Jungian Archetypes: Jung, Godel, and the History of Archetypes [Paperback]

Robin Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1995

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Pythagoras taught that the simple counting numbers are the basic building blocks of reality. A century and a half later, Plato argued that the world we live in is but a poor copy of the world of ideas. Neither realized that their numbers and ideas might also be the most basic components of the human psych: archetypes. This book traces the modern evolution of this idea from the Renaissance to the 20th century, leading up to the archetypal hypothesis of psychologist C.G. Jung, and the mirroring of mathematical ideas of Kurt Gödel.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The modern history of archetypes from Renaissance to modern times is examined in a study which draws connections between philosophical ideas and psychological studies. There's plenty of mathematical insights which also provide the strong connections between Jung and other originators of archetypal ideas and studies. The ongoing connections between researchers' studies and everyday life makes for a strong examination. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Nicolas-Hays (November 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089254029X
• ISBN-13: 978-0892540297
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,814,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robin Robertson has spent a life-time bridging the worlds of psychology, science, business and the arts. He's a clinical psychologist, university professor and writer who has published sixteen books and more than a hundred articles in either psychology or his hobby field of magic. He teaches psychology on-line to graduate level students as an Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Before becoming a psychologist, he was a vice-president of software development for a large insurance company, and for the last twenty years, he's been a consultant to a multi-employer pension plan. He has separate undergraduate degrees in mathematics and English literature, as well as an M.A. in counseling psychology, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Robin's books, often on Jungian psychology or the relationship between psychology and science, have gone through multiple printings, new editions, and foreign translations. Since 1986, he's been a writer, editor, columnist and editorial board member of the Jungian journal Psychological Perspectives (a beautiful journal that speaks not merely to specialists, but to everyone who loves Jung.)

He has also been heavily involved with the applications of chaos theory in psychology as a writer, editor, speaker, and officer of the "Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences." And, in more recent years, he's been a consulting editor and contributor for the cybernetics journal Cybernetics & Human Knowing (a journal that looks at deep issues about the nature of reality).

He is a life-time amateur magician, and a member of the Order of Merlin of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, who has published six magic books and many original effects, in recent years often collaborating with the clever Scottish magician, Peter Duffie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Numbers as archetypes, February 24, 2005

By 

Mead C. Whorton Jr. (Bastrop, LA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jungian Archetypes: Jung, Godel, and the History of Archetypes (Paperback)

Drawing on the initial concept advanced by Pythagoras that reality is number and Plato's later theory that there exist a world of perfect ideas which transcends the world we live in, the author sketches the scientific advances made from the Renaissance through the 20th century. He skillfully explains Descartes' geometry, the calculus of Newton and Leibniz, Cantor's theory of infinite sets, Freud's theory of personality, Jung's model of the psyche, and Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Utilizing the above mentioned background material, Robertson then explains how Jung and Godel both posited that a Platonic world of ideas (archetypes) exist beyond physical reality and the inner world of the psyche. And his well reasoned conclusion is that these archetypes are Pythagoras' simple counting numbers. This is a marvelous and thought provoking book which is also readable. A must buy for anyone interested in mathematics, psychology, philosophy, or archetypes.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a great book, September 7, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Ecuador) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jungian Archetypes: Jung, Godel, and the History of Archetypes (Paperback)

This book is short, but it integrates two diferents area as mathematics and phycology. The author makes a comparation between mathematical vision and phycological vision about the world, the integrating medium of these visions are the archetypes which exists as platonic ideals in mathematics and as collective unconcious in the people.