C. G. Jung
Carl Jung (1875-1961) was the founder of the analytical school of psychology. He is famous for pioneering the concept of the unconscious mind, the role of archetypes as unconscious structures that shape and influence the conscious mind, the significance of symbols as the language the unconscious uses to communicate with the conscious mind, the importance of a strongly developed ego as the focus where the unconscious can become conscious, and for his studies on alchemy, among other things.
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Jung’s Archetypes Not the Same as Platonic Ideas
Damiani used the study of Jung’s writings to introduce students to the vastness, depth, and power of the psyche, to show them the importance of symbols, and also to provide them with tools to become reflectively aware of their unconscious biases, complexes, and projections. He often contrasted Jung’s psychological perspective with that of Plotinus and the Neoplatonists. He strove to demarcate Jungian archetypes from the forms in the soul (both individual and cosmic) and the Ideas in the Intellectual-Principle, the categories of the imagination from the epistemological categories of Kant and the “five greatest kinds” of Plato and Plotinus, and the four Jungian gnostic functions (thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition) from the four gnostic functions of Plato’s Divided Line. In all of these cases, he argued that Jung was limited by his psychological standpoint, which is within the imagination, and didn’t acknowledge the validity of cosmological and ontological standpoints, which are superior to and structure the imagination. But that is not to dismiss the psychological standpoint, which has its own validity.
There are a number of classes on Jung’s psychology given in 1973 for which we have audio that have not yet been transcribed. If and when they are transcribed, they will probably form a new series.
Jungs’ Writings on Alchemy
Damiani led two series of classes that focused on Jung’s writings on alchemy. The first series, “Jung’s Psychological View of Alchemy,” focused primarily on Jung’s work “The Psychology of the Transference” and the Rosarium alchemical text. The second series, “Western Alchemy: The Soul’s Transformative Journey in the Cosmos; Perspectives from Neoplatonism, Jungian Thought, and Tibetan Buddhism,” delved deep into Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis as part of a larger project exploring how the soul learns from its experiences of embodiment in the cosmos. See the next section, “Western Alchemy and the Kalachakra Tantra,” for more on this series.
Some other class series that pertain to Jung are the following:
“Astrology: Jung’s Horoscope, Series 1”
“Astrology: Jung’s Horoscope, Series 2”
“Jung’s Four Psychological Functions and the Transcendent Function”
James Hillman and Archetypal Psychology
Damiani was also interested in works by contemporary psychologists who thought of themselves as practicing “archetypal psychology.” James Hillman, who began as a practitioner of Jung’s analytical psychology, founded this school. He emphasized the notion of the psyche as the play of archetypal forces and fantasies and was very attracted to the idea that the psyche is naturally polytheistic, not monotheistic. Many of the psychologists associated with archetypal psychology, for example, Edward Casey, Thomas Moore, and Roberts Avens published articles in the journal Spring.
Damiani found Hillman’s writings on the nature of images and symbols very helpful for understanding how to apprehend and grasp the meaning of the Sabian symbols, which symbolize each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac. There are several class transcripts on this, and he also created at least one annotated abridgment of one of Hillman’s papers on image, “Image-Sense” (there may be more that exist only as scanned documents that haven’t been retyped as Word documents).
Search on “Hillman” in the document archive for transcripts that reference James Hillman.
Search on “Archetypal Psychology” in the document archive for transcripts on archetypal psychology.
There is also a class series titled “Emotion: An Analysis Integrating Buddhist and Archetypal Psychology” on a paper Damiani wrote that is an annotated abridgment of Hillman’s book Emotion.