On Jung

Here Anthony Stevens examines every stage of Jung's personal and professional development to throw light on his theories of the life cycle, dream symbolism, and the collective unconscious. Jung's life experience made him a profound, stimulating, and immensely influential writer on almost every aspect of human behavior; this lucid and penetrating study makes the ideal introduction to his life and ideas. This new edition contains a preface intended as a rebuttal to the recent attacks on Jung made by Noll and McLynn.

"From the beginning of this book, the reader is aware of being in the presence of a seasoned and highly knowledgeable scholar and practitioner.... The writing is clear and graceful.... This work is distinctive, original in its organization, and pleasing to read."--James Jarrett, University of California, Berkeley

"Many potential readers of Jung feel intimidated by Jung's style and the sheer bulk of his collected works. They could do no better than to turn to Anthony Stevens for enlightenment. He is an exceptionally clear expositor of Jung's thought."--Anthony Storr

"This is the work of an extremely smart, careful, and widely read scholar; it is also well-written and imaginative."--Wendy Brown, University of California, Santa Cruz

Publishers Weekly

Carl Jung's mother withdrew into depressive illness; his father, a pastor, lost his faith and suffered feelings of spiritual impotence. These influences, writes Stevens, made Jung ``a lifelong gnostic,'' an introspective quester who was driven to seek out forceful father-figures like Freud. Jung's love-at-first-sight encounter with his future wife, Emma Rauschenbach, was ``a classic case of anima projection.'' Stevens, a Jungian analyst and author of The Roots of War , sees Jung's midlife breakdown, a four-year descent into madness, as an archetypal journey of isolation, initiation and return. Brimming with fresh insights, this Jungian biography of Jung throws sharp light on the inner recesses of his psyche, showing how his personal makeup shaped the therapeutic system he created. Jung's ``psychology was also a cosmology,'' ascribing to the individual's life a divine or cosmic significance. Stevens relates Jung's ideas on individuation and the collective unconscious to this larger perspective. Photos. (July)