Biography of Carl Jung

Course Description

Explore the psychological legacy of Carl Jung in this course. 

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and he has had  a profound impact on diverse fields including psychology, philosophy, sociology, theology, and mythology.  

In this extensive audio course, James Hollis talks about Jungian thought. He does so, once in a while referring to Deirdre Beirs’ Jung: A Biography. Beirs’ biography of Jung is a good book for learning more facts about Jung’s life. 

This course links outer events in Jung’s life with the development of his ideas. Ideas are placed in the context in which they came about thereby deepening our understanding of Jungian psychology and Jung himself. 

James Hollis, in his familiar engaging teaching style, eloquently discusses concepts like the shadow, archetypes, complexes, transference, the Self, and psychology of meaning. He also reflects on the more contentious aspects of Jung’s life, like his affairs and his writings on Hitler and Nazi Germany. 

The recordings of this course were made at the Jung Center in Houston. Jung Platform has remastered the recordings. 

The classes are available now.

This course is ideal if

• You are somewhat familiar with Jungian ideas and want to gain a deeper understanding of the diversity and complexity of these ideas.
• Want to know more about the development of concepts of Jung’s psychology and how certain concepts came about as this understanding helps you.
• You enjoy listening to James Hollis as he explains Jungian psychology and presents it in a way that helps you to apply it to your own life.

Course Overview

CLASS 1: Carl Jung’s Mother and Father

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Carl Jung was born in 1875 in Switzerland. This first class places Jung’s birth in an era and explores his experience of his mother and father. His family of origin and childhood experiences have influenced his outlook on life and the later development of central concepts in his psychology.

CLASS 2: Complexes, Individuation, and the Power of the Unconscious

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In this second class, James Hollis explores the central concepts of Jung’s psychology: 1) complexes, the charged clusters of energy related to our history that act like autonomous splinter parts or selves  2)  individuation, the process of psychological development. (Hollis: “Its quality depends on the quality of our dialogues with the splintered parts or selves”) and 3) the power of the unconscious (Jung: “The moment we discover the power of the unconscious we realize we’re no longer the master in one’s house.”)

Movie suggestion: My name was Sabina Spielrein

Class 3:  Freud and the Break with Freud

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This class starts with a reflection on the movie and Jung’s relationship with Sabina Spielrein. Next James Hollis explores Jung’s relationship to Freud—the overlap as well as the differences in their ideas and orientation towards reality. In the end, these differences led to the break between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Hollis also discusses the differences in each of their typologies.

CLASS 4: Turbulent Midlife Passage (1911-1921)

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In 1911, Carl Jung published his book Symbols of Transformations. In this period, his ideas about the libido (as a metaphor for life energy) took further shape. Jung explored the symbolic function of the psyche, mythology, and developed ideas of archetypes and the archetypal field.

CLASS 5: Personal Myth

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When Jung had his profound experiences, he asked himself: ‘What is my myth?’ (“We do not think myths, they think us,” as he said.) In his work with patients, he started to explore the images of the culture as well as personal images. He had to re-think therapy while he was dealing with people that suffered from the aimlessness of life. Jung suggested dialogue with the images through a technique he developed called ‘active imagination’. Active imagination is a way to dialogue with the inner life and unconscious. He saw that engagement with these images and finding out what they were about, was a source of renewal and creative energies.

CLASS 6: Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life

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The first half of life is about ego development, and the second half is about dialoguing with the Self and finding out what it wants from us. We can ask ourselves questions like: What does my Soul want? What is the desire? By what values do I make my life choices?  

This is how Carl Jung inspired psychotherapeutic practice up to today. A big part of Jungian (oriented) therapy is about the recovery of a sense of who we are and questions like: Why are we here? Therapy helps to develop a relationship to one’s inner truths and spirituality.

CLASS 7: 1930s Therapy of Meaning

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Jung’s therapy is also called a therapy of meaning because it includes a spiritual aspect. This is also reflected in Carl Jung’s indirect involvement in the inception of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to include spiritual components in the treatment of addictions. The addiction could be seen as a profound longing for connection that each of us longs for. In this class, Hollis talks about the symbolic function of the psyche, its relationship to the expressive arts and the individuation process. The class ends with a reflection on the concept of evil and its moral problem.

CLASS 8: The 1940s

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In this class, James Hollis talks about Hitler, the Second World War, and the charges against Jung on his (alleged) sympathy for the Nazis. Hollis provides context—about Germany, Switzerland, and the Zeitgeist—for certain statements that Jung made. He also discusses Jung’s essay on Wotan and Jung’s perception that Hitler was possessed by Wotan (an old Storm God). Hollis also points out the potential (mis)interpretations of that article on Wotan. In the latter part of this class, Hollis talks about Jung’s heart attack in 1944 and the out-of-body experience that Jung had that had a profound influence on his thinking.

CLASS 9: Jung’s Later Life

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After Jung’s heart attack, his relationship with Emma Jung deepened. In this respect, in this class, Hollis starts with an exploration of the potential motives that drove the affairs Jung had in his life. As Jung matures, this class reflects on what psychological maturity is. In the next part of this class, the essential concepts of Jung’s later life publications are discussed: his books Aeon, Answer to Job, and Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky. And Hollis also discusses Jung’s interest in later life in the arts, the occult, Iching, and spiritual life. The class ends with Jung’s own ideas about founding Jung Institutes.

CLASS 10: Relating to Death, Biography, and Legacy

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In this final class, Hollis reflects on the coming about of Jung’s biography Memories, Dreams and Reflections, and the editing that had taken place before it was published. James Hollis ends this class with Jung’s own concluding remarks and reflections on his life.

Movie suggestion: The Story of Carl Gustav Jung by Laurens van der Post BBC 1972 

This course was recorded before the black books were published and do not make part of this course.

By the end of this course you will

• Have deepened your understanding of Jungian psychology, its concepts and the coming about of the theories.
• Describe events and phenomena in Jung’s life and how they relate to concepts of Jung’s psychology.