Jung, History and His Approach to the Psyche

Abstract

The continued existence of analytical psychology in the academy has largely depended on applications of analytical psychology to other disciplines. These attempts at “applied psychoanalysis” are in danger, however, of becoming examples of “wild psychoanalysis.” To remedy this, applications need to work at the interface of the two disciplines in question, building a firm foundation as the basis of dialogue. In this paper, I address the application of analytical psychology to the discipline of history by first exploring the ways in which ‘history’ and the historical method influenced, and found expression in, Jung’s psychology. Given the extent to which Jung evoked ‘history’ and depended on it as a hermeneutical framework, Petteri Pietikainen’s argument – that a revision of archetypal theory needs to occur if analytical psychology is to conduct meaningful analyses of culture – requires deeper consideration.