Abstract
This article examines the basic tenets of Carl Jung's anthropology, including intrapsychic structure, relationships, society, and the process of individuation. It then turns to his ideas about God and religion. Jung builds his understanding of God from his work in psychology, and because of that method, there are several major problems with his theologizing. Nevertheless, his insights are extremely valuable to the field of pastoral care, and ministers would do very well to appreciate his contribution, though always with a critical eye to its limitation.
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References
Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton. Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 327.
—,Memories, Dreams, Reflections, revised ed., recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe, trans. Richard and Clara Winston, New York, Vintage Books, 1965, pp. 318–319.
Two Essays, op. cit.,, par. 18.
Ibid.,, par. 92.
For full treatment of Jung's typology, see hisPsychological Types. The Collected Works, Vol. 6,op. cit.of C. G. Jung Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 92.
—, par. 81.
Jung describes many of these archetypes and their significance in analysis. Among the themes are the Self (which must be distinguished from the self of which we are fully conscious) or God; the magician or wise old man or hero, and the great mother (found in conjunction with “inflation”); the trickster; the persona (mask of the collective unconscious); the shadow (which includes instincts); the anima and animus (parts of men and women, respectively, which are usually underdeveloped); and animals (which point to the extrahuman, the transpersonal).
Unlike Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the projection onto the therapist is considered to be tolerable if it happens, grist for the mill of treatment, certainly not essential to the course of treatment. It often clouds the process and is more of a barrier than a help.
The persona is collective unconscious data, felt and claimed to be personal. It meets the expectations of society in terms of behavior that is socially acceptable, identities which are socially intelligible, attitudes and life goals which are predictable and therefore comfortable for the rest of society. The persona is a collection of ways of being which are arbitrarily chosen from the repertoire of the collective unconscious. Yet the individual has the sense that the persona is in reality the totality of who she or he is.
—, par. 103.
Ibid.,, par. 85.
Ibid.,, par. 28.
Ibid.,, par. 316.
Ibid.,, par. 240.
Ibid.,, note on p. 15. Elsewhere in the same essay he translates individuation as “coming to selfhood or ‘self-realization,’” par. 266.
Ibid.,, par. 159.
For example, the persona is unconscious material. As a part of the individuation process, the individual faces clearly the persona and sees the limitations of the archetype, choosing not to be limited by what society expects of him or her. Or the person recognizes the anima or animus within, knows it as archetype and not total reality, and thus does not need to be either controlled by it directly or project it onto someone else.
Jungian translators often capitalize the archetypal Self to distinguish it from the usual meaning of the word “self.” I will maintain that form in this article for the sake of clarity.
—, par. 365.
Ibid.,, par. 152.
Ibid.,, note on. p. 156.
Ibid.,, par. 253.
One must be very careful with Jung on this point, for he also uses the word “gods” to describe the power of the archetypes in general. Here, however, we are talking about one specific archetype, God.
Jung, C. G.,Two Essays, op. cit., Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton. Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 399.
Ibid., Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 402.
Ibid., Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 400.
Jung, C. G.,Psychology and Religion: West and East, Vol. 11,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1969, par. 659. As with any archetype, there are many symbols we can find in cultures which are projections of the inner psychic reality. One is God; one is the Self; another is Christ; another is Tao. In the symbol of the crucifixion, complete with two thieves, one damned and the other saved, we have a symbol of the coming together of opposites. The evil of the murders is included as part of the story of God; the father allowed his son to be killed. There is nothing that is beyond God. There is nothing that is not of God. “All opposites are of God, therefore man must bend to this burden.”
This union is essential if we are eventually to differentiate ourselves from the collective. That is, we can only differentiate ourselves from that of which we are conscious. And so the rituals and symbols of religion provide focal points for our integration of the primitive and the civilized within us.
Jung,Psychology and Religion, op. cit., Psychology and Religion: West and East, Vol. 11,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1969, par. 285.
I feel great empathy with Naomi Goldenberg's charge “to question the veneration of Jung himself. He is regarded as a ‘prophet’ by the vast majority of Jungians, whose self-assigned role is to teach and explicate the Jungian opus.” Goldenberg, “A Feminist Critique of Jung,”Signs, 1976,2, 2, 444.
For example, in speaking of the concepts of animus and anima, Goldenberg notes that they “are never clearly defined and are often used with different connotations, a slippery quality common to most Jungian concepts that serves to insulate them from much questioning.”Ibid., Goldenberg, “A Feminist Critique of Jung,”Sings. 1976,2, 2, p. 446.
Jung,Two Essays, op. cit., Two Essatys on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7.The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton. Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 201.
—, par. 281.
—, par. 199.
Ibid, Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7.The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 201.
Ibid., Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 67 ff.
Ibid., Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 109.
For a related discussion of sexism in Jung's writings, but one which cites references different from those in this article, see Goldenberg,op. cit., Goldenberg, “A Feminist Critique of Jung,”Signs, 1976,2, 2, pp. 443–449.
Jung,Two Essays, op. cit., Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 315.
Ibid., Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 308.
Ibid., Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 330.
Ibid.,, par. 198.
Ibid., Jung, C. G.,Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. Vol. 7,The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966, par. 188.
Lapsley, J.,Salvation and Health. Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1972, pp. 31–45.
“Attempting to bemore human, individualistically, leads tohaving more, egotistically: a form of dehumanization.” Friere, P.,Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, Seabury, 1968, p. 73.
Skinner, B. F.,Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York, Bantam/Vintage, 1971.
Meserve, H. C., “The Inside of Life,”J. Religion and Health, 1981,20, 3, 171–175.
Jung,Two Essays, op. cit.,, par. 398.
—, p. 348.
Neumann, E.,Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. English trans., Eugene Rolfe. New York, Harper & Row, 1969, p. 133.
Hauerwas, S., “Self-Deception and Autobiography: Reflections on Speer'sInside the Third Reich,” InTruthfulness and Tragedy. Notre Dame, Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, 1977, pp. 82–98.
For a more extensive discussion of this discrepancy between Jung's thought and Judeo-Christian theology, see Clift, W.,Jung and Christianity. New York, Crossroads Press, 1982, Part III.
Jung,Two Essays, op. cit.,, par. 72.
Ibid.,, par. 236.
Gerkin, C. V.,Crisis Experience in Modern Life, Nashville, Abingdon, 1979.
Jung,Two Essays, op. cit.,, par. 275.
Edinger, E. F.,Ego and Archetype. Baltimore, Maryland, Penguin Books Inc., 1973, pp. 152–153.
Moltmann, J.,The Crucified God. New York, Harper & Row, 1973.
Griffin, D. R.,God, Power and Evil. Philadelphia, The Westminister Press, 1976.
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She has codirected with her husband, Mark, The Shalom Community, a residential program for young adults with mental and emotional problems. She is at present a Th. D. candidate at the Iliff School of Theology in addition to other responsibilities as a businesswoman and homemaker.
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Hunt-Meeks, S. The anthropology of Carl Jung: Implications for pastoral care. J Relig Health 22, 191–211 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02280626
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02280626