The Psychology of the Transference

Rating:
Summary: The Apex, Not The Ape
Review: The penultimate title in C.G. Jung's 20 - volume Collected Works, The Psychology of the Transference is a short, seemingly complex book which readily rewards the reader who perseveres and is unintimidated by Jung's lengthy sentences, the alchemical illustrations, or the numerous passages in Latin.

Jung's subject is his discovery that the "great work" of the 16th and 17th century alchemists -- a search for the 'philosopher's stone' of 'psychic wholeness' (as opposed to 'psychic perfection') -- corresponds closely to the psychological process of the transference (a dynamic set of duo projections of unconscious psychic contents). The alchemical process mysteriously corresponds not only the transference possible between psychologist and patient, but between any two individuals who spontaneously (unconsciously) constellate some part of the other's psyche through normal human interaction.

However, as with all of Jung's later work, the book's larger focus is the psychic evolution of the individual. The Psychology of the Transference's pivotal message is that the process of cautiously evolving one's consciousness to the hypothetical point of 'individuation' or 'integration,' is primarily a moral and ethical one. The book stresses that it is also a critically necessary process, however painful and potentially dangerous. In Jung's estimation, mankind has no choice but to accept the challenge of psychic evolution: the alternative is a perpetual present state of misunderstanding, hatred, suspicion, bigotry, oppression, war, and genocide.

Like Freud, Jung believed that man's psyche contains an enormous multi-tier unconscious reservoir, one which not only dwarfs man's generally narrow consciousness but is also the matrix in which consciousness originated (thus the alchemical motto "high rests on low"). The unconscious is the original abode of all drives, demons, and daimons, all instincts and angels, all creativity and appetites for destruction. Since many of its contents are unacceptable to modern man -- the most foundational of these being the incest complex - these damned and rejected contexts are not and cannot be readily integrated into consciousness. Instead, they are spontaneously projected outward onto other human beings, social classes, institutions, and countries -- onto any 'object' that is perceived as other and different from the self. No man can evolve his consciousness without first becoming aware of and retracting these projections and learning to comfortably accept them as his own dark potentialities. It is not simply of matter of leaving the instinctual man behind, but of learning to integrate the necessary if often unattractive instinctual and vital functions into consciousness before moving forward. Thus the process is one of refinement and accumulation and not one of elimination.

Only the first major step in a series (Emerson: "Every ultimate fact is only the first of a new series"), the confrontation with and integration of the 'shadow' is often a harrowing and precarious process. If man accepts this task without ample preparation, inner fortification, and secure sense of identity (which he nonetheless must be willing to forgo), he may come to despise himself, lose all motivation, become morally degenerate, or commit suicide. But if he does not recognize, accept and take up his own cross, he will blame, and attempt to injure or destroy, other people, classes, races, or countries to eradicate the sense of indefinable angst, doubt, suspicion, and fear that impinges itself so relentlessly upon his psyche; as Jung perfectly expressed it, he will endlessly attempt to free himself of "that thing that thrusts itself tyrannically upon him in the stillness and loneliness of the night."

Only after man has accepted and integrated his 'shadow' can he, 'reborn,' proceed rightfully ahead. It is this slow process ('make haste slowly' was another motto of the alchemists) of prudent illumination towards conscious realization of the "whole man," or "self," as Jung called it, that the alchemists referred to as "the great work," the highest single achievement of which man is capable. Thus, though the alchemists apparently sought to turn base metal into gold, "gold" was in truth a simple metaphor for successfully integrated consciousness. Clearly, most of mankind, finding the burden of unconsciousness easier to bear than the burden of conscious realization and responsibility, regrettably and understandably fails in even this initial step. As a result, man lives in a predominantly fallen world of near - animal existence.

The Psychology of the Transference is one of the most concise and digestible books in Jung's oeuvre; its insights and wisdom are readily applicable to life in the 21st century. As in the balance of his previous eighteen titles, Jung presents the world as an incredible place of breathtaking depth, mystery, and meaning, most of which is lost on the average man, who typically lives in a state of permanent hibernation from objective reality. However, Jung's worldview is also one in which nature is infinitely strange and capable of continuous unexpected manifestations, unique hybrid creations, and monsters, simply because the process of psychic evolution is not only something man must willingly confront, but because it is a process which nature inexorably demands.

It is to Jung's credit that with The Psychology of the Transference he is able to present his ideas in direct, palatable, and useful fashion without dilution. A world of readers are blindly searching for this book, and turning instead to authors like Herman Hesse and Carlos Casteneda, 'New Age' crank authors whose work is merely plagiarism of Jung, or lesser psychologists who offer up Jung's ideas in vastly diluted form. The Psychology of the Transference, a deep and hopeful book, is the source to which questing readers should turn.

Rating:
Summary: Alchemy and the Psychology of Inner Redemption
Review: Yes, "transference" was originally Freud's term, but Jung's use in this 1946 essay is expanded far beyond what Freud (or anyone practicing psychology today) could possibly recognize. For Jung, transference was about a person's relation with his or her Unconscious, and the spectrum of possible relationships extends from delusion to liberating insight. Thus, transference is not just about the patient's relationship to the therapist; rather, transference is ultimately about the individual's relationship with the whole of life. After an introductory section, Jung frames his essay as a commentary on the *Rosarium Philosophorum*, an alchemical text published in 1550. The text focuses on a series of ten drawings that will assuredly appear bizarre to folks unfamiliar with alchemical symbols; however, Jung's brilliant analysis demonstrates that these apparently monstrous images actually map out, symbolically, that path to inner liberation. Indeed, this essay, late in Jung's career, represents him at the height of his powers, synthesizing symbols from a variety of sources to create a text dense with insights into the fundamental problems of human life.

Rating:
Summary: Alchemy and the Psychology of Inner Redemption
Review: Yes, "transference" was originally Freud's term, but Jung's use in this 1946 essay is expanded far beyond what Freud (or anyone practicing psychology today) could possibly recognize. For Jung, transference was about a person's relation with his or her Unconscious, and the spectrum of possible relationships extends from delusion to liberating insight. Thus, transference is not just about the patient's relationship to the therapist; rather, transference is ultimately about the individual's relationship with the whole of life. After an introductory section, Jung frames his essay as a commentary on the *Rosarium Philosophorum*, an alchemical text published in 1550. The text focuses on a series of ten drawings that will assuredly appear bizarre to folks unfamiliar with alchemical symbols; however, Jung's brilliant analysis demonstrates that these apparently monstrous images actually map out, symbolically, that path to inner liberation. Indeed, this essay, late in Jung's career, represents him at the height of his powers, synthesizing symbols from a variety of sources to create a text dense with insights into the fundamental problems of human life.