Jung and the Anthropologists

Jung drew on the work of the anthropologists and ethnographers of his day who were engaged in a project to discover a grand pattern of development from simple to complex societies. Ethnographers were returning to Europe with fascinating cultural evidence which Jung wove into his thinking.

This seminar will examine how early anthropological thinking informed some of Jung’s fundamental ideas: the evolution of consciousness, the quest for evidence of universalities, and the assumption of innate patterns in psyche. We will look at particular instances where anthropological thinking colours Jung’s, for example “participation mystique”, and the interpretation of shadow in dreams.

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