Jung and Eastern Thought (Suny Series, Transpersonal & Humanistic Psychology) [Paperback]

Harold G. Coward (Author)

Book Description

Series: Suny Series, Transpersonal & Humanistic Psychology | Publication Date: June 30, 1985

Jung and Eastern Thought is an assessment of the impact of the East on Jung's life and teaching. Along with the strong and continuing interest in the psychology of Carl Jung is a growing awareness of the extent to which Eastern thought, especially Indian ideas, influenced his thinking. This book identifies those influences that he found useful and those he rejected. In Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist cultures, yoga is a central conception and practice. Jung was at once fascinated and critical of yoga. Part I of the book examine's Jung's encounter with yoga and his strong warning against the uncritical adoption of yoga by the modern West. In Part II Jung's love/hate relationship with Eastern thought is examined in light of his attitude toward karma and rebirth, Kundalini yoga, mysticism, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Coward observations are rounded out by contributions from J. Borelli and J. Jordens. Dr. Borelli's Annotated Bibliography is an in valuable contribution to bibliographic material on Jung's most senior North American student and one of the few Jungians to have recognized the important influence of the East on Jung's thinking. --- from book's back cover

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press; First edition (June 30, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088706051X
• ISBN-13: 978-0887060519
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #711,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent comparison of Jung mostly with Hindu thought, May 23, 2005

By 

Neal J. Pollock (VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jung and Eastern Thought (Suny Series, Transpersonal & Humanistic Psychology) (Paperback)

This is a well-written book balancing Jungian & Eastern thought in an unbiased manner-both similarities & differences. It covers yoga (Patanjali's)/Taoism; alchemy/Gnosticism, the collective unconscious=Self/ Brahman, synchronicity; mandalas/quaternity/circumambulation, karma/reincarnation, prana/libido/prajna, & Upanishads/kundalini. It has general topics & a very detailed comparison of Jung/Patanjali's yoga with considerable discussion of the Upanishads. Thus, it focuses mainly on Hinduism. There are a great many parallels, if not identities, between numerous concepts & views: p. 5: quoting Jung: "Taoist philosophy as well as yoga have very many parallels with the psychic processes we can observe in Western man." Perhaps the main similarities lie in the extensive comparisons of Jung's libido vs. yoga's prana, self-knowledge & prajna, mandalas & circumambulation as symbols of wholeness/Self, the relationship between the self & the All, & yoga vs. psychotherapy. It is erudite, convincing, yet readable.

Main differences between Jung & Eastern thought include Jung's view of the 2 directions-[Western extroverted sensing thinking judging (ESTJ) vs. Eastern introverted intuitive feeling perceiving (INFP)]:
p. 8: "The truth of the East is not in the Eastern way itself, but in the demonstrated need for a balance between intellect and intuition, between thinking and feeling...To be overbalanced in any one aspect of consciousness is a sign of immaturity and "barbarism", to use Jung's word for it. Consequently, it is not the case that the modem West should give up its highly developed scientific intellect-only that the intuitive and feeling aspects of psychic function must achieve an equally high development in Western consciousness so that a creative balance can be achieved, and a widening of consciousness result. While Jung openly admired the Eastern yoga principle of inclusiveness and balance between the opposing aspects of psychic function, it is clear that he felt that the East had overstressed the intuitive, just as the modem West had over-developed the scientific."
p. 14: "In Jung's view any unbalance in the split of psychic energy, while it may produce the short-term gains of rigorous specialization (e. g., modern Western technology), will, in the long run, prove detrimental."

This is the basis for Jung's several arguments against Westerners directly adopting Eastern methods:
p. 18: "Here Jung again sounds his warning that the solution for the Westerner cannot be found by taking up the direct practice of Eastern yoga. Says Jung, the neurosis or split within consciousness would then simply be intensified But what can be learned from the East is a general approach to be adopted so that the split, the imbalance between the opposites may be brought into harmony."
p. 22: "because the Westerner typically does not know his own unconscious, it is quite likely that when he finds the East strange and hard to understand he will project onto it everything he fears and despises in himself...he felt the direct practice of yoga by a Westerner would only serve to strengthen his will and consciousness and so further intensify the split with the unconscious...The outcome would be just as disastrous for the Western neurotic who suffers from the opposite problem of a lack of development of the conscious and a predominance of the unconscious."
p. 23: "Jung pointed out that if we try to snatch spiritual techniques directly from the East `'we have merely indulged our Western acquisitiveness, confirming yet again that 'everything good is outside.'"

Specific differences include those between Jungian empirical psychology & Eastern philosophy:
p. 61: "lack of distinction between philosophy and psychology that seems to typify much Eastern thought."
p. 62: "the older psychologies of the East and the medieval West are founded on metaphysical concepts which often have little relation to empirical facts."
p. 104: "Throughout his life Jung admitted his strong attraction to Indian karma and reincarnation theory, but its lack of empirical verification was the obstacle to its full acceptance."
p. 188: "The error of Eastern thought in this regard is that it is not firmly grounded in the empirical method and instead has allowed itself to become lost in unsupportable metaphysical speculation."
p. 189: "Jung never thought of his own psychology as a closed theory. To his last years he remained open to new ideas that could come from either East or West. But throughout his life it was his activity as a psychotherapist that kept Jung skeptical of Eastern metaphysics and rooted in the tradition of Western medical science."

Nonetheless, Jung strongly supported studying Eastern thought & adapting it to Western usage:
p. 9: "The West must not simply attempt to copy the Eastern spiritual yoga, or the East blindly adopt Western science. Each should study the other and gain inspiration from its example, but each must pursue its own development within its own historical consciousness.'"
p. 23: "we must get at Eastern values from within and not from without, seeking them in ourselves, in the unconscious."
While this may seem antithetical to Eastern approaches, the Buddha advised individuals to carefully weigh his words themselves and see how applicable they were to them. Also Vajrayana masters continue to advise caution in accepting a guru/lama and even in considering what the guru tells the to do-in light of their individual discriminating wisdom.

Most interesting is the high impact issue of full Samadhi (absorption or Buddhahood) which Jung denied since it involves the dissolution of the ego and, thus, of individual consciousness:
p. 142: "Can there be mystical experience without an individual ego?" Or put another way, ''Is unlimited consciousness of the fullness of reality psychologically possible?"
p. 161: Jung: "They do not realize that a 'universal consciousness' is a contradiction in terms, since exclusion, selection, anti discrimination are the root and essence of everything; that lays claim to the name 'consciousness"
p. 177: "To Jung, consciousness is very narrowly defined as that quality of being related to the ego. `Consciousness needs a center, an ego to which something is conscious. We know of no other kind of consciousness, nor can we imagine a consciousness without an ego.'"
However, IMHO this revolves around a differing definition of consciousness. And, even Jung once implied that it might be possible for the Self to assume consciousness vs. the ego. Of course, Jung viewed himself as an empiricist and, apparently, never met an actual Buddha.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jung and Eastern Thought, January 7, 2008

By 

pam (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jung and Eastern Thought (Suny Series, Transpersonal & Humanistic Psychology) (Paperback)

The text was very helpful in understanding many significant differences between the Eastern and Western thought in regards to spiritual consciousness. Jung helps us understand the Western unconscous mind and its relationship to the pro and cons of the practice of Yoga.