Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading
Review: This is essentially Jung's version of "Civilization and its Discontents," a broadly sketched overview of Who We Are and How We Got Here. Jung basically argues for the importance of the individual as opposed to the mob, the latter taking the form of totalitarianism. Despite many references to the Iron Curtain (this book first appeared in the 1950's), it is not really "dated," unless you want to argue that contemporary society has since become immune to the dangers of mindless group-think. Jung's point here has nothing specifically to do with Communism. Still, I found some of Jung's thought tediously familiar. Let's face it, practically every intellectual from Rousseau to the Unabomber has believed that their contemporaries had somehow lost touch with their true nature, and has had their own ideas about reuniting us all with our Inner Whatever-you-call-it. In its general outline, "The Undiscovered Self" does not exactly represent an advance in human thought--at least not in my view. But Jung does have some compelling insights, particularly his notion (which I cannot help but think is the absolute truth) that human conflicts essentially boil down to the tendency to project our own weaknesses (our "shadow side") onto others. It will, if nothing else, give you something to think about. Also, this book (in the R.F.C. Hull translation) taught me my favorite word of the day: "chiliastic."
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading
Review: This is essentially Jung's version of "Civilization and its Discontents," a broadly sketched overview of Who We Are and How We Got Here. Jung basically argues for the importance of the individual as opposed to the mob, the latter taking the form of totalitarianism. Despite many references to the Iron Curtain (this book first appeared in the 1950's), it is not really "dated," unless you want to argue that contemporary society has since become immune to the dangers of mindless group-think. Jung's point here has nothing specifically to do with Communism. Still, I found some of Jung's thought tediously familiar. Let's face it, practically every intellectual from Rousseau to the Unabomber has believed that their contemporaries had somehow lost touch with their true nature, and has had their own ideas about reuniting us all with our Inner Whatever-you-call-it. In its general outline, "The Undiscovered Self" does not exactly represent an advance in human thought--at least not in my view. But Jung does have some compelling insights, particularly his notion (which I cannot help but think is the absolute truth) that human conflicts essentially boil down to the tendency to project our own weaknesses (our "shadow side") onto others. It will, if nothing else, give you something to think about. Also, this book (in the R.F.C. Hull translation) taught me my favorite word of the day: "chiliastic."
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