly from rhetorical theory, and this volume proposes to highlight Jung’s innovations, and bring him into forefront of contemporary psychological thought. Rhetorical Investigations will be of interest to analysts and academics, and also to those studying philosophy and psychology.