Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 5: Symbols of Transformation

Jung's intention behind writing this book and otherwise investigating this field was to expand the symbolic expressions that arise from the unconscious beyond the scope of Freud's pansexualism. For the most part Jung deferred to Freud's interpretation of dreams, but radically opposed Freud's exclusive reliance on sexuality as the sole cause of unconscious impulses. "Symbols of Transformation" is Jung's attempt at explaining a variety of other-than-sexual causes for the symbols and impulses that arise from the unconscious. By discussing these unconscious forces, Jung relies upon his theory of the collective unconscious and the archetypes, which he deals with more explicitly in volume 9/1. Jung begins with a short chapter on two modes of thinking which explain the means through which unconscious archetypes can intrude upon conscious. The first mode of thinking he mentions is directed thinking, which is defined by taking thoughts and ideas meaningful to the individual and translating them into objectively relay-able symbols, or in our case, words. This type of thought he claims is discursive and tends to be quite exhausting. The applications and merits of this type of thought are self-evident. The next form of thinking he addresses is dreaming or fantasy-thinking. In this type of thought, images come and go as they please. The verbal constraints found in directed thinking vanish and instead, images and feelings. This form of thinking is effortless, spontaneous and seemingly guided by unconscious motives (18). Jung writes that the advantages modern man has over his ancestors is that he has learned to focus his energies onto directed thinking, while the earlier humans who had the same intellectual capacities (although less material knowledge) emphasized this fantasy-thinking. It was this early preponderance on fantasy-thinking that caused early humans to invest so heavily in mythology. Their myths were the living manifestations of the societies focus on fantasy thinking. Whatever it was that pre-occupied the unconscious of the early society quickly manifested itself in the sphere of mythology. These unconscious motivations are what Jung will call archetypes. He finds that the same archetypes that can be inferred from mythology are the exact same archetypes found in the psyche of people today. Just as their motivations crafted myths, Jung believes they still influence us today. Jung later picks up on the archetype of sexuality, which he believed Freud used so nebulously that it lost all meaning (135). Jung does to a degree recognize that sexual energy or more generally as he used the term, libido had overtly sexual sources. He writes that music most assuredly had sexual origins, but to place music in the same category as sex today would be absurd. Jung writes that the sexual energy was divorced from the physiologically act and applied to secondary sexual situations. In the case of music, one's dance or drumming could secure

This is one of the great classics not only of Jungian theory, but of the history of comparative mythology, as well. The field of myth studies has largely fallen these days into a state of deseutude, due in no small part to the over-dominance of the field by Jungians, who have played the role of Saturn and gobbled up all of mythology as having no relevance to anything in the world beyond the contents of the interior of the human skull. This book is actually a rewrite of Jung's earlier book, "The Psychology of the Unconscious," which Jung undertook after reading Erich Neumann's 1949 "The Origins and History of Consciousness." It is considerably more dense and difficult to read than its earlier incarnation, which itself was no easy read. Jung, by contrast with Freud, was not much of a writer, and his prose style is at times awkward and overburdened with pedantic references, much like the writings of the hyper-footnoted Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. It is, nonetheless, a classic of its kind. By "symbols of transformation" Jung means that the psyche is packed full of teeming archetypes which are complexes that bind up energy in the psyche into little knots. (One way of discovering the existence of such knots is through the word association test which Jung himself developed; this became the ancestor of the polygraph). Like dragons hoarding gold, these complexes lock up energy in the psyche which is then experienced by the sufferer as depression, loss of energy and lowered libido generally. Unlike Freud, however, Jung in this book understood the term "libido" to refer to psychological energy generally. When these complexes are resolved, by exposure to the right mythological symbol at the right time, the complexes hatch like little eggs that release and catalyze new floods of energy, which can revitalize the life of the person. All myths, according to Jung, are compressed descriptions of complex psychological processes. The slaying of the bull in the Mithraic tauroctony, for instance, represents the desire to activate the Mother archetype not for incestual reasons but for reasons having to do with rebirth. The psyche desires rebirth and the mother is the gateway through which rebirth takes place, and so the bull becomes, in a strange way, symbolic of the mother. Jung's theory is that myths actually spring up out of the psyche to reconcile conflicts between different instincts. This book ended Jung's relationship with Freud and it, in turn, inspired Freud to write his "Totem and Taboo" as a response. He told Jung that he was working on his own book about mythology, but that Jung had no reason to worry, since "my book will go deeper than yours," as he modestly put it. In short, this is a great book and it is required reading for anyone wishing to acquaint themselves with the history of theories about mythology or psychology. SEE ALSO MY LECTURE ON JUNG ON YOU TUBE --John David Ebert, author of Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons: Film as the Mythology

This is a great book! Perhaps one of the best written in the field. That said, it is very thick with material, lots of mythological references, sort of in the fashion of Joseph Campbell, but here as they illuminate modern psychological concepts, at least in the Jungian sense. It does presuppose some understanding of Jungian concepts, but you can get through it and sort of pick it up as you go. Be warned, though, Jung is the sort of writer who sometimes doesn't get right to the point, but then again, this isn't a primer. He supposes you know all the basics. I spent the summer of 83 sitting out by the pool trying to get through it. In the end,it may have saved my life, as it underscores certain things people should know about psychology. It could very well then be the best money you have ever spent.

This is not an easy read, but it is worth the time and effort. I have a link to Dictionary.com and purchased a Latin translation program to help me through. I have notes all over the margins and have to read and reread and reread paragraphs to follow Jung's train of thought. The book is a lot of work, but it is fascinating, and nothing this good ought to be easy. You will get back everything you put in, but it requires committment.

Jung has put forth his concept of the libido in this book and has presented it in a very clear way. This work also points the way towards psychic maturity, that of liberating ourselves away from the protective womb of the mother and embarking on our individual journey towards wholeness. Reading this book is a learning experience indeed!