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Psychology and Alchemy (Jung's Collected Works #12)
by
C.G. Jung
A study of the analogies between alchemy, Christian dogma, and psychological symbolism. Revised translation, with new bibliography and index.
Hardcover, 594 pages
Published
August 1st 1968
by Princeton University Press (NJ)
(first published 1952)
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Josh
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Recommends it for:
The wise old man, the Anima, and the intellect as Prima Materia
I was reading Psychology and Alchemy on the bus when a young woman leaned in and ask me, "Is that Jung?"
I told her that it was.
"Man, I've tried reading Jung before, but I've never made it all the way through. How are you liking it?"
"Well, it's ..." I blanked. And not only blanked, I realized that my mind had been blank for the last god-knows-how-long. As my eyes had been scanning the page, my thoughts had wandered so that not on...more
I told her that it was.
"Man, I've tried reading Jung before, but I've never made it all the way through. How are you liking it?"
"Well, it's ..." I blanked. And not only blanked, I realized that my mind had been blank for the last god-knows-how-long. As my eyes had been scanning the page, my thoughts had wandered so that not on...more
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Erik Graff
rated it
Recommends it for:
alchemy/Jung fans
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
psychology
I'm not actually certain when I read this volume of the Collected Works and such similarly demanding texts as his Mysterium Coniunctionis. Hopefully I had the sense by the end of college to hold such texts until such time as I knew more about medieval and early modern religion and alchemy.
One thing I did do in college was to utilize interlibrary loan to obtain hundreds of journal articles about Jung and analytical psychology. By senior year I had my own study carrel and would basic...more
One thing I did do in college was to utilize interlibrary loan to obtain hundreds of journal articles about Jung and analytical psychology. By senior year I had my own study carrel and would basic...more
Jung's book introduced me to the subject of alchemy and became a profound influence on me in terms of the way in which I use symbolism in my own writing. Jung believes that the Freudian "subconscious", (which he renamed the "unconscious"), or what he calls the "personal unconscious," is subsumed by a greater whole of transpersonal, transcultural elements called the "collective unconscious". When he (supposedly) noticed alchemical symbolism in the dreams ...more
Wow. Jung, along with T.S. Eliot and some others, has the ability to make me feel woefully undereducated because, you know, I can't read Greek. OR Latin, even. Many parts of this book were almost impenetrably dense (for me), made up of references to ideas and people I had never heard of, and lengthy quotations and their translations, and discussions of their translations. That was rough. I was hoping to come out of it knowing a little something about alchemy, and I'm not sure that really ha...more
In this book, Jung describes the 'opus' "as a work of imagination. He is discussing an old alchemical text that that tells how to produce the philosophers' stone. The passage says that one should be guided by a true and not a fantastic imagination. Commenting on this idea, Jung says that imagination is "an authentic accomplishment of thought or reflection that does not spin aimless and groundless fantasies into the blue; that is to say, it does not merely play with its object, rather i...more
Emily
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
serious students of Jungian analysis, alchemy, or the Western esoteric tradition
This book is encyclopedic in scope, filled with page after page of electrifying insight and ecstatically illustrated throughout with 17th and 18th century alchemical engravings. There are worlds upon worlds to be discovered here, many of which I'm afraid I will have to wait until subsequent readings to fully grasp. Jung writes for the serious scholar, with footnotes that often cover more than half the page, and assumes substantial knowledge in the fields of analytic psychology, alchemy, and Chr...more
If I happen to write about a book then you can be certain it is IMPORTANT to those of us "on the Path". This book contains invaluable reproductions of drawings made by REAL Alchemists, in fact the whole book as more illustrations than writing almost. Almost every page as a huge Alchemical drawing that, in my true opinion, can be meditated on and it helps those of us on the Path to GNOSIS.
For anyone interested in the mystery of life and the mind. I recommend reading the intro, then the epilogue first. Reading the intro twice really helped. It will especially interest you if you like dream interpretation (by a master) as well as mythology, the problem of opposites, and universal symbols. A lot of our new age ideas originate with alchemy. Nothing new under the sun.
I am a nerd and love alchemy. I love it in the way Jung loves it. So obviously I like this book a lot. If you don't love alchemy you probably won't get into it.
alchemy, dream psychology, individuation...
Written in characteristicy style of Jung. One needs to read it at least two times. Each time VERY slowly
Written in characteristicy style of Jung. One needs to read it at least two times. Each time VERY slowly
I don't think anyone has ever said anything as profound on the psychology of religion.
The abstruse theories behind alchemy's relation to the psyche.
Too much alchemy and religion, less psychology than I expected.
nice picture book, associating ideas with concepts, on several different levels. Much on dream symbolism, the elements and interactions of these ideas and images reveal motivations, drives and affectations of all of us.
I almost cried with joy reading the first 40 pages. I can't believe I avoided Jung for so many years! Simply amazing.
Loved it! At least for the pictures! :)
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Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychologist, influential thinker, and founder of analytical psychology.
Jung's unique approach to psychology was influential in countercultural movements in Europe and the United States in the 1960s. He has emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical...more
More about C.G. Jung...
Jung's unique approach to psychology was influential in countercultural movements in Europe and the United States in the 1960s. He has emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical...more
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