Jungian analysts step into critical minefield

THE CONCEPT of collective unconscious that Richard Noll excoriates may not be quite what he supposes. No one doubts that our instincts are shared with the animals. There is a band at the top of specifically human consciousness, and below is our ancestry back to the great reptiles and beyond. The hypothesis is that the unconscious is not only repressed material but also all of that. It is not surprising, except to flat-earth fundamentalists, but much misunderstood.

As for the Aryan Christ, it is extremely common to think one is Christ if one happens to be mad. Anyone making a descent into the unconscious, as opposed to defending against it, must learn its geography. For Jung, to identify with such voices was to be mad, as opposed to experiencing madness, which he considered necessary. It is impossible to understand Jungian psychology without some experience. With that, much of it is obvious.

JULIAN DAVID Jungian analyst, Diploma Jung Institute Zurich, Buckfastleigh, Devon.