Customer Reviews

Psychology and Alchemy (Collected Works of C. G. Jung)

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When I first read this book, I found it very hard going. Possibly did not understand it. Perhaps even thought that it was badly written, as one is overwhelmed by the wealth of alchemical material. Jung's colossal intellect running miles ahead of me. Coming back, (after twenty years!) I find my opinion has changed.

Firstly, I will concede this is definitely not a book for the Jung beginner. It is one of deep scholarship. The fruit of over twenty years of study by Jung's to come to terms with alchemy.

The essential thesis is that the symbols and processes described in alchemical texts mirror those of the psyche at its deepest level. Understanding alchemy helps in understanding our psychological and spiritual development.

Jung then develops this with an analysis of a long series of dreams by a patient. The patient has since been revealed as Wolfgang Pauli, one of the pioneers of the Quantum Theory. In this Jung shows how the symbols are similar to those in alchemy. There follows a discussion of religious symbols in alchemy.

All of this when I first read it was hard going. My problem was a lack of understanding of alchemy. Having read around the subject a little further, I now find this work easier to understand. With some background knowledge, the book becomes very enlightening and enriching.

For background reading before tackling Psychology and Alchemy, I would particularly recommend Peter Marshall's Philosopher's Stone: A Quest for the Secrets of Alchemy (which also has a handy glossary of alchemical terms) and Jay Ramsay's Alchemy: The Art of Transformation: The Path of the Soul are particularly useful.

Please don't be put off by my rating, if you are the serious Jungian student who has attended Jungian courses then I guess you won't have the same difficulty as me. It is a very difficult book to understand & I don't think that it is made easier by the fact that it has been translated from another language. I am a big fan of Jung & always find his own work quite difficult to comprehend. However, this book proved especially hard and litrerally I guess I just didn't have the Latin to appreciate this book as much as others could. In the first part of the book he outlines the dreams of patients during various stages of theraphy. He then analyses the symbols in relation to mythology & religion with a great emphasis placed on Alchemy. Jung then explores the origins of Alchemy and its relation to psychotheraphy & the transformation of the mind (its images, thoughts etc.) during the various stages. These images are then analysed in relation with the symbols found in old drawing/writings within Alchemy that highlight the change made from a useless substance to one of great value. You start to see why he has chosen Alchemy in relation to Psychology as they are essentially both based on transforming an unproductive state into a more valuable & appreciative state. In doing this he explores the origins & the meanings of the prima materia, and to be honest with you for half the book I thought I knew what it was but by the end of it there were so many different explanations that I got confused... This being (to my current understanding) a mass of confusion/chaos/the first substance, which is the primary step for an Alchemist's work to be done. I won't go much further but just to say that this book is for the SERIOUS Jungian student & not fully comprehensible by a lay-Jungian psychologist like myself.

A series of essays with Alchemical themes, this can be hard going (as another reviewer has remarked), but you should be alright if youve read some of the books leading up to this one (Archetypes & the Colloctive unconcious & "Psychological types" are probably a good idea). A worthwhile companion to the extraordinary "Psychology & Alchemy", & One for psychologists and those who love the "arcane" alike. Persevere with Jung and you will be richly rewarded, I promiss.

This is an admirable expose of alchemical principles and was the first book that I read about alchemy. It therefore gave me a thorough grounding in the subject and the symbols and the allegories that are its foundation. Jung became more and more involved with alchemy towards the end of his life and so rich is this book it enables the realisations that this mysterious subject has its parallels in many of the religious traditions world wide. Anyone who is interested in the oblique and obtuse secrets that exist in the alchemical world should read this difficult book. It is literally stuffed full of thorougly researched material and can also be used as a reference book.I would say however that for the reader that has just a passing interest in the subject there are other books that give a broader and less dense overview.

If you are interested in psychology, but have not read too many of Jung's books, the title alone "Alchemy" might conjure up images of mystics and newage mumbo-jumbo. In truth though, this book deals with the imagery produced by the subconscious or more to the point the collective unconscious. As usual Jung was not deterred by dogma and he has no problem analysing controversial subjects (Aion, the I-ching etc.) This is no exception. Jung analyses the imagery of Alchemy in dreams and draws conclusions concerning spirituality. However Everything is presented with good arguments and with rational thinking.

Copiously illustrated this volume 12 of Jung's Collected Works is the first to have been published in English translation. Parts I and II of this book illustrate and clarify the mystical journey Jung termed as the process of individuation by examining a series of dreams of the physicist Wolfgang Pauli who was undergoing Jungian analysis at that time. From the dream of a stranger's hat to the vision of the world clock Jung interprets the stages and motifs encountered on the inner and outer journey. In Part III Jung delves into the alchemical opus as the forerunner or historical antecedent of this quest.
This work is an excellent introduction to the discoveries of Jung's maturity after a lifetime spent exploring the unconscious mind.

It is hard going but the message is essentially simple. Jung compares human endeavour to the alchemists or in a Jungian world the two are inseperable, human endeavour is alchemy.

Discoveries are usually perceived as being based on an application of a scientfic investigative method but the Jungian breakthrough arrives via an access to another dimension, the Twilight of the Gods. The realm of thought and imagination emerging as the real world closes down and imagination takes flight is the envelope Jung dissects. It is this realm of consciousness as thoughts are unleashed and roam rather than the orderng and discipline of consciousness that a poetic release distills into the synapses.

This esentially differentiates the scientific method of rationality, the observable replicable experiment complete with methodological repetition from the magic of alchemy, the eureka moment. This appears in the waking consciousness sanwitched between alertness and fatigue. Essentially the mind ticks and recollects the information it has imbibed.

This is a complete undermining of the taken for granted view of science, as Jung undermines the mundanity of discovery and reinstates the poetic.

All of the early scientific practitioners never differentiated philosophy from science from self discovery. All were enmeshed in a dialectic of self revelation, hived off now into different academic disciplnes complete with apostles, diviners and sycophants, adherents to the cause. All are interlocked through need to keep the sand columns of their disciplines intact as the top feeders need the bottom feeders. The end results are power, money but a knowledge/cultural dead end, marked by the ennui of modern culture. Nietzsche et al complained about the mundanity of life at the throes of the 19th C, they had yet to endure the tedium of the 21st.

Despite the vast amount of private and tax payer resources pouring into academic institutions the paucity of the knowledge return is breathtaking in its vapidity. There has been absolutely nothing appearing to redeem the zero knowledge base of western culture.

Jung, Freud, Adler, Reich, Marx, Weber, Nietzsche, Gramsci the young gods spanning 50 years of debate breakthrough and knowledge stand tall because little has emerged to replace them in the pantheon of thought. Do their ilk exist in the 21st century?? Grosz, Dix, Ernst, Duchamps, Breton, Dali where are they now?

Jung's Alchemy can offer a template if not taken literally but as a metaphorical guide because the true gold is self knowledge and actualisation. There are many critiques of Jung ignoring the power of knowledge in the real world but this book and the insights contained offer a real alternative to rationality.