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Jung's Influence on Contemporary Thought Author(s): M. Esther Harding Source: Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Apr., 1962), pp. 247-259 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27504500 Accessed: 06/10/2010 08:17 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=springer. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Religion and Health. http://www.jstor.org

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  • Jung's Influence on Contemporary ThoughtAuthor(s): M. Esther HardingSource: Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Apr., 1962), pp. 247-259Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27504500Accessed: 06/10/2010 08:17

    Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

    Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=springer.

    Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

    JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

    Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Religion andHealth.

    http://www.jstor.org

    http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=springerhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/27504500?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=springer

  • M. ESTHER HARDING

    Jung's Influence

    on Contemporary Thought

    Carl Jung, whose long life came to an end on the sixth of June, 1961,

    devoted his enormous energies for many years to the exploration of the

    human psyche. He would spend eight to ten hours a day in the consult

    ing room, working with his patients and pupils. In the evenings he studied

    everything he could find relating to the inner life of human beings. Even when he was but recently graduated from medical school, his interest

    was captivated by the problems of human behavior?and misbehavior.

    What is the motive power of the human psyche? he asked himself; and

    why do some

    people react to a situation, and indeed to life itself, in one

    way and some in another? And strangest of all, where did the queer ideas that he observed in his mental patients

    come from? In the last analy

    sis, were not these ideas very similar to the fantasies and day-dreams that

    he and other normal people entertained? What did these ideas mean?

    All his life Jung sought the answers to these questions. At first they seemed to be merely questions needing

    more or less simple answers. But

    gradually he realized that they contained the most profound mysteries

    of human life and experience. He was up against the enigma of life itself.

    He looked for answers first through his work with his patients in the

    consulting room, at the same time observing and analyzing his

    own

    dreams and fantasies. Then, realizing that analysis always brought out

    the primitive reactions in the individual, he began to read anthropologi

    cal reports. Later he went to North and Central Africa and to the Indian

    reservations of California and New Mexico to observe primitive psychol

    ogy at first hand. Next he studied oriental religions, journeying to India to meet and talk with Hindus, Buddhists, and Mohammedans. Meanwhile

    he studied the speculative thought of Gnosticism, alchemy, and patristic literature. But always he kept himself grounded in reality through his constant and patient work with people. As he gained insight into the

    Jungs Influence on Contemporary Thought 247

  • problems of the psyche, he devoted himself more and more to erudite researches into the ways of the human mind till, in his last years, he was

    concerned almost exclusively with the problems of the deepest layers of the psyche and with the meaning of life.

    The whole body of his thought is not likely to become known,

    except by a few specialists, for many years. But even during his lifetime it made a deep impression

    on the thought of the day. Ideas that he formu

    lated have begun to appear in psychiatric literature and, even more, in

    the writings of many who are concerned with human behavior, whether

    essayists, novelists, poets, or the clergy, though often

    no reference is made

    to the source of these ideas.

    The early years: i$00-1912

    Jung did his first psychological research in the laboratory. There he used the association test,1 and later the galvanometer,2

    to measure emo

    tional reactions. His work confirmed the observations of Wundt and

    others; but what interested him especially were the aberrant reactions of

    the test subjects that had been discarded by his predecessors as of little statistical importance. It

    was here that Jung made his first important con

    tribution to psychiatry. He demonstrated that failures to react normally

    to the test word occurred at the point when an

    emotionally toned con

    tent had been touched, an observation confirmed by the galvanometer

    experiments. He named these emotionally toned contents complexes. He

    also noted that very frequently the subject was unaware of the factor

    that had interfered with his reaction: that is, the complex was "uncon

    scious" to the subject. So through these experiments Jung discovered

    the unconscious and its effects on conscious behavior independently of

    Freud. For it was not until after he had published his findings that he came across Freud's writings and later

    met him.

    During this period Jung wrote his books and papers dealing with the fantasies of mental patients and the occult phenomena displayed by a

    mediumistic girl.8 He always was most interested in the unknown, the

    exceptions, the fringe phenomena, the non-statistical truth, for he real

    ized that the uniqueness of the individual shows itself in these areas. The statistical method shows only the mean, the average, but never the par ticular. Yet a group is always made up of individuals. Without the indi

    vidual, society would be but an inchoate mass. Toward the end of his

    long life, Jung wrote: "If I want to understand an individual human be

    248 Journal of Religion and Health

  • ing, I must

    lay aside all scientific knowledge of the average man and dis

    card all theories in order to adopt a completely new and unprejudiced attitude. I can only approach the task of understanding with a free and

    open mind."4 This realization was the beginning of his life-long emphasis on the importance of the individual.

    In an article on "The Development of Personality,"5 he spoke of the

    crying need for the education of adults so that in these days of mass

    psychology they may become what at that time he called personalities (later he would have been more likely to say to become individuals). He

    wrote: "The achievement of personality means

    nothing less than the best

    possible development of all that lies in a

    particular, single, being ... To

    educate someone to this seems to me to be no small matter. It is surely the heaviest task that the spiritual world of today has set itself."6 "The

    development of personality from its germinal state to full consciousness,"

    he added, "is at once a charism and a curse. Its first result is the con

    scious and unavoidable separation of the single being from the undif ferentiated herd. This means isolation, and there is no more comforting

    word for it."7 [But] "it means fidelity to the law of one's own being."8

    For this the individual must free himself from his family and tribal ties in order to seek his own unique potentiality. If the individual

    were suc

    cessful in this attempt, his inner process of development would no

    longer be hindered by the pressures of society and convention. "In

    so far,"

    Jung writes, "as every individual has his own inborn law of life, it is

    theoretically possible for every man to follow this law before all others and so to become a personality?that is,

    to achieve completeness. But

    since life can only exist in the form of living units, which is to say, of

    individuals, the law of life in the last analysis always tends towards a

    life that is lived individually."9

    Jung first met Freud in 1907, though he had been familiar with his work since 1904. In the years immediately following this encounter, his

    work received both stimulus and encouragement from their contact.

    From Freud he learned of the newly developed technique of dream

    analysis; he began to practice it with his patients and regularly to analyze his own dreams. He realized at once that this was the tool he had been

    looking for, a

    key that would open the secrets hidden in the uncon

    scious reservoirs of the human psyche.

    Jungs Influence on Contemporary Thought 249

  • The middle period 1: 1912-192^

    It was after his visit to Clark University in Massachusetts in 1909 that Jung's ideas of the ancestral elements in the unconscious began to

    take more definite form. Behind the imago of the parents that Freud

    had already described, he began to realize that images of

    a more general, more universal, more august nature operated within the psyche: images

    that had been expressed throughout the ages in myths and religious

    symbols, things that could not possibly belong to the dreamer's per

    sonal experience, and so could not come from repressed memories. These

    he called archetypal images and the deeper layer of the unconscious

    from which they emerge he called the collective unconscious. At first

    he spoke of this layer as the racial unconscious, a term that he shortly

    replaced by "collective unconscious." The original term was unfortunate,

    considering the significance that the Nazis put upon the term "racial"

    some twenty years later. The collective unconscious belongs to no

    special race of men, nor is it essentially different in different peoples, though its

    contents are modified by historic and cultural determinants. It is truly

    collective, present, so far as we know, in every human being.

    Jung set to work to elaborate these ideas, and in 1911-1912 he pub

    lished his results in Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido, (later pub lished in English translation as The Psychology of the Unconscious11).

    He took as his subject the fantasies and dreams of a young woman, un

    known to him, whose material had been published in a French journal,

    and demonstrated that the themes and motifs expressed in them resem

    bled pagan and Christian mythologems in remarkable detail. He pointed out that a definite movement could be discerned?a movement that was

    taking place in the unconscious tending toward a resolution of the

    young woman's life problem. Since she did not gain any understanding

    of this process, the resolution indicated by the dreams did not take place,

    as Jung learned years later. From this experience Jung realized how

    necessary it is to follow a whole series of dreams, treating them as a con

    tinuous process and not merely as isolated events.

    In 1912 Jung gave a series of lectures in the Medical School of Ford

    ham University, New York, on "The Theory of Psycho-analysis."12

    In them he openly criticized psychoanalysis for its limited outlook, not

    only in respect to the sexual theory of neurosis, but also regarding the

    theory of infantile trauma and the exclusively regressive interpretation

    2 50 Journal of Religion and Health

  • of the Oedipus complex. He demonstrated that these contents of the

    unconscious should be interpreted in a much more constructive way,

    basing his views on his wide knowledge of mythological symbolism and on the results obtained by this method with his

    cases.

    It was because of these new ideas that the rift developed between

    Jung and Freud. Freud was convinced that dreams and fantasies repre

    sent only frustrated sexual and aggressive drives and infantile wishes,

    and he could not accept any deeper interpretation of them. He became

    exceedingly critical of Jung, reproaching him for publishing articles without mentioning his name, and in his later years complaining bitterly that Jung had betrayed him.13

    The result of these early researches marked a decisive step forward

    in the understanding not

    only of morbid psychology (neurosis, psycho

    sis, etc.), but also of the inner world of all human beings. Jung's emphasis on the ideological aspect of the unconscious uncovered

    a whole new

    world of psychological thought. This could have revolutionized psy

    chiatry, but it was too

    daring, too new to receive widespread recogni

    tion at that time. However, the facts it brought to light did gradually

    seep into the psychiatric thought of the day, and the concept of the collective unconscious came to have a place in psychiatric thought and

    in the entire intellectual understanding of the following decades.

    Jung did not publish another major work till 1920. Then in quick succession Psychological Types14" and Two Essays on Analytical Psy

    chology15 appeared, first in German, then in English. In Types, Jung differentiated two fundamental attitudes of the psyche,

    to which he

    gave the names "extraversion" and "introversion," terms that have since

    become household words. He showed how the individual person views

    the world in a characteristic way, according to which of these attitudes

    is habitual with him. He demonstrated his thesis by illustrations taken from many realms of life?the writings of philosophers and poets and of

    the Fathers of the Church?showing that the internecine struggle that

    went on in each faculty could be explained by the fact that the protago nists were of opposite types. Finally he analyzed the myth of Prome

    theus and Epimetheus, showing that these classical brothers are embodi

    ments one of the introverted and the other of the extraverted attitude.

    Not content with this major differentiation, Jung went on to show

    how the individual is related to both the outer and the inner world by means of four psychic functions?thinking, feeling, sensation, and intui

    Jungs Influence on Contemporary Thought 2 51

  • tion?and pointed out that the individual habitually relies

    more on one

    function, called "the superior function," than he does on the other, "in

    ferior," functions, two of which are usually more differentiated than the

    most inferior one. This is probably an inborn tendency,

    as is the attitude

    type. But in both respects, an individual's natural way of functioning

    may be modified by education and environmental pressures, as a result

    of which the individual necessarily suffers some injury, some distortion

    of his personality, that may be the cause of psychological disturbance

    later in life, for the individual functions most efficiently and with great est satisfaction to himself only when he has found his

    own true pattern.

    Jung began to teach that it is the task of psychiatry to help the patient to discover what this pattern is. Here the ground-plan of his major work

    on the "Process of Individuation" was beginning to take form.

    This idea was still further elaborated in the second book of this

    period: Tivo Essays on Analytical Psychology.15 There Jung discussed

    the organic structure of the psyche: first

    its conscious part represented

    by the ego, the part of the psyche that we call "I," and the persona,

    that aspect of ourselves that we show to the world; and second the un

    conscious part represented by the shadow, a figure carrying and per

    sonifying the negative and repressed parts of the personal psyche,

    which for this reason he called the personal unconscious. It corresponds

    roughly to the Freudian concept of the unconscious. But just

    as the con

    scious psyche is in contact with the not-I of the outer world and is enor

    mously influenced by it, so the personal unconscious is confronted by

    an

    inner world of the not-I. This region, as was said above, Jung called the

    collective unconscious. And just as the persona is developed

    as a means

    of relating the conscious ego to the outer world, so also the psyche needs

    a function to relate it to the inner, unknown world of psychic reality. From his work with patients, Jung found that the connection with the

    deeper unknown layer of the inner world was usually represented by

    a

    woman's figure in the case of a man, and by that of

    a man, or several

    men, in the case of a woman. These figures he called "anima" and "ani

    mus," respectively.16 They appear in dreams and fantasies and in imagi

    native creative writing, but, in addition, their qualities and characteristics

    are often encountered as if they existed in the personality of one with

    whom the individual feels a secret, even a magic, bond. So, for instance,

    when a man falls in love, not infrequently he feels as if he had always known the beloved and speaks of her

    as his "soul mate," or as "closer to

    252 Journal of Religion and Health

  • me than my own soul." This sense of a foreordained fate comes from the

    fact that the figure of the anima in the man's own psyche, of which he is

    unconscious, has become visible to him in personified form, projected to the woman who may be a suitable carrier of his soul image,

    or indeed

    may be not so suitable; in either case, the man is as if under a spell. His

    attraction to the woman is so powerful because of his devouring need

    to be united to his own soul, his other half; that is, to become whole. For

    those qualities that are the most fascinating and

    exert the greatest attrac

    tion and that evoke the deepest and most

    compelling emotion, whether

    of love or hate, belong to the unknown part of the individual's own

    psyche. They make up the soul figure. In the case of a man, this figure

    is feminine, in a woman it is masculine, representing the contra-sexual

    elements that do not belong to the personal and conscious I, but do

    belong to the totality of the individual being.

    Middle period II: 1925-1939

    From this point on, Jung gave his attention increasingly to the study of the effect the archetypes of the collective unconscious have

    on individ

    uals and their psychological development. He used the term "archetype"

    to denote the basic patterns on which the psyche is organized.17 These

    correspond, in the psychological sphere, to the instinctual patterns that

    underlie biological behavior; indeed, there is no definite division between the two aspects of organic life. But while the instincts manifest themselves

    in overt behavior, the archetypes usually manifest themselves in psychic

    images. This is only a very rough differentiation; actually it is not pos sible to separate them clearly

    at all. Jung says: "There is, therefore, no

    justification for visualizing the archetype as

    anything other than the

    image of the instinct."18

    Jung's researches into this obscure region of the unknown hinterland

    of the psyche led him into many different fields of study. For although the collective unconscious had never before been described from the

    psychological point of view, there existed many descriptions of the

    images in which it was

    expressed?for naturally it has been present and

    has manifested itself all down through the ages. These expressions fre

    quently have a

    quite na?ve character. For instance, the primitive man

    believes in the denizens of an unseen world, the gods and demons and

    heroes, as if they were

    objective realities, without any realization of the

    fact that they are

    actually manifestations of the happenings in his own

    Jungs Influence on Contemporary Thought 253

  • unconscious or are the records of similar experiences of his forefathers.

    A corresponding na?vet? appears in the mythology of more civilized

    peoples and even in the belief in the concrete reality of the symbols of

    highly developed religions. Jung realized these facts; he also found that the speculative thought of philosophy, of Gnosticism, of alchemy, and

    of oriental teachings, were reflections, or projections, of unconscious

    contents.

    Through his studies in these various fields, Jung gradually built up a

    fairly rounded picture of the unconscious psyche as it has manifested

    itself in peoples of very different backgrounds throughout the ages. But this could hardly have yielded up its meaning to him had it not been that he was devoting most of his time and energy

    to analytic work with

    his patients and pupils. In the intimate discussion of their inner experi

    ences, he came to understand the meaning of the symbols of their dreams

    and fantasies, illuminated as they were

    by the material he had unearthed

    through his intellectual studies. He shared in the experiences of his

    patients and watched the resolution of their conflicts arise spontaneously out of the depths of their own psyches.

    Jung has repeatedly pointed out that it is a risky business to open up the unconscious; it should be undertaken only in "an effort inspired by

    deep spiritual distress, to bring meaning once more into life on the

    basis of fresh and unprejudiced experience."19 "The opening up of the

    unconscious," he wrote, "always means the outbreak of intense spiritual

    suffering . . .

    [But] it is as though at the culmination of the illness, the

    destructive powers [of the unconscious] were converted into healing forces. This is brought about by the fact that the archetypes

    come to

    independent life and serve as

    spiritual guides for the personality, thus

    supplanting the inadequate ego with its futile willing and striving. As the

    religious-minded person would say: guidance has come from God. . .

    I must express myself in more modest terms and say that the psyche

    has awakened to spontaneous life."20 "The psychotherapist who takes

    his work seriously must come to

    grips with this question. He must decide

    in every single case whether or not he is willing to stand by

    a human

    being with counsel and help upon what may be a

    daring misadventure.

    He must have no fixed ideas of what is right, nor must he pretend to

    know what is right, what not?otherwise he takes something from the

    richness of the experience. He must

    keep in view what actually happens

    ?only that which acts, is actual."21 In another essay he discusses the

    2 54 Journal of Religion and Health

  • responsibility of the doctor in still clearer terms: "The physician, then,

    is called upon himself to face the task which he wishes the patient to

    face ... In dealing with himself the doctor must display

    as much relent

    lessness, consistency, and perseverance as in dealing with his patients."22

    It was through the strict and methodical application of these princi

    ples to himself that Jung, perhaps, learned

    most. Gradually as the years

    went on, he came to realize that, important as the sexual and power

    drives in the individual undoubtedly are, especially during the first half of

    life, there is a third element that is at least as important, a

    psychic need

    that even takes precedence over the earlier impulses during the second

    half of life, and that to disregard this factor of psychic life leads to sick

    ness and unhappiness just as

    surely as

    repression of the other two ele

    ments does in younger persons. This is the religious urge, a

    psychic im

    pulse that is directly connected with the drive inherent in every living

    organism to

    perfect itself by becoming a

    complete, a whole, individual.

    In 1937 Jung gave the Terry Lectures at Yale University on this

    subject. He described the case of a young man whose dreams and fan

    tasies aptly illustrated his theme. This material was published in Psychol ogy and Religion.2* A fuller account of the whole case is given in The

    Integration of the Personality and in Psychology and Alchemy.2*

    Now by "religion" Jung did not refer to any particular religious formulation or creed, nor to adherence to any religious organization

    or

    church. He defined religion as "the careful consideration and observa

    tion of certain dynamic factors understood to be 'powers,' 'spirits,' 'de

    mons,' 'gods,' law, ideas, ideals or whatever name man has given to such

    factors as he has found in his world powerful, dangerous or helpful enough

    to be taken into careful consideration, or grand, beautiful and

    meaningful enough to be devoutly adored and loved."25 These

    are

    powers that transcend the personal realm?forces that have an uncon

    ditioned power in relation to the ego and the conscious psyche. Jung further spoke of religion

    as "the conscientious regard for the irrational

    factors of the psyche and of individual fate."26 These are the elements

    that Rudolf Otto called numinous,21 because of their fascinating, awe

    inspiring, attracting-and-repelling power. Jung frequently used the same

    term. The numinous element is to be met with in religious experiences, in poetic imagination, in hallucinations, in instinctual

    states of anxiety, or fear, or elation, and, too, they

    are met with in dreams and other inner

    subjective experiences. Indeed, they form a very important part of the

    Jungs Influence on Contemporary Thought 255

  • psychic life. Usually, however, they are

    ignored or

    argued away. But

    increasingly psychiatrists and counselors are

    coming to recognize their

    importance. Especially in the field of religious counseling the significance of these fundamental insights is beginning to be felt. We can look for

    guidance and understanding in this area to

    Jung's pioneering work.

    The war years: 1939-1945

    These were years of great anxiety in Switzerland. Contact with the

    rest of the world was virtually cut off. There were recurrent threats of

    invasion necessitating hurried retreat to some mountain village off the

    direct invasion route. This, of course, interrupted regular life. In addi

    tion, Jung suffered from a prolonged and severe illness. In spite of all these difficulties he managed to continue his studies, although he could

    not publish his results until after the

    war.

    The culmination of a fruitful life: 1945-1961

    There followed a most productive period. In 1945, Jung was seventy

    years old. He no longer gave so much time to his consulting work with

    patients; in the final years he retired from active practice altogether and

    devoted himself to his writing. The Collected Works were in preparation and he reread and revised his published books and articles himself. In addition he brought

    out several new and most important studies: The

    Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious** Aion,2* and Mysterium Coniunctionis.so He also wrote Essays on Contemporary Events81 and

    The Undiscovered Self.*2 These essays are not so technical as his more

    formal studies, being intended for the average intelligent reader. During 1957 and 1958, he gave short accounts of his work in interviews recorded

    and filmed by the British Broadcasting Company and the Psychology De

    partment of the University of Houston. During the last two years of his

    life, he worked with his secretary, Mrs. Jaff?, on the material for his memoirs. The resulting book will be published in 1962.83

    Jung's work is so vast in scope that its full effect can be assayed only

    by future generations. It ushered in a new

    epoch in the development of human consciousness, a new world outlook. Already some of his major

    concepts have begun to influence contemporary thought, though,

    as

    so often happens when a new

    spirit is beginning to make itself felt, many of those whose writings have obviously been influenced by Jung's re

    searches do not seem to realize where their ideas originated. Jung was

    256 Journal of Religion and Health

  • perfectly aware of that fact, though he

    was not over much disturbed

    by it. His passionate concern was to find the truth, and he devised a

    method by which each individual could discover his own truth, even

    though he might need the help of a competent analyst to learn how to

    apply the method. For Jung did not seek to make disciples, but free

    individuals, having their own unique character, their

    own relation to the

    most fundamental truths, their own understanding of the meaning of life.

    For the readers of the Journal of Religion and Health, the work Jung did on the relation between religion and depth psychology must have

    particular interest. When reading his books on this subject

    we must con

    stantly bear in mind that he always wrote from the point of view of a

    psychologist. When he speaks of the Deity or of the symbols of religious dogmas

    or of metaphysical matters in general, he is not making state

    ments or voicing opinions about the transcendental realm as such, or, so

    to say, in its own reality. Rather he is discussing the experience that some

    human being has had and that he has expressed in the terms of religious imagery. The statements of Holy Writ

    are made by men. In these state

    ments men have attempted to express their own individual experiences,

    translating them as best they could into the symbolic formulations of

    dogma. So, for instance, when Jung discusses the Book of Job34 he is

    talking about the condition of the unconscious in the psyche of the post Exilic Jew who wrote the poem as we possess it. For this great drama

    surely came to the poet in the form of inner vision not unlike the active

    imagination of modern persons. Such a book tells us much about the

    condition of the God-image in the unconscious of a gifted man at one

    particular moment of history, and, because this poetic drama is a great

    creative work from whatever angle one views it, it gives information

    about the psychic condition of its author and about his times as well. For

    this reason, Jung could pass in his discussion to the late Jewish writings about Sophia, and beyond that to the Revelation of the Christian John, to demonstrate the gradual evolution of the God-image that was taking

    place in the centuries immediately preceding and following the begin ning of the Christian era.

    Quite early in his professional career, Jung realized that it was of

    supreme importance for persons who became psychologically disturbed

    during the second half of life?provided they were not still tied by in fantile desires or parental dependence?to come to terms with these

    Jungs Influence on Contemporary Thought 257

  • inner forces that give rise to numinous experiences. To resolve

    a grave

    psychological dilemma at this level requires

    a moral attitude and courage of no mean order. It is much easier to accept the authority of the church

    or of the elders and teachers. But for some people this has become im

    possible. In these cases it becomes necessary to set out on an individual

    journey of exploration?a veritable journey of the soul?and this will

    test the quality of a man's nature. He will have to face himself as he really

    is, to take into himself all that he is, and to find an individual relation to

    the eternal verities that St. Paul called Principalities and the Powers of

    Darkness. For the goal of this adventure is not

    perfection as measured

    by some ideal standard, but wholeness, and this can be achieved only

    through becoming conscious of the psychic elements that lie buried, not

    only in the personal, but in the collective, unconscious as well, where the

    symbol of wholeness that Jung called the Self lies ready to be awakened to life.35

    Jung is quoted as having said, not long before his death: "All that I have learned has led me step by step

    to an unshakable conviction: the

    conviction that God exists. I only believe what I can see, and that elimi

    nates faith. I do not have faith in God ... I know that He exists."36

    His influence on psychiatric thought has already been great and is

    likely to increase as time goes on; but the work of this extraordinary

    man has a far wider significance, for he has opened to us an

    entirely new

    dimension of the human psyche that is destined to have an incalculable influence on the future of mankind.

    REFERENCES All references are to the works of C. G. Jung, except

    where otherwise stated.

    Coll. W. refers to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series, New

    York, Pantheon Books, 1953 1. Experimental Researches, Coll. W., vol. 2.

    2. Ibid.

    3. Psychiatric Studies, Coll. W., vol. 1.

    4. The Undiscovered Self. Boston, Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1958, p. 10. (Also in

    paper cover.)

    5. "Development of Personality," The Integration of the Personality. New

    York9 Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.

    6. Ibid., p. 286.

    7. Ibid., p. 288.

    8. Ibid., p. 289.

    9. Ibid., p. 296. 10. Psychological Types. New York, Harcourt Brace, 1923, pp. 476, 211, 378. 11. Symbols of Transformation, Coll. W., vol. 5. (First published in English as

    The Psychology of the Unconscious. New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1916.)

    258 Journal of Religion and Health

  • 12. Freud and Psychoanalysis, Coll. W., vol. 4, part IL

    13. Jones, Ernest, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. New York, Basic

    Books, 1953-57. vo1- II* PP- 3J7? 434 14. Psychological Types. 15. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1928.

    (Also in paper cover.) 16. Psychological Types, see "Soul Image," p. 596; see also Aion, Coll. W., vol. 9,

    ii, Ch. III.

    17. Psychological Types, pp. 507, 476. 18. Aion, Coll. W., vol. 9, ii, p. 180.

    19. Modern Man in Search of a Soul. New York, Harcourt Brace, 1933, p. 276. (Also in paper cover.) Also, Coll. W., vol. 11, p. 343.

    20. Ibid., p. 278-9; Coll. W., vol. 11, p. 345. 21. Ibid., p. 277; Coll. W., vol. 11, p. 343. 22. Ibid., p. 58. See also The Practice of Psychotherapy, Coll. W., vol. 16, p. 72-3.

    23. "Psychology and Religion," Psychology and Religion: West and Easty Coll.

    W., vol. 11, part I.

    24. "Dream Symbols of the Process of Individuation," The Integration of the

    Personality; and "Individual Dream Symbolism in Relation to Alchemy," Psychology and Alchemy, Coll. W., vol. 12.

    25. Psychology and Religion, Coll. W., vol. 11, p. 8.

    26. The Undiscovered Self, p. 28.

    27. Otto, Rudolf, The Idea of the Holy. London, H. Milford, 1923, p. 11. 28. Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, Coll. W., vol. 9, i.

    29. Aiony Coll. W., vol. 9, ii.

    30. Mysterium Coniunctionis, Coll. W., vol. 14. Probable publication date, 1962.

    31. Essays on Contemporary Events. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1947. (Also in paper cover.)

    32. The Undiscovered Self. 33. Memoirs, Dreams and Reflections, A. Jaf??, ed., New York, Pantheon Books,

    1962.

    34. "Answer to Job," Psychology and Religion, Coll. W., vol. 11.

    35. Aion, Coll. W., vol. 9, ii, "Christ as Symbol of the Self," Ch. V.

    36. "The Last Interview with Carl G. Jung," Opera-Mundi, Paris, 1961.

    lungs Influence on Contemporary Thought 259

    Article Contentsp. 247p. 248p. 249p. 250p. 251p. 252p. 253p. 254p. 255p. 256p. 257p. 258p. 259

    Issue Table of ContentsJournal of Religion and Health, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Apr., 1962)Front MatterEditorial: The Importance of Thinking [pp. 195-196]Segregation and Southern Churches [pp. 197-221]The Bereavement Reaction a cross-cultural evaluation [pp. 222-246]Jung's Influence on Contemporary Thought [pp. 247-259]The Influence of Jung's Work: a critical comment [pp. 260-272]Mental Health Teaching Materials for the Clergy [pp. 273-282]Cognition and Health [pp. 283-291]Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 292-293]Review: untitled [pp. 293-295]Review: untitled [pp. 295-297]Review: untitled [pp. 297-298]Review: untitled [pp. 298-300]Review: untitled [pp. 300-301]Review: untitled [pp. 301-302]Review: untitled [pp. 302-303]

    Books Received [pp. 303-304]