Customer Reviews

Carl Gustav Jung

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Ok, so the Jungians have done themselves no favors by publishing biographies of Jung that are one-sidedly laudatory. However, the solution is not, in my opinion, to compose counter-biographies that are one-sidedly negative.

After being disappointed with Noll's sensationalist books on Jung, I was hoping that McLynn's biography would be more even-handed. It had, after all, drawn very favorable reviews.

On one hand, thanks to McLynn's efforts, I learned a lot more about Jung than I knew before. However,McLynn's overwhelmingly negative, even petty, evaluation of Jung quickly became both tedious and frustrating as I forced myself to finish it.

If one wishes to know, in exhaustive detail, everything Jung ever did that could expose him to criticism, this book is useful. However, if one wishes to have a complete view of Jung, both positive and negative, this book is extremely misleading.

One source of frustration was the obvious fact that McLynn did not understand Jung's writings, and did not wish to take the time to understand them. It is not enough to dismiss his works as "impenetrable" (a word which, along with "farrago," "besotted," and "emollient," McLynn uses with excruciating frequency.) Lesser minds than McLynn's, such as my own, have managed to "penetrate" Jung's works and found them illuminating.

Another source of frustration was McLynn's penchant for taking gratuitous swipes at almost anyone or anything he finds deficient, as an adjunct to skewering Jung. Why, for example, was it necessary for McLynn to suggest that Jung resembled Physicist Richard Feynmann in having a "taste for the low life." What has Feynmann to do with the issue? What is Feynmann's unstated connection with the "low life"? Why, for another example, does McLynn feel so confident that much of Zen Buddhism is "pure nonsense"?

McLynn's dismissive attitude towards Jung's admirers, particularly his women students, is particularly unconvincing and mean-spirited. McLynn seems to sort them into two categories: mistresses, and would-be mistresses who were notable primarily for their lack of physical attractiveness. As just one example, for McLynn to ridicule Marie-Louise Von Franz as the author of mere incomprehensible gibberish goes beyond the realm of fair comment.

In short, if the reader is seeking a sarcasm-laden, repetitive expose of a famous man, look no further than this volume. However, if you wish truly to know Jung, this book will be a disappointment. An unbiased biography of Carl Jung has yet to be written.

McLynn pointed a very bright light at Jung, and *gasp* came up with an unflattering picture. Now, I have no problem with this approach, as it reveals fully the humanness of Jung and counters the usual hagiography by Jungians, but why raise the banner of Freud as you are lowering Jung's? McLynn has done a tremendous amount of research and is an excellent writer (his overuse of words, such as "adumbrated" aside), but once I got a whiff of McLynn's pro-Freud agenda, the book became just another salvo in the unending battle between the two camps. I wish McLynn had put his Freudian cards on the table at the beginning of the book.

Anybody interested in Jung should read this book, but read it with a grain of salt. The author is no great admirer of Jung; was this a result of learning so much about him while writing his biography? I do not know, but I am grateful to McLynn for writing a book that has taught me so much about a man who has taught me so much.

That said, let me state that this book can by no means substitute for reading Jung. The brilliance, fire, and life of his writing is almost entirely absent from this book: a great loss.

Also absent are photographs. I would like to see what Jung and Co. looked like at various stages.

So let's put out a new version with photos!

This book is an in-depth biography of Carl Gustav Jung, encompassing his private life as well as his scholarly work. It begins with the Jung's ancestors on both his father's and mother's sides, and continues through Jung's death in 1961. McLynn describes Jung's elementary school years, high school, university, and post-graduate training at the Burghoeltzli Mental Hospital. His relationships are treated in great detail, including those with his wife and mistresses, as well as with Freud and other colleagues. Each of his scholarly works is also treated to summary and analysis as it falls into the chronological record of Jung's life. Jung and his contacts left much material behind from which to draw details and anecdotes for this biography, everything from Jung's personal dreams to reactions of notables such as Freud to comments made at dinner parties.

I had very little knowledge of Jung (or Freud) before reading this book, but I feel the book has given me a basic familiarity with the man, and with some of his work. McLynn does a decent job of explaining the complex ideas presented in Jung's scholarly works in a manner that is mostly accessible to those with no training in the field. Nevertheless, he does use some terminology (Jung's?) such as "number one" and "number two" when referring to parts of a single person's personality which remain completely unclear to me.

This is certainly the least sympathetic biography of any person I have ever read. From McLynn's descriptions, Jung was a self-centered bully and polygamist, to just begin a list of his character flaws. From McLynn's account, I thought these aspects of his character were well-known, but when I tried discussing them with psychologist friends, they were disturbed by my repeating such terms, found frequently in the book. Is it because McLynn overplays negative aspects of Jung's personality, or because there are certain generations of American psychologists who continue to deny that Jung was not an unpleasant man? With nothing else to go on besides this book, I have no way to judge the veracity of the claims myself. But to the uninformed reader, the book seems extremely well-researched, and will give an in-depth introduction into the life of one of the most important academic figures of the Twentieth Century.

This book is clearly well researched and quite well written. Overall, however I found that McLynn appears to side with Freud in the personal (and theoretical) struggles between the two giants of Psychology and Personality theory. With regard to personal issues he clearly accepts the fact that Jung had an affair with Sabina Speilrein but dismisses the idea that Freud was intimately involved with Minna Bernays. Even more significantly he plays down the fact that Jung made a major effort to send money to Freud to help him and his family escape from the Nazis in 1938 while Freud NEVER had a kind word for Jung after 1912.

Wanting an introductory overview to C. G. Jung and his work, and reading the editorial reviews that Mr. McLynn has presented an objective and clear account of them, I eagerly picked up this biography, but was disappointed to find it a tendentious polemic relentlessly and repetitively attacking Jung (and, by the way, I am not a "Jungian"), dwelling at unnecessary length on the Freud-Jung relationship and insufficiently on Jung's influence as an original thinker of the XXc, and most signally, failing to present any sort of precis of Jung's seminal ideas that would be helpful to the general reader. Don't bother with this one: wait for a better biography, something on the lines of Peter Gay's Freud: a Life for Our Time.

McLynn tackles the controversial issues in Jung head on, such as his mistresses and attitude to women,his relationship with Freud,alleged National Socialist sympathies before the War and anti-Semitism.Jung does not always appear in the best light,but McLynn backs his comments with evidence.One-eyed Jungians may not be amused, but this biography presents a wealth of information and should not be missed by anyone interested in Jung.

On the positive side, this book contains a lot of interesting information about Jung especially from a personal point of view. Contemporary accounts are presented and where there are conflicting stories the author at least mentioned all the possibilities. Almost the entire first half of the book deals with Jung's interaction with Freud. It is clear that the author prefers Freud. This is also the section of the book were the author allows himself to subjectively dismiss Jungian ideas. The rest of the book is more neutral in analysis though the picture painted is not an attractive one. But Jung may not have been the most likable person. To me the greatest flaw of the work was that I still did not have an appreciation of what made Jung as popular as he was and still is? The book is readable with some interesting information and views but it cannot be the only biography of Jung you read.

As a warts-and-all story, this book provides the most negative view of Jung and his theories you are likely to read from an 'impartial' biographer. Unfortunately, McLynn's own railings against the illogicalities present in Jung's theories manifest themselves as a frank rejection of his work. Also evident by the end of the book are the considerable Freudian sympathies McLynn harbours.
Despite the author's partialities, the book is well-researched and provides a factual window into the day-to-day life of a man who was nothing if not influential. Jung-lovers and -haters alike should enjoy it immensely for those reasons alone.

A harsh drag over Freudian coals. Misses Jung entirely. Breaks down everything Jung did to alleged neurosis via his mother or his libido. A few interesting points I hadn't read elsewhere, but overall a waste of my time. Exhibits little, if any, understanding of the depth and immensity of Jung's work. Quite the hatchet job. Try Bair's or Wehr's biographies instead.