aylad's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Spoiler
I have a bachelor degree in psychology (specialized in psycho-analysis) but this is the first book by Jung that I've ever read and I found it difficult.
I've been reading books written by Freud for a long time and since Jung, at a certain point, had been a student of his, I assumed I would be able to read Jung 'just as easy' as I've been reading books written by Freud.
Jung obviously is a very smart man, combing both psychology, mythology, religion and science in one sentence to come to a conclusion. Many times I needed to reread sentences (and I'm not used to needing to do that) to (partly) understand what he meant. I think I will need to reread this book once I have more knowledge of his theory since now there's a lot I don't think I completely understood.
When I started the book, I thought he was going to provide a list of archetypes that exist and give us examples of different times and places where you can find the archetypes, proving his theory but that doesn't really happen. He talks about a few archetypes and gives some examples but it's mainly an explanation of the theory (or that is what I understood of it at the moment).
I've bought some other books written by Jung and I hope that when reading/read them, I will be more able to understand his theory and come back to this book.
Spoiler
mziizm's review
4.0
Abstruse as usual, Dr. Jung created another fascinating set of essays! It was in my first serious reading of one of Jung's works, many years ago, that I discovered that his writings have to be absorbed to be understood. This collection of essays was no different. Just like the process of individuation that he describes in several essays in the book, each body of work is like a piece of a wonderful painting, separated out into segments that need to be integrated in order to see what he is really talking about. He provides numerous examples of his clients' creative artwork and numinous experiences, which he then analyzes and weaves together within a universal culture of symbolism, taken from a variety of sources from different cultures throughout history.
At first blush, his numerous digressions appear to have sprung from a font of madness, and one begins to wonder if Dr. Jung has somehow lost his grip on reality through his attempts to understand and make sense of the various forms of insanity of his patients. But, then, slowly, patterns begin to emerge, and one finds oneself making sense of the parallels and allusions, as if through repetition, a form of cognitive shift has taken place.
It probably would have helped me to have read the other books of his collected essays, that were enumerated as prior to this volume. Had I done this, doubtless, I would have felt less the need to suspend judgment, being that I would have had a more concrete context of understanding within which to fit this nice little addition. However, it is not entirely necessary to take such an approach if one is patient, and willing to take note of what should be delved into more deeply in other of his collected works for the purpose of further elucidation.
It is also important to note that Jung's writings are from a different era, an era in which some of the theories of psychology were initially being developed. His approach to the synthesis of elements common to the human psyche may seem rather strange to us in the modern age, where we frequently take diagnoses and prescribed treatments for granted. This was new ground that he was breaking, and many of our theories of personality stem directly from his research.
Although I will not review all of the essays in this collection, I will say that his last chapter on mandalas was among my favorites. It is both enlightening and amazing to see how various of his patients' paintings had predecessors in other mystical and religious artwork throughout the ages, and yet how very unlikely it was that his patients had every been exposed to such artwork. This chapter seemed to me to be his most convincing, being that the concrete visual evidence showed the universality of a variety of psychological symbols and motifs.
At first blush, his numerous digressions appear to have sprung from a font of madness, and one begins to wonder if Dr. Jung has somehow lost his grip on reality through his attempts to understand and make sense of the various forms of insanity of his patients. But, then, slowly, patterns begin to emerge, and one finds oneself making sense of the parallels and allusions, as if through repetition, a form of cognitive shift has taken place.
It probably would have helped me to have read the other books of his collected essays, that were enumerated as prior to this volume. Had I done this, doubtless, I would have felt less the need to suspend judgment, being that I would have had a more concrete context of understanding within which to fit this nice little addition. However, it is not entirely necessary to take such an approach if one is patient, and willing to take note of what should be delved into more deeply in other of his collected works for the purpose of further elucidation.
It is also important to note that Jung's writings are from a different era, an era in which some of the theories of psychology were initially being developed. His approach to the synthesis of elements common to the human psyche may seem rather strange to us in the modern age, where we frequently take diagnoses and prescribed treatments for granted. This was new ground that he was breaking, and many of our theories of personality stem directly from his research.
Although I will not review all of the essays in this collection, I will say that his last chapter on mandalas was among my favorites. It is both enlightening and amazing to see how various of his patients' paintings had predecessors in other mystical and religious artwork throughout the ages, and yet how very unlikely it was that his patients had every been exposed to such artwork. This chapter seemed to me to be his most convincing, being that the concrete visual evidence showed the universality of a variety of psychological symbols and motifs.
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