The Basic Writings of C. G. Jung is a collection of the writings of Carl Gustav Jung. It covers his most important points about the nature of the psyche and the collective unconscious. Considering the thickness of the book I thought it would be harder to read and get into, but I was wrong about that. In some cases, half of the page is covered in footnotes. Recently, I have been in a mood where I feel like reading stuff by Jung in general. I realized long ago that he was someone that made a name for themselves, but I did not know exactly how and in what capacity. This book is an attempt to display Jung’s primary thought and main ideas.

Reading through a lot of this, I can see that Jungian psychology is at the core of a video game, surprisingly. This game, or rather this series of games, is the Persona series by Atlus. Much of that game deals with the shadow, the collective unconscious, the persona that a person uses to get through life, and so on. Then with the idea that the gods and goddesses of ancient times are all manifestations of the collective unconscious is also really interesting. I have never played a Persona game, but that is only because I don’t own a PlayStation.

Back on topic though, the book was edited by Violet Staub de Laszlo. I don’t know who that is, but maybe she was a student of his? The name sounds familiar somehow, but I am bad with names. The book is made up of excerpts from the works of Jung, so while it isn’t exactly complete, it isn’t like there are glaring gaps or holes in the logic and cohesion of the works. As I mentioned, it covers all of Jung’s basic ideas; so it also includes the anima/animus, extraverted(sic) and introverted types, the persona, the shadow, archetypes and so on. All of the ideas are introduced in the original context with examples from Jung’s practice. The ideas on comparative religion are especially fascinating.

In any case, this book was pretty easy to breeze through. Some words I had to look up, but it wasn’t too bad. ( )

The Basic Writings of C.G. Jung
edited by Violet Staub de Laszlo
Nov 30, 2009 10:05 AM

I read parts of this massive collection after finishing Jung: A Very Short Introduction, in order to sample the original prose style, at least in translation. It is dense, very learned, at times mystical. I read “Archetypes of the Collective Unconsciousness” and gained some idea of what Jung means about symbols: “It is sufficient to know that there is not a single important idea or view that does not possess historical antecedants”. I also read the “Introduction to the Religious and Psychological Problems of Alchemy”. This is more about defending Jung’s position on religion than about alchemy, and about the practice of psychoanalysis “...for the true physician does not stand outside his work but is altogether involved in it”. He cites Tertullian as having great spiritual strength, abandoning reason to belief (Tertullian: “And the son of God is dead, which is worthy of belief because it is absurd. And when buried He rose again, which is certain because it is impossible” - see also The Closing of the Western Mind). Christianity has brought the duality of good and evil into the world, and struggles to resolve the two into a third, relating it to the long tradition in alchemy of mixtures of opposites resulting in a synthesis, and resolution. I skimmed through the abridged general description of psychological types, and read “On the Nature of Dreams” admiring the doctrine of continuous development of the psyche over the life span - “Man reaches his zenith in power at about age 36 but is unconscious of this fact”. Dreams provide symbols that properly interpreted by the analyst allow the person to understand his conflicts and develop according to the archetype. ( )

I love these Modern Library collections. Sampling excerpts from an author both gives you a broader view of his work and points you to which works you might be interested in fully reading when you have the opportunity. Jung's thought is broad in range, and this anthology covers the main areas well. It can be difficult to convey the essential unity of much of Jung's thought, especially given the wandering writing style he possessed, but bringing excerpts together helps to do this.