Carl Jung: Life and Theories - Essay Example

Carl Jung Carl Jung his life and theories Background Carl Jung, born on 26th July, 1875 in Switzerland (Dr. C. George Boeree, Carl Jung) was introduced to Latin, inculcating in him from an early age, interest in modern and ancient languages. His father was a pastor and scholar of ancient languages who hadn't pursued academic interests but still managed to inculcate interest in education in his child. Carl wasn't a very startling student, plodding through his early educative years finally settled on studying medicine from University of Basel, Switzerland. After graduating he became an assistant to Dr. Bleuler, at Bergholzli asylum, where he remained for nine years. Here he learned the discipline of careful and faithful recording of his work and started on his series of experiments, the word associations, which were to bring him the first ray of fame. (Anthony Daniels, Carl Jung) Theories Word associations' experiments in brief constituted of asking the subject to respond with first word that came into subject's mind, in response to a word by Carl Jung. While the subject was responding Carl would record the subject's change in heart beat and respiratory rates as well as changes in skin conductivity (skin conductivity changes along with emotional arousal as this state leads to increase in body's sweat). Carl would thus be able to monitor and gauge which words would gauge which words would cause the most arousal. His next accomplishment was building theory of archetypes and collective consciousness - this theory was formed of thinking in imagery or undirected thinking and he believed that collective unconscious had many such archetypical forms (Anthony Daniels, Carl Jung 2 Carl Jung). Jung believed that deepest layer of unconscious is collective consciousness, and that collective consciousness is not influenced by personal history of the subject and further dream images in the collective consciousness are beyond space and time continuum and speak a universal language. (Massimo Giannoni, Jung's Theory of Dream). Causality and Synchronicity Jung's idea of causality starts off by laying down the three basic requirements: Causes must precede effects, causes and effects must occur concomitantly, the effects from the concerned cause should occur continually and should not be one off. He further builds up and mentions causal events as obeying the natural laws and following the "scientific truths" while acausal events follow a pattern of "instant discontinuity" or beyond reason. The synchronicity theory bridges this reality gap and aims to present a more holistic picture of our world. (Lance Storm, Synchronicity, Causality and Acausality.) Jung defines synchronicity as occurrence of two or more events with a meaningful connection between them and there is no causal link. The meaningful connection constraint is very important as this removes coincidence. For Jung, synchronous event remains so irrespective of recognition of concerned event as meaningful (Lance Storm, Synchronicity) and also this event involves an archetype. Archetype is the connection, however amorphous may it be, that links the two events and enjoins them with a shared theme. Archetype according to Jung is the pivot points or building blocks of the collective unconscious that impinge on and determine behavior patterns. Victor Mansfield says, collective unconscious is according to Jung a neutral entity and further Jung says that synchronicity does not preclude causality and synchronicity is an Carl Jung 3 indispensable counterpart to causality. Acausal connections are really no connections, as perceived by our ingrained thinking and commitment to causality. (Victor Mansfield, The Rhine-Jung letters). Jung considers synchronicity as a special minor offshoot of "general acausal orderness" and par psychological phenomenon should also be considered in this domain. Paraphysicological phenomenon are acausal because there realizable exchange of energy or information which connects the similarities or correlations caused. Meaningfulness refers to conscious interpretation and evaluation of content, which may result in acceptance or not and at the same time evokes the feeling and respective complex emotions depending on the intensity of the response. Citing synchronicity in events Jung gives example of receiving impressions of house on fire while the person was hundreds of miles away; Jung also cites in this regard stopping of clocks at the time of clock owner's death and visions of one's loved one at the time of loved one's extreme distress or even in case of death. Such a radical connection in proving synchronicity has drawn fire from detractors. One, Hines, mentions that meaningful coincidence are rife if you go out to look for them and further any theory based on symbology is open to question because symbolic associations can be forcibly made between unrelated events. Jung however sees patterns amongst unrelated heterogeneous images with the symbol providing a key to interpreting what is known and what is not. The law of large numbers state that difference in probability of some event and the relative frequency with which that event has occurred is nearly zero (Lance Storm, Synchronicity). This law puts unexpected unrelated events, like premonitory dreams into Carl Jung 4 expected zones, and why with multi billionaire world's population, the so called meaningless coincidences are more frequently possible. One weaknesses of the law is encapsulation and too much weight age on term probability which reduces the law's importance especially when impending events, of a personal nature, are dreamed of. Jung created an astrological experiment in which he tried to determine an unrelated event (stars movements) to influence in person's marital life. After random selection of three persons from a large pool Jung was able to relate subjects' emotional personality to certain placements of planets in the respective natal chart. Jung was able to say that there is suggestive evidence for synchronicity. Lance suggests that not enough research has been done in the synchronous phenomenon - further he states the very nature of synchronicity conflicts with the view of the model of the world as we normally perceive it. Further if were to take synchronicity as absolutely acausal as Jung prescribed it then synchronous events become discrete events i.e. unpredictable but since when synchronicity occurs then by definition predictable events must occur so the effects of synchronicity would be predictable and hence lawful. (Lance Storm, Synchronicity) Anthony Daniels suggests that Jung by proclaiming that collective conscious of different people and races varied as to the contents, Jung started another controversy. This remark made him dear to Nazis, leaving another question unanswered - was Jung a Nazi sympathizer On one hand Jung carefully couched his statements in "open to question" terms, not taking either side on the other hand Jung helped lots of Jews escape from Germany and helped them financially as well. Anthony suggests that Jung is not definitively clear; Anthony believes that Jung never expressively describes an issue; Jung's ideas are couched in Carl Jung 5 innuendos and connotations and Jung's proclamations are backed by abstruse fourteenth century texts. Anthony believes that Jung's reading will never attract sufficient readership because Jung's readings are fuzzy and speak more of academic hand me down's then true scholarship. (Anthony Daniels, Carl Jung) Petteri Pietikainen speaking of psychological utopias remarks that psychological utopias focus on attaining the ideal state of consciousness through intervention of insights and procedures that aim to transform human personality and ultimately the complete society. Petteri further explains that those who create psychological utopias have a definite concept and framework with which they hope and aim to attain psychological state of well being. (Petteri Pietikainen, Dynamic Psychology). In psychological utopias humans are connected by unconscious or mind's structure, inner self, and further structure of personality and that of the society are interlinked. Thus in essence society can be changed by changing the underlying personality provided the appropriate causal factors that impinge on social, environmental and psychological milieu are identified. It is in these psychological utopians that concept of social transformation through social therapy could be explored. Psychological Utopia Petteri describes Jungian version of psychological utopia as striving for totality and wholeness, at an individual as well as societal level. Jungian psychology aimed to provide more than tools for self exploration, as advocated by Freud. Jung provided creative application of his archetype theory to ideas that envision personality transformation. Collective consciousness and archetype theories are Jung's major contributions and it is his these theories that has filtered through into and influenced many therapeutic popular Carl Jung 6 psychology modes. Jungian archetypes are universal and are shared regardless of ethnic background or nationality, because Jung believed that innermost layers of human psyche are similar - thus collective consciousness is credited a centre place and Jung spiritualized nature in contrast to Freud who "naturalized the world of spirit". (Petteri Pietikainen, Dynamic Psychology). Jung credited his archetypes with formative power with ability to modulate psychic energy. Jung's utopian elements have taken a leap of faith and dismissing scientific truths embarked on a quest for "higher" truth - thus aiming to bridge the gap between western material fulfillment and spiritual vacuum. Developmental psychologists and especially new age religions have drawn a lot from Jung's writings. Jung's writing thus aim to provide a whetstone for self reflection and develop as personalities and thus attain one's true purpose. (Petteri Pietikainen, Dynamic Psychology) Michael Fordham speaks of voluminous in Jung's writings, which tend to remove focus from main findings on any particular topic and similarly makes very difficult focusing on a particular issue at hand. Michael quotes Jung saying that Jung's method of research involved contemplating the material which had been collected, abstraction from that material, abstraction which may make the material reusable and then applying the resultant to practical work - working over the results until either they have been proven, with or without modification or abandoned. Analysis via Archetypes After 1917 Jung's procedure changed somewhat, Jung then concentrated more on analyzing clinical material in light of imagery bank, he, Jung, had accumulated. This methodology gradually coalesced into formulation of theory of collective consciousness and Carl Jung 7 the archetypes. In Jung's works "The Psychology of the Unconscious", he put forward his symbolic thinking via archetypes theory, saying that concept is cumulative experience. Jung also shows his movement away from abstraction, as abstraction according to Jung ceases to be useful when abstraction cannot recall or be associative of the original experience. (Michael Fordham, Empirical Foundations and theories). Jung heavily used comparative religion and folklore to generalize and throw light on his clinical observations. Of course Jung's family religious background had a strong hand in positioning him to study mysticism and religion intensively which he used to reflect on his theories later in life. (Michael Fordham, Empirical Foundations and theories). Jung's psychology attempts to codify "psychogenetic" (John Dourley, Psychogenesis of Religion) origins of religion and by extension of all religions. Jung also argued that religious experience is inescapable as archetypical energies of self strive for completion in the consciousness. Humanity can therefore neither avoid religious experience nor claim that any religion could claim all encompassing religious truth because of "necessary relativity of archetypal experience" (John Dourley, Psychogenesis of Religion) Jung credits his theory of self to Eastern mysticism - in Psychological Types he defines self, under, Ego though he clearly distinguishes between the two. He says self cannot be observed without removing it from ego, and only when part of or complete ego separation is made possible then realization of self follows. Jung also defines self as an archetype - which is an unconscious representation. Reflecting on with current definitions of psycho analysis self is part of trio: ego, id and superego while in contemporary psychology the self is not given undue importance. Carl Jung 8 References 1. Anthony Daniels. Carl Jung: the Madame Blavatsky of psychotherapy. New Criterion. Volume: 22. Issue: 3. November 2003. pp: 23+. 2. Petteri Pietikainen. Dynamic Psychology, Utopia, and Escape from History: The Case of C.G. Jung. Utopian Studies. Volume: 12. Issue: 1. 2001. pp 41. 3. Fordham, Michael. The Empirical Foundation And Theories Of The Self In Jung's Works. Journal of Analytical Psychology; Jan1963, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p1, 23p 4. Dourley, John P. The Religious Significance of Jung's Psychology. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. 1995, Vol. 5 Issue 2, p73, 17p 5. Lance Storm. Synchronicity, Causality, And Acausality. The Journal of Parapsychology. Volume: 63. Issue: 3. Publication Year: 1999. pp: 247. 6. Victor Mansfield, Sally Rhine-Feather , James Hall. The Rhine-Jung letters: distinguishing Para psychological from synchronistic events. The Journal of Parapsychology. Volume: 62. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 1998. pp 3+. 7. Paul W. Dixon. An Extension of Freud and Jung's Theory of the Relation of Dream States to Schizophrenia. Current Psychology. Spring 2005. pp4-23 8. Massimo Giannoni. Jung's theory of Dream and Relational Debate. Psychoanalytic Dialogues.2003. Pp 605-620 9. Dr. C. George Boeree (1997).Carl Jung. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html. Read More