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CG Jung on Nature, Technology & Modern Life Rating: 8 on a scale of 10 Review This is a delightful book. Ms. Sabini has scoured Jung's writings and quite artfully put them together in a way that captures his ideas about "modern life". The opinions he has about life, having been born in 1875 and dying in 1961, are quite stunning. He had the fortune to live in a time marked by incredible "progress" technologically. He was witness to incredible social changes with several wars and the development of the atom bombs. He did not get to experience many of the newer technologies, computers were archaic in his day, and the race for space was just beginning when he died. He did not witness the turmoil of the 60's and beyond, but his writings and contemplations can be seen to anticipate the problems and issues of the coming years. I especially like her line (pg 163), "We know how to protect ourselves from physical contagion, but do not yet bother about psychic contagion, even though we witness regularly its destructive effects." For me this may summarize the central focus of the book. Jung was all about the nexus between psychology, medicine, spirituality and human life. He is remarkably timeless in his insights and understanding of the human condition. This book reminds me of other books that try to capture the ideas of a specific author on a specific topic, an example I have read before would be Einstein on Peace. Sabini's book does an excellent job conveying a coherent concept with regard to what Jung thought and believed. I would say this book assumes some knowledge of Jung's ideas. As someone who has read several of his books, I may not be the best at assessing how well a person inexperienced in the ideas of Jung would do reading this book. I believe it is general enough information that most people would do okay. The sorts of topics covered include his ideas about the movement of man from primitive to modern, the relationship of the unconscious to the conscious aspects of modern man, differences between eastern and western mindsets, instinct verses ego consciousness, and of course ideas about spirituality and God. She relates all of these to modern life and technology by the way they are selected and juxtaposed. As always, when I read Jung's writings, I find great pearls of wisdom. This book is no exception. There is no attempt to capture all of Jung's ideas. This is simply a look at just what the title says it is. Jung's own typological biases are more evident in a book put together in this fashion. He was an introvert, and you can easily pick out places in his writing where his own projections related to his psychological type are being cast on all of human kind I found chapter 7, titled "We know nothing of Man", quite remarkable. If nothing else this book has many quotable lines. A pearl I gleaned from this chapter had to do with the idea of psychological "possession" and passion. I realized that it might be nice to not be possessed by passion. I coined a new phrase for myself, "passion without possession". This sounds simple, but it seemed like quite a revelation. I like Jung's writings because they stimulate in me great thought and feeling. I can't say this about many other writers. I have few if any heroes, but I will admit to tremendous respect for Jung. This fellow was one of the great thinkers of our time. His insights are unmatched by any other person I have read. I heartily recommend this book to anyone wanting to just begin to get know the thoughts of Jung. All opinions are those of Curtis Climer, MD Copyright 2010 |
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