[Carl Gustav Jung's alchemical thinking]

Jakub Mirkiewicz

Instytut Filozofii Wydziału Nauk Społecznych, Uniwersytet Wrocławski.

Medycyna nowozytna: studia nad historia medycyny / Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Historii Nauki 02/2004; 11(1):5-31.

Journal Article

Abstract

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychologist and philosopher of culture used in his concepts many constructs having their source in philosophy of alchemy. These ideas can be found not only in his books on alchemy but also in his psychological works. Among them we should enumerate: the theory of psychological process, the concepts of opposites coexisting in the psyche, the polar structure of notions in his psychological system and the idea of synchronicity. The author of this article examines these main points of Jungian program within the context of its parallelism with paracelsian alchemical philosophy of nature: the process of nature, alchemical dialectics and the universal analogy of micro- and macrocosmos. At the beginning of his work, creating his psychology Jung assumed similar ideas. Later, when he noticed this similarity, alchemy became very helpful in his research of psyche, because thanks to them he conceptualised the successive aspects of polar structure of dynamical psychical reality, which--like his alchemical predecessors--he used to explain basics of the micro- and macro-world.

Source: PubMed

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Keywords

alchemical dialectics
 
article examines
 
basics
 
books
 
concepts
 
dynamical psychical reality
 
helpful
 
ideas
 
Jungian program
 
main points
 
opposites coexisting
 
paracelsian alchemical philosophy
 
polar structure
 
psychological process
 
psychological system
 
psychological works
 
similar ideas
 
successive aspects
 
Swiss psychologist
 
universal analogy