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The Political Ideas of C. G. Jung*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Walter Odajnyk
Walter Odajnyk*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

The article examines two of Jung's contributions to the study of politics: his conjectures about the origin of culture and politics and his theory of psychic inflation. Culture arises because man is subjected to a series of opposing tensions that divert a part of his libidinal energy from its natural flow and produce a degree of surplus psychic energy. Symbols, rising from the unconscious, transform this energy into cultural manifestations. Through ornaments and rituals, symbols also play a vital role in differentiating individual consciousness from collective consciousness. The gradually evolving consciousness of both the indivdual and the group leads to the inception of politics—of conscious conflict and harmony.

Psychic inflation is the extension of the ego beyond its natural limits as a result of an identification with the contents of the collective unconscious. It leads to an illusory sense of either superiority or inferiority. The atrophy of conscious development follows. On the other hand, the conscious assimilation of the contents of the collective unconscious produces a charismatic personality or group. But these are rare cases. For the most part, psychic inflation is a natural psychic law that can be partially controlled through an awareness of the forces of the unconscious.

Type
APSA Presidential Address
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 142 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1973

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Columbia University and the Chamberlain Fellowship for according me the opportunity to undertake this study.

References

1 These works may be found in Volumes VII, VIII, and X, respectively, of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX, Pantheon Books: New York. The dates refer to the year of composition, not necessarily of publication.

2 “On Psychic Energy,” Vol. VIII, p. 47. All footnotes refer to the first edition of the Collected Works cited above.

3 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 47.

4 Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, Vol. VII, p. 52, and see also Vol. VIII, p. 53.

5 “On the Nature of the Psyche,” Vol. VIII, p. 216.

6 “On Psychic Energy,” Vol. VIII, p. 52.

7 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 53.

8 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 53.

9 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 54.

10 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 56.

11 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 41.

12 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 48.

13 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 48.

14 “On Psychic Energy,” p. 48.

15 See Chapters 3 and 4 of Erikson's, ErikChildhood and Society (New York: Norton & Co., 1950)Google Scholar for a description of the vital role that symbols and myths play in integrating the life of a society, and of the disintegration of social and individual life when for some reason their validity and authority are undermined.

16 “The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man,” Vol. X, p. 137.

17 “Meaning of Psychology,” pp. 136–137.

18 “Meaning of Psychology,” pp. 139–140.

19 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 147.

20 Two Essays, p. 147.

21 Two Essays, p. 147.

22 Two Essays, p. 147, my italics.

23 Two Essays, p. 147.

24 Two Essays, p. 33. Jung argues that Freud erred in making the Death instinct the opposite of Eros: “logically, the opposite of love is hate, and of Eros, Phobos (fear); but psychologically it is the will to power.” See Two Essays, Vol. VII, pp. 52–53.

25 Two Essays, p. 148.

26 Two Essays, p. 148.

27 Two Essays, p. 18.

28 Two Essays, p. 18.

29 Two Essays, p. 18.

30 Jung has in mind not only the “October Fest” or the Mardi Gras before the onset of Advent and Lent respectively, and the similar socially sanctioned freeing of the instincts in non-Christian cultures, but also the more general historical periods of “licentiousness,” such as that of the late Hellenistic period culminating in the Stoic and Christian ideals, that of the Renaissance followed by the Reformation, and that of the Romantic era followed by Victorianism. He conjectures that presently Western Europe is once again undergoing such a period of “instinctual liberation,” which will undoubtedly culminate in a new ascetic ideal. See Vol. VII, pp. 18–19.

31 “The Role of the Unconscious,” Vol. X, p. 12.

32 “The Role of the Unconscious,” Vol. X, p. 12.

33 “On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure,” Vol. IX, Part I, pp. 268–269.

34 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 239.

35 Two Essays, p. 237.

36 “The Role of the Unconscious,” Vol. X, p. 13.

37 “Role of the Unconscious,” p. 13.

38 “The Fight with the Shadow,” Vol. X, p. 219.

39 “The Concept of the Collective Unconscious,” Vol. IX, Part I, p. 42.

40 “Spirit and Life,” Vol. VIII, p. 323–324.

41 Vol. VIII, pp. 218–219, 340.

42 Vol. VIII, pp. 133, 151, 311; Vol. IX, Part I, p. 42.

43 Vol. VII, pp. 144–145; Vol. VIII, pp. 137–138, 310.

44 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 144.

45 Two Essays, p. 270. In the same place Jung adds a functional distinction to the collective psyche: the collective mind represents collective thinking, and collective soul, collective feeling.

46 “Instinct and the Unconscious,” Vol. VIII, pp. 136–137. Jung states that he has borrowed the idea of the archetype from St. Augustine, and considers the term a paraphrase of the Platonic Forms. See “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious,” Vol. IX, Part I, p. 4, for Jung's etymology of the term.

47 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 65.

48 “The Concept of the Collective Unconscious,” Vol. IX, Part I, pp. 42–43, my italics.

49 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 68.

50 “The Structure of the Psyche,” Vol. VIII, pp. 155–156.

51 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 69.

52 “The Psychological Foundations of Belief in Spirits,” Vol. VIII, pp. 310–311. Jung speculates that certain archetypes may also exist in animals (Vol. VII, p. 69), and theoretically, therefore, “it should be possible to ‘peel’ the collective unconscious, layer by layer, until we come to the psychology of the worm, and even of the amoeba.” Vol. VIII, p. 152.

53 Jung uses this term to distinguish his psychotherapeutic method from the “psychoanalysis” or Freud and the “individual psychology” of Adler.

54 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 140.

55 Two Essays, p. 140.

56 Two Essays, p. 140.

57 Two Essays, p. 142.

58 Two Essays, p. 142.

59 Two Essays, p. 142.

60 Two Essays, pp. 233–234.

61 Two Essays, p. 136.

62 Two Essays, p. 147.

63 Two Essays, p. 227.

64 Two Essays, p. 230.

65 Two Essays, p. 226.

66 Two Essays, p. 232.

67 Two Essays, p. 232.

68 Two Essays, p. 169.

69 Two Essays, pp. 168–169.

70 Two Essays, p. 168.

71 Two Essays, p. 168.

72 Two Essays, p. 231.

73 “On the Nature of the Psyche,” Vol. VIII, p. 225.

74 “Concerning Rebirth,” Vol. IX, Part I, p. 126.

75 “The Psychological Foundations of Belief in Spirits,” Vol. VIII, p. 315.

76 Jung often refers to Nazi Germany as an illustration of the collective possession of one particular group by the unconscious shadow contents. He argues that Hitler's successful hold over the German population was partially due to the fact that he both personified and compensated for the unconscious sense of inferiority and hysteria of the German psyche of the period. See Jung's, Essay on Contemporary Events (Vol. X, Part III)Google Scholar for his views on the Nazi phenomenon.

77 Two Essays, Vol. VII, p. 231.

78 Two Essays, p. 232.

79 Two Essays, p. 232.

80 Two Essays, p. 228.

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