Jung On Evil

Illuminating selections from Jung’s writings on the nature of evil Well-known for his articulation of the “shadow side” of human individuality and culture, C. G. Jung wrote a great deal about the question of evil throughout his life and in scattered places in his work. In this book, Murray Stein brings together key selections of Jung’s writings on the subject. In Jung’s early work on the unconscious, he considered the role of evil in the mental processes of the severely disturbed. Later, he viewed the question of moral choice within the framework of his ideas about archetypes and discussions about moral choices, conscience, and the continual ethical reflection that is necessary for all of us. The material here includes letters to Freud and Father Victor White and writings ranging from his Answer to Job to his travel piece on North Africa.

Well-known for his articulation of the "shadow side" of human individuality and culture, C. G. Jung wrote a great deal about the question of evil throughout his life and in scattered places in his work. In this book his position is pieced together from many sources. In his early work on the unconscious, for instance, he considered the role of evil in the mental processes of the severely disturbed. Later, he viewed the question of moral choice within the framework of his ideas about archetypes and discussions about moral choices, conscience, and the continual ethical reflection that is necessary for all of us. The material here includes letters to Freud and Father Victor White and selections from his writings ranging from his Answer to Job to his travel piece on North Africa.

Evil became a central issue for Jung as he grew older. His early investigations of the place of evil in the mental processes of the severely disturbed led him to consider the concept of evil in greater depth when exploring the role of analysis in ethical and cultural transformation. Jung on Evilbrings together his important writings on good and evil. It includes his attempts to comprehend the worst excesses of the Second World War, as well as discussions about moral choices, conscience and the continual ethical reflection that is necessary for all of us. Leading analyst Murray Stein provides a clear and concise introduction that gives an accessible account of Jung's ideas about evil. It will be invaluable to all those interested in the problems of ethics, religion and psychology in the modern world.

This book brings together the work of Carl Gustav Jung and Hans Urs von Balthasar, two of the most creative thinkers in psychology and theology in the twentieth century, to critically compare their ideas on the perennial question of God’s involvement with evil. In later life Jung embarked on a project relating to Christianity, with psychotherapeutic and theological intentions, forming his collection of essays, Symbolik des Geistes, in which God and evil was a major theme. Balthasar gave significant attention to Jung’s psychology in his own theological trilogy, but opposed the approach to God and evil that Jung presented. In this book Les Oglesby provides a thorough examination of convergences and divergences in Jung and Balthasar’s thinking, their different approaches to the origins and reality of evil, as well as their alternative theological orientations. The book culminates with a study of each man’s understanding of the central event of Christianity, Christ’s death on the Cross and his descent to the dead and discusses how Balthasar’s ‘vertical’ and Jung’s ‘horizontal’ approach to this major happening can be held together fruitfully with one another. Illustrating how analytical psychology and Christian theology can mutually enrich one another when they are held in creative tension, this book invites reflection on the meaning of the central symbol of Christianity, and God’s involvement with evil as an aid to integrated psychological living and theological maturity. It will prove fascinating for students of psychology and religion as well as for Jungian analysts and practical theologians.

In a unique epistolary style, authors Murray Stein and Elena Caramazza share their rich and reflective conversations surrounding the themes of temporality, shame, and evil through letters, essays, and email correspondence. Ignited by Wolfgang Pauli’s "The Piano Lesson," Stein and Caramazza study the function of temporality and consider the importance of shame and evil to this relationship. In this book Stein shows how Pauli, as a result of his contact with C.G. Jung and analytical psychology, embarked on a thought experiment to merge two currents of scientific thought: quantum physics and depth psychology. In his work of active imagination "The Piano Lesson," Pauli playfully brings together the former, which supplies a causal explanation of the mechanics of the material world, and the latter, which supplies an approach to meaning. The problem of how to merge the two currents in one language is presented in Pauli’s symbolic solution, piano music, which combines the black and white keys in a single harmony. This music symbolizes a unified theory that combines the explanations of causality and the meaning delivered by synchronicity. Presenting an original approach to synchronicity and dis-synchronicity, this interdisciplinary and innovative exchange concludes with a script written by Murray Stein, inspired by Pauli, as well as an afterword by influential Jungian scholars. This book will be a key reference for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and seminars in Jungian and post-Jungian studies, philosophy, psychoanalytic studies, psychology, and the social sciences.

Explores the religious symbolism present throughout the Bible as it reflects the nature, needs, and processes of the human consciousness

Through his clinical work and extensive engagement with major figures of the philosophical tradition, Jung developed an original and pluralistic psycho-ethical model based on the cooperation of consciousness with the unconscious mind. By drawing on direct quotations from Jung’s collected works, The Red Book, and his interviews and seminars – as well as from seminal texts by Kant, Nietzsche, Aristotle and Augustine – Giovanni Colacicchi provides a philosophically grounded analysis of the ethical relevance of Jung’s analytical psychology and of the concept of individuation which is at its core. The author argues that Jung transforms Kant’s consciousness of duty into the duty to be conscious while also endorsing Nietzsche’s project of an individual ethics beyond collective morality. Colacicchi shows that Jung is concerned, like Aristotle, with the human need to acquire a balance between reason and emotions; and that Jung puts forward, with his understanding of the shadow, a moral psychology of the Christian notion of evil. Jung’s psycho-ethical paradigm is thus capable of integrating ethical theories which are often read as mutually exclusive. Psychology as Ethics will be of interest to researchers in the history of ideas and the philosophy of the unconscious, as well as to therapists and counsellors who wish to place their psychodynamic work in its philosophical context. It will also be a key reference for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and seminars in Jungian and Post-Jungian studies, philosophy, psychoanalytic studies, psychology, religious studies and the social sciences.