Chapter 17 Jung’s “Very Twentieth-Century” View of Mind: Implications for Theorizing about Myth
In: Explaining, Interpreting, and Theorizing Religion and MythSearch for other papers by Raya A. Jones in
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Abstract
Spurred by Robert Segal’s account of how Jung brings mind into the study of myth, this essay considers how Jung brought myth into the study of mind. It considers the intellectual backdrop for Jung’s theorising, and how practical imperatives of psychiatry impacted on his treatment of myths. The Jungian hypothesis of the collective unconscious and the concept of archetypes are critically evaluated with attention to Jung’s description of the associative thinking and the symbolic attitude, and his distinction between archetypes-as-such and their manifestations. Points of convergence and divergence with some of his contemporaries (such as Wundt, Cassirer, and Malinowski) are identified throughout. The current status of Jung’s model in “mainstream” psychology is noted.