C.G. JUNG'S ARCHETYPAL APPROACH TO PSYCHE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF LITERATURE

Abstract

The names of Sigmund Freud and Carl G. Jung are so familiar to students of literature that one is tempted to assume that everyone knows with some precision the major concepts of psycho-analysis and of analytical psychology. However, if you have ever read the vehement arguments of critics or heard impassioned students arguing for their particular depth psychologist, the realization emerges that ignorance, bias and dogmatic opinion all too frequently prevent any dispassionate and intelligent discussion. Since I have treated the Freudian approach elsewhere, this essay will aim primarily at examining the Jungian approach to psyche in order to consider what consequences this approach may have for literary study. Within this general aim, the essay has three distinct purposes (1) to examine C.G. Jung's hypotheses about psyche in contrast to Freud's, (2) to describe and define Jung% analytical psychology; and (3) to show how the Jungian archetypal approach can significantly enrich our understanding of literature. In an essay entitled "Sigmund Freud and his Historical Setting", C. G. Jung assesses the scope and limits of psychoanalysis. Although admitting that Freud's system does make a self-consistent whole, Jung points out that it is limited to a few transparent principles, which exclude all else.1 Nowhere does Freud seek to connect his thought with historical predecessors nor does he show its affinities with contemporary concepts in other fields. Indeed, Freud's peculiar terminology further isolates his theory.