Customer Reviews

Jung & the Alchemical Imagination (Jung on the Hudson Book Series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This analysand (4 years in Jungian analysis) finally found a post-Jungian book that breaks new ground. Students of alchemy, in any tradition, will find a treasure of meaning in these pages-- especially if you are interested in how alchemy and psychology relate to one another! Raff wells articulates the "transcendent function" in very understandable terms (even for a student not well acquainted with Jung's writings). He then postulates a concept of what he terms the "psychoid." And, that is exactly where the reader will find the pay dirt. I was especially thrilled to find a very concrete discussion of the individuation process using the 17th c. alchemical engravings by the German philosopher Lambsprinck. Raff precisely articulates & operationalizes--in psychological terms-- many of the symbols therein. Since I have been studying that particular set of alchemical symbols for ten years, I was thunderstruck with his discussion. I keep his work by my bed with a copy of my now worn out GOLDEN GAME by Stanislas Kolossowski de Rola. I could not put the book down because this author is a true Kabbalist, as well as a Jungian scholar/healer. Thank you Dr. Raff! What a treasure here!

Ignore the complexity of the title. This book is the newest and best handbook on finding your myth. If you are serious about living by guidance from an Intelligence equal to "God", read this book. You need little knowledge of Jung , as Raffe does a great job making him easy to understand. But the power in this book is his focus on the THREE REAL STEPS you must experience as the world of the sub-conscious guides you. Raffe proves this process from the history of Alchemical (read source of all modern chemistry) "scientists". Mystics from world religions are quoted in their experience of the Divine as an Alcemical process. Raffe shows you how you can emulate their process of letting the Ego find it's correct place in your life. My journey goes back 45 years, and this book puts it all together for those of us who seek enlightenment where our heritage is Ocidental. Synchronicity is my myth, and Raffe accurately brings Synchronicity into focus as a major source of finding the sub-conscious guides waiting to help you find your bliss. If you want to know the riddle of what is the "Last Desire" before enlightenment, read the book. The changes associated with the real "straight and narrow" path of one's myth Raffe proves are time tested and proven logically, through the evolution of Alchemy as both real science and the analogy of our soul development. Alchemy and Synchronicity are magic, and both are paradoxical. Raffe shows us how not to fear the often sudden and frightening changes that emerge in a life tuned to expect and accept paradoxical events. And it's done in a non-demoninational process that can produce wholeness and bliss while living in a world of chaos. Raffe is a genuine man, and this book is not the source of an empty fad. This is the real thing, as good as any book from all of the post Jungian writers.

If you are looking for a book that shows a step by step process for identifying and partnering with the emergence of the Self, this is it. Never condescending, always challenging, Raff uses well known alchemical prints to show the path to individuation which is really the art of identifying the guidance of the self and allowing the ego to partner with it, without impeding it. Bravo Jeffrey Raff for having such faith in your readers as to allow them to know what the Alchemists have always known: That everything that you need for your transformation in the eternal realm of this life is within you, simply waiting to be utilized and understood. Understanding this book, could change your life.

In this book Jeffrey Raff combines years of research into Jung, mysticism and alchemy with extensive practical experience teaching people effective ways to utilize the information in their lives. I think this book will become a classic of spiritual psychology and practical mysticism. Jeffrey Raff uncovers the wisdom that has been hidden within the Western spiritual tradition, dresses it in clear, readable language, updates it with the central terms of Jungian depth psychology, and grounds it in years of personal and professional experience. The result is the birth of a Way to wholeness and enlightment equivalent to Eastern meditation practices - yet fitting for the Western psyche. The Way is active and creative, providing tools for self knowledge, individuation, and human self expression while simultaneously reaching to the deepest spiritual realities. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in Jewish, Christian, or Islamic mysticism. By explaining the methodology of Jungian depth psychology and ancient alchemical processes in clear and understandable writing Jeffrey Raff creates a Western Way.

Raff is a Jungian analyst and he takes some interesting leaps in this experiential and theoretical treatise of psyche and spirit. He begins with Jung's classic individuation theory, which he explores as a psycho-spiritual process expressed by symbols of union well known to western alchemists--such as sol and luna or sun and moon, king and queen. From Jung's foundation, Raff moves to both alchemy and the mystics of Sufism, as well as his own experience and that of his clients. As he extends into and beyond the realm of imagination, he posits a transpsychic world of spirit he terms the "psychoid". The adventure of wholeness continues as a blend of imagistic psychic and actual psychoidal experiences. For Raff as for the Sufis, the latter stems from the realm of quasi-corporal spirit which he considers the source of the archetypal psyche. Along with other recent volumes concerning the creative force of imagination, this work too seeks to evolve western psycho-spiritual theory and practice with insights based on historic and contemporary experience.

I wanted a book to explain the psychological individuation process as it was understood and expressed in alchemy, and I feel I received an excellent introduction in Raff's book, and more. Raff, a Jungian psychologist, orients symbols and allegory written by medieval alchemists to the psycho-spirituality envisioned by Carl Jung and the evolution of the soul in the process of individuation. Raff clearly explains his understanding of the relationship of the ego, the Self and the transcendent aspect, and goes on to describe the evolution of this relationship in the individual psyche through the vehicle of imagination toward the unfolding of deeper consciousness. He conveys the value of Jungian active imagination in plain language and draws direct connections (as Jung did) to the Work of the ancient alchemists.

Jung observed that the alchemists engaged consciously in the process of individuation and this was overtly projected on matter in the outer alchemical process (cooking stuff in flasks and observing the changes) but also directly in the inner life as expressed in the symbols they recorded in their manuscripts. Jung noticed that the ancient alchemists universally saw the process of meditation and imagination (imaginatio) as essential to the alchemical Work (see Psychology and Alchemy (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.12) and other works). Raff builds on Jung's work here with his own concept of the Self in relationship with the ego, and how through imagination more of the Self becomes manifest to consciousness and in a more direct relationship with the ego. He brilliantly illustrates a way of seeing the stages of the evolution of the individual through the alchemical stages of development shown by alchemist Gerald Dorn and in the symbols of the Book of Lambspring. He not only interprets the alchemical symbols in a way a lay person can understand but also brings them to life in the book, taking the reader through the three coniunctio stages of development.

Raff also introduces his own concepts into into the background of Jungian understanding in his parsing of imagination and fantasy, his view of the individuation process in terms of the creation of the manifest self through evolving consciousness and the psychoid world as a realm where the imaginal, spiritual *and* physical exist together. He also indicates that the process of expanding consciousness and finding one's self through imagination is not an easy road (indeed it is dangerous) but one that can allow us to live more authentically and with more freedom, and also potentially unity with the divine.

I personally find Raff's book to be intriguing, enlightening, and transformative. While some of his concepts to have a distinctly personal flavor, i generally find them very useful in providing clarity. He expounds on his view in his terms but i also believe he is truly tapping into universal core processes of the soul. In this way, Raff provides the reader a gate to fundamental transformations of consciousness and living. And how many writers can claim to do that?

On the critical side I found the text repetitive, but as I read I imagined Raff teaching these concepts. As one moves further into teaching about unconscious processes, the concepts become more and more slippery for the student/reader. So I could forgive him the repetition on these grounds. However, the editing missed a number of misspellings and I am less forgiving of that in a published book. I found myself writing in the spelling corrections along with my margin notes.

This is an extremely worthwhile read! It could utterly change your life, if you open yourself to it. I recommend it highly.

Jeffrey Raff does a stellar job of interpreting Carl Jung's psychological teachings, he uses many of Jung's theories as a foundation then further expands on them and links them to spiritual alchemy, regarding Jung as a spiritual teacher first and a psychologist second. The book is well written and flows superbly through various alchemical topics and procedures. Excellent read!

Using a classical Jungian alchemy as the guidebook, Raff takes us a patchy excursion into the arcane world of "individuation" by inner alchemy, with significant assistance from Maria von Franz, and no discernible help from an editor.

Raff's approach feels rather dated and stuck in a 70s Zurich time warp: there's not a lot of "dreaming the myth on" here. Some explanations of key concepts are not as clear as they could be and some are downright muddy or contradictory (This could be me not understanding, for example, how an a priori self described as "autonomous" can be "created" or "formulated" by an ego, especially if that self can manifest the divine? Mind you, many a Jungian is scruffy and loose in their understanding and use of the Jungian keywords -- as Shamdasani will attest -- and despite the overwhelming phenomenological evidence, the idea that the ego is never really in control remains fiercely contested in old-school circles, which appear to include Raff). Some of Raff's interpretations of alchemical images feel distinctly projected (and maybe even upside-down or back-to-front: after all, which bit symbolises the ego and which the self? Why is self the dragon and not the ego? How much does some kind of post-Enlightenment-reason-is-King complex get in the way here?). And some sections suffer from rambling repeats of the same idea, which gets lost in the fog. I fear the same may be said of this review. :)

But fear not, there is some gold here. What Raff does very well is give us a useful and practical understanding of what this strange awesome business of so-called individuation is all about. He is a quotable advocate for the power of imagination in the ongoing realisation of working out who the truck we are and building relationships with the deeper aspects of us.

So persevere with Raff, but read him with a grain of salt: in this field, you have to.

Psychoanalysis is a scientific discipline created by Sigmund Freud in his treatment of psychiatric patients who demonstrably had a split personality, or a consciousness (ego) visibly disturbed by an unconscious part of his personality. An integration (or individuation, a Jungian term) is therefore a sound objective of treatment. With the advance in psychotic drugs, more severe cases of personality-split (like schizophrenia) are now invariably treated with these new drugs, and NOT by Jungian-individuation, as the line of first defense.

Psychoanalysis is now only one of the techniques of clinical psychologists (and some don't use it at all, because there are other methods). In explaining his treatment method, Dr. Raff gave one account of how he advised his patient (he called "client") "who felt oppressed by the machinations of her sister-in-law" to seek out a personalized part of her unconscious and ask for advice through a process called "alchemical imagination" (which essentially means meditation). And it boggled my mind when I read this "reflection" process (a necessary step in the Dr.'s system) whereby the patient has to discuss the recommendation of this "imagined figure" with her therapist to make sure that she is really "imagining" (which apparently, THE recommendation is "approved" by the therapist) rather than "fantasizing" (i.e. sorry not approved by therapist). Nowadays, for this kind of simple cases, I believe most professional clinical psychologists will likely choose the simpler approach of giving some rational advice, and will try to rationally convince the patient to buy into the therapist's advice.

Carl Jung always considered himself a scientist rather than an alchemist (of course Dr. Raff said there was another side of Jung that he was privileged to have exposed, unfortunately we can't prove that by any act of imagination or alchemical technique). Having said that Jung did shown great interest in alchemy, and alchemical emblems interpreted by Dr. Raff can surely be interpreted as one manual of psychoanalysis, for treatment guidance or actual clinical reports (i.e. dream images of psychiatric patients), and individuation will certainly be a treatment objective, and "verbal exchange" is definitely the key method of treatment during those historical period without the help of more powerful psychotic drugs.

Meditation is certainly an important tool for spiritual practices (generally not advised for people with psychotic tendency), and to be effective, some kind of chi-generation seems to be necessary, as seen in Eastern practices. Moreover, some form of morality guidance (if not religious) seems necessary too, otherwise one might be individuated with the "devil", however one defines it. Carl Jung had actually warned against this and pointed out extreme patriotism/fascism is kind of mass psychological illness (not to mention his own extremely difficult experience as exposed in his Red Book, to this I would speculate it to be his scientific investigation (and good intention) of using himself as the subject to explore near-psychotic experience). In short, Carl Jung has been a living example warning people not to meddle with the darker side of one's unconscious without the absolute necessity of doing so, and need proper guidance too, religious or morality.

Lastly, I think it unnecessary to advocate certain spiritual technique simply because it has been evolved in the West, after all our Church Fathers didn't find any problem worshiping a Jewish God.