Phoenix Rising: A Comparative Study of the Phoenix Symbol as a Goal of the Alchemical Work and the Individuation Process This paper explores the archetypal symbolism in the final chapter of Michael Maier’s (1617) seminal work Symbols of the Golden Table of the Twelve Nations, which Maier treats as a…
In the wake of his confrontation with the unconscious (1913-1916), C.G. Jung wrote a short essay titled “The Transcendent Function;” and although the essay was not published until 1957, it is in my opinion one of his most important works. Jung (1916/1957) indicated that the essay was written as a…
Active imagination is a technique or method devised by C.G. Jung, to engage, interpret, and integrate fantasy-images and other subliminal contents that arise from the unconscious. Jung originally referred to the method as spontaneous fantasy or non-directed thinking. Jung (1928) suggested that the method was “a question of releasing unconscious…
The purpose of this blog article is to examine the concept of libido through the lens of C.G. Jung’s psychology and in contradistinction to Sigmund’s Freud’s (Fig. 1) conception and formulation of libido. The term libido is often met with misunderstanding because of its numerous connotations. According to Jung (1913/1955),…
Synchronicity is arguably one of C.G. Jung (1875-1961) (Figure 1) most original and most widely misunderstood concepts. One could say that the synchronicity hypothesis emerged as a result of Jung’s life-long interest in physics, dreams, and paranormal phenomena in general. Jung did not formally publish a work on synchronicity until…
”The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.”…
In part I of this blog, we discussed the origins of the term individuation and its development as a central idea in the psychology of C.G. Jung. Having explored where Jung acquired the idea, we can arrive at a more lucid interpretation of its psychological meaning. We also suggested that…
In previous blogs, we have discussed some of the most notable ideas put forward by the psychologist C.G. Jung, which include typology, complexes, the psyche, archetypes, the soul-image, the unconscious, the ego, the shadow, the persona, the symbol, and the self. Given what we have heretofore reviewed, let us turn…
In analytical psychology, the symbol plays an important role in the development of the personality. C.G. Jung (1921/1971) suggests that a symbol “is the best possible expression for something that cannot be expressed otherwise than by a more or less close analogy” (CW6, para. 93, n. 44). Elsewhere, Jung writes…
