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A review by americalovesbooks
Man and His Symbols by C.G. Jung
5.0
Man and his Symbols is a book by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology.
Man and His Symbols is the last work undertaken by Carl Jung before his death and describes his influential theory of symbolism as revealed in dreams.
In this book, he examines the full world of the unconscious, whose language he believed to be the symbols constantly revealed in dreams. Dreams offer practical advice, sent from the unconscious to the conscious self.
I am especially fixated on his idea of a ‘Collective Unconscious’. Jung claims that collective unconscious, archetypes, symbols, etc will show up in all sort of studies – social (political, economics, history, art, literature, mythology, religion studies etc) as well as natural (physics, chemistry, biology etc) exactly because everything is studied only through human experience and Jung’s theory tries to describe the ‘human’, the ‘observer’ in there.
Art is pointed out as bringing unconscious ideas and thought patterns that we shape into stories, some of which become myths. Art like singing and painting may be so fulfilling because our ability to connect to our unconscious.
“Part of the unconscious mind consists of a multitude of temporarily obscured thoughts, impressions, and images that, in spite of being lost, continue to influence our conscious minds.”
Man and His Symbols is the last work undertaken by Carl Jung before his death and describes his influential theory of symbolism as revealed in dreams.
In this book, he examines the full world of the unconscious, whose language he believed to be the symbols constantly revealed in dreams. Dreams offer practical advice, sent from the unconscious to the conscious self.
I am especially fixated on his idea of a ‘Collective Unconscious’. Jung claims that collective unconscious, archetypes, symbols, etc will show up in all sort of studies – social (political, economics, history, art, literature, mythology, religion studies etc) as well as natural (physics, chemistry, biology etc) exactly because everything is studied only through human experience and Jung’s theory tries to describe the ‘human’, the ‘observer’ in there.
Art is pointed out as bringing unconscious ideas and thought patterns that we shape into stories, some of which become myths. Art like singing and painting may be so fulfilling because our ability to connect to our unconscious.
“Part of the unconscious mind consists of a multitude of temporarily obscured thoughts, impressions, and images that, in spite of being lost, continue to influence our conscious minds.”