Analytical Psychology and the English Mind
- Author:
hi. U. Haynes. Foreword by C. G. Jung.
Methuen. 18s.
Baynes is an exponent of Jung. Jung expounds wholeness. This wholeness can be attained by finding the Self. This is the central theme of the papers in this book, and will command general agreement amongst thinking people, especially in the present world confusion and disharmony, where the need for a synthetic principle by which unity can be restored is urgent. That such a synthetic principle exists is obvious, for without it there would never be anything but chaos. The question is, have Jung and Baynes found it ?
Baynes’s writing is lucid, his knowledge wide, his sincerity unquestionable. There is a spiritual fervour in his work as in that of all the Jungians which is lacking in the more limited disciplines of Freud and Adler. It is in fact this very fervour which made Freud refer contemptuously to Jung as a prophet, and which is responsible by reason of its antithesis to the modern scientific method and outlook (analytic and objective) for so much misunderstanding of Jung’s teachings. However, Baynes is quite explicit in this. Wholeness can only be attained by turning inwards. The introvertive experience synthesizes, the extravertive dissipates.
There is so much that is illuminating in these essays that it appears ungenerous to criticize. But the very importance of the issues raised makes it imperative to seek single-mindedly for the truth. u?es the fundamental and primary problem of ^nkind, the attainment of wholeness, come within Jfje Province of psychology ? Is not psychology, |Jke all the sciences, confined to a limited field, ^Pendent, it is true, on superior principles, but ^bservient to them ? To put the matter plainly, Is not psychology inferior to religion and metaphysics, and does it not therefore fail when it attempts to annex what is superior, instead of recognizing it ?
The Jungian unconscious is conceived as the ev?lutionary precipitate of primal consciousness, n?w topped by the latest acquisition?rational Consciousness. The primordial wisdom is hidden I11 the depths of the unconscious, somewhat like the ossils in the deeper layers of the earth’s crust. Union with this centre of wisdom is individuation, ^ding the Self.
Well, that is what happens when psychology flnexes religion, and becomes psychotheology. he jumble can only be resolved by restoring the ^dividual, however individuated, to his inferior Place in relation to Universal Being.
It is true that the ego?the individual I-consciousness?is related to two worlds, the inner and the uter, and that integration is attained by the ego Wording a proper balance between them, giving ? each its rightful place and quality. To do this it jjjst not identify itself with either, for, as we see, hen it does, the individual becomes psychotic in a Pacific way. Now according to all traditional i^?hing?that is, to metaphysic?the Self is not ^dividual. I*1 other words, it is not limited in altk Way” ^’s forrnless and supra-individual. And though it is the task of the individual to attain at state, having attained it he is no longer properly 11 individual. ” He that loses his (individual or g?ic) iife flnd it (eternal life).” The use, 0 ?refore, of the words Self and Individuation can niv give rise to serious misunderstanding and error; fy m.Ust inevitably be the case when an inferior nction sets itself up in a superior role. M.R.
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