C.G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity PDF
Preview C.G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity
c. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity Robert Aziz STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS C. G. jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity SUNY Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology Richard D. Mann and Jean B. Mann, Editors Cover Photo: This photograph of lung around 1950 by Margareta Fellerer is taken from Word and Image, Bollingen Series XCVII:2, and appears courtesy of Princeton University Press. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 1990 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N. Y., 12246 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Aziz, Robert, E. 1954- C. G. lung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity / Robert Aziz. p. cm.-(SUNY Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology) . Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-7914-0166-9.-ISBN 0-7914-0167-7 (pbk.) 1. Coincidence. 2. Psychology, Religious. 3. lung, c. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961. I. Title. II. Series. BF175.5.C65A97 1990 150.19' 54-dc19 89-30039 ClP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 For my wife, Marguerite, and our sons, Nicholas and Jonathan Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 I lung's Psychology of Religion: The Intrapsychic Model 9 II The Synchronicity Theory: A Systematic Study 51 III The Psyche as Microcosm 91 IV The Synchronistic Patterning of Events 133 V lung's Psychology of Religion: The Synchronistic Model 167 Conclusion 217 Notes 223 Bibliography 253 Index 263 Acknowledgments This book is the product of approximately eight years of work on the subject of synchronicity. Over the years, many individuals have participated in this project, and through their presence the work has been furthered. Some of these individuals I have known for many years; with others it was the case of a brief ,but nonetheless meaningful encounter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these people and also my family, especially my wife, Marguerite, for their support. I would particularly like to acknowledge the fol lowing individuals: Volney Gay, John Dourley, Adrian Cunning ham, Ross and Marion Woodman, and my editors, Richard and Jean Mann. Introduction / The synchronicity concept is, arguably, the single theory with the most far-reaching implications for Jung's psychology as a whole, particularly for his psychology of religion, yet both within and out side the Jungian circle it remains perhaps the least understood of Jung's theories. To date, no comprehensive study of the synchronic ity theory in relationship to the individuation process has been un dertaken and, consequently, the great import of this theory for Jung's psychology of religion has been overlooked. The purpose of this work, therefore, is to examine the synchronicity theory in rela tionship to the psychological and indeed spiritual journey Jung has termed the individuation process so as to reveal the specific import of this seminal concept for Jung's psychology of religion. Synchronicity, it will suffice to say at this early stage, describes the meaningful paralleling of inner and outer events. These events, which by definition are not causally related to each other, are un derstood to be manifestations of a type of orderedness in nature it self-an acausal orderedness, to be sure, that transcends space and time. As a simple example of a synchronistic experience we could take the following. An individual dreams that a friend, someone I whom he has not seen or heard from for many years, comes to his house to visit with him. The next day, having received no previous notice of his friend's planned trip with the exception of the dream, that same individual finds his friend at his front door. This is what Jung described as a synchronistic experience, for there is a mean ingful paralleling of two causally unrelated events-the inner event being the dream image, the corresponding external event being the arrival of the friend. The synchronicity concept was first introduced by Jung to a private group of his followers in a seminar given in November of 1928.1 Two years later, in an address delivered in Munich in mem ory of the German sinologist Richard Wilhelm, Jung for the first time spoke publicly of the synchronicity theory.2 From this time on ward, the synchronicity concept was to become very much part of 2 C. G. JUNG'S PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SYNCHRONICITY the Jungian vocabHlary and worldview, appearing in Jung'~ l~~ tures, letters, interviews, and scientific writings, and most, slgmfI cant, it came to play an important role in the actual practice of Jungian analysis. Still, not until the early 1950s was Jung led to write his principal essay on the subject: "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle.,,3 Writing in his foreword to that essay, Jung reflects: "In writing this paper I have/so to speak, made good a promise which for many years I lacked the courage to fulfil. . . . I have been alluding to the existence of this phenomenon on and off in my writings for twenty years without discussing it any further. I would like to put a temporary end to this unsatisfactory state of affairs by trying to give a consistent account of everything I have to say on this subject.,,4 Unfortunately, it was the case, however, that the principal es say fell far short of its above-stated goal. The principal essay clearly did not "give a consistent account of everything" that Jung had to say on the subject of synchronicity. Specifically, and this is a most crucial point, it failed to give a thorough account of the case mate rial upon which the theory itself was based. The reader, accord ingly, was given little sense of the great import of this concept for the individuation process itself. As Michael Fordham rightly points out with reference to Jung's work on the synchronicity concept, "Tbe main bulk of his investigation and indeed the basis for formu lating the concept [was] derived from clinical observation of individ ual patients."s Yet as Ira Progoff notes on the other hand, the great shortcoming of the principal essay was that it focused away from the "human element," that is to say, the clinical material that formed the actual basis of Jung's concept was not developed. "Jung," Progoff writes, " ... placed himself in the position of un deremphasizing the human base of Synchronicity. It ,seems that he became so fascinated by the larger possibility of connecting depth psychology with theoretical physics and with the natural sciences as a whole that he let his attention be drawn away from the human elements that needed to be studied.,,6 By placing too great an em phasis on peripheral material such as the parapsychological re search conducted by J. B. Rhine, Jung's own highly controversial Astrological Experiment,,,7 and analogous concepts in modern /I physics, Jung failed to convey to his reader what he himself then understood to be the great significance of the synchronicity concept for his psychological model in general and, by extension of this, for his psychology of religion.
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