Adaption & Restoration, I: Introduction

My previous posts introduced the career and psychological methodology of C. G. Jung. This post introduces Jung’s process of individuation, which, for the sake of clarity, I refer to as the process of adaption and restoration (i.e., adaption to traumatic events and the restoration of psychological balance during and/or after trauma). The following posts will…

Jungian Theory: A Brief Overview, II

My previous post gave a (very) brief overview of Jung’s view of himself and his work. This post aims to provide an equally brief introduction to the premises behind Jung’s psycho-therapeutic method. Further posts will expand on Jung’s archetypal theory and his method of dream interpretation. (Please see BULGAKOV RESOURCES for works that discuss Jung’s…

Jungian Theory: A Brief Overview, I

From the start, Jung’s work included an interest in myth, symbolism, ritual, and the numinous.[1] Jung became a student of Sigmund Freud in 1906, however, the mentoring relationship ended in 1913 because of their professional differences.[2] Jung’s central issue with Freud’s method of psychoanalysis was its exclusivity and one-sided interpretations, which, he felt, left Freudian…

Overcoming Psychological Struggle: Introduction

Murray Stein refers to Swiss psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) as an “explorer and mapmaker” of the psyche and describes Jung’s psychotherapeutic method as a “map of the soul” focused on the psychic interplay between wounding and healing.[1] Through experiences of conflict (large and small), the world wounds an individual and severs the inner connection…

3 More Objections to Jungian Literary Criticism

My previous post outline three objections against a Jungian approach to literary analysis. This post offers three more: Objection 4: Jungian literary criticism is nothing more than source hunting, or finding the external sources of a text. While “[t]he discovery of the presence of mythic elements is a beginning,” Brown states, “identification [of these mythic…

3 Objections to a Jungian Approach to Literature

My previous post presented two examples of a Jungian approach to The Master and Margarita and offers my addition to a Jungian interpretation of the novel. Gareth Williams warns that while “some of the more puzzling issues raised by the novel” may be interpreted psychologically as Bulgakov’s desire to express “this or that painful aspect…

Previous Jungian Scholarship on The Master and Margarita

Previously, I answered the question: Why did I choose Jung as the methodology for my investigation of The Master and Margarita? In short: because Jung’s view of healing from life crisis involves the psyche’s attempt to adapt the individual’s perspective through archetypes and symbols that project the problem into a visible format (i.e., through dreams,…