Memories, Dreams, Reflections
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4.20 · Rating details · 20,637 ratings · 586 reviews
In the spring of 1957, when he was eighty-one years old, C. G. Jung undertook the telling of his life story. At regular intervals he had conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé, and collaborated with her in the preparation of the text based on these talks. On occasion, he was moved to write entire chapters of the book in his own hand, and he continued to work on the final stages of the manuscript until shortly before his death on June 6, 1961.
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Paperback, Vintage Books Edition, 430 pages
Published April 1989 by Vintage (first published 1961)
Original Title
Erinnerungen, Träume, Gedanken. Aufgezeichnet und herausgegeben von Aniela Jaffé
ISBN
0679723951 (ISBN13: 9780679723950)
Edition Language
English
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luke Nope, page 1 should start off with "MY LIFE is a story of the self-realization of the unconscious."
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“The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me. Or, conversely, I myself am a question which is addressed to the world, and I must communicate my answer, for otherwise I am dependent upon the world’s answer.” – Carl Jung; Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
I know very little about psychology but it’s a subject I’m very interested in. A friend recommended Jung to me when I began writing down my dreams some months ago and started noticing some patterns.
I think this is a great introduction to Jung. Jung takes us through his psychic life from a child to an old man, and explains how his experiences, his dreams and interpretations of dreams shaped his life and brought him to self-realization. It also goes into his doomed friendship with Freud, his interest in symbology, and his travels (to India, Africa, New Mexico etc).
This is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. I loved Jung’s approach to psychiatry. His quest to understand the human psyche is nothing short of admirable, and it’s clear that so many have been helped by his work. His dedication into his research and understanding is remarkable.
Although Jung’s views on alchemy and religion were definitely a bit out there for me, I still respect him for articulating his beliefs in an intelligent and thoughtful manner.
I recognized a lot of Jung’s thinking patterns in my own, and was quite surprised I wasn’t the only one who’d had those same thoughts. As Carl Jung put it, ““I was going about laden with thoughts of which I could speak to no one; they would have been misunderstood.” A lot of what Jung said greatly resonated with me and I wonder whether his Myer-Briggs typography was similar or the same as mine (INFJ).
This is a book I think everybody should read. Reading it has definitely enriched my life.
“I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once, and cannot add up the sum.”- Carl Jung(less)
I know very little about psychology but it’s a subject I’m very interested in. A friend recommended Jung to me when I began writing down my dreams some months ago and started noticing some patterns.
I think this is a great introduction to Jung. Jung takes us through his psychic life from a child to an old man, and explains how his experiences, his dreams and interpretations of dreams shaped his life and brought him to self-realization. It also goes into his doomed friendship with Freud, his interest in symbology, and his travels (to India, Africa, New Mexico etc).
This is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. I loved Jung’s approach to psychiatry. His quest to understand the human psyche is nothing short of admirable, and it’s clear that so many have been helped by his work. His dedication into his research and understanding is remarkable.
Although Jung’s views on alchemy and religion were definitely a bit out there for me, I still respect him for articulating his beliefs in an intelligent and thoughtful manner.
I recognized a lot of Jung’s thinking patterns in my own, and was quite surprised I wasn’t the only one who’d had those same thoughts. As Carl Jung put it, ““I was going about laden with thoughts of which I could speak to no one; they would have been misunderstood.” A lot of what Jung said greatly resonated with me and I wonder whether his Myer-Briggs typography was similar or the same as mine (INFJ).
This is a book I think everybody should read. Reading it has definitely enriched my life.
“I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once, and cannot add up the sum.”- Carl Jung(less)
Dec 18, 2007Jon rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: anyone who thinks Reason is king
Shelves: favoriteclassics
I delved into this book, a Christmas present from a friend, to learn more about Jung's psychological concepts, namely the collective unconcious; the anima and animas; the shadow; mandalas; the Self. About twenty pages in, though, I amended my purpose. I sought not facts but an answer to this question: Should I, Jon Medders, let myself be more like C.G. Jung?
See, Jung's narrative demonstrates a way to live one's life that I have often suspected might work well for me: minimize one's tendencies toward rational thought and maximize one's reliance on rationality's opposite (intuition, hunches, coincidences, God, the unconcious). So, as I read Jung's repeated accounts of rushing into projects and life decisions based on dreams, visions, and other numinous experiences, including contact with ghosts, I realized that his willingness to engage "the unseen" was integral to his becoming the creative force he was.
I am still sorting through the answers to my question. I will say that anyone who thinks that reason or intellectual conception provides the only valid basis for action in this world should take a close look at Jung's life and work.(less)
See, Jung's narrative demonstrates a way to live one's life that I have often suspected might work well for me: minimize one's tendencies toward rational thought and maximize one's reliance on rationality's opposite (intuition, hunches, coincidences, God, the unconcious). So, as I read Jung's repeated accounts of rushing into projects and life decisions based on dreams, visions, and other numinous experiences, including contact with ghosts, I realized that his willingness to engage "the unseen" was integral to his becoming the creative force he was.
I am still sorting through the answers to my question. I will say that anyone who thinks that reason or intellectual conception provides the only valid basis for action in this world should take a close look at Jung's life and work.(less)
Jan 17, 2018Gorkem rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Jung, benim hayatımda ve algı dünyamda çok etkili olmuş biri. Kendisinin, spirituel algısı ve insanın ele alışı aynı zamanda hem bir performanscı olarak müziksel algımda hem de eğitimci olarak çocuklar ve gençleri nasıl bir ayna olabileceğim konusunda hep yönlendirici olmuştur.
Anılar, Düşler ve Düşünceleri için söyleyebileceğim tek şey kendi anılarınıza ve düşleriniza ayna tutacak bir yol gösterici, hem de Jung'u daha yakından tanımak için en iyi kitaplardan biri.
İyi okumalar!
Anılar, Düşler ve Düşünceleri için söyleyebileceğim tek şey kendi anılarınıza ve düşleriniza ayna tutacak bir yol gösterici, hem de Jung'u daha yakından tanımak için en iyi kitaplardan biri.
İyi okumalar!
May 22, 2011Maxwell Purrington rated it it was amazing
Why Memories, Dreams and Reflections is meaningful for me.
I shall begin by telling you of an event that occurred to me at college but which had its genesis four years earlier and the subsequent consequences of which remain to be completely known.
One evening when I was 14 years old I went to bed much as I always had done. Sometime later after falling to sleep I awoke. To my astonishment at the foot of my bed and somewhat elevated into the air were two personages. An elderly man with the wrinkles in his face that bespoke of a life of both dignity and wisdom and alongside him an equally aged woman endowed with a face of gentle kindness. I took them to be husband and wife and decades later would come to name them Philemon and Bacchus.
Upon seeing them I was immediately struck with two emotions. On the one hand I was enraptured by their appearance and on the other hand I was terrified as in my 14 years of life to my knowledge I only knew of two types of people who had visions: Prophets and Madmen. I knew I was not a Prophet.
As I gazed upon them it occurred to me that what I was witnessing may in fact be a dream albeit a most vivid dream. I determined to establish the means of proving whether this was a dream of a waking vision. There was a crayon on my night stand. I slowly reached for the crayon hoping not to interrupt my “visitors.” Gripping the crayon I pressed it against the wall on the side of my bed rubbing it back and forth leaving a most distinguished marking. I figured that when I woke up the following morning that if the mark was not there that I had been dreaming. On the other hand if the mark was on the wall I would know I had had a waking vision and hopefully the marking would prove a stimulus to recalling the episode.
The mark was on my wall upon finally waking.
Jesus famously said that a Prophet is not recognized in his own home. Most assuredly I was not going to tell my family, relatives or friends of my vision fearing ridicule so I remained must as I sought the means of understanding what had happened.
Insofar as I knew that Prophets had visions I determined that I would read the Bible which I had never read before to seek some understanding. I found an old King James Version of the Bible and set about reading it from cover to cover. Every word was read from Genesis straight through Revelations.
This was an enlightening process however the Prophets seems to float above the common humanity within which I lived. Nonetheless I completed my reading of the Bible in about a year’s time and read it completely from cover to cover each successive year until my departure to College.
At College I enrolled as a History Major although I had no tangible plan to make use of History in my life. Briefly the move to college pressed the thought of my vision to the back of my mind. This would not last for long.
I had been attending classes for about six weeks when one day I was passing through the upstairs area above the cafeteria when I spotted a young man in the crowd of students. He was dressed in Army fatigues and I was struck with the undeniable premonition that he was on campus to commit a mass murder.
I fought against this sense and tried to fight against this idea as it seemed so irrational. I walked around outside of the campus for about an hour trying to shake off this premonition but without success. This presented me with a moral dilemma. If I ignored the premonition and a murder did occurred I would bear some responsibility and be an accomplice of sorts. Should I not ignore the premonition what was I to do? Who would listen to me much less believe me?
Suddenly the name of my History 101 professor came to mind. I had never spoken to him before except to ask a couple of questions in class but I sensed that perhaps I could share my premonition with him and perhaps he would know what to do.
So being around noon time I went to the downstairs cafeteria where I thought he might be having lunch with fellow faculty and staff members. The cafeteria area was packed with nary a seat to be found. Well, except for the one lone empty seat next to my professor.
Girding up my loins and with much trepidation I went and sat next to the professor. I introduced myself to him not certain that he would recall me from his History 101 class and proceeded to tell him of my premonition. Amazingly, I thought, without batting an eyelash he listened to my story and then asked me to go upstairs with him to point out the person who had struck me with such fear. I did.
Then the professor went to the Administration Building and spoke with someone in security as well as the University President.
I was not involved directly in what happened next but since the person in question had not actually done anything wrong yet not much of an official nature could be done but a background check was done and it was found that the person was returned from Vietnam and had a mental history.
The means were “set up” to establish a reason a few days later to enter the person’s apartment where there was a diary indicating the desire to commit a mass murder against students who were perceived to be against the war. Additionally photos taken of a civilian massacre in Vietnam were found and subsequently were used as the means of getting the person off campus and into a V.A. Hospital for mental treatment.
I was quite gratified that my premonition proved valid. This gave me solace.
I was also grateful to my professor because he did not publicize the event or in any way bring undo attention to me. As a matter of fact we never discussed the matter again.
This event brought back to the forefront the vision I had had four years earlier.
It struck me one morning that if I could tell my professor of the premonition that perhaps I could entrust him with the Vision and the fear that had accompanied it.
I went to his office and upon being invited in closed the door behind me and sat down and told him of my Vision. Upon completing my story my professor to told me to go to the library and check out a book entitled: Memories, Dreams and Reflections.
I had never heard of Carl Jung before and knew nothing of his work but went to the library and checked out Memories, Dreams and Reflections and went to find a quiet place to read it.
In the beginning of the book Dr. Jung writes of his childhood and as a youngster how he had had a Vision and how it terrified him and how he felt he could not tell his family or friends of it.
We bonded.
I did not know Dr. Jung but somehow he was more “human” to me that the prophets of the Old and New Testament. This would ultimately lead into a lifelong passion to comprehend the structure and dynamics of the psyche.(less)
I shall begin by telling you of an event that occurred to me at college but which had its genesis four years earlier and the subsequent consequences of which remain to be completely known.
One evening when I was 14 years old I went to bed much as I always had done. Sometime later after falling to sleep I awoke. To my astonishment at the foot of my bed and somewhat elevated into the air were two personages. An elderly man with the wrinkles in his face that bespoke of a life of both dignity and wisdom and alongside him an equally aged woman endowed with a face of gentle kindness. I took them to be husband and wife and decades later would come to name them Philemon and Bacchus.
Upon seeing them I was immediately struck with two emotions. On the one hand I was enraptured by their appearance and on the other hand I was terrified as in my 14 years of life to my knowledge I only knew of two types of people who had visions: Prophets and Madmen. I knew I was not a Prophet.
As I gazed upon them it occurred to me that what I was witnessing may in fact be a dream albeit a most vivid dream. I determined to establish the means of proving whether this was a dream of a waking vision. There was a crayon on my night stand. I slowly reached for the crayon hoping not to interrupt my “visitors.” Gripping the crayon I pressed it against the wall on the side of my bed rubbing it back and forth leaving a most distinguished marking. I figured that when I woke up the following morning that if the mark was not there that I had been dreaming. On the other hand if the mark was on the wall I would know I had had a waking vision and hopefully the marking would prove a stimulus to recalling the episode.
The mark was on my wall upon finally waking.
Jesus famously said that a Prophet is not recognized in his own home. Most assuredly I was not going to tell my family, relatives or friends of my vision fearing ridicule so I remained must as I sought the means of understanding what had happened.
Insofar as I knew that Prophets had visions I determined that I would read the Bible which I had never read before to seek some understanding. I found an old King James Version of the Bible and set about reading it from cover to cover. Every word was read from Genesis straight through Revelations.
This was an enlightening process however the Prophets seems to float above the common humanity within which I lived. Nonetheless I completed my reading of the Bible in about a year’s time and read it completely from cover to cover each successive year until my departure to College.
At College I enrolled as a History Major although I had no tangible plan to make use of History in my life. Briefly the move to college pressed the thought of my vision to the back of my mind. This would not last for long.
I had been attending classes for about six weeks when one day I was passing through the upstairs area above the cafeteria when I spotted a young man in the crowd of students. He was dressed in Army fatigues and I was struck with the undeniable premonition that he was on campus to commit a mass murder.
I fought against this sense and tried to fight against this idea as it seemed so irrational. I walked around outside of the campus for about an hour trying to shake off this premonition but without success. This presented me with a moral dilemma. If I ignored the premonition and a murder did occurred I would bear some responsibility and be an accomplice of sorts. Should I not ignore the premonition what was I to do? Who would listen to me much less believe me?
Suddenly the name of my History 101 professor came to mind. I had never spoken to him before except to ask a couple of questions in class but I sensed that perhaps I could share my premonition with him and perhaps he would know what to do.
So being around noon time I went to the downstairs cafeteria where I thought he might be having lunch with fellow faculty and staff members. The cafeteria area was packed with nary a seat to be found. Well, except for the one lone empty seat next to my professor.
Girding up my loins and with much trepidation I went and sat next to the professor. I introduced myself to him not certain that he would recall me from his History 101 class and proceeded to tell him of my premonition. Amazingly, I thought, without batting an eyelash he listened to my story and then asked me to go upstairs with him to point out the person who had struck me with such fear. I did.
Then the professor went to the Administration Building and spoke with someone in security as well as the University President.
I was not involved directly in what happened next but since the person in question had not actually done anything wrong yet not much of an official nature could be done but a background check was done and it was found that the person was returned from Vietnam and had a mental history.
The means were “set up” to establish a reason a few days later to enter the person’s apartment where there was a diary indicating the desire to commit a mass murder against students who were perceived to be against the war. Additionally photos taken of a civilian massacre in Vietnam were found and subsequently were used as the means of getting the person off campus and into a V.A. Hospital for mental treatment.
I was quite gratified that my premonition proved valid. This gave me solace.
I was also grateful to my professor because he did not publicize the event or in any way bring undo attention to me. As a matter of fact we never discussed the matter again.
This event brought back to the forefront the vision I had had four years earlier.
It struck me one morning that if I could tell my professor of the premonition that perhaps I could entrust him with the Vision and the fear that had accompanied it.
I went to his office and upon being invited in closed the door behind me and sat down and told him of my Vision. Upon completing my story my professor to told me to go to the library and check out a book entitled: Memories, Dreams and Reflections.
I had never heard of Carl Jung before and knew nothing of his work but went to the library and checked out Memories, Dreams and Reflections and went to find a quiet place to read it.
In the beginning of the book Dr. Jung writes of his childhood and as a youngster how he had had a Vision and how it terrified him and how he felt he could not tell his family or friends of it.
We bonded.
I did not know Dr. Jung but somehow he was more “human” to me that the prophets of the Old and New Testament. This would ultimately lead into a lifelong passion to comprehend the structure and dynamics of the psyche.(less)
Jul 09, 2018Sohaib rated it it was amazing
"Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible. The loneliness began with the experiences of my early dreams, and reached its climax at the time I was working on the unconscious ... But loneliness is not necessarily inimical to companionship, for no one is more sensitive to companionship than the lonely man, and companionship thrives only when...more
Jun 01, 2017Chrissie rated it liked it
Shelves: 2017-read, audible-uk, switzerland, philo-psychol, deals, bio, travel, india,kenya, sudan
This book is not an autobiography in the normal sense. We are given little information about family details. We are told in one sentence, "I have a wife and five children." That's about it for family details. At the end of the book are four appendixes, two of which are letters written to his wife when he was traveling in the US and then later in Africa. These letters are in fact special; they showed me the ordinary man, not the man espousing his theories. They were delightfully creative and well written, but there are only a few and they are short. This book is instead about Carl Gustav Jung's (1875 - 1961) theories, his philosophy and how it developed.
At the age of 81 he agreed, to sit down one afternoon every week to talk with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé. This book is the result of their collaboration. It was decided that he would write a few chapters about his youth, he felt an inner need to do this, but otherwise the book is based on their conversations which she recorded and edited. A chapter entitled Later Thoughts concludes the book. Both this and the chapters on his youth have a different feel and I bet both were written by him. They are more abstruse. These were the hardest to comprehend, particularly in those parts where he speaks of religion. Nevertheless, having read the book, I do now have a better understanding of his philosophy.
The book is very much an expression of Jung's views. He is telling us how hethinks. There is no debate. Jaffé does not critically analyze or counter with opposing views. We hear neither her questions nor her thoughts.
The book could have been tightened and at times better organized. Sometimes it is extremely wordy. Jung tells us that he disagreed with Freud's emphasis on sexuality. Then later in the book we are old that Freud came to modify his view. How his view changed is not clarified, and this could have been mentioned the first time around.
In the latter half of the book Jung travels to Africa and India and Italy. Some other places too. He states he wants to look at Europeans and himself from a different cultural perspective. He wants to look in from the outside. Here we go deeper into his views on myths and culture. Definitely interesting, but I cannot say I would necessarily draw the same conclusions. This doesn’t really matter though; this is a book about his views, certainly not mine. Except maybe his reasoning hasn’t properly been made clear; this could be classified as a weakness of the book.
Dreams....dreams. He tells us of a zillion dreams and what they mean. These dreams are extremely detailed. Let me just state that his ability to recall such details pushes credibility. I had trouble accepting some of the conclusions drawn. On several occasions he explained dreams after time had passed and after other important events had occurred, claiming the dreams foresaw future events. That is explaining after you have the facts, and I don’t buy such reasoning. There is no proof in this.
At points the mystical and paranormal theories espoused pushed credibility for me.
Jung does not consider this book to be one of the set defining his philosophy. We are quite often referred to those books instead.
The audiobook narration by James Cameron Stewart was absolutely excellent. It could not in any way have been improved. Simple to follow. All of the words are clear, and the speed with which it is read gives you time to think. You need time to think when you read this book! Jung uses lots of terms that you have to get glued into your head if you are to follow his thought processes.
I am glad I read the book. I see it as a primer on Jung’s philosophy much more than a biography / autobiography of his life. (less)
At the age of 81 he agreed, to sit down one afternoon every week to talk with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé. This book is the result of their collaboration. It was decided that he would write a few chapters about his youth, he felt an inner need to do this, but otherwise the book is based on their conversations which she recorded and edited. A chapter entitled Later Thoughts concludes the book. Both this and the chapters on his youth have a different feel and I bet both were written by him. They are more abstruse. These were the hardest to comprehend, particularly in those parts where he speaks of religion. Nevertheless, having read the book, I do now have a better understanding of his philosophy.
The book is very much an expression of Jung's views. He is telling us how hethinks. There is no debate. Jaffé does not critically analyze or counter with opposing views. We hear neither her questions nor her thoughts.
The book could have been tightened and at times better organized. Sometimes it is extremely wordy. Jung tells us that he disagreed with Freud's emphasis on sexuality. Then later in the book we are old that Freud came to modify his view. How his view changed is not clarified, and this could have been mentioned the first time around.
In the latter half of the book Jung travels to Africa and India and Italy. Some other places too. He states he wants to look at Europeans and himself from a different cultural perspective. He wants to look in from the outside. Here we go deeper into his views on myths and culture. Definitely interesting, but I cannot say I would necessarily draw the same conclusions. This doesn’t really matter though; this is a book about his views, certainly not mine. Except maybe his reasoning hasn’t properly been made clear; this could be classified as a weakness of the book.
Dreams....dreams. He tells us of a zillion dreams and what they mean. These dreams are extremely detailed. Let me just state that his ability to recall such details pushes credibility. I had trouble accepting some of the conclusions drawn. On several occasions he explained dreams after time had passed and after other important events had occurred, claiming the dreams foresaw future events. That is explaining after you have the facts, and I don’t buy such reasoning. There is no proof in this.
At points the mystical and paranormal theories espoused pushed credibility for me.
Jung does not consider this book to be one of the set defining his philosophy. We are quite often referred to those books instead.
The audiobook narration by James Cameron Stewart was absolutely excellent. It could not in any way have been improved. Simple to follow. All of the words are clear, and the speed with which it is read gives you time to think. You need time to think when you read this book! Jung uses lots of terms that you have to get glued into your head if you are to follow his thought processes.
I am glad I read the book. I see it as a primer on Jung’s philosophy much more than a biography / autobiography of his life. (less)
Sep 07, 2015Corinne rated it really liked it
Shelves: constructive, non-fiction, resilience, to-go-forward
A lucid and precise book, that is also easy to read. These points touched me the most:
That Jung gives his internal experiences a much higher value than his external experiences. I wonder how long it took him to do that.
That he could continue treating people without fear, even after his life was threatened so many times by crazy patients. I used to think this was a modern disease, but hell no!
The difficulties Jung faced with Freud, and the courage he required to break away from him, yet not criticize nor undermine him. It taught me a valuable lesson.
The part that absorbed me the most was his notion of the collective conscious & unconscious, which are formed through generations, and guide our instincts and logic. It’s really great how he used the mythology from different cultures to prove this.
His trip to India, and how he used Yoga to sustain his work, and his scientific understanding of the spirituality from the East. It opened my eyes really.(less)
That Jung gives his internal experiences a much higher value than his external experiences. I wonder how long it took him to do that.
That he could continue treating people without fear, even after his life was threatened so many times by crazy patients. I used to think this was a modern disease, but hell no!
The difficulties Jung faced with Freud, and the courage he required to break away from him, yet not criticize nor undermine him. It taught me a valuable lesson.
The part that absorbed me the most was his notion of the collective conscious & unconscious, which are formed through generations, and guide our instincts and logic. It’s really great how he used the mythology from different cultures to prove this.
His trip to India, and how he used Yoga to sustain his work, and his scientific understanding of the spirituality from the East. It opened my eyes really.(less)
This is an amazing book, from a truly amazing man. Some of the concepts that we toss around that came from Jung:
* The concept of introversion vs. extroversion
* The concept of the complex
* Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was inspired by Jung's psychological types theory.
* Socionics, similar to MBTI, is also based on Jung's psychological types.
* Archetype concept, as an element of the archaic common substratum of the mind, or Collective Unconscious mind.
* Synchronicity idea, as an alternative to the Causality Principle, that has influence even on modern physicists.
Memories Dreams Reflections tells a lot about how he came to some of these discoveries, his inspiration and how he nurtured it (e.g., active imagination, what some term a shamanic process). He was truly unafraid, in a repressive time, to use whatever systems and methods, western or eastern, that would help.(less)
* The concept of introversion vs. extroversion
* The concept of the complex
* Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was inspired by Jung's psychological types theory.
* Socionics, similar to MBTI, is also based on Jung's psychological types.
* Archetype concept, as an element of the archaic common substratum of the mind, or Collective Unconscious mind.
* Synchronicity idea, as an alternative to the Causality Principle, that has influence even on modern physicists.
Memories Dreams Reflections tells a lot about how he came to some of these discoveries, his inspiration and how he nurtured it (e.g., active imagination, what some term a shamanic process). He was truly unafraid, in a repressive time, to use whatever systems and methods, western or eastern, that would help.(less)
I love Jung. I love him so much I bought the t-shirt. Seriously, for my birthday I got a t-shirt with Jung's big white face on it, and I wear it all the time. He looks pretty serious. I want people to know that Jung is watching them, so behave.
Sometimes I wonder, Am I a Jungian? Not really. But I could be. Everytime I read Jung I feel a greater part of myself converted. I do have a compulsive interest in dreams. Murakami's short stories do strike a chord with me. As skeptical as I am about everything I have to admit that in my heart I'm monk who yearns for a religion.
I love Jung because:
His psycho-gospel is a path of intense personal spirituality. It's an attitude of searching for and claiming a truth peculiar to oneself. It's a cry against the materialism of super-rational modernism. Meaninglessness, he says, is a mental illness. The alternative is a milieu of your own images and symbols and intuitive experiences, that while deeply subjective, serves to make the world a bigger place. Now how could an aspiring writer like me not sign up for that? The individuation process is basically what a novel does.
The seriousness of his play. When Jung got stuck he drew mandalas and built sandcastles. He approached these playful activities with all seriousness of thought. I admire anyone who "works out his own salvation with fear and trembling" by playing games, by trying on costumes, by making up stories.
He considered himself a man of science. I have to laugh at that sometimes. Like when he says things such as, "Astrology is in the process of becoming a science," I have to wonder how scientific his science is. And yet he did shed his dogmas and he did seek to observe the psyche with all objectivity. His psycho-gospel was born from those conclusions. And he was most certainly willing to sacrifice to the gods he discovered behind the curtain. When I think of that, all the rigor he applied the texts of dreams and fairy tales and alchemy and gnosticism and crazy-talk, it occurs to me that he may very well have dedicated his entire life to nonsense; and yet something inside me, rather than being turned off by that, says RIGHT ON!
~~~~~~
This is a great book. He loses me at times — he always does — but even when I don't find his conclusions compelling, he, as a character, always compels me. I loved learning that he was a creepy child. I loved the first-hand account of his falling out with Freud. The prologue exudes a wisdom that I can't put a finger on and might function better as an epilogue. It presents, I think, a man reposed in a world of his own making. His world is huge and so he's free to move around it as he pleases. It's well lit too, so he's warm and sure footed and is able to see far ahead.
(less)
Sometimes I wonder, Am I a Jungian? Not really. But I could be. Everytime I read Jung I feel a greater part of myself converted. I do have a compulsive interest in dreams. Murakami's short stories do strike a chord with me. As skeptical as I am about everything I have to admit that in my heart I'm monk who yearns for a religion.
I love Jung because:
His psycho-gospel is a path of intense personal spirituality. It's an attitude of searching for and claiming a truth peculiar to oneself. It's a cry against the materialism of super-rational modernism. Meaninglessness, he says, is a mental illness. The alternative is a milieu of your own images and symbols and intuitive experiences, that while deeply subjective, serves to make the world a bigger place. Now how could an aspiring writer like me not sign up for that? The individuation process is basically what a novel does.
The seriousness of his play. When Jung got stuck he drew mandalas and built sandcastles. He approached these playful activities with all seriousness of thought. I admire anyone who "works out his own salvation with fear and trembling" by playing games, by trying on costumes, by making up stories.
He considered himself a man of science. I have to laugh at that sometimes. Like when he says things such as, "Astrology is in the process of becoming a science," I have to wonder how scientific his science is. And yet he did shed his dogmas and he did seek to observe the psyche with all objectivity. His psycho-gospel was born from those conclusions. And he was most certainly willing to sacrifice to the gods he discovered behind the curtain. When I think of that, all the rigor he applied the texts of dreams and fairy tales and alchemy and gnosticism and crazy-talk, it occurs to me that he may very well have dedicated his entire life to nonsense; and yet something inside me, rather than being turned off by that, says RIGHT ON!
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This is a great book. He loses me at times — he always does — but even when I don't find his conclusions compelling, he, as a character, always compels me. I loved learning that he was a creepy child. I loved the first-hand account of his falling out with Freud. The prologue exudes a wisdom that I can't put a finger on and might function better as an epilogue. It presents, I think, a man reposed in a world of his own making. His world is huge and so he's free to move around it as he pleases. It's well lit too, so he's warm and sure footed and is able to see far ahead.
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Mar 27, 2018Deea rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Are you in for a challenge?
Shelves: psychology, best-2018, favorites
(You can find the better looking version of this review on my blog:http://elephantsonclouds.blogspot.com...)
At the time when he became a psychiatrist, nobody really understood much how mental conditions could be treated and they were not even trying to find ways to help the patients. They were just diagnosing most people with mental conditions as suffering from schizophrenia and considered them freaks, putting them in secluded places so as to keep them from harming themselves or others. Jung regarded his work as a psychiatrist as a challenge, as a way to better understand himself and mind in general and he succeeded greatly at that, becoming a pioneer in treating these conditions through psychoanalysis. Most of his theories are, even if some might not be regarded as entirely correct, really very interesting and intriguing and they are great food for thought. This book presents how he reached most of his conclusions and how they all presented to him in a way or another through dreams and visions. His continuous struggles and victories to decipher them displayed vastly in this book made me realize how great and superior a mind he had.
Most of what he said seemed somehow familiar to me. I have, sometimes in the past, in one moment or another, felt the way he had felt and I was not able to reach a conclusion or put the feeling into words as well as he did. Like the passage below, for instance:
Mystics, Gnostics, alchemists, Buddhists, Taoists, philosophers and many others were preoccupied with understanding the mind better. Jung studied all of them by himself, read anything that he could put his hands on about myths, ancient religions, behavior of the primitives. He also studied and interpreted his own dreams, taking into account symbols discovered in all the books he read, his visions, his memories, his encounters with other cultures and his patients’ behavior and connected in his mind all the knowledge he could get (and believe me, it is pretty clear in this book that he was like a sponge for any knowledge of this kind) and reached mindblowing conclusions.
At the time when he became a psychiatrist, nobody really understood much how mental conditions could be treated and they were not even trying to find ways to help the patients. They were just diagnosing most people with mental conditions as suffering from schizophrenia and considered them freaks, putting them in secluded places so as to keep them from harming themselves or others. Jung regarded his work as a psychiatrist as a challenge, as a way to better understand himself and mind in general and he succeeded greatly at that, becoming a pioneer in treating these conditions through psychoanalysis. Most of his theories are, even if some might not be regarded as entirely correct, really very interesting and intriguing and they are great food for thought. This book presents how he reached most of his conclusions and how they all presented to him in a way or another through dreams and visions. His continuous struggles and victories to decipher them displayed vastly in this book made me realize how great and superior a mind he had.
His theories about the collective unconscious, about good and evil as being facets of a whole (pertaining to his theory about the shadows which is brilliant), of God arranging in his omniscience so that Adam and Eve would have to sin by having created the serpent before them and therefore placing in them the possibility of doing it (this echoed both Steinbeck’s view from East of Eden and Spinoza’s philosophy of the lack of will and of a God who sees the bigger picture in which bad is not really bad which I was happening to read in the morning – should I categorize this as synchronicity, a concept also defined by Jung?), all these helped me have a more comprehensive view of life and they also helped me understand myself better.
"Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away – an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost a sense of something that lives and endures underneath the eternal flux. What we see is the blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains."No, this is not a biography per se. So, if you expect it to be like one, you’ll be disappointed. Jung chiefly speaks here of inner experiences, being most certain that these and only these form the prima materia of his scientific work. He is sure that inner experiences also set their seal on the outward experiences that came his way and assumed importance for him in his youth or later on. He discovered that anxiety presented itself in dreams of objects that were now small, now suffocatingly large (God, I’ve wondered so many times why, when I closed my eyes sometimes, I had this very disturbing image in my head). He discovered the basis for his theory of persona (the mask that we are wearing when interacting with others) when he was in primary school, he became conscious of the concept of ego in himself at some point when he was seized with rage that someone had dared to insult him.
Most of what he said seemed somehow familiar to me. I have, sometimes in the past, in one moment or another, felt the way he had felt and I was not able to reach a conclusion or put the feeling into words as well as he did. Like the passage below, for instance:
"I knew so little about myself, and the little was so contradictory that I could not with a good conscience reject any accusations. As a matter of fact I always had a guilty conscience and was aware of both actual and potential faults. For that reason I was particularly sensitive to reproofs, since all of them more or less struck home. Although I had not in reality done what I was accused of, I felt that I might have done it. I would even draw up a list of alibis in case I should be accused of something. I felt positively relieved when I had actually done something wrong. Then, at least I knew what my guilty conscience was for. Naturally I compensated my inner insecurity by an outward show of security, or – to put it better – the defect compensated itself without the intervention of my will."The dream that he had which made him realize what consciousness really means in our human psyche is most interesting and I choose to add it here below. I will however add this as a spoiler (and the rest of the review as well) as I feel that I cannot summarize the richness of his ideas in a short text and this review will become way too long if I do not do this. It is up to you if you choose to read on or not. (view spoiler) (less)
Feb 07, 2019Damla rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: anı-biyografi, dünya-klasik, psikoloji
“Geçmiş ürkünç bir gerçektir ve varlığını sürdürürken tatmin edici bir yanıt bulup canını kurtaramayan herkesi yakalar.”
Genelde okuduğumuz kitaplara kıyasla yer yer “yavaş ilerleyen” bir kitap olduğunu inkar edemeyeceğim. Ama sonuçta bu her şeyden önce “ruhun çok derin bir gerçek olduğuna inanan” bir adamın otobiyografisi, fazla aksiyon içermiyor.
Elimde olsa herkesin -kendileri için doğru zaman geldiğinde- bu kitabı okumasını sağlardım. Carl Jung psikoloji ve psikiyatri için varlığına şükredeceğimiz bir isim ve anılarını okumak benim için en az psikoloji ders kitabımız kadar faydalı oldu.
“Birey, bilincine varabilirse dünyanın yarısının ruhtan oluştuğunu anlar. Bu nedenle ruh bireysel bir sorun değil bir dünya sorunsalıdır ve bir psikiyatrist tüm dünyayla uğraşmak zorundadır.” (less)
Genelde okuduğumuz kitaplara kıyasla yer yer “yavaş ilerleyen” bir kitap olduğunu inkar edemeyeceğim. Ama sonuçta bu her şeyden önce “ruhun çok derin bir gerçek olduğuna inanan” bir adamın otobiyografisi, fazla aksiyon içermiyor.
Elimde olsa herkesin -kendileri için doğru zaman geldiğinde- bu kitabı okumasını sağlardım. Carl Jung psikoloji ve psikiyatri için varlığına şükredeceğimiz bir isim ve anılarını okumak benim için en az psikoloji ders kitabımız kadar faydalı oldu.
“Birey, bilincine varabilirse dünyanın yarısının ruhtan oluştuğunu anlar. Bu nedenle ruh bireysel bir sorun değil bir dünya sorunsalıdır ve bir psikiyatrist tüm dünyayla uğraşmak zorundadır.” (less)
Mar 29, 2016ZaRi added it · review of another edition
وقتی انسان راه تفرد را دنبال می کند، وقتی زندگی خودش را زندگی می کند، باید خطاها را پبذیرد، زیرا زندگی بدون این اشتباهات کامل نمی شود و یا حتی برای یک لحظه تضمینی نیست که گرفتار خطا نشویم. شاید بیندیشیم راه امنی نیز وجود دارد، اما آن راه، راه مرگ خواهد بود: آنگاه دیگر چیزی رخ نخواهد داد، یعنی لااقل چیزهای درست. آن کس که راه مطمئن در پیش می گیرد با مرده فرقی ندارد...!
Nov 21, 2012Martha Love rated it it was amazing
If you only read one book that is written by Carl Jung, this is the book to read. It is the most understandable book he has written and one I enjoy reading over and over!
Jung wrote this book as more of a case study than as an autobiography, giving you a first hand understanding of his inner process. We do not usually get this kind of information from our great ones in psychology, rather we only get to read of their theories once formed and perhaps studies with their clients. But we rarely are privileged to the inner story like Jung reveals in this book, with the history and questions about self, along with his process of introspection and self-discovery that propelled his curiosity of the human condition and lead him to formulate his psychological theories about the individuation process.
Martha Love,
Author of What's Behind Your Belly Button? A Psychological Perspective of the Intelligence of Human Nature and Gut Instinct and
Increasing Intuitional Intelligence: How the Awareness of Instinctual Gut Feelings Fosters Human Learning, Intuition, and Longevity (less)
Jung wrote this book as more of a case study than as an autobiography, giving you a first hand understanding of his inner process. We do not usually get this kind of information from our great ones in psychology, rather we only get to read of their theories once formed and perhaps studies with their clients. But we rarely are privileged to the inner story like Jung reveals in this book, with the history and questions about self, along with his process of introspection and self-discovery that propelled his curiosity of the human condition and lead him to formulate his psychological theories about the individuation process.
Martha Love,
Author of What's Behind Your Belly Button? A Psychological Perspective of the Intelligence of Human Nature and Gut Instinct and
Increasing Intuitional Intelligence: How the Awareness of Instinctual Gut Feelings Fosters Human Learning, Intuition, and Longevity (less)
If you read anything by Jung, read this book. This deals with his psychological theories in a much more personal way than his other work, and, as it is written in the twilight of his life, he has no fear of academic or personal reprisal. His analysis of Freud is particularly revealing- both damning and humanizing. It also gives a very powerful insight into the way that myths can be opened up for personal growth & analysis. Of course, if you want to get the most out of this book, it may help to have a book such as the Complete Works of Jung handy, so you can familiarize yourself with his terminology and the progress of his ideas.
On the other hand, if you get pissed off when "scholars" begin sentences with "I think..." or "I feel...", leave it be. You'll just hurt yourself. He's completely fine with subjectivity.
Read for the Immanence of Myth project www.modernmythology.net (less)
On the other hand, if you get pissed off when "scholars" begin sentences with "I think..." or "I feel...", leave it be. You'll just hurt yourself. He's completely fine with subjectivity.
Read for the Immanence of Myth project www.modernmythology.net (less)
Apr 18, 2008Erik Graff rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Recommends it for: Jung fans
Recommended to Erik by: no one
Shelves: biography
Jung's autobiography was not really written by Jung. As the cover says, it was "recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe" between 1957 and his death in 1961. She therefore deserves much credit for producing a readable narrative which is quite entertaining, though not to be completely trusted.
I reread the book and indexed it when taking a course on Jung with the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago during the first semester of 1982/83. Ironically, although the copy of the first edition I read had no index, a subsequent copy purchased did, so the work did not have its intended benefit. (less)
I reread the book and indexed it when taking a course on Jung with the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago during the first semester of 1982/83. Ironically, although the copy of the first edition I read had no index, a subsequent copy purchased did, so the work did not have its intended benefit. (less)
