Spiritualism and the Foundations of C. G. Jung's Psychology By F. X. Charet

Spiritualism and the Foundations of C. G. Jung's Psychology By F. X. Charet

To conclude, I would like to make a few remarks about the significance of religious experience in the formation of Jung's psycho logical theory by focusing on the subject matter of this study. I have shown ­fairly conclusively I think ­that Jung, during his early life, came under the influence of certain experiences and beliefs that are characteristic of Spiritualism. Spiritualism later provided him with a religious framework within which he could fit his extraordinary experiences. 

While he ventured into philosophy and then psychiatry in order to more adequately account for such experiences, these approaches did not completely satisfy him. When Jung moved to create a general psychology he sought to incorporate such religious experiences into psychological molds which he termed "archetypes," that would do justice to what he called their "numinous," or spiritual, content. 

As a consequence he developed a unique psychology which, while it situated the experience of the numinous within the psyche, it did not reduce the numinous to some other causal factor. By attempting to found such a psychology Jung sought to bring religion and science together in the psyche itself and thereby heal a long standing schism and in turn heal himself.