Un‐thought out metaphysics in analytical psychology: a critique of Jung's epistemological basis for psychic reality

Abstract

The author investigates the relation of Kant, Schopenhauer and Heidegger to Jung's attempts to formulate theory regarding the epistemological conundrum of what can and what cannot be known and what must remain uncertain. Jung's ambivalent use and misuse of Kant's division of the world into phenomenal and noumenal realms is highlighted in discussion of concepts such as the psychoid archetype which he called 'esse in anima' and his use of Schopenhauer's concept of 'will' to justify a transcendence of the psyche/soma divide in a postulation of a 'psychoid' realm. Finally, the author describes Jung's reaction to Heidegger's theories via his assertion that Heidegger's 'pre-given world design' was an alternate formulation of his concept of the archetypes. An underlying theme of the paper is a critique of Jung's foundationalism which perpetuates the myth of an isolated mind. This model of understanding subjectivity is briefly contrasted with Heidegger's 'fundamental ontology' which focuses on a non-Cartesian 'understanding' of the 'presencing of being' in everyday social and historical contexts.

Transcendence from Below: The Embodied Feminine Mysticism of Marion Woodman

“…As described by Nagy (1991), in order to build the new field of psychology into a respected academic discipline "it was very important for Jung to be able to point out that a theory of the psychology of the human person is not necessarily a doctrine about reality as a whole" (p. 3). In order to do this, Jung would rest much of his work on Kant's notion of the boundary concept, something that cannot be known in actuality but only through its manifestations (Brooks, 2011). Jung lived at this boundary between the world he could never know-ultimate reality-and the reality of the world he spent his life exploring-psychological experience.…”

Conspiracies of immanence: Paul Tillich, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and C.G. Jung

“…These inquiries focus on Jung's appropriation of Kant, Schopenhauer, and German Romanticism and Idealism. They also extend beyond philosophy, to the influence of von Hartmann among other early formulators of theories of the unconscious (Brooks , pp. 492–513; Shamdasani , pp.…”

Accounting for Material Reality in the Analytic Subject

“…Kant introduced what he called and empty space’ or gap between the two concepts, which was neither purely noumenal (negative) nor phenomena (positive), or jointly both ([30], pp. 4, 354; [31], p. 497). In another context, Eyal’s Weizman’s depiction of a fixed border that separates deeply fragmented, constantly shifting and elastic [sovereign] territories’ while somehow benefiting both realms comes to mind ([32], p. 7).…”

“…It cannot be understated how essential Jung’s use of Kant’s boundary concept was to his project; indeed he attributed his philosophical epistemological basis of esse in anima (soul) to Kant ([31]; [33], p. 123). For Jung, human nature was divided between the inconsistent surfaces of the phenomenal realm that was contained by a unifying transcendent ground beneath its surface.…”