I have written occasionally about mysticism, and mentioned that Jung is best understood as doing something like mystically inspired philosophy. This is not meant as criticism: both mysticism and philosophy are age-old, and very necessary human activities. There is a danger, however, when they get misleadingly framed as something else — as Jung often does, when he tries to make what he’s doing...
Part of the problem with how Jung and others present his views is a frequent blurring of methodological and metaphysical questions. This is not entirely accidental: one of its consequences is that it hides methodological flaws. And one of the worst of these has the effect of misrepresenting what Jung does as empirical science. Moreover, this is by no means merely a historical problem — a problem...
I have posed what I’ve called, perhaps a bit over-dramatically, the ‘provocative’ thesis that the ideas Jung extracts from the Pauli dream series in Psychology & Alchemy (GW XII) have not the general validity he claims for them; that they’re really just an interpretation of a single subject’s psychological and narrative world. I have made a case for this thesis in one of my previous posts;...
I concluded my last post with a bit of a provocative hypothesis. I don’t mean it quite seriously, but I’m exploring it to some degree, in order to learn what might support it and what might suffice to dispel it. Yet even though it’s not seriously entertained, the thesis is a far-reaching one. Here’s why. At the end of his discussion of the Pauli dream series in Psychology & Alchemy (GW XII)...
I continue looking into the implied theory of ghosts in Reginald Hill’s short story “There are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union”. 2. Hill has some fun with “rational” explanations in the story. The character of Natasha provides the requisite psychobabbling turns of phrase: Perhaps I could dress it up for you. A para-psychological phenomenon, how would that sound in your report? Or perhaps you prefer...
Definitions of what mysticism actually is vary, but there is an ancient core understanding that is probably best expressed by saying that mysticism is a style of spirituality (or religion) in which an immediate experience of some transcendent (or divine) reality is primary. If that is the case, it means that reflection upon such experience (generally in words: making descriptions, distinctions...
Unfortunately, the formulation “incessant circling” which I used to characterize Jung’s writing can be interpreted in multiple different ways. So let’s clarify. What I don’t mean are those many passages of “amplification” which we find in some of his works. Instead, I want to keep strictly to passages where Jung outlines his principal ideas.
Whenever Jung introduces his principal ideas and their interconnections, at some point or other a fault line appears. It’s often half-hidden (or glossed over in the presentation), but it’s always there and it always subtly complicates the subsequent stages of Jung’s lines of thought.
I have just spent half a year re-reading much of Jung’s work, in order to gain a more integrated perspective on his principal ideas. There is a reason why this is a sensible thing to do. Of course, I take it that Jung’s work has enough substance and relevance to be still of value today. (Anyone who doesn’t agree with that would simply ignore Jung entirely, or relegate him to a footnote in history...
Jung’s suggestion, in the Grundproblem lecture, of a phenomenalist ontology runs counter to the proposal I have made earlier on this blog, where I suggested an ontological layout that would fit Jungian thought. This should not be surprising: if Jung’s own (admittedly rather sketchy) ontological views had been sufficient as a basis for his theories (and his methodology), there would be no need to...
Leif Frenzel is a writer and independent researcher. He has a background in philosophy, literature, music, and information technology.