Religion and the Cure of Souls in Jung's Psychology
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The International Library of Psychology RELIGION AND THE CURE OF SOULS IN JUNG’S PSYCHOLOGY Founded by C. K. Ogden The International Library of Psychology ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY In 12 Volumes I Studies in Analytical Psychology Adler II Complex/Archetype/Symbol in the Psychology of C G Jung Jacobi III Psychology of C G Jung Jacobi IV Experiment in Depth Martin V Amor and Psyche Neumann VI Art and the Creative Unconscious Neumann VII The Origins and History of Consciousness Neumann VIII Jung's Psychology and its Social Meaning Progoff IX Religion and the Cure of Souls in Jung's Psychology Schaer X Conscious Orientation van der Hoop XI Lucifer and Prometheus Werblowsky XII The Secret of the Golden Flower Wilhelm RELIGION AND THE CURE OF SOULS IN JUNG’S PSYCHOLOGY HANS SCHAER London and New York First published in 1951 by Routledge Reprinted in 1999 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X 14 4RN Transferred to Digital Printing 2007 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 1951 Hans Schaer, Translated by R. F. C. Hull All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of the works reprinted in the International Library of Psychology. This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace. These reprints are taken from original copies of each book. In many cases the condition of these originals is not perfect. The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of these reprints, but wishes to point out that certain characteristics of the original copies will, of necessity, be apparent in reprints thereof. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Relg ion and the Cure of Souls in June’s Psychology ISBN 0415-20946-3 Analytical Psychology: 12 Volumes ISBN 0415-21124-7 The International Library of Psychology: 204 Volumes ISBN 0415-19132-7 CONTENTS List of Abbreviations vi Translator's Note 1 Introduction 5 Elements of Jungian Psychology 21 The Psychic Bases of Religion 59 Religion as a Psychic Function 97 Man and Religion 137 Jung’s Significance in the Religious Situation of Today 197 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES PT — Psychologische Typen (Psychological Types) PR — Psychologie und Religion (Psychology and Religion) WSL — Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (Psychology of the Unconscious) BZIU — Die Beziehungen zwischen dem Ich und dem Unbewussten (Two Essays on Ana lytical Psychology) SPG — Seelenprobleme der Gegenwart (partly reproduced in Contributions to Analytical Psychology and Modern Man in Search of a Soul) WS — Wirklichkeit der Seele (partly in Modern Man in Search of a Soul) UES — Über die Energetik der Seele (On Psychi cal Energy, in Contributions to Analytical Psychology) EJ — Eranos-Jahrbuch (mostly untranslated, but EJ 1934 in The Integration of the Personality; EJ 1935 and 1936, enlarged edition, in the forthcoming Psychology and Alchemy) vi TRANSLATOR'S NOTE Readers familiar with German will probably be aware that a standing problem in the translation of psychologi cal literature is the word" Seele”. The word is used in a very wide sense in German, and does not appear to carry with it the nimbus of exclusively religious, metaphysical, or even transcendental implications which attach to the word “soul” in modern English usage. I do not know why this non-psychological overtone should exist in English, fo r “soul" is as native to us as “Seele” is to the German language; indeed they derive from the same Saxon root. Nevertheless the overtone is so marked that, in order to avoid it, English psychologists tend more and more to speak of the “psyche” and of “psychic” phenomena or processes, just as until recently the spoke of the “mind" and still speak of “mental” diseases. Although the word “psyche” is gradually establishing itself in German, it has not yet succeeded in ousting “Seele” from its position as the subject of psychological investigation, an ironic fatality which seems likely to overtake the “soul” in English-speaking countries. In J ungian psychology, a conceptual and empirical distinction is made between “Seele” and “Psyche”. “Seele” is defined as the “internal personality”, “the way in which one behaves in regard to his internal psychic (psychische) processes; it is the inner attitude, the character that one displays towards the uncons cious”. “Psyche”, on the other hand, is “the totality I of all psychic processes, conscious as well as uncons cious” (Psychological Types, Definitions). A further distinction is made between the “objective psyche” (the unconscious) and the “subjective psyche” (ego-con- sciousness). From this it is clear that whereas the term “psyche” would be legitimate in any context—since a given psycho logical fact, state or process must be either conscious or unconscious—“soul” denotes more a junction of relation ship, and is the “link” between the conscious personality and the unconscious. As such a link, it is technically known as the “anima” (“animus” in women). The broad distinction between soul and psyche is not at all easy to adhere to in practice, and the extended use of “Seele” in J ung’s own writings shows both the force of linguistic habit and the impossibility of applying the above defi nitions consistently. The author of the present book writes not primarily as a psychologist but as a theologian. His use of the word “Seele” ja r exceeds that of “ Psyche”, but to translate it mainly by the latter term, as is now customary in psychological literature, might perhaps impart too strong a psychological colouring to his thought. For a Christian theologian the “soul” is surely rather more of a personal and moral entity than it can be for the psy chologist, who sees it constantly dissolving back into the collective psyche from which it arose, like a wave of the sea. A t the same time this dissolution has its counterpart in the “transcendental” aspect of the soul; for in mysti cal experience the soul is held to dissolve in God. In a theological context these personal, moral, and yet trans cendental aspects seemed in place, and the word “soul” has theref ore been used except where the author himself has “Psyche”. I t may be of interest to note that, even for the Greeks, 2 “psyche” had the same double signification. Etymologi- cally, it is cognate with Ψυχω, to breathe, blow, jreshen, and with Ψυχόω, to animate. Like the Latin anima and the Sanskrit atman,1 it is thought that psyche originally meant “breath”, and as such denoted the universal animating principle oj which each “embodied”—we could hardly say “individual” —soul partakes and into which it returns. Psyche had there fore a personal and an impersonal aspect in Greek thought, just as the atman had in Hindu philosophy. Concurrently with this concept oj the ubreath-soul”, psyche was also conceived as the “ghost-soul”, the double” which is seen in a man's shadow or in his image in water, and which parts company with him at his death, to dwell independently somewhere among the shades, whence it may reappear to the living as a ghost or in their dreams. Psyche in this sense corresponds to the Indian “purusha”, The notion oj an “indivi dualized,” soul mysteriously inhabiting a man's body, immortal and yet somehow compounded oj his essential qualities, is, in the West, a relatively late product oj philosophical speculation and was developed largely under Christian influence. The precise constitution oj the soul is still a subject oj theological controversy. lIt is a remarkable fact that the term “self” should reappear in Jungian psychology, where it serves as a symbol for wholeness, for the synthesis of the conscious and unconscious elements in the personality, which is achieved through the process of individuation . The uself ” is both this individuating process and the goal towards which the individuant is developing; it may thus fittingly be called an “entelechy”, i.e., that which bears its goal within itself The dis covery of the “self ” would therefore seem to be a direct continuation of the ancient quest fo r the entity of that same name in Indian philosophy: the atman, no longer conceived on the prim itive level as “breath”, but spiritualised into the Absolute Subject. Immersing himself by contemplation in this One Reality, the contemplative “knows himself ”, and recognizes that he and this “self ” are one and the same, besides which there is no other. The empirical relations be tween the psychological “self ” and the various aspects of the psyche have, I th in k, yet to be clarified. B 3 The ancient idea of that torrent of universal life which the early Greek thinkers called "psyche" cannot be better formulated than in the words of Heraclitus: “Though you travel in every direction you will never find the bounds of the soul, so deep is the logos of it”. This saying of the“darkphilosopher”, some may think, is not without application to the Jungian concept of the collective uncon scious. I t , too, is advanced as the ultimate ground of explan ation fo r all empirically observable psychic processes; but, precisely because it is such a ground, it necessarily remains without explanation, and unfathomable. A further word is necessary as regards footnotes. While the titles of Jung's works referred to in the text are in English, the references in the footnotes are to the German or Swiss editions.