History of Modern Psychology: Lectures Delivered at ETH Zürich, Volume 1, 1933-1934

by C.G. Jung, Ernst Falzeder (Editor), Ulrich Hoerni (Foreword)

Jung's lectures on the history of psychology--in English for the first time

Between 1933 and 1941, C. G. Jung delivered a series of public lectures at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Intended for a general audience, these lectures addressed a broad range of topics, from dream analysis to yoga and meditation. Here for the first time in English are Jung's lectures on the history of modern psychology from the Enlightenment to his own time, delivered in the fall and winter of 1933-34.

In these inaugural lectures, Jung emphasizes the development of concepts of the unconscious and offers a comparative study of movements in French, German, British, and American thought. He also gives detailed analyses of Justinus Kerner's The Seeress of Prevorst and Th�odore Flournoy's From India to the Planet Mars. These lectures present the history of psychology from the perspective of one of the field's most legendary figures. They provide a unique opportunity to encounter Jung speaking for specialists and nonspecialists alike and are the primary source for understanding his late work.

Featuring cross-references to the Jung canon and explanations of concepts and terminology, History of Modern Psychology painstakingly reconstructs and translates these lectures from manuscripts, summaries, and recently recovered shorthand notes of attendees. It is the first volume of a series that will make the ETH lectures available in their entirety to English readers.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

164 pages, Hardcover

Published October 30, 2018

About the author

Carl 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.

Reviews

[Shaun Phelps · Rating 4 out of 5]

whoo. it was quite a wrap of my mind to comprehend the chart Jung is explaining here. I honestly didn't take much time with it at first, thinking the lectures would shift away and instead he really doubled down. I SORT of get it, especially with the ego centric I focus and physical health symptoms, along with V ecstacy and enthusiasm. by the final pages I think I was following along, and also maybe I'm still lost. on to volume 2!

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much less an history of Psychology and more of a modern (at the time of the lecture,1933) take on a couple of specific cases. There is, towards the ending lectures, a bit more Jung perspective sprinkled in, which may be why the second half appealed to me more. Still, much like the other books in this series, the introductory notes are informative and interesting. The idea the book seems to deliver is the internal/external struggle, the "pull of the poles". The more often than not unconscious affect of this tension manifests itself usually in a neurosis. The analogy of magnets is used by Jung. With the center being the simplest consciousness of self and the world, with phases or spheres described stepping out on either side towards inner and outer awareness, both reaching a kind of ecstasy at their perceived limits or "poles". Also contained are interesting notes on Rockefeller, Freud, and Nietzsche.

[Marco Innamorati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sembra incredibile ma ognuno dei Seminari di Jung getta nuova luce sul suo pensiero. Queste pagine forniscono, nella prima parte, molte informazioni su come Jung leggeva i suoi “precursori”, in particolare filosofi. Nella seconda, a parte lo spazio forse un po’ troppo ampio dedicato a medium e veggenti, si trova una sorta di metapsicologia inedita, che riguarda i livelli di funzionamento della personalità, dalla massima tensione verso l’interno alla massima tensione verso l’esterno. Il libro, però, è tutto fuorché ciò che suggerirebbe il titolo: una storia della psicologia.