Jung's Contribution.pdf

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Jung's ContributionAuthor(s): Glin BennetSource: The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 6202 (Dec. 1, 1979), pp. 1408-1409Published by: BMJStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25437936.

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1408 BRITISHMEDICALJOURNAL 1 DECEMBER979

Jung's contributionGLIN BENNET

Why, you might well ask, would anyone ever want to review avolume of bibliography and a general index? Why, indeed,but then how often does anyone publish enough even to makesuch books a possibility? C G Jung was certainly one such

writer. His output of psychological writing was unremittingover 60 years of his life, and publication continued long afterhis death, so that it now amounts to 18 large volumes of psychological study, two of letters, one of autobiography, not to

mention interviews, letters to Freud, transcripts of seminarsand the like?running altogether to something like four million

words. The index to the Collected Works alone is 735 pages long.So much for the statistics: what about the books themselves,and, more importantly, what about Jung's contribution topsychology, psychiatry, and to our culture in general ?

Of the two volumes that I am reviewing, Volume 19?General Bibliography?lists everything that Jung wrote, includingdetailed contents of the collected works, volume by volume inEnglish and German on facing pages. There are notes aboutvarious published seminars, full particulars about the translations into 18 languages, and the book has its own index. (This

volume should not be confused with an earlier publicationlisting over 4000 books, articles, and reviews by others aboutJung and his work, JE andM R Vincie's C G Jung andAnalytical

Psychology.) Inevitably, this is a work of pretty specialisedinterest but anyone possessing the collected works would find it

worth while.Volume 20?General Index?was much more of a surprise.

I had expected it to be a useful source of reference to thecollected works, but was intrigued at what I found. It is anextraordinary compilation of such a range that it might almostbe the index of an encyclopaedia. Whatever one's interest, therewill be headings and subheadings to whet the appetite, and I cannow understand better than before what one of Jung's daughters

meant when she complained that Father always knew everything.

More specifically, the index contains many entries on generalpsychology and mental disorder, with an emphasis on theimportance of unconscious processes and treatment by psychotherapeutic means. There is also a good deal on medical practiceand the role of the physician, and there are many entries onanthropology, mythology, literature, politics, philosophy, andthe physical sciences. The bulk of Jung's writings, however,deal with the higher development of the individual, which hecalled individuation. His researches into this process led himinto intensive study of most of the world's religions, mysticism,and mediaeval alchemy, so all these subjects are heavilyrepresented. There are three and a half pages in the indexunder God, and 10 under Bible, whereas only two pagesare devoted to sex and sexuality. Altogether, this indexvolume could serve as quite a good introduction to Jung's worksince the potentially interested reader could look up his ownparticular interests there and see what the old man had to sayabout them in one of the 18 volumes.

A huge outputBut what about these 18 volumes ?What do they contain of

interest 18 years after his death ? Jung's work falls broadly intothree epochs. Firstly, there were his studies in word association,

which established his reputation before he ever met Freud.In these experiments, he measured his subject's response to agiven word both by the time intervals and the quality of thesubject's reaction, which might include some somatic changes

such as sweating or flushing, to the evidently threatening stimulus.By these methods he was providing objective evidence ofpsychological processes of which the patient was unaware, and,further, giving an early demonstration of psychophysicalinteractions. Nevertheless, this work is now really only of

historical interest.The second productive period in Jung's life came after his

break with Freud. This was a precarious time for him, duringwhich he experienced his confrontation with the unconscious.

In traditional psychiatric language this might have been called apsychosis, but somehow Jung retained the ability to imposecontrol on the terrifying fantasy material which welled up from

within, although at one time he was on the brink of suicide.Despite the inner turmoil he continued to see patients regularly,and after about four years of this he won through. He felt thatduring this experience he had laid the foundation of all hissubsequent work. He produced his theory of psychologicaltypes, which consists not only of the well-known concepts ofintrovert and extravert, but also subdivisions of these whichrefer to predominant ways of functioning?thinking, feeling,intuition, and sensation. During this same time, which runsfrom around 1912 to the early 1930s, he was also formulatinghis ideas about the unconscious, particularly what he called the

collective unconscious. He regarded this as an area of mentalactivity of which the individual was unaware, but which wassomehow common to the whole of the human race, and whoseproperties were transmitted genetically, as are instincts. Itsounds a simple enough hypothesis, but it has given rise tointense controversy. As with his theory of psychological types,

one's acceptance of ideas about a collective unconsciouswill depend to a great extent on one's temperament, but this isan inevitable phenomenon with regard to the acceptance of anypsychological theory.

The last, and what in the long run may turn out to be themost important, period in Jung's working life began when hemade acquaintance with the writings of the mediaeval alchemists.This finally convinced his critics that he had altogether lostcontact with rationality, but he was not, of course, interestinghimself in physically transmuting base metals into gold butwith the fact that these activities were a metaphor for a psycho

logical transformation. The alchemists did not have a psychological language; instead, they acted out their inward processes

by means of their chemical manipulations. Jung found a richstore of psychological insight in these arcane works?in

particular, the means by which the various conflicting forceswithin an individual, both conscious and unconscious, couldbe united to lead to higher levels of psychological development.

Meaning and transcendenceJung's main contribution has been to elaborate a system of

psychological explanation of the human mind, which at thesame time offers a dimension of meaning, and the possibility forthe apparently non-religious to become aware of somethingbeyond themselves. His psychology tends to appeal most topeople of a more introverted disposition, to those with aninterest in historical movements, artistic endeavours, or withreligious affiliations, and to those in the second half of life,

where questions of meaning become more pressing.As a lifelong clinical practitioner, Jung was interested in

doctoring and the role of the physician. In his introverted way(he called himself an introvert if there ever was one ) he feltthat the doctor's effectiveness as a healer depends on the degree

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BRITISHMEDICALJOURNAL 1 DECEMBER9791409of his own personal development, and that the doctor needs towork on himself if he is regularly going to give of his best.

Jung's model of psychological types is of great practical valuein understanding individual tendencies and certain of theconflicts between people?for example, the deadlock that canoccur between aman with highly developed thinking functionsand his wife who operates mainly with her equally welldeveloped feeling functions. Then there are the imagesJung called archetypes, such as the shadow (the negativeaspect of our being), anima and animus (feminine and masculineimages within us), and the hero. These can often epitomise a

person's problems in a way which can readily be understood.No psychological theorist will ever be universally accepted,

but Jung has generated particular hostility by repeatedlyreferring to himself as a scientist while observing few of thecontemporary criteria of scientific inquiry. Many of his insightsderived from his own experience, and while they have oftenbeen profoundly illuminating they cannot generally be provedto be true or false. He has also been criticised for studyingsubjects suspect to the positivistic mind. He conducted a

perfectly respectable statistical survey on the horoscopes of agroup of married people, looking for possible associations(which he found) but in no way trying to prove causal con

nections; he wrote a book about unidentified flying objectsviewed as psychological phenomena (projections), irrespectiveof whether or not they were actually there; he studiedparapsychological phenomena of all kinds; he wrote an introduction to the / Ching; and, of course, there is his major workon alchemy.

Such works, not to mention his general approach, do create acertain confusion even among Jung's most devoted admirers

when they try to place him on the continuum between visionaryand empirical scientist. Jung himself was sensitive on this point,because like many lesser figures, especially those of thenineteenth century (he was born in 1875), he seemed to feelthat as a psychologist he had to meet the criteria of nineteenthcentury physical science if he was to be taken seriously.

Now, towards the end of the twentieth century, the intellectualclimate is much more sympathetic, and his visionary qualitiesare seen by many to enhance his academic contribution, but Ithink the combination within him of visionary and prodigiousintellectual makes him unique in any age. Jung has beencompared with the figure of Merlin in the Arthurian legends,and in his ability to perceive the dilemma of contemporary

men and women he also resembles William Blake commentingon the consequences of the industrial revolution. Jung's messageis for people to look within themselves for solutions, and he

believed that the real problem facing the world was manhimself.

His monument is his majestic literary output, now roundedoff with the publication of the last two volumes of The Collected

Works, and my present review is to mark his singular humanachievement.

C G Jung: The Collected Works. Vol 19. General Bibliographyof C G Jung's Writings. (Pp 263; ?10.) Vol 20. GeneralIndex to the Collected Works of C G Jung. (Pp 735; ?14-75.)Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1979.

Evolving with enthusiasmPHILIP RADFORD

When I first picked up The Illustrated Origin of Species I wasattracted by the appearance and design of Richard E Leakey'sably abridged version of Darwin's sixth edition. The print isclear and the illustrations, all of high quality, show just theright blend of modern colour photographs and old drawings andpaintings. On opening either cover, there is a graphic representation of geological time periods; I found this most useful andreferred to it repeatedly while reading the text. The index isadequate, and I was pleased to see a list of illustration acknowledgments and of suggested further reading on the subject.

There is also a helpful glossaryof biological terms, although I

could not understand why this included a definition of theword rill.

The first part of the book, an introduction by RichardLeakey, discusses Darwin's early life as a naturalist and hisreasons for thinking that species can alter by natural selection;the circumstances leading to the publication of The Origin of

Species are also mentioned. Darwin's problems regardinggeological time, palaeontology, and the principles of heredityare discussed, including a section on the question of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Mendel's investigations ingenetics are covered, leading to concise descriptions of celldivision, the determination of sex, and sex-linked characteristics.A clear diagram of the structure of DNA is given, together with auseful explanation; the effect of mutation is illustrated by thecondition of sickle-cell anaemia and the relative resistance ofaffected persons to malaria. Exciting modern work on micropalaeontology and the synthesis of amino-acids would obviouslyhave delighted Darwin.

In Darwin's own introduction to his work, he refers to hisexperiences as a naturalist in HMS Beagle, admitting that he

was influenced by the doctrine of Malthus, in that many moreanimals are born than can ever survive. In the first chapter weread about variations in domesticated animal species, andparticularly the evolution of pigeons ;Darwin deduced, correctly,that the various domestic forms are derived from the rock dove,

Columba livia. Undoubtedly the pigeon family is vigorous andspecialised, and I think that Darwin would have been impressedby the recent spread of the collared dove, Streptopelia decaocto,

westwards across Europe. Probably hewas

impressed also when,on his walks, he saw a woodpigeon, Columba palumbus, drinkingby drawing up water?rather than gulping it down by raisingthe head, as do other birds. Similarly, I suspect that he would

have pondered on the evolutionary specialisation when hewatched a nestling woodpigeon taking regurgitated milkfrom its parent's mouth.

Birds and insectsBoth male and female pigeons and doves look alike, certainly

so far as European species are concerned, but Darwin notedthe remarkable colour differences to be found between thesexes in certain species of birds. The difference may be suchthat local people will consider the two forms to be separatespecies; as an example, in some country areas the femalechaffinch, Fringilla coelebs, was called a copperfinch andthought to be a species in its own right. From his observations,

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