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Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 1: Psychiatric Studies
The authoritative edition of early psychiatric studies by Jung, which foreshadow much of his later work
Psychiatric Studies gathers writings on descriptive and experimental psychiatry that Jung published between 1902 and 1905, early in his career as a psychiatrist. The book opens with a study that foreshadows much of his later work and is indispensable to all serious students of his psychiatric career. This is his medical-degree dissertation, “On the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena,” a detailed analysis of the case of an adolescent girl who professed to be a medium. This volume also includes papers on cryptomnesia, hysterical parapraxes in reading, manic mood disorder, simulated insanity, and other subjects.
Psychiatric Studies gathers writings on descriptive and experimental psychiatry that Jung published between 1902 and 1905, early in his career as a psychiatrist. The book opens with a study that foreshadows much of his later work and is indispensable to all serious students of his psychiatric career. This is his medical-degree dissertation, “On the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena,” a detailed analysis of the case of an adolescent girl who professed to be a medium. This volume also includes papers on cryptomnesia, hysterical parapraxes in reading, manic mood disorder, simulated insanity, and other subjects.
288 pages, Paperback
Published March 19, 2024
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About the author
C.G. Jung
1,871 books11.3k followersCarl Gustav Jung (/jʊŋ/; German: [ˈkarl ˈɡʊstaf jʊŋ]), often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of extraversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, philosophy, archeology, anthropology, literature, and related fields. He was a prolific writer, many of whose works were not published until after his death.
The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.
Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.
Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.
The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.
Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.
Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.
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September 22, 2025
SOME OF JUNG’S WRITINGS ON PSYCHOANALYSIS
The Editorial Preface to this 1957 collection explains, “[This book], first published in 1921… marks the terminus of Jung’s moved away from psychoanalysis. No further long single work appeared till 1946. During the intervening period, when Jung’s professional work and his teaching occupied a large part of his time, he was abstracting, refining, and elaborating his basic theses in a series of shorter essays.”
In the first essay, ‘On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena’ (1902), he wrote, “In that wide domain of psychopathic inferiority from which science has marked off the clinical pictures of epilepsy, hysteria, and neurasthenia, we find scattered observations on certain rare states of consciousness as to whose meaning the authors are not yet agreed. These observations crop up sporadically in the literature on narcolepsy, lethargy, ‘automatisme ambulatoire’ [compulsive moving/wandering], periodic amnesia, double consciousness, somnambulism, pathological dreaminess, pathological lying, etc. … It is, in fact, exceedingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, to distinguish these states from the various types of neurosis, but … certain features point beyond pathological inferiority to something more than a mere analogical relationship with the phenomena of normal psychology, and even with the psychology of the supranormal, that of genius.” (Pg. 3-4)
In his ‘Records of Séances,’ he recounts, “S.W. at once took control of the ‘communications.’ The ‘psychograph,’ for which an overturned tumbler was used, the two fingers of the right hand being placed upon it, moved with lightning speed from letter to letter… It was communicated that the medium’s grandfather was present and would speak to us…” (Pg. 25)
He reports, “S.W. was subjected to numerous suggestions in regard to scientific phenomena. Generally, toward the [end] of the séances, various subjects of a scientific or spiritualistic nature were discussed and debated. S.W. never took part in the conversation, but sat dreamily in a corner in a semi-somnambulistic condition.” (Pg. 39)
He explains, “Semi-somnambulism is characterized by the continuity of consciousness with that of the waking state and by the appearance of various automatisms which point to the activity of a subconscious independent of the conscious self. Our case shows the following automatic phenomena: (1) Automatic movements of the table. (2) Automatic writing. (3) Hallucinations.” (Pg. 48)
He states, “Another automatic phenomenon, which … corresponds to a higher degree of partial hypnosis, is automatic writing. It is, at least in my experience, much rarer and more difficult to produce than table-turning.” (Pg. 54)
He notes, “The most striking feature of the ‘second state’ is the change in character. There are several cases in the literature which show this symptom of spontaneous change in the character of a person.” (Pg. 61)
In his 1903 essay on ‘Simulated Insanity,’ he acknowledges, “We possess no infallible method of unmasking the malingerer and are as dependent as ever on the subjective impression he makes on the observer.” (Pg. 159)
Later, he states, “When a criminal simulates insanity, that is a comparatively convenient and simple means of getting transferred to an asylum, and from which he can escape more easily. Here the means are adapted to the ends. But when an hysterical girl tortures herself in order to appear interesting, both means and ends are the outcome of some morbid mental activity.” (Pg. 186)
He notes, “It is not so very uncommon for two psychiatric diagnoses to reach contradictory conclusions, especially when… it is a question of the very elastic borderline between complete irresponsibility and partial responsibility.” (Pg. 209)
He states, “Moral defect (moral insanity) is a congenital condition characterized by the absence of moral feelings. Hysteria never causes a moral defect; it can at most mask the existence of such, or exaggerate its pre-existing influence on a person’s actions. Hysteria is a morbid condition, congenital or acquired, in which the affects are exceedingly powerful. Here the patients are more or less the continual victims of their affects. At the same time, however, hysteria generally determines only the QUANTITY, not the QUALITY, of the affects. The quality is given by the patient’s character. A soft-hearted person, if she becomes hysterical, will simply burst into tears more easily, a ruthless person will become harder, and one who is inclined to excess will fall victim to her inclinations even more unresistingly than before. It is in this manner that we have to encourage the influence of hysteria on criminal actions. A person who is morally defective from the beginning and who is or becomes hysterical therefore has even less power of resistance than one who is only morally defective.” (Pg. 215)
He suggests, “The asylum should never become the executive organ of criminal law. By relieving criminal justice of inconvenient elements we do not make them better, we merely ruin our asylums. So long as society is unwilling to alter the laws relating to criminal justice, it must also discover to its cost that, as a result of the rapidly increasing number of partially responsible persons, the most dangerous criminals are turned loose against it at ever shorter intervals. Only in this way can the pressing need for reforms be demonstrated to the public.” (Pg. 218)
Not one of Jung’s ‘masterworks,’ these relatively ‘early’ essays may be helpful to those studying his early psychoanalytic and hospital work.
The Editorial Preface to this 1957 collection explains, “[This book], first published in 1921… marks the terminus of Jung’s moved away from psychoanalysis. No further long single work appeared till 1946. During the intervening period, when Jung’s professional work and his teaching occupied a large part of his time, he was abstracting, refining, and elaborating his basic theses in a series of shorter essays.”
In the first essay, ‘On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena’ (1902), he wrote, “In that wide domain of psychopathic inferiority from which science has marked off the clinical pictures of epilepsy, hysteria, and neurasthenia, we find scattered observations on certain rare states of consciousness as to whose meaning the authors are not yet agreed. These observations crop up sporadically in the literature on narcolepsy, lethargy, ‘automatisme ambulatoire’ [compulsive moving/wandering], periodic amnesia, double consciousness, somnambulism, pathological dreaminess, pathological lying, etc. … It is, in fact, exceedingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, to distinguish these states from the various types of neurosis, but … certain features point beyond pathological inferiority to something more than a mere analogical relationship with the phenomena of normal psychology, and even with the psychology of the supranormal, that of genius.” (Pg. 3-4)
In his ‘Records of Séances,’ he recounts, “S.W. at once took control of the ‘communications.’ The ‘psychograph,’ for which an overturned tumbler was used, the two fingers of the right hand being placed upon it, moved with lightning speed from letter to letter… It was communicated that the medium’s grandfather was present and would speak to us…” (Pg. 25)
He reports, “S.W. was subjected to numerous suggestions in regard to scientific phenomena. Generally, toward the [end] of the séances, various subjects of a scientific or spiritualistic nature were discussed and debated. S.W. never took part in the conversation, but sat dreamily in a corner in a semi-somnambulistic condition.” (Pg. 39)
He explains, “Semi-somnambulism is characterized by the continuity of consciousness with that of the waking state and by the appearance of various automatisms which point to the activity of a subconscious independent of the conscious self. Our case shows the following automatic phenomena: (1) Automatic movements of the table. (2) Automatic writing. (3) Hallucinations.” (Pg. 48)
He states, “Another automatic phenomenon, which … corresponds to a higher degree of partial hypnosis, is automatic writing. It is, at least in my experience, much rarer and more difficult to produce than table-turning.” (Pg. 54)
He notes, “The most striking feature of the ‘second state’ is the change in character. There are several cases in the literature which show this symptom of spontaneous change in the character of a person.” (Pg. 61)
In his 1903 essay on ‘Simulated Insanity,’ he acknowledges, “We possess no infallible method of unmasking the malingerer and are as dependent as ever on the subjective impression he makes on the observer.” (Pg. 159)
Later, he states, “When a criminal simulates insanity, that is a comparatively convenient and simple means of getting transferred to an asylum, and from which he can escape more easily. Here the means are adapted to the ends. But when an hysterical girl tortures herself in order to appear interesting, both means and ends are the outcome of some morbid mental activity.” (Pg. 186)
He notes, “It is not so very uncommon for two psychiatric diagnoses to reach contradictory conclusions, especially when… it is a question of the very elastic borderline between complete irresponsibility and partial responsibility.” (Pg. 209)
He states, “Moral defect (moral insanity) is a congenital condition characterized by the absence of moral feelings. Hysteria never causes a moral defect; it can at most mask the existence of such, or exaggerate its pre-existing influence on a person’s actions. Hysteria is a morbid condition, congenital or acquired, in which the affects are exceedingly powerful. Here the patients are more or less the continual victims of their affects. At the same time, however, hysteria generally determines only the QUANTITY, not the QUALITY, of the affects. The quality is given by the patient’s character. A soft-hearted person, if she becomes hysterical, will simply burst into tears more easily, a ruthless person will become harder, and one who is inclined to excess will fall victim to her inclinations even more unresistingly than before. It is in this manner that we have to encourage the influence of hysteria on criminal actions. A person who is morally defective from the beginning and who is or becomes hysterical therefore has even less power of resistance than one who is only morally defective.” (Pg. 215)
He suggests, “The asylum should never become the executive organ of criminal law. By relieving criminal justice of inconvenient elements we do not make them better, we merely ruin our asylums. So long as society is unwilling to alter the laws relating to criminal justice, it must also discover to its cost that, as a result of the rapidly increasing number of partially responsible persons, the most dangerous criminals are turned loose against it at ever shorter intervals. Only in this way can the pressing need for reforms be demonstrated to the public.” (Pg. 218)
Not one of Jung’s ‘masterworks,’ these relatively ‘early’ essays may be helpful to those studying his early psychoanalytic and hospital work.
March 25, 2024
Today, with the mass paperback release of C. G. Jung. I can say, 2024 will be the year of Carl Jung. Reading Jung changed my life. It takes time reading psychology, but once one reaches a certain point, it is like a tsunami of revelation on human nature. The horror of Jung, he is right on everything he talks about. It will take years for me to comprehend the implications of Jung’s writings. Freud is easy, Jung is hard. Jung is hard because he is right. In a way, I want Jung to be wrong, staying within Freud’s psychology is easy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews