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Jung: A Very Short Introduction
(Very Short Introductions #40)
by
Anthony Stevens
4.05 · Rating details · 1,133 Ratings · 110 Reviews
This is the most lucid and timely introduction to the thought of Carl Gustav Jung available to date. Though he was a prolific writer and an original thinker of vast erudition, Jung lacked a gift for clear exposition, and his ideas are less widely appreciated than they deserve to be. Now, in this extremely accessible introduction, Anthony Stevens--one of Britain's foremost Jungian analysts--clearly explains the basic concepts of Jungian psychology: the collective unconscious, complex, archetype, shadow, persona, anima, animus, and the individualization of the Self. A small masterpiece of insight and concision, this volume offers a clear portrait of one of the twentieth century's most important and controversial thinkers.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
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Paperback, 192 pages
Published June 7th 2001 by Oxford University Press, USA (first published March 1994)
Original Title
Jung
ISBN
0192854585 (ISBN13: 9780192854582)
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Very Short Introductions #40
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Jul 20, 2014Alek rated it really liked it
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Dec 05, 2014Glenn Russell rated it it was amazing
I have enjoyed a dozen books in the ‘Very Short Introduction’ series but I must say this one on Jung is the best I’ve come across. You will not find a clearer presentation of the life and psychology of Carl Jung. Quite an accomplishment since Jung’s approach to the psyche and therapy is revolutionary and multifaceted. Since the subjects covered in this short introduction are so rich in content, for the purposes of this review, here are a few quotes along with my comments, starting with Jung’s break with his teacher and mentor in the world of psychoanalysis – Sigmund Freud.
“As time passed, Jung’s differences with Freud became harder to conceal. Two of Freud’s basic assumptions were unacceptable to him: (1) that human motivation is exclusively sexual and (2) that the unconscious mind is entirely personal and peculiar to the individual.” --------- Turns out, this is the difference for Jung that made all the difference. In Jung’s view, we humans have many reasons for doing what we do well beyond the boundaries of sexuality. And also, the human unconscious taps into the entire range of experiences we have developed as a species over millions of years
“Moreover, beneath the personal unconscious of repressed wishes and traumatic memories, posited by Freud, Jung believed there lay a deeper and more important layer that he was to call the collective unconscious, which contained in potenitia the entire psychic heritage of mankind. . . . The existence of this ancient basis of the mind had first been hinted to him as a child when he realized that there were things in his dreams that came from somewhere beyond himself. Its existence was confirmed when he studied the delusions and hallucinations of schizophrenic patients and found them to contain symbols and images which also occurred in myths and fairy-tales all over the world. --------- Again, Jung acknowledged there is a personal component to the unconscious realm we encounter in our dreams, but this is only the start: there is an ocean of unconscious energy deeper and wider than the personal – the collective unconscious. Thus, Jung’s lifelong fascination with symbols, such as mandalas, numbers, mythic animals, light-infused and shadowy superhuman presences.
“What distinguishes the Jungian approach to developmental psychology from virtually all others is the idea that even in old age we are growing toward realization of or full potential. . . . aging was not a process of inexorable decline but a time for the progressive refinement of what is essential. ‘The decisive question for a man is: is he related to something infinite or not?’ ---------- A critical difference from Freud: what happens in our psyche isn’t always about working out our relationship with our mother and father buried in our personal past; rather, every stage in the human cycle, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, old age, has its own powerful psychic energies and challenges. It is our task to accept the challenges at each stage of our life to reach the full flowering of our humanity. Thus, for Jung, psychotherapy isn’t so much about curing illness as it is about personal growth.
“Jung held it to be the business of the psychologist to investigate the collective unconscious and the functional units of which it is composed – the archetypes, as he eventually called them. Archetypes are ‘identical psychic structures common to all’, which together constitute ‘the archaic heritage of humanity’. ---------- The author devotes two entire chapters to Jung’s archetypes: the Self, the ego, the shadow, the persona, the anima/amimus. And, what is an archetype? By way of example, we read: “One example which Jung frequently quoted was that of a schizophrenic patient who told him that if he stared at the sun with half-closed eyes he would see that the sun had a phallus and that this organ was the origin of the wind. Years later Jung came across a Greek text describing an almost identical vision.’ In other words, the archetype images we encounter in dreams belong to a common dream language we share will all humans, including our prehistoric ancestors and peoples of all world cultures and societies. And, according to Jung, these archetypical images can be understood as promptings to encourage our growth.
“In working on a dream the starting-point for Jung was not interpretation but ‘amplification’ – that is, to enter into the atmosphere of the dream to establish its mood as well as the detail of its images and symbols, in such a way as to amplify the experience of the dream itself. Then its impact on consciousness is enhanced. ---------- Dreams are central to Jungian analysis. And if you are interested in pursuing Jung’s vision of what it means to live a full human life, reading this small book would be a great place to start.
Coda: If you would like to start working with your own dreams in a Jungian way, there is short, clear, easy-to-follow instruction given by James A. Hall, available in booklet form at amazon.com or on audible --http://www.audible.com/pd/Science-Tec...
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May 20, 2015Riku Sayuj rated it it was ok
Shelves: jung, psychology, vsis
Does not succeed in representing Jung’s notoriously disorganized work in a coherent fashion. Instead this VSI is content with being a maximally shortened summary of Jung’s autobiography (Memories, Dreams, Reflections). The later chapters dedicated to the character types are cursory and, to be honest, wikipedia does a better job. Read Jung's Map of the Soul by Murray Stein instead for a better concise introduction.
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Jun 15, 2011Aral rated it liked it
made me wish he was my grandpa
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Sep 09, 2018Rashid Saif rated it really liked it
Shelves: psychology
What got me interested in Jung and psychoanalysis was the whole Jordan Peterson craze; with the popularity of his book 12 Rules for Life I thought I would check him out. I saw a lecture he gave where he was describing the Disney movie Pinnochio through the lens of Jungian Archetypal Theory and I thought that was an interesting approach. I was apprehensive of Peterson because he wrote a self-help book (it's a personal prejudice) and I tend to mistrust popular intellectuals, but I thought it would be worthwhile to investigate the source of his psychoanalysis: Jung.
Now Jung is damn scary. How he could have devised his Archetype Theory and then apply it to psychoanalysis is beyond me. One would dismiss this theory as a literary exercise or coincidence if it didn't have strong support from archaeological, mythical/religious and psychological findings. I won't go into the details of this theory but you should definitely check it out.
Jung's psychoanalysis, for me, is more practical and on the whole more optimistic and holistic than Freud. Freud always reduced your mental states to childhood trauma and sexual frustration and more generally the past. He also interprets your dreams in that light too, and for him, you can only hope to cope and not to be cured. Jung however, takes into account your past but also equally, if not more, your present.
For Jung, you are not merely appendages of the past but rather an expectation of the future. He doesn't like the idea of interpreting dreams per se, he takes dreams as symbols formed by your 'Self' to tell to you something about your psychological state that your 'Ego' cannot perceive. Jung's main premise is that, psychologically, your goal is 'Individuation', this consists of fulfilling your archetypal potential he also claims that psychological problems arise from failure to fulfil one's archetypal destiny, this gives hope. What you need to do is not go back in time, but project yourself into the future and realise your archetypal potential.
I enjoyed this book greatly and have developed a new interest in psychology because of it. I think if Jordan Peterson is to be thanked for anything, then it should be for introducing more people to Jung. (less)
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Jun 16, 2013Harlan Vaughn rated it it was amazing
The sentences and phrases are so clear and easy to understand, which is a feat considering the density of the subject matter. The initial chapters about Jung's history were a little dry, but I was deeply curious about that part of his life, especially about his friendship slash "daddy complex" with Freud. It really gave a lot of insight to how his practice developed in his later life.
The "good stuff" here are the breakdowns of the complex psychological concepts. Anyone interested in psychology, mythology, or archetypes will be interested in these sections. They go on for a large chunk of the book and I was in heaven. As simple as the language is, I re-read a few sections to compare and contrast, as a lot of Jung's ideas are interwoven. The ideas about evolving archetypes as people age were particularly interesting.
All in all, a good read. Though it is "a very short introduction," it will still take some time to get through if you want to study it. I gave myself plenty of time for long pauses and reflection. Any book that warrants that is a good one.
Also, I just love Jung. (less)
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Nov 17, 2017Maan Kawas rated it really liked it
A excellent book about the sophisticated and complex ideas and tenets of Carl Jung's 'Analytical Psychology'. I enjoyed it but I need to read more about the archetypes, the individuation process, and active imagination. I recommend as a good start for beginners.
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Apr 11, 2018David rated it really liked it
Shelves: read-2018
4 stars on the “simple intro” scale. But this is a nice overview for sure. Answers a lot of the lazy critiques of Jung and persuasively sketches why his thinking still matters.
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Jun 22, 2018Michael A. rated it it was ok
2/5
Scattered remarks:
Stevens says: "The specious idea that gender differences are due entirely to culture, and have nothing to do with biological or archetypal predispositions, still enjoys wide currency in our society, yet it rests on the discredited tabula rasa theory of human development and is at variance with the overwhelming mass of anthropological and scientific evidence." What evidence? He cites none. Also, does anti-essentialism necessarily entail tabula rasa?
Then he says: "Virtually everywhere, it appears that girls tend to be more nurturant and affiliative than boys ..... boys, on the other hand, are less interested in social interaction for its own sake and tend to prefer some form of physical activity..." I get that this is a 'very short introduction" but he doesnt give one example and makes the extremely broad, sweeping claim that virtually everywhere boys and girls conform to gender roles found within our culture today! strange. This is more a fault on Stevens than Jung, as Stevens doesn't really seem to make a distinction between sex or gender, thus leading to confused thinking.
Jung implicitly(?) reinforces the gender binary with his notions of "anima" (man) and "animus" (woman) and by extension endorses gender essentialism. What of this concept in intersexed people? Or hermaphrodites? Did Hercule Barbin primarily have anima or animus? He says both man and woman contains anima and animus. His idealist dimorphism to match the supposed clean-cut sexual dimorphism of humans is severely lacking.
Jung wrote “Individuation is an expression of that biological process …. by which every living thing becomes what it was destined to become from the beginning.” Stevens states that later Jung thought it took place in non-organic matter as well. On one hand Stevens writes as if individuation you have control over, and perhaps this Jung quote is taken out of context or he means something differently, but that quote to me heavily implies something you have little to no control over (“destined to become from the beginning”). Maybe there's some weird compatibilism going on here or he was just speaking ~*~enigmatically~*~ because he has a strong mysticism to his ideology.
Jung's psychological types are presented in this book like its some bad online personality test and Jung himself even admitted there's no “pure” type and we're all an amalgam. There's some justification given for it but it wasn't convincing. It's just a horoscope for smart people. To be fair Stevens says its oversimplified and Jung goes much more in depth, so perhaps its more convincing. But I don't find psychological typologies convincing in the first place.
There are some parts of Jung that do seem more likely to be true than others. I think the aspect of his concept of the collective unconscious that has the most merit is how certain myths from cultures seem very similar, and this is a result of humans have similar psychical structures. For example Stevens uses the “hero archetype” in myths is essentially symbolic for a coming-of-age....for men. Women are relegated to a passive role (he mentions Sleeping Beauty since heroes get “princesses” as rewards [symbolically a partner or spouse]....literally the most passive and dependent fictional princess I can think of) which continues the theme of Jung and Stevens on being awful with sex and gender.
The other parts of collective unconscious, like there's some shared unconscious that is passed down somehow (a two-million year old man is inside us) is too hard to accept unless you're spiritual and/or susceptible to deception, and it definitely seems Lemarckian-tinged and the “refutation” of this in the book is not convincing. His “archetype” idea is also really bad – apparently if people arrive at the same idea independently from across the world its part of the collective unconscious. Also synchronicity is bullshit. Boy there's a lot of dumb concepts to comment on here! He's essentially a mystico-idealist that touches way too close to being pure new age bullshit.
I agree with parts of Jungian dream analysis, I think he is more right than Freud about the meaning of dreams (i.e. they aren't predominantly sexual. They can be, but they are more broad than that). His idea of using dreams to help you now and in the future also seems more helpful than looking back in the past, but I feel like both Jungian and Freudian dream analysis has truth in it.
Jungian therapy seems more personable and human than Freudian therapy, which is nice. It's too bad a lot of the stuff grounding a Jungian paradigm seems incorrect to me. I guess I'm not surprised that a guy who spent 4 years in a psychotic state (with insight, so he was still cognizable) thought he was discovering some deep truth about the unconscious. Yeah, when I was psychotic I thought I was discovering deep truths too. Instead they're just delusions, and that's precisely what the bulk of Jungian imitates: that of a psychotic delusion. His bizarre interest in parapsychology doesn't help his credibility. Also his conception of mental illness being "a time for growth" and "creative" is really shitty and implies it'll just go away or something and you'll be all better. I'm pretty sure I'll have bipolar disorder for the rest of my life so how exactly am I growing and not suffering from this, unless you want to say "suffering is growth" but I would disagree and say suffering is a slow decaying of the mind.
Also he believed in alchemy. So....
The penultimate chapter is “Jung's Alleged Anti-Semitism”. Woo boy. However, I think what is revealing is a quote by Jung( quoted by Stevens): “Are we really to believe that a tribe which has wandered through history for several thousand years as “God's chosen people” was not put up to such an idea by some quite special psychological peculiarity? If no differences exist, how do we recognize Jews at all?” This was in the context of him saying, among other things, that his and Freud's approach deviated partly because Freud was Jewish and Jung was a Christian. This, to me, is open to the charges of an “inheritance of x-ness” where x is something contingent like religion or nation. It's probably related to his collective unconscious concept, but to me it seems like he's positing an psychological essentialist view. Also this is right after Stevens is talking about a paper he published in 1932 about how there were differences between Aryan and Jewish psychology. Ok, sure, maybe there were but he attributes it totally to an interior thing (its repeated often Jung is introspective....wow hes so deep) so he ignores the material conditions that lead to such differences in psychology. He uses the inner (psychological differences) to justify or explain the outer (conflict) (idealism) when its the other way around, the material conditions of a sociohistorical conjuncture (outer) explain and heavily influence the inner (psychology). This chapter is laughably bad and saying well Freud the same thing as Jung and sarcastically remarks “Well he can say it because he's a Jew”. Hmm, yeah probably? and Stevens concludes that people still call Jung a fascist/nazi/anti-semitic because they, deep down in their “shadow' (Jungian term) they have repressed fascism within them and project them onto Jung....so really it is you who are the racist if you think he had Nazi sympathies.
The last chapter is bad too and starts off with some offhand remark about “political correctness”. Wow. Whatever.
Overall, the book seemed good as an introduction to Jung because it's presented virtually uncritically (sometimes Stevens says Jung could have used a better term....I think thats as far as he goes in criticism) so you get an academic who is really into Jung so you get the most “positive' interpretation of him. However, it may have been better for me to get a critical introduction, if that exists.
As for his ideas, I feel like Jung has some interesting things to say but its grounded in esotericism and gnosticism. Perhaps the Post-Jungians (mentioned in the book by Stevens) strip this away or utilize it in a more satisfactory manner. Based off my limited knowledge of each I feel like Freud has more to offer as a theorist (though of course he was wrong, sometimes extremely, about things too) than Jung. But I feel he does express ideas that are very intriguing and could very well be true. I don't really like the writer too much though he exuded rightism. (less)
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Apr 27, 2016Kent rated it it was amazing
I love this. It has changed my life and worldview. I'm totally on board. I bought Memories, Dreams, Refelctions by Carl Jung and I look forward to the reading experience. Learning about Carl Jung and the theories of individuation and archetypes and spiritual wholeness has totally reawakened my spiritual life. It's a spirituality I can totally gel with. Jung was such a special guy. He kept popping up on my radar in other books and music and movies and I finally decided to find out why this man ke ...more
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Jul 07, 2014Joshua rated it it was amazing
This is an excellent introduction to Jung's work and makes his project as a whole much more clear. Before reading this text, I wasn't much interested in what he was doing and saw it as very much nonsense--as that was the impression I'd been given by my academic mentors and teachers; however, this couldn't be more incorrect. Not only does he make much sense out of the problems of Freud (e.g. everything cannot be reduced to sex; complexes are created out of societal notions/archetypes; the analyst needs to be on equal footing with the patient and help them to feel whole; analysts need to deal with their own b.s.; people aren't broken, just not working in their own best interest; etc.), but he explores territories that are dangerous for an academic to study (e.g. alchemy and the occult), which make his work have something not found within academic psychology, a discipline so fixated on being "scientific", that they ignore the thousands of years of heritage we have in psychological matters in the guise of "truth" through novelty and blindly theorizing. All-in-all, Jung makes way more sense than Freud does.(less)
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Jun 10, 2016Sherif Nagib rated it really liked it
مشكلة كارل يونج الكبرى (اللي هو نفسه كان معترف بيها) إن كتاباته ضخمة جداً وصعبة، وماينفعش الواحد يدخل عليها بنفسه مباشرة. ومن الأفضل إن الواحد يتقرب لها بالقراءة عنها وعنه من ناس درسته وفهمته. الكتاب جيد جداً في محاولة تلخيص حياة وعلم كارل يونج، بالطبع لا يمكن اتهام كتاب عنوانه "مقدمة قصيرة" بالاختزال أو الكروَتة. كان لازم يكروت ويجيب من الآخر. بس مشكلتي إنه ضيع فصل كامل في الدفاع عن اتهام كارل يونج بمعاداة السامية. وكان أفضل لو خصص الصفحات دي لحاجات تانية مهمة عدى عليها بسرعة قوي.
على صعيد آخر، ...more
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Jun 01, 2016Ahmad Sharabiani marked it as to-read
Shelves: 20th-century, psychology, non-fiction, philosophy, biography, historical,science, refrence
Jung: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions #40), Anthony Stevens
This is the most lucid and timely introduction to the thought of Carl Gustav Jung available to date. Though he was a prolific writer and an original thinker of vast erudition, Jung lacked a gift for clear exposition, and his ideas are less widely appreciated than they deserve to be. Now, in this extremely accessible introduction, Anthony Stevens--one of Britain's foremost Jungian analysts--clearly explains the basic concepts of Jungian psychology: the collective unconscious, complex, archetype, shadow, persona, anima, animus, and the individualization of the Self. A small masterpiece of insight and concision, this volume offers a clear portrait of one of the twentieth century's most important and controversial thinkers.(less)
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Nov 12, 2015Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
WOW!
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Nov 23, 2017M. Ashraf rated it really liked it
Shelves: vsi
This is a very good VSI, one of the best of the series so far, it conveyed Carl Jung his life, works, accomplishments and why he is shunned.
Though it started in a weird situations in his early life it progressed quit good with his first work with Eugen Bueler and later with Sigmund Freud and the rift between them. His relationship with his wife and mistress. His concepts of Individualism and the Self, ego, shadow which I find very interesting! the parts about alchemy were :/ and the anti-Semitism chapter was also interesting.
Again I liked the organization of the book, how it started and ended, of course further reading is required but I think it did its job well and it was a very good introduction to Jung and one of the best books in the series so far.
As time passed, Jung’s differences with Freud became harder to conceal. Two of Freud’s basic assumptions were unacceptable to him: that human motivation is exclusively sexual and that the unconscious mind is entirely personal and peculiar to the individual.
What distinguishes the Jungian approach to developmental psychology from virtually all others is the idea that even in old age we are growing toward realization of or full potential.
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May 12, 2018William Schram rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: psychology
Jung by Anthony Stevens is an attempt to condense the writings of Carl Gustav Jung into a package compact enough to almost fit in your pocket. It seems to be some kind of series that I had not heard of called “Brief Insights.” The book is split into eight chapters. The first chapter discusses his life. The second chapter through the seventh chapter discusses his work, and the final chapter discusses the overarching theme and brings it all together.
It’s pretty good. Although they had to pare it down a great deal, it works to provide what the editors and publishers intended. With that said, it makes this book a fantastic introduction to C.G. Jung and his works. (less)
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Jun 04, 2018Ian Stewart rated it really liked it
Definitely worth reading if the title is what you’d like. I feel like Jung and the origins of analysis are less of a mystery now. I was surprised to find out that there is some scientific evidence now for some of Jung’s conjecture about consciousness, how much actually was conjecture, and how against the grain it was when he was developing it.
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Sep 08, 2017Daniel Wright rated it it was ok
Shelves: biography, modern-history, vsi, psychology
Defensive and insufficiently critical.
Chapter 1: The man and his Psychology
Chapter 2: Archetypes and the collective unconscious
Chapter 3: The stages of life
Chapter 4: Psychological types
Chapter 5: Dreams
Chapter 6: Therapy
Chapter 7: Jung's alleged anti-Semitism
Chapter 8: The summing-up
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Apr 20, 2018Laurie Allee rated it it was amazing
This is a great, fairly detailed introduction to (or refresher of) Jung's life and work.
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Oct 22, 2011Guy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
A tightly written, comprehensive overview of Jung's ideas and biography. Stevens managed to connect how Jung's biography influenced the development of his ideas and how influential those ideas have been. Stevens' survey of Jung's relationship with Freud is interesting and balanced, as is his refutation of the anti-semitism charges that have floated around Jung since before the second world war.
Now after all that praise, I would suggest that Jung is a book without a really strong audience. The book is detailed enough and I suspect generally as accurate as a 3rd party biography can be. But that is its biggest problem. I suspect that many people completely unfamiliar with Jung's writings are likely to come away from this book with an exaggerated understanding of the power and range of Jung's ideas and influence and not read anything else. They will not understand that the reason people read Jung is to begin the journey of self-understanding, what Jung called individuation.
On the other hand, those who are significantly familiar with Jung will not find too much new here. It remains simply a summary and review, albeit a very good one. It does have some nice quotable bits for those interested in quips or sound bites.
But what moved this book from just a solid four to five stars was something Stevens observed I had until reading it here thought that I had uniquely observed. Thank god I am not the only one to have noticed a remarkable similarity between Noam Chomsky's linguistic theories and Jung's conceptualization of the collective unconscious and archetypes (p37). Now, it is possible that other Jungian commentators I have previously read made this reference too, but at a time in my life before I was familiar with Chomsky's linguistic ideas. But I do not remember even one reference. (For those curious about this, a good overview of Chomsky's linguistics is Justin Lieber's Noam Chomsky: A Philosophic Overview.) (less)
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Nov 16, 2013Jean rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 2013-audio, biography
I have a friend who is a Jungian scholar who is writing a book on some aspect of Jung. When I saw this short book I jumped at it, thinking I could learn a bit about Jung so I would not feel so stupid when we get together. The only thing I knew about Jung was what I had read back in 1971 when I read Irving Stone’s “The Passions of the Mind” about the life of Sigmund Freud. Stone is the master of the biographical novel. The book on Freud was fascinating. The author of this book is Dr. Anthony Stevens a British psychiatrist and Jungian analyst. He has co-author several books on evolutionary psychiatry. Dr. Stevens’ book is a well written, comprehensive over view of Jung’s ideas and biography. He explains Jung’s relationship with Freud and refutes the anti-Semitism charges that floated around since before World War Two. It is obvious that Dr. Stevens did a great deal of research and has the magnificence ability to summarize a complex person and his ideas and system of psychology into understandable and interesting book for a lay person. I read this book in audio book format. Tim Piggott-Smith did a great job narrating the book.
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Dec 12, 2013Anthony rated it really liked it
This is the book I would recommend to anyone who wants a concise introduction to Jung's ideas. Informative and well written. It really helped to clarify some ideas about Jung that had long eluded me. Especially the stuff on the Archtypes and the Collective Unconscious.
(Looking at Archtypes as being comparable to the instinctual imprinting of say, a duck imprinting on the first thing it sees as its mother, and other principles of ethnobiology)
In a couple of places the author loses track of seeming impartial, and comes off as a little shrill—such as when he argues that Jung fits in perfectly with modern science.) (less)
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