The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement

by Richard Noll

Book Overview

In this provocative reassessment of C. G. Jung's thought, Richard Noll boldly argues that such ideas as the "collective unconscious" and the theory of the archetypes come as much from late nineteenth-century occultism, neo-paganism, and social Darwinian teachings as they do from natural science. Noll sees the break with Sigmund Freud in 1912 not as a split within the psychoanalytic movement but as Jung's turning away from science and his founding...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691037248
• ISBN13: 9780691037240
• Release Date: September 1994
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

proper context

For anyone even slightly interested in contextualising psychoanalysis, Jung and his legacy this book is an engaging and scholarly read - to be expected as its original publisher was Princeton University Press it had to be of high scholarly standard in order pass review for publication by a panel of scholars. Jung was no god and no saint - why people erroneously think of him in these terms is perhaps why the book was written. It actually treads pretty softly on the historical person. Not included in the book are the following examples of the all too fallible Jung. In a 1933 interview on Berlin Radio (this at the time that his former mentor Freud had been banned and his books burned) Jung remarked: As Hitler said recently, the Fuhrer [sic] must be able to be alone and must have the courage to go his own way. But if he doesn't know himself, how is he to lead others? That is why the true leader is always one who has the courage to be himself, and can look not only others in the eye but above all himself. In Jung's 1934 paper The State of Psychotherapy Today he wrote: Freud did not understand the Germanic psyche any more than did his Germanic followers. Has the formidable phenomenon of National Socialism, on which the whole world gazes with astonishment, taught them better? Where was that unparalleled tension and energy while as yet no National Socialism existed? Deep in the Germanic psyche, in a pit that is anything but a garbage-bin of unrealizable infantile wishes and unresolved family resentments...The 'Aryan' unconscious has a higher potential than the Jewish...The Jew who is something of a nomad has never yet created a cultural form of his own and as far as we can see never will, since all his instincts and talents require a more or less civilized nation to act as host for their development...The Jews have this peculiarity with women; being physically weaker, they have to aim at the chinks in the armour of their adversary. In 1945, following the war when addressing Europe's 'collective guilt' (shifting the weight of that 'guilt' to all European nations) he wrote of Hitler's 'shrill, grating, womanish tones' stirring up collective hysteria in the German people. (read Laurence Rickels, 'Nazi Psychoanalysis') Whether or not the findings of the author suit one's weltanschauung, as one reviewer stated, 'however critically', everyone interested in Jungian analysis must now pass through 'The Jung Cult'.

The Jung Cult.

_The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement_ (1994 by Princeton University Press) by psychologist Richard Noll (author of _The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung_ (1997)) is a book which attempts to reveal the psychoanalytic movement that developed around Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) as a personality-centered cult. Despite the book's anti-Christian, pro-Freudian, and materialistic bias, the author offers some interesting reflections of Jung and the Volkish milieu out of which he attained his ideas and prominence. The conflict between Jung and his mentor Freud may be seen in several respects in which Jung came to take on the Aryan aspects of psychoanalysis emphasizing the spiritual, while Freud came to take on the Semitic aspects emphasizing the base and sexual. While the book does not discuss the issue in depth (nor the subsequent falling out between the two), it does discuss the origins of Jungian thought particular as this concerns the idea of the "collective unconscious". The book lays out a case that Jungianism is an anti-scientific cult and that Jung was heavily influenced by Volkish and occult beliefs in forming his psychological theories of human nature. This book considers the following parts. "Introduction" - laying out the issue of the paradox of Jung and Nietzscheanism as a "personal religion" as well as such Jungian ideas as the complex theory, psychological types, vitalism, the collective unconscious, archetypes, and the principle of individuation. Part One: The Historical Context of G. G. Jung. "The Problem of the Historical Jung" - noting the discrepancies found in the hagiographic _Memories, Dreams, Reflections_ and the actual life of Carl Jung. This considers the role of Jung as the charismatic holy man, the idea of Jungianism as a "religious community", the role of Pan-Germanic ideas such as those expressed by Max Weber, Otto Gross (a friend of Jung who developed a psychosis), Count Hermann Keyserling, Oswald Spengler (whose theory of Western decline contrasted "culture" and "civilization"), the role of Goethe and Nietzsche in framing the thought of Jung, the role of Greco-Roman thought for German thinkers, and the problematic history of Jung's family (developing out of a German Romantic and Protestant pietist milieu after abandoning an early Roman Catholicism). "The Fin de Siecle" - noting the role of fin de siecle German thought, the elitist Nietzsche and Max Nordau, the role of occultism (spiritualism and Theosophy), the Protestant German theology and the rejection of the Christian myth, and Lebensphilosophie. "Freud, Haeckel, and Jung" - emphasizing the role of Freudian psychoanalysis and Haeckelian "Naturphilosophie" and evolutionary biology on Jungian thought. This considers the importance of Haeckel's materialistic Monistic religion (in replacing Christian thought) and his role in the formation of the idea of the "collective unconscious" (in his famous statement that "ontogeny re

The Would-be Messiah of Zurich

Psychoanalysis has existed as a recognized discipline (one hesitates to call it a science) for little more than a century. In this time, it has exerted great intellectual and social influence, far beyond what one might expect of a narrow medical specialty. Terms like "ego," "id," and "collective unconscious" have entered the popular vocabulary, and the analyst's consulting room and couch provide the setting for innumerable cartoons. Given the cultural significance of psychoanalysis, it is odd how little curiosity historians and social critics have shown about its origins. Most regard it simply as an invention of the late nineteenth century, like the light bulb or the automobile. In "The Jung Cult," Richard Noll has brilliantly placed Jungian analysis in its historical context. He has also, in the process, shed much light on Freud and a number of his other disciples. Psychoanalysis was to a large extent the product of German philosophical and literary thought, and had much to do with the collapse of orthodox religious belief amongst the educated classes. German romanticism, the radical nihilism of Nietzsche, Haeckel's efforts to construct a modern "scientific" structure of ethical thought along religious lines, a "völkisch" hearkening back to Nordic paganism (as in Wagner's operas), and late nineteenth-century occultism as exemplified by H.P. Blavatsky, were all ingredients of the bouillabaisse out of which analysis emerged. These elements were (and remain) obscured by the trappings of science and medicine, which serve principally to give psychoanalysis an intellectual respectability it would otherwise lack. While Freud, who described himself as a "godless Jew," believed that religion was the problem, and its elimination the solution, Jung concluded that the moral stringency of orthodox Christianity had to be replaced by another type of religious belief, ecstatic and archaic in character. In the Jungian view, the dominant philosophical background is mystical and magical, as Noll documents. He argues persuasively that Jung viewed himself as a religious figure, and that he was in some sense the founder of a kind of religion.Noll's book has been portrayed by some Jungians as a hatchet job. While it is not written from a sympathetic point of view, it is far from that. It is thoroughly documented and copiously annotated. I found it a fascinating exercise in intellectual history. Jung stands between Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard in the dubious pantheon of the founders of modern religions. For what it is worth, he accomplished what he did with far more eclat and subtlety than either of these "neighbors."

The very best there is!

Richard Noll's two books on Jung, THE JUNG CULT and THE ARYAN CHIRST, are the very best books ever published on Jung and his psychology. Read Jung? Of course, read Jung. But do not believe Jung. Read Jung as you would any other major thinker -- Darwin, Freud, Marx -- and discover for yourself what makes sense and what does not. Noll provides a valuable service by showing us how to be a litle more careful aboutswallowing Jung whole -- as Jungian analysts want us to do. Jung does not belong to the Jungian analysts. They are not the experts on Jung. Richard Noll is. Do yourself a favor and read the truth about Jung -- and learn a little something about German culture, 19th century science, and ancient mystery cults along the way. Noll does not disappoint.

Interesting, erudite, and the best book ever on Jung

There are two types of readers of books on Jung: the "believers", largely uneducated when it comes to history, science, or even simple logic, and then the non-believers. Noll's book won an award from the Association of American Publishers for being the Best Book in Psychology for 1994, and deservedly so. It is, by far, the best book on Jung. It is an erudite corrective to the intellectually lazy literature written by Jungian analysts. We only learn about Jung the semi-divine god-man from books by Jungian analysts, many of whom have little or no training as scholars. Whether you agree with Noll's conclusions or not, this book represents a paradogm shift in Jung studies and will long be regarded as the important work of scholarship that turned the tide.