On reading Jung in German: Jung's significance for Germanistik

Bishop, P. (2013) On reading Jung in German: Jung's significance for Germanistik. In: Kirsch, J. and Stein, M. (eds.) How and Why We Still Read Jung: Personal and Professional Reflections. Routledge: London, UK, pp. 66-85. ISBN 9780415686488

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Abstract

Jung’s well-known reticence to disclose the clinical details of his analytic practice led him to draw upon literature to demonstrate his hypotheses about the structure, nature, and function of the psyche. Thus Jung became, or so Paul Bishop maintains, a practitioner of literary criticism as well as a formulator of psychology, and he may fruitfully be read as both. More important, he thinks our grasp of Jung will be enhanced by reading him as part of the German literary tradition, from Goethe’s Faust and Hölderlin’s Hyperion to Nietzsche’s Zarathustra. Jung’s analysis of the poet Hölderlin through his poetry is tracked in Bishop’s contribution to this volume. For the psychotherapist, the narrative reveals the story of a young man whose development is arrested by a fateful longing for childhood’s carefree and blissful unity with nature. But for the scholar of Germanistik, Jung is participating in a noble tradition of literary analysis and discussion. Bishop’s contributions to the developing field of Jungian studies encourage dialogue between the Jungian analyst and the academic student of Jung.

Item Type:Book Sections
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Bishop, Professor Paul
Authors: Bishop, P.
Subjects:B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > German
Publisher:Routledge
ISBN:9780415686488

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