Carl Jung
By:
July 26, 2009
If more people realized how steeped many aspects of modern life are in the ideas of CARL JUNG (1875-1961), perhaps they would use the adjective “Jungian” as often as the adjective “Freudian” when conversationally tipping their hats to psychological thinkers. Jung coined the ubiquitous terms “extrovert” and “introvert”; he theorized about the “persona” and the “complex,” concepts that have long since inhabited the lexicon of the everyday; he devised the influential theory of the collective unconscious, the shared fabric of archetypes that connects us with our ancestors; and his emphasis on the importance of spiritual experience when addressing psychological problems was a catalyst in Bill W.’s creation of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program. A longer treatment of Jung’s influence would perhaps focus on his symbiotic relationship with Freud and on the foundation of the still-popular Jungian Analysis movement. But this is a short tribute and it will end in self-congratulatory fashion with one of Jung’s many adages: “The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.”
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On his or her birthday, HiLobrow irregularly pays tribute to one of our high-, low-, no-, or hilobrow heroes. Also born this date: | Aldous Huxley | Arthur Ganson |
READ MORE about members of the Psychonaut Generation (1874–1883).