Man and His Symbols

Aug 18, 2007 علی rated it 4 of 5 stars

اگر تعبیر خواب و رویای فروید را خوانده اید، از "انسان و سمبول هایش" لذت مشابهی خواهید برد. با این همه کتاب سوم در این زمینه "زبان از یاد رفته" از اریش فروم است که به اندازه ی هر دوی اینها جالب و خواندنی ست. این هر سه کتاب روند نگاه به رویا را در طی سه دهه نشان می دهند، از فروید که عناصر رویا را در ارثیه ی روحی و روانی و جنسی شخص از روزگار رشدش می داند، تا یونگ که ریشه های رویا را در گذشته ی اساطیری و آیینی انسان می بیند و بالاخره اریش فروم که به مخلوطی از این دو اشاره می کند، و جهان رویا را از گ...more

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Nov 02, 2012 amine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Priceless 60 years of Jungian Insight on Man and his collective unconscious as a part of everyday life and symbols through, 1st - a firm knowledge of universal symbolism, 2nd - a humongous amount of experience, 3rd - meditation and gnosticism as initiated by his sister (or as far as I can remember reading somewhere). In simpler words, Practice, not only dry bookish theory.

Also shows what "modern" man and pure occidental/western materialism have lost ignoring an unquestionable part of us and push...more Priceless 60 years of Jungian Insight on Man and his collective unconscious as a part of everyday life and symbols through, 1st - a firm knowledge of universal symbolism, 2nd - a humongous amount of experience, 3rd - meditation and gnosticism as initiated by his sister (or as far as I can remember reading somewhere). In simpler words, Practice, not only dry bookish theory.

Also shows what "modern" man and pure occidental/western materialism have lost ignoring an unquestionable part of us and pushing it inside a drawer.

Now for a quite interesting quote from The Philosophy of Ibn 'Arabi by Rom Landau :
Only with the advent of Jung's analytical psychology has the world become familiar with the concept of the archetypal dreams, dreams whose sources are to be sought not in the subconscious of the individual but in that of an entire civilization or nation. Most people consider the notion of the archetypal dream as not only new but revolutionary. In actual fact it is not new. For Jung's formulation of such a dream can be found in Ibn 'Arabi.
Reading Guénon's great west/east mix in La Crise Du Monde Moderne might come next, got to find the book first.

I'll finish with a quote from Man and His Symbols which I found quite funny (it's not the bulk of the book or the main points, merely a funny thing):
"I myself found a fascinating example of this in Nietzsche’s book Thus Spake Zarathustra, where the author reproduces almost word for word an incident reported in a ship’s log for the year 1686. By sheer chance I had read this seaman’s yarn in a book published about 1835 (half a century before Nietzsche wrote); and when I found the similar passage in Thus Spake Zarathustra, I was struck by its peculiar style, which was different from Nietzsche’s usual language. I was convinced that Nietzsche must also have seen the old book, though he made no reference to it. I wrote to his sister, who was still alive, and she confirmed that she and her brother had in fact read the book together when he was 11 years old. I think, from the context, it is inconceivable that Nietzsche had any idea that he was plagiarizing this story. I believe that fifty years later it has unexpectedly slipped into focus in his conscious mind."(less)

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Oct 28, 2008 Lyla Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am still reading this one. I'm a slow reader when it comes to non-fiction but this book is absolutely RIVETING. I had no idea that psychology could feel so... supernatural.

** ** ***

My copy is a very old, tiny and densely printed copy I got for free from a psychology library in San Francisco that was moving to a new location and clearing out the stacks. I taped together the spine where it was started to fall apart. I'm still only about 100 pages in but it is UNBELIEVABLY fascinating and I can't...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Stanislav Sokolenko rated it 1 of 5 stars

While I can appreciate some of the discussion on the importance of the unconscious and its evolutionary ramifications, this book was of little redeeming value. My biggest problem was its heavy use of anecdotal 'evidence.' Throughout the book, the authors were able to draw convenient examples to illustrate their points from a variety of sources, but never considered the myriad of other interpretations that are possible. At the end of the book, I was no more convinced of the majority of their poin...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Bob Nichols rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is a collection of essays on Jungian thought. The initial essay was written by Jung, who also approved the other essays (as true to his thinking) shortly before his death in 1961.

The Jungian approach integrates the unconscious and the conscious so that individuals can be whole, which generally involves tapping into our psychic center that is distinct from our conscious ego. Civilization's focus on the ego and denial or ignorance of the unconscious results in all sorts of psychological healt...more This is a collection of essays on Jungian thought. The initial essay was written by Jung, who also approved the other essays (as true to his thinking) shortly before his death in 1961.

The Jungian approach integrates the unconscious and the conscious so that individuals can be whole, which generally involves tapping into our psychic center that is distinct from our conscious ego. Civilization's focus on the ego and denial or ignorance of the unconscious results in all sorts of psychological health and social problems. Regarding the latter, Jung makes a connection, but it is more assertive than clear. The best part of Jung is the emphasis on the instinctual energy within that needs to be recognized and accommodated in some way, and the recognition of our individuality that suggests there is a biological basis for character and temperament that influences how we experience the world. Jung or one of the contributors references the psychic center as the unseen force within that pushes us in certain directions regardless of what our ego says or wants us to do. This is a striking point.

With Jung and his colleagues, dreams and symbols unlock the unconscious, but there seems to be an over interpretation of what's involved in these various expressions. Dreams can express simple, individualized fears without tapping into universal or cosmic level archetypes. Stone grave markers, per se, can be used not as symbols of universal yearnings for eternity but because they best endure over time to mark the memory of a lost one. The last chapter was particularly problematic. In one place, the writer suggests that most modern day concepts of physics "were originally intuitive, semi-mythological, archetypal ideas of the old Greek philosophers." Off hand, this seems to take too much credit for Jungian thought. Later, the writer says the relationship between the conscious and unconscious is also a form of "compelmentarity" seen in modern physics, and that the unconscious is similar to the "field" concept. To say that there are similarities does not mean that consciousness is a particle and that the unconscious is a wave, and that the unconscious is, itself, a field as understood by physics. It's fair to speculate about the connection between human psychology and physics since we are at least matter and energy, but the type of speculation seen in this last chapter strikes me as overly ambitious on behalf of Jungian thought. (less)

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Sep 26, 2011 Kevin Fuller rated it 5 of 5 stars

A symbol, Jung explains, is a word, picture, photograph, statue, etc. that always signifies something much larger than what we immediately know, and therefore points to the unconscious.

In this book, Jung first introduces us (the lay public) to the unconscious and it's machinations that can be found in personal ticks, social characteristics, dreams and fantasies. The unconscious can manifest personally in the complex, those group of personal characteristics we acquire through private experience,...more

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Apr 02, 2011 Rommel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the first time I read a book on Carl Jung. In fact, I didn't read it, I listened to it on you tube. Not sure if the entire book is recorded but I think i got the core in the 15 10 minute videos that are posted on you tube. I'm a slow reader so it was great to find this online.

My overall feeling about this book is that it is a good introduction to Jung's theories on dreams, the conscious and unconciousness, and man's symbols. I do agree with a lot of Jung's theories as I have been studyi...more This was the first time I read a book on Carl Jung. In fact, I didn't read it, I listened to it on you tube. Not sure if the entire book is recorded but I think i got the core in the 15 10 minute videos that are posted on you tube. I'm a slow reader so it was great to find this online.

My overall feeling about this book is that it is a good introduction to Jung's theories on dreams, the conscious and unconciousness, and man's symbols. I do agree with a lot of Jung's theories as I have been studying my own dreams for the last 2 years and his theories seem to reinforce a lot of the structure behind my dreams.

I found several things interesting and understand them to be truth as far as my dreams are concerned,,,for example, Jung believed that the unconscious is organic and instinctive. Organic in the same way a plant produces it's flower, there are no prejudices, no playing field, it just produces. However,and I quote, "if the unconcious contains many things that ought to be concious than it's function becomes twisted and prejudice, motives appear that are not based upon true instincts but that owe their existence and psyche importance to the fact that they have been consigned to the unconcious by repression or neglect."

There are also several points that seem contradicting and confusing. He says that dreams can not produce a definite thought, if they begin to do so, they cease to be a dream because they cross the threshold of consciousness. This seems to be saying that dreams are not reliable to interpret things about our outer world, yet he interprets certain dreams with such accuracy and assures that many of his clients were diagnosed and cured due to their interpretation of the dream. Maybe I missed the point. He goes on to say that, "meaningfulness and purposefulness are not the perogative of the mind, they operate in the whole of living nature." Again, this statement seems to contradict the notion that dreams have a place in the interpretation of our events in life.

Overall, I liked the listening experience of this book and would recommend it to anyone looking to get an introduction into some of Jung's theories.

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May 25, 2010 Trevor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology

I have a strange love / hate relationship with Jung. There are so many things about him that I find utterly fascinating and then others that I think are just crazy. I would rather think one thing or the other, but since he was obsessed with dualities, perhaps he would be happy with my conflicting and opposite feelings towards him.

There are things about his ideas that I find incredibly appealing. A personal story might help make that clear. I started reading this book a while ago now – before I s...more I have a strange love / hate relationship with Jung. There are so many things about him that I find utterly fascinating and then others that I think are just crazy. I would rather think one thing or the other, but since he was obsessed with dualities, perhaps he would be happy with my conflicting and opposite feelings towards him.

There are things about his ideas that I find incredibly appealing. A personal story might help make that clear. I started reading this book a while ago now – before I started Uni this year – and one of the things that made me continue with it was the idea of what I would call ‘metaphorical illnesses’. I’ve forgotten what Jung called them, but since my name is better than his could possibly be (no matter what it was) we will go with that. The idea is that sometimes in life you have an ‘illness’ which has symptoms which mirror the psychological conditions you are suffering from. You may not be able to walk, for example, but this has little to do with your legs, but much to do with how you feel trapped in a particular relationship in which you feel you can’t escape from, even though on a deep level you know escaping would be the right thing to do. So, it is as if your mind has said, ‘if you can’t walk away from this then don’t walk at all’.

Now, I’m the first to tell you that I would find such metaphorical illnesses a bit over the top and hard to believe being possible in any but the most troubled and deeply psychotic – I mean, can you really ‘make yourself’ blind because your ‘unconscious mind’ is ‘trying to tell you something’? Does this really sound likely? Well, possibly not. But then again, last year I left an intolerable job, but while I was there I found I had developed terrible headaches, or at least, not headaches as such, but more a scorching pain across the top of my head. This, I found out, was caused by the clenching of my teeth in my sleep. This year has been incredibly busy and often quite stressful, in many ways as stressful as anything I put up with last year. I’ve had more reading than I can keep up with and more work to do than can be done – both of which I guess are good predictors of stress – and yet the thing that has surprised me is that I haven’t been grinding my teeth at all this year (trust me, I would know if I had been).

This had been one of those little facts about life that had fallen into the ‘isn’t that odd’ category until I read this book and learned of Jung’s metaphorical illnesses. The whole time I was working at the union – at least for the last four or so years – I felt unable to say anything about the direction in which the union was heading. I think Jung would have had no trouble in diagnosing my night time teeth grinding. As someone ‘unable’ to talk during the day, the fact I kept my jaw clenched tight shut at night was clearly a sign from my sub-consciousness of my own self-imposed voicelessness.

Of course, the things that are nice about that story are also the things that make we feel uncomfortable about Jung in general. It is all too neat. There are lots of stories in this book and these stories are joined with lots of explanations of what certain symbols mean – but one of the things that I’ve learnt in life is that people love to hear good explanations of what something vague and obscure MEANS. If someone tells you their dream and in it there is a naked black man walking about the streets of Paris (as there is, for example, in one of the dreams described in the book) it might well be that the people in the country of the man having this dream do associate Paris with a certain kind of sexual liberation and relaxed mores and perhaps associate nudity with the ‘naked truth’ and even intend the black man in the dream to represent the inverse of the white man who is dreaming the dream – or it could all just be an example of homo-erotica – or it could be an example of lawlessness – or it could be that dreams in themselves aren’t actually all that meaningful.

How could we ever really know?

I think we find it quite appealing to believe that people are more or less like books, in that they have plots and themes and characters and that we can somehow become the perfect book reviewer with people’s dreams and lives and thereby judge and explain people in much the same way we might judge and explain The Da Vinci Code. The problem is that really no one is summed up by the face they present to the world – no, not even the dumb people – and no one is so shallow as to have dreams that have only one meaning and that the meaning a therapist helps you find. Repeatedly during this book we are told that symbols mean different things depending on the meaning they acquire within the context of the dream and the life in which they appear. And this is to the good, but also time and again we see the therapist tell the patient how to interpret a particular symbol (like the number four) in a single way from the therapist's ‘deep’ knowledge and understnding of how symbols ‘mean’. For Jung the number four is the number of completeness – I believe in Chinese it is the number for death, although this is not the kind of completeness Jung is talking of, I feel. I worry when people are reduced to texts that can be studied and interpreted and understood on the basis of a subtext that is not apparent to the character, but is clear and unambiguous to the reader.

I guess it is inevitable that Jungian psychology might come about given the rise of literary criticism over the last couple of hundred years – for isn’t that as good a definition of Jungian psychology as any other? The search for the sub-textual meaning in the lives of people when read as texts. My problem is that it is very difficult to know if the ‘reading’ by the psychologist is a valid or accurate reading, if this reading does in fact really illuminate something essential in the life of the person being read and finally just how efficacious such a reading is in ‘treating’ someone’s neurosis. All of these are problems that are not helped by the fact that it is highly questionable if there is any such thing as a ‘sub-conscious’ in the first place.

To me, the idea of there being a hidden driver of our actions, one who can’t speak to us directly but who knows the truth of our situations and leaves before us Sybil like clues and riddles as answers to our deepest troubles seems remarkably unlikely. That this veiled women who lurks in the depths of our psyches can only speak to us in dreams and is invariably right about how we should live out lives seems a hypothesis that would be impossible to prove. Even if our sub-conscious did exist, how could we ever be certain that it only ever meant to offer us clues to help us live our lives? Why couldn't our sub-conscious be occasionally as destructive as our consciousness clearly often is. Like that wonderful story of Apollo who after being repeatedly asked by someone if they should invade a city finally says yes because it will mean they will be killed and hence finally shut up and not ask him stupid questions any more.

The problem that needs answered first is whether or not the images thrown up in dreams are any more meaningful than those elicited from ink blots. And if not, how can we know if our interpretation of these symbols is any more than ‘an’ interpretation. Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed some of the interpretations described in this book, I was left feeling very uncomfortable by the idea that people were being reduced to characters in books. And while I understand (possibly all too well) the power our narratives have in framing our lives, I also understand that like all truly great books there simply are more than one reading that is both satisfying and meaningful to any cluster of symbols. I would recommend hesitating when coming to conclusions based on the images thrown up at us from the sub-conscious – much more hesitation than we might expend in coming to conclusions on the sub-textual elements in a novel.
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Oct 26, 2011 Aurochz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology

Not as bad as I thought it would be, but considering I thought it would totally fail that isn't saying much. I didn't really like what I had heard of Jung's psychology before this and this introductory book written by him and others didn't really change my mind in that regard.

Everyone can point out that psychoanalytic approaches aren't grounded in science or in some other form of legitimization. So in that sense while I criticize Jung for this as I would those of Freud and Adler, I also recogni...more Not as bad as I thought it would be, but considering I thought it would totally fail that isn't saying much. I didn't really like what I had heard of Jung's psychology before this and this introductory book written by him and others didn't really change my mind in that regard.

Everyone can point out that psychoanalytic approaches aren't grounded in science or in some other form of legitimization. So in that sense while I criticize Jung for this as I would those of Freud and Adler, I also recognize that not everything can have an absolute basis. In fact absolutely no information in our lives is grounded on anything stable. I'd be willing to lower my skeptical threshold if they could merely answer one aspect of their approaches with detail. In regards to Freud and Jung I would like to know why dreams must necessarily "mean" something. The reasons Jung gives in the book simply aren't good enough. He says dreams are important, because they display the unconscious, but the unconscious at least to the extent Jung and others wish to tout it as a necessity hasn't been proven either. His other reason and the reason given in the other essays in this book, amount to some myths seem to correlate with dreams people have today. Yet common images in our daily life and in our dreams could have a more easily put forward naturalistic answer.

We don't have exactly the same culture as some of the myths they use to elaborate on dreams in this book, but we do come from an extended temporal and spatial context containing the same information. Given the theory of evolution as it has been shown with linguistics, all of humanity must of shared a common cultural context at one point. This has been shown and is being shown with linguistics. The more we spread our scope of inquiry the more it seems that are languages back in some point in time had a common source. I believe the same can be said for all things relying on these vocal traditions including myths. The myths we have today from disparate cultures may be the result of accumulations and differentiations of previous myths that changed as the human species migrated outward from its original position or positions. This would also explain the vast similarities culminating into the mono-myths of the well known Jungian Joseph Campbell.

This seems like a much simpler answer than positing a need for subconscious to give us a vague symbol mechanism that transfers messages. However I would be open to hearing answers as to why dreams "must" be giving us subconscious messages that we need to decipher to have psychologically healthy lives.

I'm convinced to some extent after reading this, that psychoanalytic theory is in love with misogyny. Every major psychoanalytic thinker I have read books of, including Freud, Jung, Sartre and to a lesser extent Adler all propose sexist ideas as being key points of their particular school of psychology. The eternal feminine as Jung uses it, sometimes is used as a way of showing men the value of things traditionally seen as non-masculine. However, this is part of the main problem with it as well, past a certain point in history it just becomes crude essentialism and more then that they use it in explicitly sexist and deplorable ways in this very work. Jung blames a women for being sexually assaulted in a park after he said "she was doing dangerous things" or at least that is what her dreams indicated to Jung. We aren't told anything general about her life or why she necessarily in Jung's view "put herself" in harms way. The next essay written by a student of Jung's claims that a female patient came to him that wanted to have an equal standing with men, this man suggested she "tap into her eternal feminine" which culminated into her being more submissive in his own words. The problem with myths and religion in general is they typecast and stereotype people, sexism is the tip of the iceberg of the problems that occur if we insist on seeing people through the lens of traditional myths and roles.

Jung differs greatly with Freud and Adler in that he doesn't really have a methodology. He mainly "examines" patients through associative techniques such as Rorschach tests, incomplete pictures and staged conversations. Other then this his method relies heavily on comparing dreams to existent mythological symbols. In some ways this is better then the other psychoanalytic approaches because it is more individualized, less about method and pet ideas and more about the individual person. In other regards it seems overly vague and general in it's own right and as I showed with sexism, it has it's own ways of generalizing and typecasting people.

I do agree with Jung that quantitative psychology has not focused on emotions enough. Hopefully with the advent of evolutionary psychology study of emotions will become more important. Since emotions are key drives in an organisms ability to survive and reproduce. Joseph Ledoux has taken up this charge to an extent in showing the mechanisms for fear and stronger emotional states in great detail in several of his works. The problem and greatness of western society has been its over obsession of seeing "man" as essentially rational and even in scientific regards we do not wish to examine those things that have historically been seen as the lower and more folly laden aspects of our existence, such as emotions.

I didn't really enjoy it, cant recommend it.
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Jan 15, 2013 TarasProkopyuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology, multiple

Данная книга это попытка Юнга и его коллег остановить человека в его бегстве от мира малопонятного, загадочного, а также чарующего к миру рационального, логичного, правильного и материального.

В книге приведено множество аргументов для того чтобы переубедит людей в том, что тенденции последних столетий как будто заставили человечество замкнутся в малом, и довольствоваться ограниченными возможностями. И в большинстве только гениям, художникам, писателям, дизайнерам и поистине творческим людям изве...more

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Jul 22, 2010 Owen Spencer rated it 5 of 5 stars

My university professors never introduced me to Carl Jung. I understand why, I guess, but it's a shame that I didn't read Jung's work until now. Jungian psychology is amazing. It addresses the unconscious and the "self"/"psyche" in a unique and enlightening way. And, unlike most other psychologists, Jung did not shy away from unexplained phenomena and the so-called "paranormal". His theory provides insights into "unexplained" phenomena and is the only major psychological theory that includes the...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was the first mainly psychological book I had read and I had no ideas or hopes going into reading it. That being said, I felt as if -once I had finished the book- I truly understood the symbolism the authors tried to convey. I did not, however, completely agree with everything, such as the theory about male psyches, but other things I found extremely interesting; for example, the bit about schizophrenia in artists was really very intriguing. I'm not sure if I will continue to read C.G. Jung...more

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May 12, 2013 Natacha P rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: spirituality

This was my first book on Jung and it had me hooked. The introduction states that this book was written with the simple, typical reader in mind—which makes this particular volume easy to read. I’m definitely keen on wanting to read more of Jung’s work now, however I’ve heard that his writing can be very difficult to process due to advanced language and/or abstract concepts. I can only hope that it won’t be anything too strenuous once I get there!
Given that I’ve been interested in the study of dr...more This was my first book on Jung and it had me hooked. The introduction states that this book was written with the simple, typical reader in mind—which makes this particular volume easy to read. I’m definitely keen on wanting to read more of Jung’s work now, however I’ve heard that his writing can be very difficult to process due to advanced language and/or abstract concepts. I can only hope that it won’t be anything too strenuous once I get there!
Given that I’ve been interested in the study of dreams for over a year now, I feel this book on Jung was a highly satisfying place for me to start. Although only the first chapter was written by him, it may not matter much seeing as all the others follow the Jungian perspectives and analysis of dreams (and were also edited by Jung).

Many of the symbols discussed are ancient in origin and are therefore difficult to ‘trace.’ As such, they’re symbols that we all subconsciously know but which can be hard to understand, especially if we’ve lost touch with them. This is especially true in light of the fact that primitive societies have remained a lot more in touch with their intuition and significant archetypal images than our modern societies have. The essays in this compilation show—through different mediums like ancient myths and visual arts—how bridging the gap and reconciling the unconscious with our conscious states can prove beneficial and healing to us all.

Something that had initially stood out to me with this dream book was that the dreams seemed to pertain mostly to future events. There were no references whatsoever to the possibility of witnessing past life events through dreams—something which figures quite a bit in Edgar Cayce dream materials I’ve read. I found this puzzling and wondered if perhaps Jung didn’t believe in past lives/reincarnation. Ironically enough, I got a kind of ‘answer’ soon after as I read The Search for Omm Sety, in which the last chapter comments on the fact that Jung likely did believe in it, but chose not to bring it up out of concern that (his) society wasn’t ready for it yet.

Needless to say, my interest has definitely been peaked and I found this book very hard to put down due to its very interesting and enlightening content.(less)

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Aug 04, 2012 Aarthi rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an eye-opening book for me. I never knew before reading it that the human unconscious had the capacity to hold so much meaning and essence. It practically composes of all our hidden motives and unsaid thoughts. This is the first time that I am reading about symbolism and I am in love with the amazing things I am discovering in terms of its significance in dream interpretation and unconscious revelations.

Its a fabulous read for almost anyone belonging to any background. It is meant for th...more

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Dec 01, 2011 Amber rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jung's theories of psychology have always fascinated me. The idea of archetypes and the collective unconscious make perfect sense to me, though I imagine that anyone who has been devouring stories longer than she's been devouring solid food will find it natural to have them applied to the human mind. Living stories is part of what makes the urge to write and read and tell stories so powerful.

It doesn't hurt that there was a psychoanalytical section in my literary criticism class and that Jung w...more

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May 06, 2012 Jernej rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: family-owned

The first chapter, written by C.G. Jung himself is wonderful. The other chapters quickly become repetitive and redundant, with too many examples and too little clarification, completely confusing you by the end of the first half of the book. The ending is however quite interesting.
I give this 3/5 stars, cause it's really just an introductory book into the world of Jung's psychoanalysis, so I guess it accomplishes this pretty well, but I had my hopes higher when I decided to read it.
I should also...more

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Nov 15, 2011 David added it

I have come to see over many years that the conscious mind with its little logical concerns is a mere scratch on the surface, and that what rules us, benignly, is the unconscious with its wonderful symbols, the truths of which we all know and which are closer to us than anything else. Let them in. All the rest is a shadow play. Even my own cherished wishes are nothing but an illusion. I’m a confirmed Neo-Platonist in that respect at least. I’d like to be a Buddhist but could never join a club th...more

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Jan 02, 2011 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, therapy

While I grasped the basic hypothesis of Jung I did find a lot of the references to symbols flying past my comprehension. I do agree that there is the possibility of people having conscious and unconscious selves (how often do we get gut instincts about people or situations that only reveal themselves later) I am unsure if they show up in dreams as symbols as he believes. Oddly enough the chapters not written by Jung himself (he only wrote one) do a better job of explaining his point than he does...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Killthepopular rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Freud's ideas are too specific and simplistic. He tries too hard to make everything and everyone fit into his extremely reductive, inflexible theories. Jung on the other hand is too liberal, too vague. Jung focuses more on the ways in which people are individuals and every situation is different and so is reluctant to be so simplistic or specific in his ideas. As such, what you get from this book is an expansive and yet extremely vague outline of Jung's ideas. He furnishes ideas with all sorts o...more Freud's ideas are too specific and simplistic. He tries too hard to make everything and everyone fit into his extremely reductive, inflexible theories. Jung on the other hand is too liberal, too vague. Jung focuses more on the ways in which people are individuals and every situation is different and so is reluctant to be so simplistic or specific in his ideas. As such, what you get from this book is an expansive and yet extremely vague outline of Jung's ideas. He furnishes ideas with all sorts of random references and regularly says stuff like, "this symbol might represent this, or this, or possibly the opposite of both". Where Freud basically just says "EVERYTHING IS A PENIS!" Jung says, "hey, lets not go with phoney generalisations, it may be this or this..." It makes his ideas easier to swallow, but also less useful. Having read a few freud books i feel like i have a strong enough understanding of his ideas to apply them to real life situations or dream analysis. Having read this book, i feel like i don't really know anything about Jung, other than the fact that he places great importance upon the meaning of dreams and has some theories about "archetypes".

If this book was intended as a general introduction to Jung's theories for the average reader, then i think they went rather beyond that. As i say, the application of these theories is very open and vague, so there isn't much point in going into too much depth about all the possible meanings something might have when there are so many. The writers could have easily communicated the same basic ideas, more clearly and in far fewer words had they not been so set on making so many random cultural associations. The pictures that furnish these associations don't really seem to serve much purpose, besides constantly breaking the reader's train of thought and turning the book into an unwieldy "coffe table" sized volume. I think i would have preferred to read an un-illustrated edition.

Some of the sections seemed more worthwhile than others. The whole chapter on symbolism in art seemed to tell us more about art than it did about psychology and the conclusion about psychology affecting sub-atomic particles just seemed pointless.

It was much better written than Freud at least. I could understand what they meant when they outlined these complex ideas that i didn't understand, unlike with freud where i understand the ideas but can't follow the garbled style of expression.

I like the ideas, and i enjoyed reading it, but i'm not sure i would recommend it. Most of this book consists of extensive elaboration of incredibly vague theories. I'm not convinced i really learned much more about Jung than what i already knew from just reading the wikipedia articles about his ideas. I began this book with a vague notion of his theories, and finished it the same way. Maybe his ideas are just too complex, maybe this book just isn't that great...(less)

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Jan 15, 2012 Messengerlikeyou rated it 5 of 5 stars

I didn't get it, I really tried, way over my head, but I get Jung in so many other ways. Things like symbolism go right over my analytical head, I only give the mans book 5 stars because he is a Black Swan in mind doctoring (Psychology). The Field of Psyology is ruled by so many Tight Ass pussys, that I give the man 5 stars to piss them off! Hear that Psychologists Doctoring Fools. Hats off to you Jung, You went into the world no Eleites Wimps would Go, You Sir Have Honorand my respect! Freud wa...more

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Aug 22, 2010 John Kulm rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this book, although the used "Dell" edition I bought is falling apart. I'll have to buy another copy. The book has much to say about dreams and art. I'm adding some quotes from the book to the review I posted a few days ago.

If you think about the following quote while viewing paintings, you might find insights about artists who often, unconsciously, express their conscious attitude to the right of the canvas and their unconscious attitude on the left: “Among other things ‘right’ often me...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Aaron rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: social-science, psychology, philosophy-religion, anthology, art

The book was written for the general public and, as Jung's last published work, along meant as a kind of after-the-fact introduction to his work. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work as either. Those looking for an introduction to Jung would do better with Anthony Storr's The Essential Jung, which gives a balanced introduction to his work over the whole course of his life. His writing here is interesting, but not a good introduction to the rest of his ideas; little effort is made to explain thi...more

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Jan 13, 2009 Mitch rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: manning, 2009

I am conflicted about this book. I picked it up because I saw it on a couple different reading lists recommended for screenwriters. If I could have read this book simply as a writer, I may have gotten more out of it, but I am doubtful. Instead, it was hard for me to repress my scientific mind for some of the more outlandish "theories" presented.

With respect to improving my writing, I did get a lot out of this book. It presents society, the history of human culture and the psyche in terms of symb...more I am conflicted about this book. I picked it up because I saw it on a couple different reading lists recommended for screenwriters. If I could have read this book simply as a writer, I may have gotten more out of it, but I am doubtful. Instead, it was hard for me to repress my scientific mind for some of the more outlandish "theories" presented.

With respect to improving my writing, I did get a lot out of this book. It presents society, the history of human culture and the psyche in terms of symbols. I think much of what is written for the screen today lacks the cohesive visual storytelling that supports complex thematic or deep character study. In this respect, I think I will be able to craft richer visual tableaus and explore the medium of film with deeper and more cinematic stories. In this respect, I think the book could have been a high three star book.

However, this book also reinforced many of my criticism of social "science". I will go too deeply into this subject for two reasons: first, it has no place here, and second, because this book is pushing 50 years old (Jung wrote and edited the book before he died in the early sixties, but it was not published until a couple of years later.) At the time it may have been very cutting edge and the discipline itself my have been solidified or become passe since. That being said, a conflict is occasionally hinted at between psychoanalysis and the physical sciences. Like most other opponents of the strict discipline of science, the authors tend to paint scientists as having some personal failing that prevents them from fully exploring the untestable declarations of the metaphysical or psychic realm. The conclusion of the book attempts to close this rift by drawing random and sporadic parallels between Jung's speculations and recent breakthroughs of "micro"physics. One example of the presentation of the duality of the self (conscious and unconscious) and the dual nature of light (sometimes acts as a wave, sometimes as a particle). This evidence is a collection of correlations and suggestions of causality or at least an underlying relationship. Any good this conclusion my have done for me was completely undone by the comparison of Jung's theory of synchronicity (psychic connections, devoid of critical thought) with Bohr's complementarity principle or Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (both based on observation and scrutinized by scientific testing.) The shame here is the continuation of this conflict of the unknown and creativity against scientific reasoning. One needs only to look at Sagan's marriage of wonder and scepticism to see that creativity and reason are integral partners in the pursuit of understanding. I think that the parts that offended my inner Sagan were not very useful in future fiction writing, and thus did not damage what the writer within took from this. That being said, scientifically, I give this book a 1 star.

In the end the duality of my personality probably did not hurt my reading of this book. If I had no scientific side, I likely would have just gleaned over the offensive parts because that had little impact on my reading as a writer. In this respect, I am glad I read the book. Perhaps someday in the future I will take a look at modern psychological theory to see if the field has changed.(less)

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Sep 20, 2008 Tessa rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sabrina - she asked to borrow it

Shelves: philosophy

this was my first book from jung, though it was only partially written by him. the majority of the book was written by students of jung, though they greatly adhere to his concepts. this was meant to be a layman's course in jungian symbolism and the difference between conscious and unconscious thought.

the first sections of the book introduced archetypes or "tendencies" of the symbols in conscious or reality versus unconscious or dream symbolism. the latter half of the book delved even further in...more

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Oct 09, 2007 Fretty rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: psychologysessay

I read this because I was doing a thesis about the relation between Dreams and Architecture. In my thesis I talked more on the psychology being of an architect and the reason of an architect design such a shape and space. It is needed for me to know the space within the soul of an architect. And this book helped me to see that.

For me, Jung taught me to see another different view of a person from this book. Why man acts the way a man act, and how a man could symbolizes their hidden spirit into s...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Teresa rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is NOT a book by C.G. Jung, he only authored the first essay; which, of course, is worthy of full marks. I, however, found the other contributors ... lacking. I tried to enjoy them, truly, after all they were Jung's comrades. Although, I suppose I may have judged them too harshly: can good be recognized next to genius?

On that note, some areas of Jung's essay blantingly evidence the editing done to decrease its formality - as the editor himself announces in the introduction. Still worth rea...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Vivek rated it 5 of 5 stars

A deep, deep plunge into the unconscious mind. Life always gives a symmetric treatment to every state in nature, thereby maintaining balance.

Although in case of psyche and especially in this era of rationalism, attention is mostly skewed to the conscious mind. It takes ample of amount of psychic labor to understand the unconscious part of our mind because mostly it speaks in a language of symbols which we don't understand and hence are compelled to regard as "not-important" (or sometimes non-se...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Paola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psicologia, junghiana

Comprate l'edizione con le immagini, perché sono quelle che "lavorano".
Jung non voleva scrivere per "tutti", sapeva che non si poteva semplificare concetti complessi. Poi fece un sogno, capì che invece il suo inconscio gli diceva di farlo, e che sarebbe stato possibile.
Mise al lavoro i suoi migliori collaboratori e lui si incaricò dell'introduzione. Morì pochi mesi dopo la sua pubblicazione.
(P.S. questa scheda é proprio brutta, come si fa a mettergli la sua copertina e a completarla?)

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Jun 07, 2011 Steven Fogel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: consciousness, self-transformation, philosophy, wisdom

Jung wrote it near the end of his life to describe his work to laypeople. One of Jung's major contributions to our understanding of our consciousness is the importance of dreams. In Man and His Symbols, he writes about what he learned about his own dreams and what he learned about dreams in other cultures. As part of his research, he studied societies that were still untouched by Western civilization, and he discovered that certain dreams and stories are common to all of the societies.

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Jul 09, 2009 Johnjbrantley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Who isn't fascinated by the subconscious? I sort of imagine that even before the modern pop psychology phenomenon, people were doing more or less the same thing.

It's pretty fun stuff. The subconscious seems to have endless capacity to produce dramatic scenarios and freaky associations. And all to good purpose, Jung assures us.

The book's tendency to overgeneralize about essential human desires and motivations kept me from giving it the full five stars.

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