Jon Platania - Jung For Beginners

he influence of Carl Gustav Junghas never been greater than it is today. Introversion and Extroversion have become standard words. Most people are aware of the connection between the individual psyche and the collective unconscious. Many of us have secretly wondered about our own complex neurosis. The influence of the darker shadow side of life is the subject of concern as we seek to understand the apparent inhumanity of our species. All of this and more has come to us through the voice of C.G. Jung who, perhaps more than any other single individual, has shown that psychology and religion can not only coexist peacefully together, but that they can enhance, inspire, and perhaps even complete each other and in the process, help us complete ourselves.

Despite his monumental accomplishments, to this day Jung is still a controversial figure, variously referred to as a philanderer who slept with his female patients, as an opportunist who squandered his wife's fortune, or as a thin-skinned narcissist who couldn't come to terms with the negative father transference he suffered in his break with Sigmund Freud. Many eminent ladies and gents regard him as something of a living saint, a modern prophet whose work on Synchronicity and human consciousness is on a level of originality and genius comparable to Einstein's contributions to quantum physics and big ugly bombs. And, far and away the most chilling, some people know and despise him as the Nazi analyst of the Third Reich.

Strange as it may seem, they are all right. Some people are so damned good that all we can do is look up to them.

Jung wasn't one of them.

He was a great man who made great mistakes.