Undiscovered Self [Paperback]

C. G. Jung (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 1972

Dr. Jung discusses the problem of the individual in today's highly programmed society.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Sonu Shamdasani is editor of "The Red Book" and Philemon Professor of Jung History at University College London.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 113 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (March 30, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316476943
• ISBN-13: 978-0316476942
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.2 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,626,157 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

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jung on the Philosophy of History, August 10, 2000

By 

Michael P. McGarry (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Undiscovered Self: With Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams (Paperback)

This 1957 essay is Jung's major statement on the "Big Picture". In Jung's view, the person who does not know him or herself, who does not understand his or her strengths as an individual, will necessarily fall victim to mass-mentality. Mass-mentality is the Unconscious played out on the global scale, and if left to its own devices, it will continue to produce tragedies similar in scale to what the human race experienced in the two world wars. The antidote, Jung argues, is self-knowledge. This is not philosophical self-knowledge, but rather psychological self-knowledge - a reckoning with one's animal instincts, one's shadow, one's dreams and fantasies. Ultimately, Jung says self-knowledge must involve a spiritual experience - an experience of tradition religious truths as relevant in one's own life. Only this kind of experience will protect a person from the trap of mass-mentality; moreover, the development of culture and perhaps even the survival of the race depend on such individuals who can resist mass-mentality when it is strongest. For Jung, the hope of the human race and the world at large depended ultimately on the inner work individuals do in their most intimate inner world. For Jung, the personal is the political, but in a much more profound way than that in which anyone else has ever used that phrase.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power to stand against the World, February 21, 2006

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Undiscovered Self: With Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams (Paperback)

_In this book Jung correctly predicted that Communism had to collapse from within. No one else saw that coming. Why should they? For, as he points out, the mass state had all the force of the big battalions on their side- politics, science, and technology were their natural allies. And yet they collapsed.

_Should we rejoice in this? Why? Jung points out that the West is every bit as materialistic as our former Communist opponents. Our spiritual base is gone- in the place of true religion we have aging cults that serve the status quo. There is no inner power there. Every place Jung uses the term Communist, you can substitute Corporate and you have the same animal. That is because both are hierarchical structures where the individual counts for nothing. Indeed, the self-knowledge or individualization that would produce true men and women capable of standing up to the hierarchy is actively discouraged. They are trapped in the illusion of statistical man and of the organization- neither of which really exist. Only a few at the top can exercise the power of a true individual, and even they are usually no more than mouthpieces for the undeveloped masses and their unconscious drives.

_The hope for Jung lies in true religion. The freedom and autonomy of the individual depends on deep inner experience of a metaphysical nature. This is not "faith"; it is direct knowing. Even the deepest faith may melt away with time and circumstances- but not direct experience. It is only this that gives the individual the power to stand up to mass tyranny- and to the World itself. When you haven't made this breakthrough (which requires deep introspection, effort, and, yes, suffering) then other things get deified and charged with demonic energy- money, work, political influence...

_The shallow, rootless mass-man and his organizations are always going to lose, eventually, to the man with deep religious connection to the Macrocosm. Jung the Gnostic, Jung the Christian, Jung the Alchemist, Jung the Magician saw this. The individuated man has the cosmic correspondence within himself.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST INTRO TO JUNG, November 30, 2000

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Undiscovered Self: With Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams (Paperback)

The only book by Carl Jung that I could read (as opposed to study), and easily understand and appreciate. Although written at the time of the cold war, his thoughts on the individual, religion and the state are as relevant today and truly timeless. I recommend The Undiscovered Self as the best introduction to one of the greatest psychologists and philosophers of the 20th century.