How to study Carl Jung

[fewrocker]

What is a good path to understand Carl Jung's work and his insights and takes on consciousness? 

 

Suggestion of his books, talks and videos about him are welcome!

[Nak Khid]

 

[Krisena]

Start with some introductory material by other authors. It's impossible to piece together his writings without either guidance or a really, really long time of study.

There are two books I recommend starting with:

1. Anthony Stevens' "Jung". It's a very light introduction to Jung's ideas, but you'll also have a really wonderfully written biography of his life, which I feel is surprisingly helpful to understand his ideas. What kind of person was he, what was his background, when and how did he have his breakthroughs. It will be a good foundation that you can "hang" other knowledge on.

2. Murray Stein's "Jung's Map of the Soul". This is a proper introduction to Jung's ideas that is light, but also goes right to the core of them.

These are books that won't necessarily make you a Jung fanatic, because they're not sexy, but they are extremely helpful as a foundation.

If you now want to make Jung more sexy and just get a general feel for how to look at him, you can binge-watch Jordan Peterson lectures (which gets Jung wrong sometimes, but I wouldn't worry about it since you're still gonna learn after this), or people on this forum or Actualized videos.

After that, you can start on Jung's own writings (finally! lol). I recommend starting with Man and His Symbols. It was written for a more general audience and is super interesting and has a lot of illustrations and dream interpretation and is easy to read. Symbols of Transformation is great because it analyzes fairytales and dreams and stuff. Psychological Types is also interesting if you're interested in personality psychology and typing (MBTI was built on this).

After this you can start on Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious and Aion. This in many ways is the "core Jung". You won't understand these completely on first reading, but they'll give you a thorough understanding of the archetypes! They also include grand analyses of western civilization that requires that you are more historically, religiously and philosophically aware, but don't worry about it.

After this you can go down the road of the alchemical psychology writings (Psychology and Alchemy, Mysterium Conjunctionis). This is crazy shit. Don't start here.

Hope this helps!

 

[Petals]

@fewrocker the 'Academy of Ideas' youtube channel has a few videos on Jung.

 

+ the biography  'Memories, Dreams, Reflections' is often recommended as an introduction.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Petals