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Experimental Researches (Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 2)

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Jung published nine articles (between 1904-1907) on his word association experiments at a mental hospital, which are collected in this volume, as well as two lectures and three other articles.

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"Finally, it may be permissible to point out once more that an overwhelming number of the complexes we have discovered in our subjects are erotic. In view of the great part played by love and sexuality in human life, this is not surprising."
"The art of the method, which is never easy to use, lies in distinguishing the reactions connected with a complex from the irrelevant ones. I have therefore compiled a series of so-called 'complex characteristics.' In principle the complex-characteristics are the same for normal and pathological associations. Furthermore, to lay bare the complex is of far-reaching significance in applying our experiments to the field of criminal psychology."
"Anyone inexperienced in the field of pathological association psychology will probably shake his head at the above suppositions; he will perhaps see in them not just hypotheses but sheer phantasms. The judgment on them will perhaps be the same as on Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams: The Complete and Definitive Text."
"One must get rid of the idea that people with a good education and some insight can always recognize and admit their own complexes. Every human mind contains much that is not admitted..."

Throughout his works Jung repeatedly says he is a scientist, his findings are empirically based, & therapy must center on the individual client rather than upon theory. This volume (in addition to CW1) supports these contentions by describing the many experiments Jung conducted. Contemporary "post-Jungians," might take this volume as a failed attempt, but I do not. Jung's view was more a balance of nature (biology, genetics, etc.) AND nurture (environment, learning, etc.). Jung helped evolve psychology towards becoming a science--vs. the psychology of ignorance he inherited. This is a VERY important work (though perhaps a bit boring to many readers) which modern readers are advised to peruse to understand the context within which Jung worked, explored, & experimented. Per modern Knowledge Management, knowledge (vs. data or information) requires context to be actionable. In addition, this work has some interesting quotes such as: p. 245 "All our thinking and acting, the vast bulk of which appears to us to be conscious, actually consist of all those bits that are finely determined by innumerable impulses completely outside consciousness. To our ego-consciousness the association process seems to be its own work, subject to its judgment, free will, and concentration; in reality, however, as our experiment beautifully shows, ego-consciousness is merely the marionette that dances on the stage, moved by a concealed mechanism. (note 39) From this we can also gather that those who equate psyche with consciousness actually take part en pro toto;" p. 444 "no psychic occurrence is a thing in and by itself but rather the resultant of the entire psychological past;" & p. 444 "Words are really a kind of shorthand version of actions, situations, and things...the linguistic surrogate for reality; at the same time we must not forget what the stimulus-word will almost without exception conjure up its corresponding situation."

Historically interesting--the famous word association test is mentioned here--but Jung is at his worst when trying to squeeze psyche into a causal framework. Early in his career, however, that was how it was done, and he broke out of it later while Freud did not.