Philosophy 391/Religious Studies 391: C. G. Jung: Current Issues

Spring 2001: CRN 24776: Monday evenings 6:30 in UANX 125

J. W. Powell, Madeline McMurray, Shaunna Howell

(This draft syllabus by jwp: my office hours: 1-3 Tues, 2-3 MW (not F) and by appt., in UANX 110. Phone 826-5753.)

This Jung seminar has been organized at the request of some students and ex-students as a followup on some introductory work done a year ago in a similar reading group. It will be led by two faculty members, Madeline McMurray of Religious Studies and John Powell of Philosophy , and by Shaunna Howell, a recent alumna. Both John and Madeline are interested in looking at some aspects of Jung's work which are controversial or unsettled or seem to need critical work, and at issues where they think Jung may provide some crucial insights, but the group will start with some introductory material. Students will also be referred to the extensive collection of videotapes on Jung in the HSU library for introductory material. The only required text is in the bookstore: Robert Bly's The Little Book of the Human Shadow. Other materials, articles mostly, will be handed out.

Jung was a Swiss psychoanalyst who studied under Freud and was Freud's protege until the two had a falling out over Jung's interests in roots of religion and in shared unconscious themes or images among human beings from different cultures. Freud regarded these interests and Jung's views as unscientific. Though we are not going to concentrate on it, this remains one of the central issues in assessing Jung--has he got good grounds for his views on these matters? (There are many other aspects of the Freud-Jung relationship which could be of interest.) 

Shaunna Howell is one of the organizers, and so one of the central interests will also be the psychology and epistemology of spiritual matters. I (jwp) see this as a question about roots of religion and about the areas where religion and philosophy overlap or maybe diverge--what kinds of answers will work regarding the meaning of life? when and on what grounds is the feeling of profundity justified?-I expect Shaunna would and will say these things differently.

Madeline has a particular interest in how to think about creativity, and I think she thinks Jung has some of this right, namely that creativity may be a healing force of crucial importance to the human race right now, and it has its roots in some kind of more open relationship to our own unconscious lives, especially those parts from which we have distanced ourselves. This topic is where Robert Bly's Little Book of the Human Shadow will provide us material for discussion. She has also selected other articles on these topics.

Since I'm writing this and Madeline and Shaunna are not, I'll say a bit more about that first issue--has Jung got good grounds for his views? It's one of my main interests. I think Freud is probably right that Jung's grounds are profoundly unscientific, but scientific are not the only kinds of good grounds. I think that we could find out about other good grounds besides scientific grounds by investigating Jung. That means our results might help us articulate what science is and what it is not, and do so in a way that helps rehabilitate religious or spiritual topics. I'm not sure about this. I hope to have a chance to think about it in this group.

All three of us have an interest in finding ways to make the group's work have effects in our lives, rather than leaving it as only an academic exercise. Madeline put it this way in an e-mail: I can't help but pull us towards giving these ideas a personal try. To quote the little man himself, "Unless we live these things we profess we are useless." Also, from the forward of A Little Book of The Human Shadow - "What Robert Bly's poetry readings say in effect is, "you must change your life." To hear serious poems and resist all change is worse than a waste of time; it is dangerous." Shaunna has expressed the desire that understanding projections, working with dreams, considering myths, all might be used to help us understand ourselves better in ways that make our lives different.

Madeline has been consistently working with these materials for years. I did a lot of reading in Jung in the 70's and had a series of appointments back then over several years with a Jungian therapist/analyst. I've done only spotty reading since then with those issues which have caught the edge of the media spotlight--attacks on therapy as narcissistic, the almost terminally weird studies of effectiveness of drugs vs. counseling, some of the New Age invocations of Jung as a prophet of World Consciousness, some very forbidding literature on consciousness and the new physics. I've also had a long-standing interest in the attempts to synthesize Eastern and Western philosophical views, and Jung and Jungians share those interests. With almost all the readings I've done since my more intense involvement twenty-five years ago, I keep recalling Jung's famous sardonic remark, which I think he would make again in the face of most of these"Thank God I am Jung and not a Jungian!"

Grading: Because the earlier reading group was generally unstructured and the membership shifted so much that continued discussion on particular issues was difficult, we are going to selfishly insist on more structure this time. Members of the group are expected to attend every time or to butt out early on. Each member will take charge of at least one presentation/discussion. Written or oral reactions to the readings and videos will be shared with the class on a regular basis (I'm thinking that doing this by e-mail will make it easy for most, and we will share e-mail addresses so we can give our reactions to the whole group easily, but reactions can also be shared by bringing photocopies to class or by reading reactions in class). These reactions can be short--a paragraph or two--or some seminar members may use them as a means for thinking the issues through at more length. Members will also write a short summary paper, three or four pages, at the end.   I'm calling this a structure, but the structure does NOT include my or anyone else's mothering-nagging people to get reaction papers in, grading papers, keeping track of who has got them done and who not, or counting them up at the end of the semester. Members who want a good grade will keep track of all that themselves and will remind Madeline or me at the end what you've gotten done, how terrific it was, and what your argument for that assessment is, which arguments we will critically assess.