Carl Jung is widely regarded both within and outside of the psychological community as the preeminent and pioneer psychologist in the psychology of religion, as a psychologist who examines spiritual and religious contents of the psyche. He has asserted his theory of individuation as the psychological and experiential framework for spiritual transformation, as the psychological life cycle of spiritual individuation, transformation, and maturation. Jung shows psychologically how people transform spiritually. Healing, for Jung, is psychological wholeness, and in his theory of individuation, he examines the spiritual aspect of psychological wholeness.
Jung’s theory of the individuation process of spiritual transformation is systematic and phenomenological and occurs across the entire life cycle. Jung – psychiatrist and psychologist – was theoretically systematic and scrutinized experience in light of theory and theory in light of experience. He looked for psychological processes of...
Keywords
- Religious Experience
- Human Psyche
- Religious Phenomenon
- Spiritual Transformation
- Human Meaning
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.


Bibliography
Edinger, E. F. (1972). Ego and archetype: Individuation and the religious function of the psyche. 1992. Boston: Shambhala.
Jacobi, Jolanda. (1965). Way of individuation (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). 1967. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Jacobi, J. (1973). The Psychology of C. G. Jung, foreword by C. G. Jung. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Jacobi, Jolanda. (1976). Masks of the soul (Ean Begg, Trans.). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Jung, Carl Gustav. 1933. Modern man in search of a soul (W. S. Dell and Cary F. Baynes, Trans.). Reprint. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Jung, Carl Gustav. (1938). Psychology and religion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Also known as The Terry Lectures, and is in CW Vol. 11.
Jung, Carl Gustav. (1939). The meaning of individuation. Integration of the personality (Stanley Dell, Trans.). New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. This was the original form of this paper, is now part of Jung CW Vol. 9i and titled “Consciousness, Unconscious, and Individuation”.
Jung, Carl Gustav. (1961). Memories, dreams, reflections. Recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffé (Richard and Clara Winston, Trans.). Revised edition. 1989. New York NY: Vintage Books (Random House, Inc.).
Kay, P. (2008). Toward a psychological theory of spiritual transformation. Ann Arbor: ProQuest (AAT 3301770).
Stevens, A. (1990). On Jung. London: Penguin Books.
Von Franz, Maria-Louise. 1980. Projection and recollection in Jungian psychology: Reflections of the soul (W. H. Kennedy, Trans.). Peru, Illinois: Open Court Press.
Wulff, D. M. (1997). Psychology of religion: Classic & contemporary (Second ed.). New York: Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Yogananda, Paramahansa. (1946). Autobiography of a Yogi. Twelfth edition. 1994. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kay, P. (2016). Carl Gustav Jung and the Psychology of Religion. In: Leeming, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_200079-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_200079-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27771-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27771-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social Sciences
