The 21 best books by Carl Gustav Jung

throughout the History of Psychology Numerous authors have developed a large number of explanatory theories of the human mind and the disorders and problems that afflict it.

From different schools and currents of thought, the different students of the psyche have established their attention on specific aspects of the mind, creating a large number of concepts and ways of understanding our being.

The postulates of psychoanalysis

One of the best known at the popular level is psychoanalysis., which focuses on the drives and unconscious forces to explain the ways of facing the reality of each one, including those of subjects with mental disorders.

Although the most popular author and one of the most prolific of the psychoanalytic current is its founder, Sigmund Freud, he is not the only author with great importance in the history of psychodynamic psychology. In fact, from it other conceptualizations of the psyche have emerged that question some aspects of the original theory, configuring other schools.

One of them, which breaks away from the more orthodox psychoanalytic tradition, is that of Carl Gustav Jung, of whose work we are going, then, to make a selection of the twenty best books of him.

Jung and analytical psychology

Considered one of the neo-Freudians, a group whose thought partially diverged from the Freudian conception of the psyche, Carl Gustav Jung is the founder of analytical psychology.. In this way of understanding the human mind, it was the psychic energy and not only the libidinal drive that moved the behavior, leaving the sexual in a relatively secondary role.

He also differs from Freudian theory by considering that there is not only an individual unconscious, but rather proposes the existence of a partially inherited collective one. In other words, it does not focus solely on a psychology of the individual but also on that of the community. The analysis of both types of unconscious and of The structure of personality from basic processes are a fundamental part of analytical psychology.

Also known for a more spiritual conception of the human being, Jung extensively studied the symbolism of both expressed and inhibited acts and feelings.. Jung is owed concepts such as complexes and archetypes, elements that contribute to the creation of our own identity and individuation and make us who we are.

The analysis of dreams and spontaneous creations is also of great interest, which for this author arise as a method of compensation and clarification of consciousness.

Twenty books by Carl Gustav Jung

Although not as prolific as other authors, Jung's work is extensive and one of the most influential within the psychodynamic current throughout the 20th century..

Let us see below some of the main works of this author.

1. The red book

Originally called Liber Novus, this book is a work that Jung took about 15 years to complete. In it the bases of most of his work can be observed, being considered by the author himself as the vertex of his subsequent elaborations.

Some of the issues that can begin to be observed is the existence of the most relevant archetypes or the connection between the structure of the mind and culture. Jung elaborated the Red Book through self-exploration and confrontation with their own unconscious, through the technique of active imagination. As a curiosity, it should be noted that despite being a work of great importance, it would not be known for many years. after his death, already entered the year 2009, due to the initial opposition of his heirs to its publication.

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2. Archetypes and the collective unconscious

This book deals with one of the most important themes in Jung's work: the idea of ​​a collective unconscious.. In it we also observe one of the main concepts created by Jung, the archetype as a psychic expression of the structures inherited from our peers, this being the basis on which this important construction site.

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3. psychological types

In this work Jung explores the different types of personality based on three basic processes: the libidinal (which marks whether we are introverted or extroverted), the rational (which tells us if we are reflective or sensitive) and irrational (which lets us see if we are perceptive intuitive). These processes mark both our conscious and unconscious attitudes, provoking a certain way of being.

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4. The man and his symbols

Dreams and symbolic elements such as culture and art are elements of great importance for the creator of analytical psychology. Inside this volume we can visualize how the author, based on the analysis of dreams, proposes an explanation of the deep meaning of our dream projections, art, myths and even our performances in life daily.

This is the last work that the author wrote before his death, and was intended to be a way of bringing Jung's theoretical conceptions of symbolism closer to the general public.

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5. Complexes and the unconscious

Another of the great concepts introduced by Jung was that of complex, trapped emotional experiences that cannot be consciously recognized and remain trapped in the personal unconscious, generally coming from repressed experiences that involve shocks emotional.

This work explores the unconscious or shadow of the person, and its representation in various facets such as dreams.

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6. Aion, contributions to the symbolisms of the self

A work focused on the conception of the self or selbst, the psychic totality whose obtaining is the objective of the individuation process. This book uses the symbols of the Christian religion, making Christ an equivalent of sameness, and of alchemy to explain what it is and how we structure our sameness, integrating the various concepts and archetypes that lead us to obtain the individuality.

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7. Conflicts of the infant soul

Childhood and youth are fundamental development periods in the configuration of the human being. The existence of conflicts and serious damages in these stages can cause serious damages that can affect the individual throughout the rest of his life.

Throughout this volume Jung refers to this fact, still showing some Freudian influence and analyzing the effects of child psychosexual development and the importance of parents and the environment.

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8. psychology and education

Thematically linked to the previous work, in this volume Jung continues to worry about childhood and human development.. In this case, the author links culture and symbology to the construction of the psyche, dealing with issues of the pedagogy and educational psychology.

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9. The psychology of transference

The concept of transference is a constant in the psychoanalytic or psychodynamic current. Understood as the process by which the patient projects his feelings, emotions and lived experiences onto the therapist, the transference relationship is a complicated and essential part of the therapeutic relationship between patient and professional (although therapy for this author should be based on collaboration between patient and therapist and not on processes transferable).

In this book, Jung reflects on the complexity of transference processes and his observations in this regard, making an obvious parallel with the practice of alchemy.

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10. Psychogenesis of mental illness

Much of Carl Gustav Jung's early work deals with mental disorders. In this case, throughout the book in question we are going to observe the author's conclusions and the therapeutic practices used during the treatment of subjects with mental disorders.

Topics such as the curability of disorders, the way of understanding the processes that produce the pathology or the effect of what unconscious in these cases are some of the themes that are reflected throughout the essays present in this collection.

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11. Psychic energy and dream essence

Analytical or depth psychology is largely based on the idea of ​​psychic energy as the basis of the psyche. and human performance. Understanding this energy as the psychic and emotional force that governs us, in this book we proceed to visualize in a theoretical way the bases of behavior and the transformations that are carried out from this drive energy (such as dreams or dreams). complex). Also in this work he relates the unconscious with the instinctive and spirituality.

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12. formations of the unconscious

In this work, Jung delves into those formations through which the unconscious is expressed and channeled.such as literature, poetry or artistic representation. The symbolic elements of each element are treated, such as the identification and transformation of the work itself and of the work itself.

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13. Two writings on analytical psychology

This volume brings together two of the first essays by the creator of analytical psychology, in which he refers to the relationship maintained between the two types of unconscious, individual and collective, as well as between these and the structured set of the self.

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14. Writings on spirituality and transcendence

A strongly spiritual man, religion is an important element for Jung and relatively frequent throughout his work. Regardless of the specific religious confession in question, religious belief and spirituality is part of culture and the way of seeing the world and acting in it. In this book the author makes a dissertation on spirituality and transcendence trying to understand how the mind is in search of a meaning for reality and being.

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15. The practice of psychotherapy

For Jung, the individual who suffers from a disorder suffers from the inhibition of his unconscious.. The main objective of psychotherapy, then, is to facilitate the redirection of the individuation process from the dialogue between conscious and unconscious. In this compilation work, the writings included focus especially on the conception of psychotherapy for Jung, his context, collaboration with the patient (who must collaborate actively in the therapy) and the way to carry it out cape.

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16. Synchronicity as a principle of acausal relations

It is called synchronicity to the coincidence of two phenomena linked to each other in a way that, although its link makes sense, it cannot be causal. In other words, one situation is not a consequence of the other, but their link is not limited to coinciding in time. This fact, which the author relates to intuition, is explored in the work at hand.

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17. Response to Job

Using the Biblical account of the Book of Job, Jung establishes an interesting controversy between the emotional and the rational, the person and the shadow. In this work we can observe the suffering caused by passions and emotions, which are unbridled by the attempt to make them rational. This is an interesting reflection of the psychology of the unconscious.

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18. civilization in transition

This work includes various texts by the author, in which we can contemplate the process of social transformation typical of the time, with varied sociological themes such as the role of psychology at the time, the role of women, love and catastrophe, the conceptions of different peoples or the concepts of good and evil according to psychology analytics.

It is worth taking into account the historical context in which the work was published, from the end of the First World War until shortly before from the construction of the Berlin wall (through the roaring twenties, the great depression and the second world war between others).

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19. Memories, dreams, thoughts

A work made in collaboration with Aniela Jaffé, in this volume Jung reveals part of his autobiography, exploring the author's childhood and personal life. It is not limited only to making a biography of these aspects, but also includes his work as a researcher of the human mind, his theories and hypotheses about the unconscious, the role of symbolism and phylogenetic history, the therapeutic relationship and psychotherapy.

It is therefore a book that helps to understand the figure of the author, his story and his deepest thoughts regarding the human psyche and the role of the psychologist.

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20. Metamorphosis and symbols of the libido

Although other volumes better reflect Jung's ideas and theories, this work has been considered within the present list because we are dealing with the work that initiated the first divergences that culminated in the separation of Jung with respect to Freud, due to the secondary conception of the sexual aspects and the rejection of the Oedipus complex (in the second part) for the creator of depth psychology.

21. Freud and psychoanalysis

This set of writings by Carl Jung contains texts that belong to the period in which psychoanalysis finished consolidating in Europe, especially during the first two decades of the 20th century. Here the principles of Freudian theory are exposed, specific aspects about how it used to be applied, and the criticisms that Jung directed at what he understood to be a suffocating discipline that considered the religious and spiritual dimension of the human being in a too rigid.

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