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A review by petra_bpm
Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction by Murray Stein
4.0
Note that I am no philosophy connoisseur. I am simply a curious mind! If you are anticipating high-level critical analysis, look elsewhere!
”Out of evil, much good has come to me. By keeping quiet, repressing nothing, remaining attentive, and by accepting reality …. unusual knowledge has come to me, and unusual powers as well, such as I could never have imagined before. … So now I intend to play the game of life, being receptive to whatever comes to me, good and bad, sun and shadow forever alternating, and in this way also accepting my own nature with its positive and negative sides.”
I hesitated to read psychophilosophy before because I worried it would enable overthinking. However, it was oddly soothing to read this book. I feel a lot of that has to do with the tone of the writing. Instead of being clinical and distant, it felt reassuring, even during passages I didn’t understand whatsoever. I was happy to skim the lyrical sentences with barely a thought in my head.
I feel my empathy has definitely increased after this. I particularly enjoyed the following sections:
• the psychology behind abuse/trauma
• the relationship between consciousness and ego
• general misconceptions regarding the term ego
• how archetypal imagery inspires religion
• the struggle to balance your shadow
• how to distinguish between true “I-am-ness” and the persona
• shame cultures vs guilt cultures
• how the anima/us influences how we treat ourselves vs those around us
I was not particularly engaged in the areas covering the various states of unconsciousness and psychic energy, mostly because it was vague and heavily reliant on symbolism. It was just too abstract for me to firmly agree with. But how much can we consciously be aware of regarding the state of unconsciousness? Not much, so I can appreciate the solid endeavour made here to comprehend it.
Regarding the criticism of the Freudian doctrine, I enjoyed it! I really liked how it called out the flaws of his philosophy whilst crediting the philosopher’s foundational research where necessary. It made for a mature discussion regarding differing psychic comprehensions, not to mention how interesting it was to learn about the frankly creepy biological reductionism at the heart of Freudian philosophy.
”Out of evil, much good has come to me. By keeping quiet, repressing nothing, remaining attentive, and by accepting reality …. unusual knowledge has come to me, and unusual powers as well, such as I could never have imagined before. … So now I intend to play the game of life, being receptive to whatever comes to me, good and bad, sun and shadow forever alternating, and in this way also accepting my own nature with its positive and negative sides.”
I hesitated to read psychophilosophy before because I worried it would enable overthinking. However, it was oddly soothing to read this book. I feel a lot of that has to do with the tone of the writing. Instead of being clinical and distant, it felt reassuring, even during passages I didn’t understand whatsoever. I was happy to skim the lyrical sentences with barely a thought in my head.
I feel my empathy has definitely increased after this. I particularly enjoyed the following sections:
• the psychology behind abuse/trauma
• the relationship between consciousness and ego
• general misconceptions regarding the term ego
• how archetypal imagery inspires religion
• the struggle to balance your shadow
• how to distinguish between true “I-am-ness” and the persona
• shame cultures vs guilt cultures
• how the anima/us influences how we treat ourselves vs those around us
I was not particularly engaged in the areas covering the various states of unconsciousness and psychic energy, mostly because it was vague and heavily reliant on symbolism. It was just too abstract for me to firmly agree with. But how much can we consciously be aware of regarding the state of unconsciousness? Not much, so I can appreciate the solid endeavour made here to comprehend it.
Regarding the criticism of the Freudian doctrine, I enjoyed it! I really liked how it called out the flaws of his philosophy whilst crediting the philosopher’s foundational research where necessary. It made for a mature discussion regarding differing psychic comprehensions, not to mention how interesting it was to learn about the frankly creepy biological reductionism at the heart of Freudian philosophy.