On Jung [Paperback]

Anthony Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 1999

Here Anthony Stevens examines every stage of Jung's personal and professional development to throw light on his theories of the life cycle, dream symbolism, and the collective unconscious. Jung's life experience made him a profound, stimulating, and immensely influential writer on almost every aspect of human behavior; this lucid and penetrating study makes the ideal introduction to his life and ideas. This new edition contains a preface intended as a rebuttal to the recent attacks on Jung made by Noll and McLynn.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Stevens, Carl Jung's search for forceful father figures was brought on by his parents' failings; his love-at-first-sight meeting with his wife was a "classic case of anima projection"; and his midlife breakdown was an archetypal journey. "Brimming with fresh insights, this Jungian biography of Jung throws sharp light on the inner recesses of his psyche," said PW. Illustrated.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

In On Jung, Anthony Stevens offers an informative and clear explanation of the basic principles of Jungian psychology.... Stevens skillfully employs object relations theory in his analysis.... His treatment of the history of Jung's family and the impact of its dynamics on Jung's personality is refreshingly honest. -- John-Raphael Staude, The Times Literary Supplement

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; Upd Sub edition (October 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069101048X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691010489
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,389,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( J ) > Jung, Carl

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the perfect brief summary of Jung and Jungian theory, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: On Jung (Penguin Psychology) (Paperback)

The reader is treated to both a concise statement of Carl Gustav Jung's theories of life-stage development and a parallel narrative of Jung's experiences as he moved through each of these stages. Stevens traces the idea of the unconscious from its conception (which he believed to be around 1700) to the earliest investigations by Freud in the 1890s. The split between Freud and Jung (essentially spirituality versus sexuality) is described as having a profoundly shattering effect on Jung, as it had on others ejected from the Freudian camp for their failure to endorse, without question, Freud's theories that all neuroses is based in sexual development. (Two of these ex-Freudians actually committed suicide after being spurned by Freud.) Stevens's unique method of combining a primer of Jung life-stage theory with a biography of Jung is an effective introduction to the man and his work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read book explaining Jung's psychology with biographical sketches of Jung's own life., October 27, 2007

By 

GPK (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Jung (Paperback)

This is a review of "On Jung" by Anthony Stevens.

Before reading this book, I had already read several books on Jung, including Anthony Stevens book in the very short introduction series (VSI). In fact, because I liked the latter, I decided to buy another of his books on Jung. I think it is fair to say that this book is written in the same style as the VSI: it makes rather light reading, avoids too much jargon where possible, but at the same time "On Jung" definitely goes into more depth than the VSI. Which is a good thing because the VSI was meant as a VSI only.

"On Jung" has two interwoven pieces of content: first it describes the various stages of life as seen from a Jungian perspective, and simultaneously it gives short biographic sketches of Jung's own life as an illustration of Jung's theory. It will be no surprise that the two are found to fit each other very well. This double format comes across as very didactical to me: each Jungian concept is explained in two different ways so to say.

Bottom line: I enjoyed the book, it helped me to better understand Jung's psychology. Perhaps now I even feel prepared enough to start reading some of Jung's own books (which have the reputation of difficult to read)!

Recommendation: for readers completely new to Jung, I would recommend a shorter more-introductory text first, e.g. Stevens VSI; "On Jung" is excellent as a second book, for those who already know something on Jung. If you are more interested in a biography, I would defintely recommend Jung's own "Memories, Dreams, Reflections".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Analytical psychology personified, November 28, 2010

By 

U Dream (Colton, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Jung (Paperback)

Excellent introduction to Jungian theory as it developed out of Carl Jung's own personal quest for individuation--waking up from the constricting consciousness of his own personal ego and that of social norms. His theory of "Analytical psychology" is naturally a production of his own consciousness. He was a living example of the theory he constructed.The theory evolved dialectically as a result of his own personal experiences that he objectified as the individuation process, which in turn guided his future choices to move in the direction that the theory pointed. There is a remarkable correspondence to Eastern wisdom traditions' teachings of liberation of the Self through enlightenment. Jung represents a much more encompassing perspective than Freud, from whom he parted ways. In Freud's topology of the psyche, consciousness is the tip of the iceberg; the majority of the submerged mass of the iceberg represents the personal unconscious. Jung adds to this the ocean in which all icebergs float--the ocean is the collective unconscious of humanity. The collective unconscious consists of the archetypal forms that influence conscious cognition (e.g. the masculine and feminine principles). Freud is often credited as discovering the unconscious, but that is absurd. Freud did however make it a subject of scientific study and perhaps was the first to systematically give it a technical language. But the unconscious has long been deliberately expressed in artforms (painting, poetry, plays, etc.) shammanic rituals, and philosophy (ancient Greeks). Jung understood this, so studied alchemy, religion, and anthropology to inform his developing psychology. Whereas Freud's work inspired masters of spin and manipulation in marketing and politics, Jung's work inspired the human potential movement and transpersonal psychology. The book's format of using Jung's biographical information to illustrate and explain the theory Jung constructed is an excellent way to gain deep insights at the introductory level.