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| February 2021 publication |
Reading this book was both a continuation and a commencement. By way of continuation, it forwards my project to become better acquainted with the thought of Carl Jung, the great Swiss thinker and practitioner of depth psychology. My first formal step was completing Gary Lachman's Jung the Mystic. Lachman's book is a solid biography of Jung that gets its zest from its willingness to consider that aspect of Jung's life and work that Jung didn't want to publicize: that Jung was influenced by--and to some extent subject to--esoteric and paranormal influences. Jung, mindful of the spirit of his time, wanted to be seen as quite "scientific," although in the last couple of decades of his life (after the Second World War), he became more open about his inner life and experiences and this opening revealed more (but not all) of the hidden Jung. I mention all of this because, in a sense, Kastrup continues the story started by Lachman.
By way of commencement, this title represents the first book-length dive I've taken into Kastrup's work. I've heard him interviewed on Jeffrey Mishlove's podcast two or three times, and I've seen and read some shorter pieces by him. I've read Jeffrey Kripal's praises of his work, and now this work has taken me deeper into Kastrup's thought while also taking me deeper into Jung's thought. (A bit of a spoiler here: but I don't intend that this will be the last Kastrup work I intend to read; in fact, I've already starter reading his Decoding Schopenhauer.) By way of an introduction to Kastrup, he trained originally in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence), earning a Ph.D. He worked in this field, among other places, at CERN. He became interested in philosophy and earned a second Ph.D. in that field with an emphasis in ontology and philosophy of mind. He has become a leading figure in a "renaissance of metaphysical idealism." And the gist of this book is that Kastrup's "metaphysical idealism" has discovered a kindred spirit in Carl Jung.
Kastrup reports that he first encountered Jung's work as a teenager, but only recently did he re-visit it with the eyes of his fully developed metaphysical idealism and philosophical training. With this new vision, Kastrup very carefully reviews Jung's works--especially his later works--and carefully delineates the terms of Jung's thought. He then proceeds to re-create, as it were, Jung's (mostly unstated) metaphysical grounding. The early portion of the book reviews Jung's overt conceptions and terms (which of course changed over time). Jung formulated his most important terms, like "collective unconscious" (or his later preferred term, "objective consciousness"), "self," "archetypes," "individuation," and "instincts," to name some of his more familiar terms. Kastrup carefully examines each term and its use to gain a firm understanding of the parameters of Jung's mainstream (or "scientific") thought. This portion of the book is quite valuable in its own right simply for the carefully guided tour of Jung's terminology. But for Kastrup, these terms only take him the threshold, so to speak.
Jung most reveals his underlying metaphysics in his later work, and, it seems, most significantly, as a result of his dialogue (in person and via correspondence with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Their letters (since published and cited by Kastrup), along with Jung's Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1952) provide a great deal of insight into Jung's thinking about the relation of mind, body, and psyche. Also, Kastrup examines Jung's Answer to Job (1952) as providing the deepest revelations available about Jung's spiritual life and insights. Also of note is Jung's (sort of) autobiography, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections (1961, the year in which Jung died at age 84). Based on these sources and many of Jung's earlier writings, Kastrup provides a persuasive re-construction of Jung's metaphysical presuppositions.
I should note that Kastrup's philosophical perspective ("metaphysical idealism") doesn't impinge on his exposition of Jung's thought, and he only explores intersections with his own perspective after he's laid a solid foundation in Jung's writings.
I have only two minor complaints about this book: first, there were several run-on words, especially when phrases were italicized. A finger-wag at the publisher! Second, Kastrup's abbreviations for Jung's titles are hard to follow. And other than these two picayune points: an excellent work that provides a solid exposition of Jung's work and provides an excellent analysis of how it fits into a wider circle of philosophical thought.
sng
03.10.21
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