Christian Rösler – RETHINKING JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY – A REFORMULATION OF ARCHETYPE THEORY
April 25, 2026 at 11:35AM
Abstract:
What if the core concept of Analytical Psychology has been misunderstood all along? Christian Rösler offers a research-based reformulation of archetype theory, long considered central yet controversial within the field. He argues that Carl Jung’s original conception is not a single coherent theory, but a composite of four distinct approaches: biological, anthropological, transcendental, and psychological. Drawing on contemporary findings in biology, anthropology, and related disciplines, Rösler critically reassesses these components, challenging the empirical validity of the biological and anthropological claims and addressing their problematic historical assumptions. He proposes a streamlined model that retains only the most viable core: the idea of a universal process of psychological transformation, which serves as a foundation for psychotherapy, and outlines directions for future research aimed at refining and empirically grounding this model.
 
Bio:
Christian Rösler, Ph.D. (1967), is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Catholic University Freiburg, lecturer in analytical psychology at the University of Basel, and Associate Professor for Psychotherapy Science at Sigmund Freud University. He is a Jungian psychoanalyst in private practice in Freiburg and a training analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute Stuttgart and C.G. Jung Institute Zurich.His work focuses on couples and families, interpretive research methods, and topics including Analytical Psychology, dream research, couple counselling, postmodern identity, narrative research, and media psychology. He is a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology, German Association for Analytical Psychology, and International Network for Research in Analytical Psychology. Recent publications include Dreams and Dream Interpretation: A Contemporary Introduction (2025), Deconstructing Archetype Theory (2023), and C.G. Jung’s Archetype Theory (2021).
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