Jung’s Philosophy: Controversies, Quantum Mechanics, and the Self

‘Jung’s Philosophy’ explores some of the controversial philosophical ideas that are both explicit and implicit within Jung’s psychology, comparing the philosophical assumptions between this and other psychotherapeutic traditions.

Within this book, Corbett provides a useful introduction to the philosophical issues relevant to the practice of analytical psychology, and how these are viewed by different psychotherapeutic traditions. Most of the disagreement between schools of psychotherapy, and much of the comparative literature, centres around differences in theory and technique. This book takes a different, more fundamental approach by comparing schools of thought based on their underlying philosophical commitments. The author discusses the philosophical basis of various worldviews such as idealism and realism, beliefs about the nature of the psyche and the unconscious, and the mind-brain relationship, and focuses on the way in which Jung’s psychology addresses these and related issues, including the possible relevance of quantum mechanics to depth psychology.

This text will be of value to practising psychotherapists and Jungian analysts, individuals undertaking the relevant training, and students in depth psychology.