catafalque carl jung and the end of humanity by peter kingsley
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13/06/2019, 03*00Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity, by Peter Kingsley | Times Higher Education (THE)
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Catafalque: Carl Jung and theEnd of Humanity, by PeterKingsleyRobert A. Segal is wary of an attempt to offer a definitive newinterpretation of Jung
June 13, 2019
By Robert A. Segal
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C.G. Jung (1865-1961), the famousSwiss psychiatrist, is typically seen asSigmund Freud’s great rival. But Jungwas always his own person.
Freudian psychology centres onhumans’ relationship to other familymembers, especially parents.Jungian psychology, morenarcissistic, centres on humans’ relationship to other parts of themselves.
Despite Jung’s proudly labelling himself a scientist, there have been efforts todownplay his scientific outlook in favour of a deeper, religious one. The mostextravagant expression of the supposedly true Jung is The Red Book, whichamasses Jung’s speculations from 1914 to 1930. It was not published until2009.
For most Jungians, the book is the equivalent of the Koran. It getscompared to the greatest works of the humanities. In actuality, it is adisorganised series of dubious distinctions, illogically turned into oppositionsand then equally illogically into paradoxes. Far from profound, it issophomoric.
Peter Kingsley is an English classicist who, decades ago, wrote severalacclaimed books on the Presocratic philosophers. Now he offers a two-volume tome on Jung, whom he ties to the Presocratics. Volume one consistsof readable pronouncements about what Jung is really saying; volume two,equally long, consists of notes.
We are informed by Kingsley that almost every other authority on Jung hasgot him wrong. These include Jung’s disciples, Jungian clinicians and scholarsof Jung. To date, only two persons have got Jung right: the French scholar ofSufism, Henry Corbin, and Kingsley himself. Kingsley reminds one of the lineby Church historian Adolf von Harnack about the early Christian theologianMarcion: only Marcion understood Paul, and even he misunderstood Paul.But Kingsley denies any misunderstanding of Jung on his own part.
Kingsley asserts that The Red Book evinces the true Jung. But, ironically, mostJungians say the same. They adore Jung’s contempt for science.
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For Kingsley, appealing to Jung in his autobiography, there are two Jungs, onepublic and one private. Jung’s public personality is that of a person of science.Jung’s private, true personality is that of the unconscious. Jung dared notvaunt his true self – the reason the book remained unpublished for so long.
The public Jung goes back to Plato and Aristotle. The private Jung goes backfurther, to the Presocratics (although even the consummately rationalphilosopher of science Karl Popper sought to go “back to the Presocratics”).The scientific Jung starts with word association tests to make his claims. Theprivate Jung relies on his unconscious for truth. The public Jung is very criticalof mystics. The private Jung is a consummate mystic.
Kingsley never offers arguments for his intuitions about Jung. He considershimself better read than others. But he is not. And he is continually wrong.For example, Jung faults, rather than celebrates, so-called primitive peoplesfor projecting themselves on to the world. For him, moderns properlydifferentiate themselves from the world, even if they now need to reconnectthemselves to the unconscious. Above all, moderns harbour psychology,which is one of the sciences.
Yet the ultimate issue is not what Jung is claiming but whether he is right. Isthe unconscious the sole source of truth? What of all the competing notionsof truth, and of science and reason, that serious thinkers consider? Kingsleypays these issues no heed.
Robert A. Segal is sixth century chair in religious studies at theUniversity of Aberdeen (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/university-aberdeen), and editor of The Gnostic JungThe Gnostic Jung(1992) and Jung on MythologyJung on Mythology (1998).
Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of HumanityBy Peter KingsleyCatafalque Press, 848pp (2 volumes), £59.95ISBN 9781999638405Published 1 November 2018
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