How To Read Jung

Book excerpt: 'The world today hangs by a thin thread, and that thread is the psyche of man' C. G. Jung Jung was the original anti-psychiatrist, who believed that the real patient was not the suffering individual, but a sick and ailing Western civilization. He was not interested in developing a narrow therapy that would help fit the individual into an untransformed society. His true aim, in all of his work, was a therapy of the West. David Tacey introduces the reader to Jung's unique style and approach, which is at once scientific and prophetic. Through a series of close readings of Jung's works, he explores the radical themes at the core of Jung's psychology, and interprets for us the dynamic vision of the whole self that inspires and motivates his work. Extracts are taken from Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, and from his collected works, including Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious and Civilization in Transition.