Modern Man In Search of a Soul

Absolutely brilliant book !! This book has helped me to become at peace with myself, and at peace with all........
Dr. Jung has hit the truth, the problem with modern man is his creed's lack Energy or vitality
"We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality, we can only go about being irrational in a reasonable way " Aldous Huxley
Our spiritual journey is a constant look into ourselves; it is also a constant concern for others as well.
The key to many a person's anxiety, lies in a key solution of a fable, or Epic Story.
The Symbol means far more than it signifies.
" God is not a Myth, Myth is the revelation of a divine life in man" Dr. Jung
"Learn to feel the Joy of a Soul Happy and Confident, lifted above every circumstance" Seneca
"The man who has been in constant combat with struggle develops an immunity to it, and if he stumbles he carries the fight upon his knee" Seneca De Providencia

This 1933 book consists of eleven chapters that were originally given as lectures (except for "Freud and Jung - Contrasts"), and include topics such as "Dream Analysis in its Practical Application" "The Aims of Psychotherapy," "A Psychological Theory of Types," "The Basic Postulates of Analytical Psychology," "Psychotherapists or the Clergy," "The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man," and so on.

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"The relation between conscious and unconscious is compensatory. This fact, which is easily verifiable, affords a rule for dream interpretation. It is always helpful, when we set out to interpret a dream, to ask: What conscious attitude does it compensate?" (Ch. 1)
"About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinicallly definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. It seems to me, however, that this can well be described as the general neurosis of our time." (Ch. 3)
"It is the growth of consciousness which we must thank for the existence of problems; they are the dubious gift of civilization. It is just man's turning away from instinct---his opposing himself to instinct---that creates consciousness." (Ch. 5)
"For my part, I prefer to look at man in the light of what in him is healthy and sound, and to free the sick man from that point of view which colours every page Freud has written." (Ch. 6)
"The modern preference for physical grounds of explanation leads, as already remarked, to a 'psychology without the psyche'---I mean, to the view that the psyche is nothing but a product of biochemical processes." (Ch. 9)
"(L)ife and psyche existed for me before I could say 'I,' and when this 'I' disappears ... life and psyche go on.... Why should the simple mind deny, in the face of such experiences, that the 'soul' lives in a realm beyond the body?" (Ch. 9)
"(I)t is just as wrong, in my opinion, to regard the unconscious as a derivative of consciousness. We are nearer the truth if we put it the other way round." (Ch. 9)

The eleven chapters in this work are lectures (except for one) delivered by Jung prior to 1933 (date of publication of this book). For those of you who already own some or most of Jung's Collected Works (CW), it may be unnecessary to purchase this title. I found this out too late since in my haste I failed to check the table of contents graciously provided for by the store on this web page. So for the benefit of those who are intending to buy this title I have listed below all the chapters and the corresponding volume of the CW where these same essays can be found (note: translations in this work and those in the CW may differ slightly as exemplified by the change in the title of the first chapter).
Table of Contents
1. Dream Analysis in Its Practical Application
["The Practical Use of Dream Analysis", in CW 16]
2. Problems of Modern Psychotherapy
[in CW 16]
3. The Aims of Psychotherapy
[in CW 16]
4. A Psychological Theory of Types
[in CW 6 (one of the four essays in the appendix)]
5. The Stages of Life
[in CW 8]
6. Freud and Jung--Contrasts
[in CW 4]
7. Archaic Man
[in CW 10]
8. Psychology and Literature
[in CW 15]
9. The Basic Postulates of Analytical Psychology
[in CW 8]
10. The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man
[in CW 10]
11. Psychotherapists or the Clergy
[in CW 11]
Notwithstanding the fact that all chapters can be found in the CW, this anthology of Jung's essays is a rich and filling smorgasbord of his thoughts, ideas, theories, and opinions about the psyche around the time he was 50. Although I am disappointed that I purchased a title I practically don't need (having a good number of the CW already) I can hardly give this anthology less than five stars. Nearly all of Jung's works deserve nothing less.
And whether you're new to Jung or not, a must-read is his _Memories, Dreams, Reflections_, a work that he undertook during the last few years of his life, one which is definitely not to be found in the CW.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

This book contains eleven lectures given to the general public on various occasions on a variety of topics. Taken together they sum up much of Jung's analytical psychology, covering the subjects:

dream analysis,
problems of psychotherapy,
aims of psychotherapy,
theory of types,
stages of life,
contrasts between Freud and Jung,
archaic man,
psychology and literature,
basic postulates (i.e. philosophic notions) of analytical psychology,
spiritual problem of modern man, and,
psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung's professional writings can be a hard read being long and difficult to follow. There is none of that problem in this work. Here Jung is clear as a bell. The book is highly recommended for those beginning their inquiry into Jung.

Although <Modern Man> was first published in 1933 it still holds relevance to a contemporary audience. One major theme running through several speeches is that many people seem to inherently want to believe in something spiritual, though this certainly does not necessarily imply mainstream religion such as Christianity. We only have to visit a new age bookshop packed with Buddhist and other Asian philosophic texts, not to mention esoteric volumes on spirits, magic and psychic phenomena, to realize that many people are 'looking for something in their lives.' Of course not all of us have spirituality as an issue or problem and Jung at one point goes to some trouble to point this out. Some are hung up on sex, other on power, etc. In these cases a psychology other than Jung's analytical psychology is recommended.

Modern Man in Search of a Soul is extremely dense but also extremely rewarding. Found in the book is a collection of Carl Gustav Jung's essays about different topics. My favorite in this book were problems of psychotherapy,aims of psychotherapy,stages of life, and contrasts between Freud and Jung. Some of the essays weren't as powerful to me as the others but I believe that has to do more about me then the book.

Carl Jung's writing can be difficult and sometimes complicated to follow. For those who take the time to head and understand the deep and philosophical questions that Jung answers about life and psychology, your view on life will truly be transformed.

" The needs and the necessities of individuals vary. What sets one free is for another a prison--as for instance normality and adaptation (Jung, 1933, pg. 47)."

A very insightful and meaningful book, 11 intriguing essays in 244 pages. Jung is a deeper thinker, and I think not reductive like Freud and Adler tended to be. He makes no claim to dogmatism or absolutes. Jung really hits on the psyche and transcends the borders of rational intelligence into areas of the unconscious expressions in symbolism and images.

I am going to argue against another reviewer here that gave this book 4 stars as being outdated. When I look at the present collective societal structure and current cultural pattern apart from the minority of advanced individuals, I can see the postmodern man has regressed far from the modern man of the 1930's in search of a soul. Of course there as been advances individually, but on a collective level; fundamentalism, religious literalism, nationalism, patriotism and one-sided thinking This has grown in major proportions as opposed to the other way around and it is far more serious than most even realize and patterns after historical events of very similiar nature.

The first essay on dream-analysis hits on the idea that dreams are very hard to interpret and suggests that understanding the circumstances and conditions of the conscious life is significant in relation to the dreams of the unconscious life.

On the problems of psychotherapy, Jung relates four stages of analytical psychology, the confessional, explanation, education and transformation

"The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form - an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other." p. 61

The essay on the personality types is short, non-exhaustive and briefly relates Jung's ideas of the introvert, the extrovert and the 4 basic types consisting of those persons who are thinkers, feelers, sensory and intuitive.

In his essay on the stages of life, Jung ventures beyond childhood into early adulthood and the expansion of the self into sexual desires and masculine and feminine traits and how after somewhere in the 40's there begins a contraction of the self where men may acquire more feminine traits and women more masculine. In the second half of life less is needed to educate his conscious will but more aim towards the inner being, until old age where one leaves the rational self and retreats into the psyche as children yet in a different sense.

Jung acknowledges the validity of Freud and Adler and their valuable contributions, yet Jung sees Freud's sexual reduction to all neurosis as limiting, as well as Adler's will to power over inferiority as the sole cause. Both views have proven themselves as valid in many cases, yet Jung finds there is far much more levels in what he calls "value intensities," which underlie many complexes.

Jung also briefly goes into the archaic man's interpretation of all chance events having external meanings and causes, or as causal occurrences and the contrast of the modern man's ability to see the majority of chance and unexplainable events as the human imagination, as the perception of the human. Also the same ability of assumptions in the archaic man, can be seen in the modern who uses science as the foundation over the supernatural.

Jung's essay on psychology and literature is my favorite essay. It hits on something I both think of and am affected by almost every day. I found this entirely meaningful and very much profound. In this he writes of two types of writers; those that explain all they write of and those that have visions where their writing is obscure and needs the psychologist to read into. It is those visionaries that are the most inspiring. Here there exists those as in The Shepherd of Hermas, in Dante, in the second part of Faust, in Nietzsche's Dionysian exuberance, in Wagner's Nihelungenriing, in Spitteler's Olympischer Fruhling, in the poetry of William Blake, in the lpnerotomachia of the monk Francesco Colonna, and in Jacob Boehme's philosophic and poetic stammerings.

Jung speaks of the human intuition that points to things that are unknown and hidden, and by our very nature are secret and that throughout human history this unfathomable primordial source of creative experience been expressed in images, as in the sun-wheel, in attempting to point to this. The artist and poet will resort to mythology and images which only appear to occur in dreams, cases of insanity, narcotic states and eclipses of consciousness.

"A great work of art is like a dream; for all its apparent obviousness it does not explain itself and is never unequivocal. A dream never says; "you ought," or "this is the truth." It presents an image in much the same way as nature allows a plant to grow, and we must draw our own conclusions." p. 171

I really can't even begin to touch on all the vital, significant and soul inspiring information that is loaded in the pages of this book and I think as I try I am taking away from what's written far better than what I'll ever write. I recommend this book.

Modern Man in Search of a Soul is one of Carl Jung's more accessible works (comparable to Man and His Symbols). It is under 250 pages so it is a quick but not an easy read. Some passages require soul-searching and deep thinking to fully appreciate the message. There are 11 chapters which include a discussion on Jung's approach to dream analysis to comparisons and contrasts to Dr. Sigmund Freud. Almost all of the chapters are lectures given by Jung and they are quite insightful to students and practitioners of psychology. Jung examines dream analysis, problems of psychotherapy, aims of psychotherapy, theory of types, stages of life, contrasts between Freud and Jung, archaic man, psychology and literature, basic postulates of analytical psychology, the spiritual problem of modern man, and, psychotherapists or the clergy.

Jung has an incredible gift of making very abstract truths accessible to people. You will learn much about who you are and the history of civilization. My only complaint would be that society is facing new issues that Jung did not foresee when he wrote this in 1933. Many of the passages are timeless but not all. Some of the lectures are useful from a historical point of view before the age of mass media, Internet and social media. Nevertheless, the book offers an incredible amount of wisdom because Jung encourages the reader to find his own path and provides some tools to help you along the way. This is a book that can be re-read many times to absorb the wisdom that Jung offers. I have noticed some chapters speak to you more than others and it is different for everybody because we are all individuals. The insights on Freud and Adler offer an interesting contrast to Jung's recognition of the spiritual needs of people that often gets overlooked. The chapter on Psychotherapists and the Clergy offers one of the best writings ever produced about the message of Jesus though many religious-minded people will not accept his particular interpretation. Jung was truly a philosopher in addition to being a doctor.

Buy this book!

_Modern Man in Search of a Soul_ is the first book you should read by Jung. That is not to say that it is particularly easy; it is by no means a watered-down layman's version of Jung. This is Jung at full intensity. It is an ideal introduction simply because it deals with his more accessable concepts, such as the actual practice of psychotherapy, the doctor-patient relationship, the types of things a doctor should say to his patients, ect. It also deals with broader sociological issues and does not get bogged down with esoteric concepts such as alchemy and ancient mythology. Overall, I would say this is a perfectly crafted philosophical/psychological work. It is potent, miserly, well-written, well-translated, and never gets bogged down with unreadable, esoteric sections. It is not as far-reaching and revolutionary as some of Jung's works, but it is a magnificent work of art pared down to the absolute essentials. Overall it is one of the top five books ever written, by any author, from any genre or time period. Also, as a side note, I would recomend _Psychotherapy East and West_ by the American author Alan Watts as a companion piece to Jung's _Modern Man in Search of a Soul_.

Someone said in a review that this book isn't applicable for people alive today, that it was only relevant back when it was written a little over 60 years ago.

I can't disagree more. The book is just as relevant now, if not more so.

In one of the essays from this book, Jung accurately predicted today's raging "cultural battles" between proponents of so called "ID" theory and those who espouse Evolution, when he said, correctly, that natural science has for all practical purposes shot down the whole notion of anything "magical" or "supernatural" about the psyche. It's puzzling that in light of the overwhelming mountain of scientific evidence to the contrary, a vast majority of people in the U.S. still believe in "eternal life", and "heaven" and "hell".

Maybe if those who believe in whatever religion they think is the only true religion could loosen up a little, and realize that all religions are organized, but slightly different interpretations of our collective conscious handed down to us through the ages, we might not have problems like 9/11 and ongoing wars, not to mention the ugly politics in this country, all driven by the sentiment "My God is the only right God".

While indirectly discounting the ideas of "heaven" and "hell", as those terms, or their endless variations are commonly defined in most of the world's religions, Jung does point out that there is still a mysterious quality about thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. separate and apart from "reason". Maybe that "spot" is where the "soul" or "spirit" truly resides.

If there were a way for people to find this within themselves, they might just find "God" at last. And if this type of personal, inward looking belief system could be more widely developed, we, as humans, might find better ways to get along.

Not to rain on anyone's religious parade, but the religions "du jour" (or of the current times), will be no more relevant millenia from now (or sooner?) than the religions espoused by the Greeks, the Romans, the Zoroastrians, Druids, or the Pagans before us.

Having said that, we're damned if we have religion and damned if we don't (no pun intended), because one argument that Jung makes for religion being beneficial for society is that if we didn't have religion, God only knows whether we'd all kill each other or not (once again, no pun intended).

Jung's bottom line argument is that you're not going to find God in your local synagogue, church, temple, or mosque, in spite of our collective conscious efforts being channeled toward those places.

Carl G. Jung is perhaps psychology's most free and original thinker. Perhaps not...However, it is books like this that demonstrate Jung's ability to think outside of the box and examine critically those things that his contemporaries failed to critically examine. I truly believe that Jung has not gained the acceptance he deserves in psychology as a result of his telic thinking/conceptualizing, which appears to many psychologists, who rely on a Newtonian scientific framework (failing to realize that advances have been made in scientific perspectives), as unscientific. In this book, Jung takes aim at and provides justification for seeing difficulties in many of the more cherished "scientific" perspectives and providers counterarguments to forward a more positive direction. Unfortunately, enough people have not read this gem. I highly recommend it.

I have always been deeply suspicious of the field of psychology. While I may not go so far as Richard Feynman did when he referred to them as the "modern day counterparts to witchdoctors," the discipline does make me rather nervous (if pushed to extremes).
That said, I have always respected Jung as an intellectually honest scientist. I may not agree with all his views, but I appreciate that fact that he is not the usual run-of-the-mill sterotyping pigeon-holer (as most psychologists are). His concept of the collective unconscious (whether it is correct or not) is rather fascinating. I do believe there is something to it, as these common archetypal images incessantly end up in our dreams and mythologies. It is not by chance that Joseph Campbell was so influenced by Jung's ideas as to incorporate many of them into his exegesis of mythology.
The present book is my all-time favorite book that is written in the psychology field. The book covers a diverse set of topics which Jung engages with his remarkable acumen. Some of the issues raised are the problems with psychotherapy, the contrasts between his views and those of Freud's (which led to their falling out), psychology and literature, and the spiritual problems of modern man.
One of the most interesting chapters of the book is entitled "Archaic Man." Jung details the psyche of tribes in such places as sub-Saharan Africa and New Guinea. Many of these cultures live the same way today that their ancestors lived thousands of years ago. Their psychological state, like their way of life, has been frozen in time. In essence, they are much the same as primitive man; the same as our own forefathers. Jung dicusses how they tend to explain everything via supernatural happenings. Much of the "reasoning" is anti-logic and extremely ad-hoc. However, Jung points out how such a dangerous and volatile envioronment as the jungle may coerce most anyone into thinking in ways which we "civilized" people would interpret as superstitous.
One of the underlying themes of the book is how we as a human race have become overly-logical today. It may be that primitive tribes may have something to teach us, after all. Somehow, we have descended into apathy after existing for thousands of years as a race that explained everything via the supernatural. This book is a wonderful dissection of the post-modern current state. It is highly recommend for any modern man in search of a soul.

A marvelous write although dense. Which should be evident from the time it took me to finish it which was just over two years. It's something I had on the side to read in between books, or at least that was the intention. The thing is that sometimes I'd pick it up and read like a page, and other times I'd pick it up and read 50 pages. In that sense it was a curious reading experience for me.

Now enough waffling about that, what about the content? Well that above digression to the side, I see why I prefer Jung's views to Freud's and it might even have to do with writing style and attitude in addition to what they have to say. While Freud is very biting and insists that things are this way because that is how things are, Jung is more of the line of thinking to say, this is what I think it is but there's no certainty or guarantee of what I'm thinking.

Comparisons between primitive man and modern man yield quite a few points that still ring true to this day. Take into account that this book was published in the 30's and it's even more amazing. The book delves into thoughts and opinions of theosophy, gnosticism and how modern (practical) man is often having a harder time at living than more primitive humans.

That you agree or not is entirely up to you, but that it brings food for thought is VERY probable. Topics covered include psychotherapeutic approaches, mentions of the collective unconscious and archetypes, but more so, it's an in depth conversation exploring why we are the way we are.

Another really interesting aspect with having read and finished this book in 2016 is that we live in a world where modern and primitive thought patterns are existing at the same time. I don't say they are coexisting because suffice to turn on the news to see how little we get along and how common illogical strife is coming about.

Mentions of Eastern philosophy also definitely invite to further broaden horizons in search of ancient knowledge and common ground. And that's something that could definitely serve most of us in these times.

a collection of Jung's essays, first translated into english in 1933. interesting from a historical "point of view". some of the essays had great insights for me and my current situation. other were interesting, but didn't "speak to me", per se. and some were just boring.

This is an excellent introduction to Jungian psychology - it's well presented, clear, concise, and full of information. It proved in my case to be very stimulating, and I found myself pondering the ideas presented for some time.
Why then, do I award only four stars? Because the title is no longer appropriate. It is not a book exclusively about modern man, but rather, about man as he was seventy years ago. Some of the concepts seem to describe very accurately the state of mind that mankind was experiencing in Jung's time, but today they won't be observed with any great consistency - they are no longer appropriate. That being said, the book outlines the general principles in such a logical way that one may apply them to the world around them, seeing the similarities and differences between Jung's world and their own for themselves.
Worthwhile reading for anyone interested in psychology, or simply expanding their view of life - puts a wide range of life's issues in perspective.

This book took me more than 16 straight hours to read...It's not a skim-through book. It covers various aspects of physchoanalysis, etc. Everything from dream interpretation to the differences in his and Freud's views. It was worth every minute of my time, and I look at the world completely differently after reading it.