Carl Jung, part 1: Taking inner life seriously | Mark Vernon. If you have ever thought of yourself as an introvert or extrovert; if you've ever deployed the notions of the archetypal or collective unconscious; if you've ever loved or loathed the new age; if you have ever done a Myers-Briggs personality or spirituality test; if you've ever been in counselling and sat opposite your therapist rather than lain on the couch – in all these cases, there's one man you can thank: Carl Gustav Jung. The Swiss psychologist was born in 1875 and died on 6 June 1961, 50 years ago next week.
His father was a village pastor. His grandfather – also Carl Gustav – was a physician and rector of Basel University. He was also rumoured to be an illegitimate son of Goethe, a myth Carl Gustav junior enjoyed, not least when he grew disappointed with his father's doubt-ridden Protestantism. Jung's mother was a more powerful figure, though she seems to have had a split personality. No 1 was the child of his parents and times. Jung finally came into his own at university. Carl Jung, part 2: A troubled relationship with Freud – and the Nazis | Mark Vernon. Jung's relationship with Freud was ambivalent from the start.
First contact was made in 1906, when Jung wrote about his word association tests, realising that they provided evidence for Freud's theory of repression. Freud immediately and enthusiastically wrote back. But Jung hesitated. It took him several months to write again. They met a year later and then it was friendship at first sight. For now, different tensions persisted. One such incident occurred when they travelled together to America in 1909. A different sign of conflict came when Jung asked Freud what he made of parapsychology. All in all, from early on, Jung was nagged by the thought that Freud placed his personal authority above the quest for truth. Jung considered Freud too reductionist. Jung also believed that the contents of the unconscious are not restricted to repressed material. It is a contentious proposition to which we will return. Carl Jung, part 3: Encountering the unconscious | Mark Vernon. Jung's split with Freud in 1913 was costly.
He was on his own again, an experience that reminded him of his lonely childhood. He suffered a breakdown that lasted through the years of the first world war. It was a traumatic experience. But it was not simply a collapse. He experienced a succession of episodes during which he vividly encountered the rich and disturbing fantasies of his unconscious. Its publication sparked massive interest in Jungian circles, rather like what happens in Christian circles when a new first-century codex is discovered. In particular he wrote two pieces, known as the Two Essays, that provide a succinct introduction to his mature work. In The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious, he describes a process whereby a person can pay attention to how their unconscious life manifests itself in their conscious life. A non-judgmental attitude is critical. The Red Book, then, can be interpreted as Jung's conversation with his unconscious.
Carl Jung, part 4: Do archetypes exist? | Mark Vernon. Jung took the inner life seriously. He believed that dreams are not just a random jumble of associations or repressed wish fulfilments. They can contain truths for the individual concerned. They need interpreting, but when understood aright, they offer a kind of commentary on life that often acts as a form of compensation to what the individual consciously takes to be the case. A dream Jung had in 1909 provides a case in point. He was in a beautifully furnished house.
It struck him that this fine abode was his own and he remarked, "Not bad! " Oddly, though, he had not explored the lower floor and so he descended the staircase to see. Jung interpreted the dream as affirming his emerging model of the psyche. Archetypes can be thought of simply as structuring principles. A related feature of archetypes is that, while they shape our perceptions and behaviour, we only become conscious of them indirectly, as they are manifest in particular instances. Carl Jung, part 5: Psychological types | Mark Vernon. It is striking how differently individuals can react to precisely the same thing. Some love Marmite and others loathe it. And more seriously, many arguments self-perpetuate aside from whether there is evidence or sound reason to decide the issue, because opposing sides embody different temperaments.
Depending upon your outlook, Wimbledon is two weeks of poetry in motion, or two weeks of channel-hogging TV tedium. The internet will save civilisation according to the geek, and scramble your brains according to the Luddite. The heavens tell of the glory of God in the eyes of the saint, and of the troubling meaninglessness of empty space for at least some scientists. Such oppositions struck Jung after his split with Freud. Two types seem especially clear: the introvert and the extravert [sic].
They tend to need to join in, be with it and make a show of themselves. The introvert is not forthcoming and needs regular retreats from the world. Carl Jung, part 6: Synchronicity | Mark Vernon. Diana Athill's experience of 'synchroncity' inspired a short story. Photograph: Karen Robinson The literary agent and author Diane Athill describes the genesis of one of her short stories. It occurred about nine one morning, when she was walking her dog. Crossing the road, a car approached and slowed down. She presumed someone needed directions. That was odd enough, so early in the day.
It is an example of what Jung called synchronicity, "a coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the same or similar meaning" – in Athill's case, the surprising invitation of the man and his looking like her friend. Jung pursued this question in an odd relationship of his own, with one of the great physicists of the 20th century, Wolfgang Pauli. Pauli was a Jekyll and Hyde character, a Nobel theorist by day and sometime drunk womaniser by night. What interested Jung was not so much the brilliance of Pauli's discoveries, but the nature of the intuition that inspired them. Carl Jung, part 7: The power of acceptance | Mark Vernon.
In 1931, one of Jung's patients proved stubbornly resistant to therapy. Roland H was an American alcoholic whom he saw for many weeks, possibly a year. But Roland's desire for drink refused to diminish. A year later Roland returned to Zürich still drinking, and Jung concluded that he probably wouldn't be cured through therapy. But ever the experimenter, Jung had an idea. Roland should join the Oxford Group, an evangelical Christian movement that stressed the necessity of total surrender to God. Jung hoped that his patient might undergo a conversion experience, which, as his friend William James had realised, is a transformative change at depth, brought about by the location of an entirely new source of energy within the unconscious.
That might tame the craving. It worked. I spoke to a friend of mine who attends meetings of Narcotics Anonymous to understand more about the element of conversion. Other observers of the human condition make similar remarks. Carl Jung, part 8: Religion and the search for meaning | Mark Vernon. In 1959, two years before his death, Jung was interviewed for the BBC television programme Face to Face.
The presenter, John Freeman, asked the elderly sage if he now believed in God. "Now? " Jung replied, paused and smiled. "Difficult to answer. I know. What did he mean? He had spent much of the second half of his life exploring what it is to live during a period of spiritual crisis. Jung read Nietzsche and agreed that it was. The sense of threat – real and imagined – that Jung witnessed during his lifetime has not lessened.
You could also point to the proliferation of new age spiritualities that take on increasingly fantastical forms. Or you might ask why a key characteristic of western culture is widespread overwork. But if the world has rejected God, those who remain religious are, in part, to blame. They have suffered a loss of confidence too, Jung suggests. Again, this shift is variously manifest. So its role is to provide a language for grappling with what's at stake. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Model of personality types A chart with descriptions of each Myers–Briggs personality type and the four dichotomies central to the theory. In personality typology, the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an introspective self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.
The test attempts to assign a value to each of four categories: introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. One letter from each category is taken to produce a four-letter test result, such as "INTP" or "ESFJ".[2][3] The MBTI was constructed by two Americans: Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, who were inspired by the book Psychological Types by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Isabel Myers was particularly fascinated by the concept of introversion and she typed herself as an INFP. History[edit] Briggs began her research into personality in 1917. Concepts[edit]