C. G. Jung: Forerunner of a Philosophy for the Soul

Summary:

The ambivalence of the word and concept of Philosophy in C. G. Jung’s works is the main theme of the first part of this essay. On the one hand Jung distances his work from all kind of philosophy, asserting his aims and methods are only scientific and clinical ones; on the other hand in many works he uses the word “philosophy” in the sense of the ancient philosophers, like a synonym of a kind of wisdom to be practiced in everyday life. This is very similar to Hadot’s reconstruction of the spiritual exercises in ancient philosophy. Jung may be taken as a forerunner of what the author has proposed to call “philosophically oriented biographic analysis”. The analytical position should be regarded as the professional articulation of an existential vocation for a loving pursuit of wisdom, and this formulation implies important changes in analysis itself.