Technology and the Soul: From the Nuclear Bomb to the World Wide Web

367 Pages·2020·14.701 MB·English

by  Wolfgang Giegerich

TECHNOLOGY AND

THE SOUL
The Collected English Papers of Wolfgang Giegerich
The Collected English Papers of Wolfgang Giegerich makes the work of one
of archetypal psychology’s most brilliant theorists available in one place. A
practicing Jungian analyst and a long-time contributor to the field, Giegerich
is renowned for his dedication to the substance of Jungian thought and for his
unparalleled ability to think it through with both rigor and speculative strength.
The product of over three decades of critical reflection, Giegerich’s English
papers are collected in six volumes: The Neurosis of Psychology (Vol. I).
Technology and the Soul (Vol. 2), Soul-Violence (Vol. 3), and The Soul Always
Thinks (Vol. 4), The Flight into the Unconscious (Vol. 5), and Dreaming the
Myth Onwards (Vol. 6).
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit XXXSPVUMFEHFDPN5IF
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Titles in this series:
The Neurosis of Psychology: Primary Papers Towards a Critical Psychology
(Volume 1)
Technology and the Soul: From the Nuclear Bomb to the World Wide Web

(Volume 2)

Soul-Violence (Volume 3)

The Soul Always Thinks (Volume 4)

The Flight into the Unconscious: An Analysis of C. G. Jung’s Psychology Project

(Volume 5)
“Dreaming the Myth Onwards”: C. G. Jung on Christianity and on Hegel
(Volume 6)
TECHNOLOGY

AND THE SOUL

F N B
ROM THE UCLEAR OMB TO

W W W
THE ORLD IDE EB

C E P
OLLECTED NGLISH APERS

V T
OLUME WO

W G
OLFGANG IEGERICH
First published 2007 by Spring Journal Books

Published 2020 by Routledge
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© 2020 Wolfgang Giegerich

The right of Wolfgang Giegerich to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.

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trademarks and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.

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ISBN: 978-0-367-48532-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-48533-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04151-1 (ebk)
Contents

Acknowledgments ........................................................................... vii
Sources and Abbreviations .............................................................. ix
Introduction:
The Object of Psychology ...................................................... 1
P I: T N B P
ART HE UCLEAR OMB APERS
CHAPTER ONE: Saving the Nuclear Bomb ............................. 25
CHAPTER TWO: The Nuclear Bomb as a Psychological
Reality .................................................................................... 37
CHAPTER THREE: The Significance of Our Nuclear
Predicament for Analytical Psychology and of Analytical
Psychology for Our Nuclear Predicament............................... 55
CHAPTER FOUR: The Nuclear Bomb and the Fate of
God: On the First Nuclear Fission ......................................... 69
CHAPTER FIVE: The Invention of Explosive Power and
the Blueprint of the Bomb: A Chapter in the Imaginal
Pre-History of Our Nuclear Predicament ............................... 101

CHAPTER SIX: The Rocket and the Launching Base, or
The Leap from the Imaginal into the Outer Space
Named “Reality” .................................................................... 117

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Fabrication of Time............................. 137
vi CONTENTS
P II: T C
ART ECHNOLOGICAL IVILIZATION AND
“M ” M
EDIAL ODERNITY
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Burial of the Soul in Technological

Civilization ............................................................................ 155

CHAPTER NINE: The Occidental Soul’s Self-Immurement

in Plato’s Cave ........................................................................ 213

CHAPTER TEN: The Function of Television and the

Soul’s Predicament ................................................................. 281

CHAPTER ELEVEN: The World Wide Web From the

Point of View of the Soul’s Logical Life .................................. 309

Coda:

A Little Light, to Be Carried through Night and Storm:

Comments on the State of Jungian Psychology Today............ 333

Index ............................................................................................. 337
Acknowledgments

Versions of the following chapters have previously been published elsewhere:
Chapter 1, “Saving the Nuclear Bomb,” was written and presented in 1983 at
the 1st “Facing Apocalypse” Conference held at Salve Regina College, Newport,
RI, and appeared in V. Andrews, R. Bosnak, K. W. Goodwin, eds., Facing
Apocalypse (Dallas, TX: Spring Publications, 1987), pp. 96–108.
Chapter 2, “The Nuclear Bomb as a Psychological Reality,” appeared in K. Porter,
D. Rinzler, P. Olsen, eds., Heal or Die: Psychotherapists Confront Nuclear
Annihilation (New York: Psychohistory Press, 1987), pp. 84–98.
Chapter 3 was a lecture presented to AIPA, Italy, at the Accademia dei Lincei,
Rome in 1988 and appears here in English for the first time. An Italian translation
was published as “La psicologia analitica e il pericolo nucleare” in Itinerari del
pensiero junghiano, ed. Paolo Aite & Aldo Carotenuto (Milan, Italy: Raffaello
Cortina Editore, 1989), pp. 159–172.
Chapter 4, “The Nuclear Bomb and the Fate of God,” appeared in Spring (1985):
1–27.
Chapter 5, “The Invention of Explosive Power and the Blueprint of the Bomb—
A Chapter in the Imaginal Pre-History of Our Nuclear Predicament,” appeared
in Spring (1988): 1–14.
Chapter 6, “The Rocket and the Launching Base, or The Leap from the Imaginal
Into the Outer Space Named ‘Reality’,” in Sulfur 28 (Spring 1991): 62–78.
Chapter 7, “The Fabrication of Time,” in Sulfur 30 (Spring 1992): 46–58.
Chapter 8 is a translation of my Eranos-Lecture “Das Begräbnis der Seele in die
technische Zivilisation,” which appeared in Eranos 52-1983 (Frankfurt: Insel,
1985), pp. 211–276. Roberts Avens published an extensive précis of this article
under the title “Reflections on Wolfgang Giegerich’s ‘The Burial of the Soul in
Technological Civilization’” in Sulfur 20 (Fall 1987): 34–54.
Chapter 9, “The Occidental Soul’s Self-Immuration in Plato’s Cave,” appears
here in English for the first time. A short oral version in German was delivered
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
in 1994 at the VIII Convegno Nazionale of CIPA in collaboration with the
Goethe-Institut of Rome and published in Italian translation as “L’insediarsi
dell’anima occidentale nella caverna di Platone” in La Pratica Analytica 10/11
(1995): 25–34.
A version of Chapter 10, “The Function of Television and the Soul’s
Predicament,” first appeared in Japanese translation in Wolfgang Giegerich,
Shinwa to Ishiki (Yungu Shinrigaku no Tenkai [Gîgerihhi Ronshû], vol. 3),
translated and edited by Toshio Kawai (Tokyo: Nihon Hyôron-sha, 2001). The
English text appears here for the first time.
Chapter 11, “The World Wide Web From the Point of View of the Soul’s Logical
Life,” first appeared in a bilingual edition (English and Italian) in l’imaginale
30, (April 2001): 4–43.
The Coda, “A Little Light, to Be Carried Through Night and Storm: Comments
on the State of Jungian Psychology Today,” first appeared in a bilingual edition
(German and English) in Dieter Klein, Henning Weyerstraß, eds., Auf den
Spuren von C.G. Jung / In Search of C.G. Jung (No place [Köln]: Verlag
dieterklein.com, 2004), pp. 33–36.
I would like to express my deep-felt gratitude to the following persons:
ROBERT BOSNAK for inviting me to the “Facing Apocalypse” Conferences,
which he organized, thereby stimulating my work (ongoing at that time) on
the psychoanalysis of the atom bomb.
JAMES HILLMAN and CLAYTON ESHLEMAN for providing room in their
journals, Spring and Sulfur respectively, and for generous editorial support.
ROBERTS AVENS for his interest in my work on the psychology of the bomb
and for reporting about it in Sulfur (as well as in Latvian publications).
RUDOLF RITSEMA for the invitation to present my ideas at the Eranos
conferences.
BIANCA GARUFI (Rome) and LUIGI ZOJA (Milan) for their invitations to
present papers before AIPA and CIPA, respectively, and for their hospitality.
TOSHIO KAWAI (Kyoto) for his intelligent translation work both during my
oral presentations in Japan and in print.
GREG MOGENSON, as editor, colleague, and friend, who accompanied the
preparation of this volume in a most competent, helpful, and inspiring way.
W. G.
Sources and Abbreviations

For frequently cited sources, the following abbreviations have been
used:
CW: Jung, C. G. Collected Works. 20 vols. Ed. Herbert Read, Michael
Fordham, Gerhard Adler, and WIlliam McGuire. Trans. R. F.
C. Hull. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957-1979. Cited
by volume and, unless otherwise noted, by paragraph number.
GW: Jung, C. G. Gesammelte Werke. Zürich and Stuttgart (Rascher)
now Olten and Freiburg i:Br: Walter-Verlag, 1958 ff.
Letters: Jung, C. G. Letters. 2 vols. Ed. Gerhard Adler. Bollingen Series
XCV: 2. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.
MDR: Jung, C. G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Rev. ed. Ed. Aniela
Jaffé. Trans. Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Vintage
Books, 1965. Cited by page number.