Carl Jung's psychology is often regarded as having been some kind of Freudianism albeit Jung's more esoteric spin on it. The most important of Jung's theories is the archetypes hypothesis. Certainly Jung's influences can be tracked and they are numerous. But in this paper we will argue that one of the most important factors in Jung's thought, that was necessary for him to be able to establish his psychology, was French dissociationism. This has been well documented in recent years within Jungian scholarship, most notably by John R Haule who wrote From Somnambulism to the Archetypes: The French Roots of Jung's split with Freud.1 Haule himself credits Ellenberger who wrote The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry.2 Basically, it has emerged that Jung, whilst influenced by Freud, was more influenced by Janet than Freud.We will start here with a mention of Rene Descartes whose philosophy separated mind from body and therefore paved the way for medical science to establish itself and to advance.
[...] The commonest indicator of such disturbance is simply a prolongation of the ‘reaction time'; that is, the interval between reading out the stimulus word and the production of a reaction word in response. Many subjects are quite unaware of (unconscious of) this delay of their response to significant stimulus words. Hence the test not only gives some hints as to what the preoccupations of a subject may be, but also provides a striking demonstration of the fact that a person can be quite unconscious of what is significant to him.”3 Further on Storr writes was as a result of his work with word-association tests that Jung introduced the term ‘complex' into psychology”.4 As should be clear now, for Jung these complexes arise when consciousness dissociates. [...]
[...] (1970) The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry (New York: Basic Books) Hume, (2007) A Treatsie of Human Nature (Nu Vision Publication, LLC) James, (1950) The Principles of Psychology: Volume 1 (Courier Dover Publications) Janet, (1907) The Major Symptoms of Hysteria (New York & London: Hafner) Jung, (1924) Analytical Psychology and Education. Collected Works, 17: 63-132. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954) Jung, (1935a) Foreward to vonKoenig-Fachsenfeld: Wandlungen des Traumproblems von der Romantik bis zur Gegenwart. [...]
[...] Hypnosis, hysteria, and spiritualism are a variants of somnambulism, which, in psychological parlance at the turn of the century, referred to any rather complex act performed while asleep, in trance, or in some other "altered state of consciousness" to use the expression in vogue today.”7 Dissociationism ceased its hegemonic status in the early 20th century as psychoanalysis and Behaviorism replace it in the minds of the greater number of psychological thinkers and commentators. The situation remained this way for the whole of the 20th century albeit a relative resurgence occurred in the mid twentieth century. [...]
[...] Hysteria appeared to be understood for the first time; perhaps other psychological disturbances could be seen as variants on hysteria.”8 Part Jung: Dissociation and the Archetypes The dissociationism of the late nineteenth century equates to the French influence on Carl Jung, and in particular, Pierre Janet. Jung himself often referred to his own psychology as ‘Complex Psychology'. And Jung even said that "My own course of development was influenced primarily by the French school and later by Wundt's psychology. Later, in 1906, I made contact with Freud, only to part company with him in 1913"1 Moreover, Jung's doctoral dissertation was an essay that (if one takes the time to read is) equates to an essay on dissociation. [...]
[...] Hume refers to this in A Treatise of Human Nature (1739): “Were ideas entirely loose and unconnected, chance alone would join them; and `tis impossible that some simple ideas should fall regularly into complex ones (as they commonly do) without some bond of union among them, some associating quality by which one idea naturally introduces another.”1 However, many thinkers believed that Hume was missing something out and that psychology required a stronger basis than associationism. The French psychologist Alfred Binet believed that this stronger basis had arrived when Frederic Paulhan published L'activité mentale et les éléments de l'esprie. [...]
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