Jungian Psychology
Carl Jung
Jungian or Analytical Psychology (sometimes referred to as Complex Psychology) is a branch of depth psychology based on the discoveries and theories of the twentieth century psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. Jung proposed the broadest and most comprehensive model of the human psyche thus far available. His works include an advanced theory of the structure and dynamics of the psyche in both its conscious and unconscious aspects, a detailed theory of personality types, and a thorough description of the archetypes, which shape and model human experience from the deepest layers of the unconscious psyche. These archetypes—the basic patterns of psychic functioning—of the collective unconscious. Jung’s discovery of the collective unconscious, or objective psyche, enabled him to describe the parallels between personal images produced by individuals in dreams and fantasies and the universal motifs present in the world’s great religious traditions and mythologies.
Key Concepts:
Psyche
Collective Unconscious
Libido
Complex
Archeytpe
Individuation
Dream
Transcendent Function
Active Imagination
Self
Shadow
Anima/Animus
J. A. Wheeler’s Participatory Universe
John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911 – April 13, 2008) suggested that reality is created by observers and that: “no phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon.” He coined the term “Participatory Universe.” He went further to suggest that “we are participants in bringing into being not only the near and here, but the far away and long ago.” Wheeler died of pneumonia on April 13, 2008, at age 96. His whole life he searched for answers to philosophical questions about the origin of matter, the nature of information and the universe. “We are no longer satisfied with insights into particles, or fields of force, or geometry, or even space and time,” he wrote in 1981, “Today we demand of physics some understanding of existence itself.”
John Wheeler
Owen Barfield
The First and Last Inkling
Owen Barfield was born in London in 1898, produced his first scholarly book (History in English Words) in 1926, published the decisively important Poetic Diction in 1928, and, by his own testimony, has continued saying much the same thing ever since. It is certainly true that his work — ranging all the way to and beyond History, Guilt, and Habit (1979) — exhibits a remarkable unity. But it is a unity in ceaselessly stimulating diversity. Many will testify that they have never seen him explore a topic except by throwing an unexpectedly revealing light upon it. Barfield is identified, above all else, with his numerous characterizations of the evolution of consciousness. As a philologist, he pursued his endeavor through the study of language — and particularly the historical study of meaning. I have already quoted his remark that “the full meanings of words are flashing, iridescent shapes like flames — ever-flickering vestiges of the slowly evolving consciousness beneath them.” History in English Words is one of the relatively few attempts in our language to tell the history of peoples as revealed in these flickering word-shapes. Poetic Diction — and, to one degree or another, almost every subsequent book Barfield wrote — teases out of language the underlying nature of the evolution of consciousness. Barfield was a member of the Inklings, an informal literary group that included C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. While he never achieved quite the same popular success as these friends, many regard his work as the more deeply seminal. His influence in scholarly circles was remarkable for its quiet, unobtrusive, yet profoundly transforming effect.
Owen Barfield was born in London in 1898, produced his first scholarly book (History in English Words) in 1926, published the decisively important Poetic Diction in 1928, and, by his own testimony, has continued saying much the same thing ever since. It is certainly true that his work — ranging all the way to and beyond History, Guilt, and Habit (1979) — exhibits a remarkable unity. But it is a unity in ceaselessly stimulating diversity. Many will testify that they have never seen him explore a topic except by throwing an unexpectedly revealing light upon it. Barfield is identified, above all else, with his numerous characterizations of the evolution of consciousness. As a philologist, he pursued his endeavor through the study of language — and particularly the historical study of meaning. I have already quoted his remark that “the full meanings of words are flashing, iridescent shapes like flames — ever-flickering vestiges of the slowly evolving consciousness beneath them.” History in English Words is one of the relatively few attempts in our language to tell the history of peoples as revealed in these flickering word-shapes. Poetic Diction — and, to one degree or another, almost every subsequent book Barfield wrote — teases out of language the underlying nature of the evolution of consciousness. Barfield was a member of the Inklings, an informal literary group that included C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. While he never achieved quite the same popular success as these friends, many regard his work as the more deeply seminal. His influence in scholarly circles was remarkable for its quiet, unobtrusive, yet profoundly transforming effect.