Psychology and Religion (The Terry Lectures Series)

This collection of three lectures given by Carl Jung in 1937 presents an early version of his mature view on the role of the unconscious in formulating religious symbols. The three foci of this book are a case study of a neurotic man plagued by irrational fears of cancer, a natural history of the generation of religious symbols, and a consideration of the psychological consequences of the crisis of faith that was striking the heart of Europe.Jung's case study is absolutely fascinating -- he presents and interprets a small number of the patient's dreams and relates them to the symbolic literature of the Gnostics, Hermetics, and Alchemists, three of Jung's favorite symbolic modalities. It's extraordinary to see a modern man completely disinterested in religion or esoterica unwittingly produce symbols that clearly serve the same psychological function as similar images in these somewhat obscure traditions.His social analysis is crude and in my eyes profoundly misguided. Jung waxes nostalgic for a medieval Europe governed by the Catholic church in which the common folk could assimilate the transpersonal symbolic structures of the ecclesiastical matrix as a bulwark against the intrusion of the unconscious into their daily lives. He polemicizes in a most disagreeable fashion against the Protestant church and blasts the Utopian fantasies of Communism. In historical analysis Jung shows himself to be studiously disinterested in the material facts of history, to the severe detriment of his analysis.Perhaps Jung can be forgiven for making a classic error of Modernism and nostalgically aggrandizing a great old Europe that never was. The tenor and focus of his occasional social critiques was dramatically different post World War II, when his primary concern rightly shifted to the conditions of nationalistic totalitarianism. But as they stand in this work his social views are repugnant and anachronistic, and lack all sense of self-awareness.One additional quarrel I have is that Jung's protestations that he is not interested in theology and philosophy, and that he deals with religious images purely as a psychological phenomenon, are not persuasive in the face of the many metaphysical claims that he in fact makes, such as offhandedly referring to atheism as a "stupid error". Few readers will agree that he has no particular religious convictions of his own, or that they don't absolutely play a core role in shaping his scientific theories.Despite these problems the book on the whole provides a powerful and persuasive argument that he carefully builds to a gripping crescendo. His consideration of mandala symbolism in the last lecture is absolutely riveting and offers a vital empirical glimpse at the state of the religious mind in modernity.

The Psyche is a very important area he looks at in the whole book. I consider the whole book to be a theory on unraveling the unconscious. He argues for the existence of the psyche and he says, " the only form of existence we know of immediately is psychic." He continues that psychical dangers are much more dangerous than epidemics or earthquakes. While I accept with Jung that psychical dangers are dangerous, I believe he has overemphasized the role or place of the Psyche. This is vividly seen in the context of religion. Rather than religious faith being the deepest part of man, it is only a means aided by its symbols to understand the unconscious self.Unlike Sigmund Freud who looks at religion as an illusion, Jung sees some usefulness in religion and holds that religion is not created by persons as escape valves but they are victims of religion. He sees religion as the collective unconscious that is present in every person's unconscious. The task of religion is to reveal what is in the unconscious and the psyche. This is the reason he validates the use of Christian symbols in uncovering the unconscious.Jung describes archetypes as "forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time as autochthonous, individual products of unconscious origin." Using his theory on archetypes to analyze some of his patient's dreams, he tries to return to the primordial remote times when these things existed. I find his theory on archetypes very problematic. My question is how these primordial things get into the psyche? Are these archetypes present at the time of birth of every child? His theory I believe will presuppose that if we all were helped to unravel the unconscious, we will think alike and behave alike since if we go back to a million or more years ago, we either were children of the same parents or evolved from one family of animals.He sees in dream a means of unraveling the unconscious. Jung's book is helpful in understanding the psyche and the unconscious. It is however not helpful in understanding authentic religious experiences in people.

These are the Terry Lectures from Yale University in 1937, given in English. Unlike much of Jung's writing, theses lectures are very accessible and show the relationship between psychology and religion. Jung focuses on the religious experience itself, and how important it is to the health of the psyche. Religious experience is not an illusion as Freud stated, but Jung is more in line with William James when he talks about the varieties of religious experiences possible. Jung also makes the distinction between immediate religious experience and religious creed which is a distillation of religious experience. For anyone interested in the interface between psychology and religion this is an essential book.

If you are a Jung fan, you will want to read everything you can get your hands on. I would however recommend a basic knowledge of Jung's theories, before reading this. I started with a "Jung Primer" ..a collection of his most seminal works.. I would not want to have started here..

Great way to learn what C.G. Jung's reasons for interpreting dreams and what he disagrees about with Freud.

Fast shipping. I enjoy this author and it’s a great book.

This is a very hard read. He has to explain everything he's explaining. It's more theory than fact and if I wasn't so interested in the subject I don't think I would try so hard to follow what he's getting at.

Easy to understand, great progression from one idea to another with each one supporting the following idea. Great for people looking for a new way of defining their inner thoughts. Never boring, always interesting.

It is worth reading.

Received the book today. The whole cover of the book looks and feels quite dirty.

A classic little work from Jung. It's a quick read but also a must read that you'll want to come back to again. It benefits from being written as a lecture and as a consequence of this it is immensely readable. In this respect it differs sharply from the academic tone and content that he employs in books such 'The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious'.Insightful and at times incredibly profound,he makes some points about the human condition that everyone needs to take on board - particularly in these times when society and mankind is in danger of losing its soul. Try getting your head around this one Dawkins - this book is the antidote for a rampant intellect!

Whatever they used to keep the pages bound to the spine is terrible. All the pages are falling out no matter how gentle or acute you keep the pages angled. As you can see from the attached images the spine isn't even that deformed so it wasn't like I was opening it far too wide... Just wide enough to read comfortably and yet the pages detach themselves.

Excellent book thanks