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READING JUNG %R American Academy of Religion Studies in Religion Charley Hardwick and James O. Duke, Editors Chuang Tzu: World Philosopher at Play Kuang-ming Wu Boundaries in Mind: A Study of Immediate Awareness Based on Psychotherapy Charles E. Scott Deconstructing Theology Mark C. Taylor The Study of American Indian Religions Ake Hultkrantz Evil and the Unconscious Walter Lowe God's Activity in the World: The Contemporary Debate Owen C. Thomas, editor Reading Freud: Psychology, Neurosis and Religion Volney P. Gay Horace Bushnell: Selected Writings on Language, Religion, and American Culture David L. Smith Reading Jung: Science, Psychology, and Religion Volney P. Gay To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: American Constitutional Law and the New Religious Movements William C. Shepherd READING JUNG Science, Psychology, and Religion by Volney P. Gay ©1984 American Academy of Religion Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Gay, Volney Patrick. Reading Jung. (Studies in religion ; 34) Bibliography: p. Includes Index. 1. Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961. 2. Psychoanalysis. 3. Psychoanalysis and religion. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in religion (American Academy of Religion) ; no. 34. BF173.J85G38 1984 150.19'54 84-1322 ISBN 0-89130-731-1 Printed in the United States of America FOR ELIZABETH CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Goals of This Book xi Jung the Man and Jung the Scientist Jung's Goals and Methods Texts and References Used How to Use This Book I Jung s Early Period: Psychiatric Studies 1 On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena (1902) CW 1 "On Hysterical Misreading" (1904), "Cryptomnesia" (1905) CW 1 "Experimental Researches" (1904-1907) CW 2 "The Associations of Normal Subjects" (1904) CW 2 "Psychoanalysis and Association Experiments" (1906) CW 2 "Association, Dream, and Hysterical Symptom" (1906) CW 2 II Symbols of Transformation: The Break with Freud 25 Symbols of Transformation (1911/12) CW 5 III The Advent of Analytical Psychology: Basic Theorems 45 "The Theory of Psychoanalysis" (1913) CW 4 "Psychoanalysis and Neurosis" (1916) CW 4 "Correspondence between Dr. Jung and Dr. Loy" (1914) CW 4 "Prefaces to 'Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology"'(1916) CW 4 "The Transcendent Function' (1916) CW 8 "Instinct and the Unconscious' (1919) CW 8 "The Role of the Unconscious" (1918) CW 10 "General Aspects of Dream Psychology (1916) CW 8 "The Structure of the Unconscious' (1916) CW 7 IV Psychology of Religion 81 Psychology and Religion (1938) CW 11 "A Psychological Approach to the Trinity" (1942) CW 11 "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass" (1942) CW 11 "On Synchronicity" (1952) CW 8 Aion: Researches Into the Phenomenology of the Self (1951) CW 9.2 Answer to Job (1952) CW 11 V Individuation and Self in Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961) 113 Appendix: Research Bibliographies on Jung and Analytical Psychology 123 Index 143 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the University Research Council of Vanderbilt University for expediting the appearance of this book. I also thank my chairperson, Daniel Patte, and my Dean, Jacque Voegeli, for granting me release time from teaching. In addition, the staff of the Vanderbilt Computer Center, particularly Maria Perkins, made easy what seemed originally difficult. I enjoyed the service of two excellent research assistants, Bruce Vaughn and Kathryn Armistead, and one excellent secretary, Patricia Mundy. The errors and oversights which escaped my detection are, of course, mine alone. I also thank Professor Charley D. Hardwick and an anonymous reviewer who assessed the original manuscript. My greatest debt is to many students from whom I have received more than I have given. INTRODUCTION The Goals of This Book This book is a companion volume to my Reading Freud: Psychology, Neurosis, Religion (1983, Scholars Press). Both books have a common goal: to offer the serious student and scholar a systematic way of reading critically the major works of each man respectively. But my books are not identical to one another. Their differences reflect differences in the style, thought, and problems which each man faced in the elaboration of his psychology. We will consider those differences at length below. Because their lives were so intertwined and because their joint and individual labors have influenced modern thought so deeply, Freud's and Jung's relationship to one another is of profound interest. Freud and Jung realized this. Their letters to each other and interpretative works by contemporary scholars explore these issues in depth. I refer to many of these works in the appendix. It is misleading to consider Jung only within the context of his rela­ tionship to Freud. His training, orientations, and ideals were distinctly unlike those of Freud. The major goal of this book is to suggest a way to read and understand Jung in his uniqueness and as he wished to be understood. In other words, I take him at face value and ask what did he say and was it coherent? Jung the Man and Jung the Scientist Carl Gustav Jung was a famous scientist and a famous personality. He was born in 1875 in Switzerland. He died there in 1961. Trained in psychiatry, he published important works as early as 1902. In 1909 Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, honored him and Sigmund Freud when it invited each man to deliver public lectures marking the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the university. Freud published his lectures as Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (SE 11, pp. 3-55). I discuss these lectures in the first chapter of my Reading Freud. Jung published his in various journals. In addition to these formal publications, both men wrote extensive analyses of what transpired between them on the boat trip to America. We consider Jung's account at length below when we read his Memories, Dreams, Reflections. xn Reading Jung For some fifty years Jung wrote, taught, lectured, conducted work­ shops and trained both physicians and lay persons in analytical psychol­ ogy, the name given to his set of doctrines. In these endeavors Jung believed he was carrying out a scientific enterprise. Was he correct? We cannot answer this question without reading what he said and consider­ ing it at length. The question as to what constitutes "true science" is as contentious an issue in our day as what constituted "true religion" was in the Middle Ages. Not only are practicing scientists ready to offer definitions; a whole branch of modern philosophy has devoted itself to raising this issue to profound depths and, sometimes, plausible heights. When one raises the name of Jung or his school within hearing of many self-proclaimed "phi­ losophers of science," one meets with a surprising amount of moralisms and denunciations of all Jung's errors, pretense, etc. These exhortations flourish typically in the midst of perfect innocence about what Jung actually said. Indeed, it requires no logical acumen to point out that the ready abuse and vitriol which so many academics are ready to loose upon the very name of Jung is entirely irrational. This is so for two reasons. First, as noted, most of his attackers know little or nothing about his work. Second, Jung's general theory is expli­ citly rationalistic. Our initial readings in his experimental papers will verify this claim. Then why do otherwise cautious academics and literati who would not dare trespass upon the methodological boundaries of their colleagues, without express written consent, plunge into denuncia­ tions of Jung? Perhaps they are defending the honor of the enlighten­ ment tradition of rational exploration against Jung's "obvious" penchant for irrational ideas, mysticism, and the black tide of the occult? Again, this cannot be true, it seems to me, because a fair reading of Jung does not demonstrate anything like this. Yet surely there is something a little suspect about a man who spent a good part of his life talking with schizophrenics, reading Latin texts on medieval alchemy, and most damning, reporting his visions? On the other side of the question, one might suppose that Jung's friends, supporters, and students would rally behind his claim to scien­ tific method and scientific discovery. For surely they read him as he wished to be read? Surely they would take him at face value? Yes, some have. But in my readings, and more so in my discussions and teaching, the majority of persons who identify themselves as "Jungian" do not. Many who find themselves attracted to Jung's thought, particularly reli­ gionists, side with the majority of academics who denounce Jung's claim to scientific merit. Both groups see Jung as a modern prophet, a kind of secular, psychological saint, a guide to a way of knowing, and a keeper of particularly mysterious secrets. The academic scoffers reject out of hand the possibility of such a person; the faithful, self-identified Jungians Introduction xul accept it and celebrate it. I believe both groups are wrong because they identify incorrectly Jung's basic goals and his basic methods. Before describing those goals and methods, the reader new to Jung might perform a small thought-experiment. Jung was keenly aware of the worldwide interest in UFOs in the 1950s and 1960s. How would he evaluate such phenomena? As signs of the second coming? As verifica­ tions of the universal truths of archaic religion? As mass psychosis? These questions are analogous to: Did Jung believe in God? Did he have special revelations? Or, can we use his insights to justify and support, if not validate, the faith claims of a particular religion? We will read his responses to all these questions. For the moment, it may prove useful to report that a large number of his students and the general public were quite sure the answer to them all was "yes." Hence an entirely mistaken and distorted report that Jung "believed in flying saucers" made world­ wide headlines.

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