The Psychology of the Unconscious Processes

Summary

In this 1912 work, Jung seeks to find symbolic meaning and purpose behind a given set of symptoms within the larger context of the psyche. It examines the fantasies of a patient whose vivid and poetic mental images enabled Jung to redefine libido as psychic energy which arises from the unconscious to manifest itself consciously in symbolic form. The work marks a theoretical divergence between Jung and Freud on the nature of the libido. Moving beyond psychopathology and its symptoms, Jung incorporated dreams, mythology, and literature to identify and define the universal patterns of the psyche. His commentary on his patient's fantasies presents a complex framework of symbolic psychiatry and foreshadows his development of the theory of the collective unconscious and the archetypes inhabiting it.

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