Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. [Paperback]

C. G. Jung (Author), William McGuire (Editor), Beatrice M. Hinkle (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Bollingen | Publication Date: December 1, 2001

"This book became a landmark, set up on the spot where two ways divided. Because of its imperfections and its incompleteness it laid down the program to be followed for the next few decades of my life." Thus wrote C. G. Jung about his most famous and influential work, the one that marked the beginning of his divergence from the psychoanalytic school of Freud. In this book Jung explores the fantasy system of Frank Miller, the young American woman whose account of her poetic and vivid mental images helped lead him to his redefinition of libido while encouraging his explorations in mythology. Published in 1912 as Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido, this is a key text for the study of the formation of Jung's ideas and for understanding his personal and psychological condition during this crucial time. Miller's fantasies, with their mythological implications, supported Jung's notion that libido is not primarily sexual energy, as Freud had described it, but rather psychic energy in general, which springs from the unconscious and appears in consciousness as symbols. Jung shows how libido organizes itself as a metaphorical "hero," who first battles for deliverance from the "mother," the symbol of the unconscious, in order to become conscious, then returns to the unconscious for renewal. Jung's analytical commentary on these fantasies is a complex study of symbolic parallels derived from mythology, religion, ethnology, art, literature, and psychiatry, and foreshadows his fundamental concept of the collective unconscious and its contents, the archetypes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Breaking from Freud by allowing for nonsexual psychic forces driving the libido, Carl Jung made a more lasting name for himself than did his mentor. Psychology of the Unconscious is a prodigious leap away from Freud's dictatorial constraints, exploring the mythic aspects of our interior lives in exquisite detail. While he sometimes sacrifices readability for erudition, this is no failing for the interested student, who strives to follow Jung as he moves from Norse mythology to Shakespeare to Sanskrit etymology quickly but seamlessly. Focusing in particular on the vivid dream and fantasy life of "Miss Miller," he often uses her words as a kind of airstrip from which to take off on his own flights of imagination, always careful to stay focused on analysis and understanding and limited only by his exhaustive knowledge.

Having demonstrated to his own satisfaction that the libido (the energy of the unconscious) transcends sex, Jung sets about showing the reader how it is so. Never denying Freud's crucial insights into sexual history and fantasies, he goes beyond them to tell a story prefiguring mythicists like Joseph Campbell's. The libido becomes a hero, escaping from confinement, having multifarious adventures in the world, but always returning to the source of its power--the unconscious--in dreams and imagination. This powerful, elastic theory is still in use today, and Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious deservedly takes its place among those books that have most greatly influenced the way we think about ourselves. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Jung is readable in this first exciting bloom of his extraordinary journey into the unconscious. -- Joseph C. Mark, Contemporary Psychology

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 476 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691090254
• ISBN-13: 978-0691090252
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology (also known as Jungian psychology). Jung's radical approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in counter-cultural movements across the globe. Jung is considered as the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is "by nature religious" and to explore it in depth. His many major works include "Analytic Psychology: Its Theory and Practice," "Man and His Symbols," "Memories, Dreams, Reflections," "The Collected Works of Carl G. Jung," and "The Red Book."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars aka Collected Works 5, Symbols of Transformation, September 17, 2009

By 

Scroll2b - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psychology of the Unconscious (Paperback)

From Volume 19 of the Collected Works, General Bibliography: "Entire work pub., rev. and expanded, in a dif. trans. with change of title, as CW 5."

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Jung, October 24, 2009

By 

Craig R. Clark - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Psychology of the Unconscious (Paperback)

This book is a must for anyone who wants to know more about Jung. The poetry and mythology are actually more interesting than the psychology. Jung was a brave trail blazer going boldly where no man had gone before. Yet he makes too much of the Oedipus story and this is more Freud's fault than Jung's. To associate the Oedipus drama, a purely fictional creation, with Western theology is a pretty warped idea. If you can filter out the Jungian sexual obsessions, it is a pretty thought provoking work.

4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars profound, April 15, 2005

By 

A. Freyer "sddffr" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. (Hardcover)

This is an extraordinary group of essays. changed my perception of the psyche forever.