For
all of the advance of science in modern times, it tells us
virtually nothing about the human psyche, upon which that
advance has entirely depended. Yet there is a great deal that
can be known. Carl Jung spent years in depth psychology, delving
into peoples’ psyches, including his own, and he schooled
himself in the realms of myths, fairy tales, Gnosticism, Mithraism,
alchemy, and Eastern mysticism. Out of that work came a wide
span of writings that, taken together, develop a coherent
theory.
It
is difficult for the layman to obtain a reliable perspective
on psychology in the broad sense. Carl Jung, Darwin of
the Mind, in scanning the whole of Jung’s corpus, affords
such a perspective from the Jungian point of view and demonstrates
that point of view to be entirely consonant with the scientific
holdings of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, sometimes called
neo-Darwinism.
It
is difficult for the layman to obtain a reliable perspective
on psychology in the broad sense. Carl Jung, Darwin of
the Mind, in scanning the whole of Jung’s corpus, affords
such a perspective from the Jungian point of view and demonstrates
that point of view to be entirely consonant with the scientific
holdings of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, sometimes called
neo-Darwinism.
When
viewed in terms of evolutionary theory Jung’s theory of archetypes
and the collective unconscious is powerfully persuasive. But
what of consciousness, itself? consciousness, itself?
Unlike
that of the much older collective unconscious, consciousness
cannot trace an evolution through Darwinian natural selection.
Yet, as Jung put it respecting the psyche generally, consciousness
can’t be the only thing in the world to have no history. Building
on Jung and his brilliant follower, Erich Neumann, Carl
Jung, Darwin of the Mind advances a theory of the non-genetic
evolution of consciousness.
Finally,
it is hoped that, following the insights of Jung, readers
in a spiritually deprived world might come upon a unique path
to spiritual orientation, an attitude Jung deemed essential
to life.
Background painting, Persephone Contemplates
Her Move by Thomas T. Lawson – www.ttlawson.com
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