In part 1 of this essay we will outline the historical context of Jung's psychology. It will be evident from the start that Jung's thought was both rational and irrational and that he used the former quality to study the latter. In part 2 I argue that the Jungian community should come together in order to focus their mind on the irrational. They should make it their specific area of psychology, and they should articulate a science of the irrational. This is important because (as Jungians know) the irrational is part of psychic life but is also often repressed and denied. Douglas rightly touches upon a multitude of influences on Jung. She starts off by saying that Jung himself referred to two aspects of his psyche, one that is empirical, rational, practical and so on, and another that is romantic and "at home with the unconscious, the mysterious, and the hidden whether in hermetic science and religion, in the occult, or in fantasies and dreams."4 Already a key Jungian belief about the psyche is implied here.
[...] Jung discusses some of Swedenborg's visions in his Collected Works. And in Memories, Dreams, Reflections Jung writes that (in his student years) he “read seven volumes of Swedenborg.”42 Footnotes 31: Jung, in Shamdasani, S p165 32: Jung, in Shamdasani, S p165 & 166 33: Shamdasani, S p166 34: Jung, & Jarret, J. L 35: Douglas, in Eisendrath, P. & Dawson, T p 25 36: Shamdasani, S p251 37: Jung, in Shamdasani, S p251 38: Shamdasani, S p540 39: ibid 40: ibid 41: Douglas, in Eisendrath, P. [...]
[...] Sonu Shamdasani says that Jung favored an interdisciplinary approach and that therefore Jung never believed in going alone56, nor that his work was complete. In part 2 it will be argued that today's Jungian community can focus on a specific area of psychology, the irrational, which as we have seen, Jung valued greatly. Footnote 56: Shamdasani, S p27 Chapter 2 The Science of the Irrational Jungians are very effective at describing the irrational side of life. Therefore this is the Jungian community's role for me when it comes to their place in the fields of knowledge. [...]
[...] What Jung meant by applicability was application as a principle of understanding and a heuristic means to an end as it is characteristic of each scientific theory.” (Jung in Shamdasani, S p98) Jung's view was that a theory had to offer a satisfactory explanation that makes sense of life. That, for Jung, is the true quality of a theory. And it had to have a heuristic value in order to be whole. If it failed to be heuristic it would be one-sided. [...]
[...] Y & Dawson, T p22 16: Jung, C p213, par 17: Shamdasani, S p235 18: Shamdasani, S p236 19: Jung, in Shamdasani, S p236 20: Nagy, M p37 21: Jung, in Shamdasani, S p198 22: ibid Schopenhaurian will is clear in the following quote by the philosopher quoted in Shamdasani: works of animal instinct, the spiders web, the honeycomb of bees, the structure of termites, and so on, are all of them constituted as if they had originated in consequence of an intentional conception, far-reaching and rational deliberation, whereas they are obviously the work of a blind impulse, that is, of a will which is not guided by knowledge.”23 However, Shamdasani says that Jung “followed Hartmann [ ] adopting von Hartmann's reformulations of Schopenhauer's philosophy [such as that] found in his lecture “Thoughts on the nature and value of speculative inquiry” [where Jung endorses Hartmann's view and adds] the absolutely essential element of purposeful intention”24 to the will/psychic energy. [...]
[...] We obviously find irrationalism in psychotics. Of course, psychotics aren't healthy. They aren't whole. But you see, this is because (unlike Alice) they don't have a rational side. If Alice's flaw (at the beginning of the story) was to be solely rational and hence repressed psychotics are flawed the other way around. They are irrational and need more rational thought processes. In general the irrational is found in psychotics, fairy tale, myth, neurotics (e.g. fanatics, the paranoid), music, and in the fantasies of individuals. [...]
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