~Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology Its Theory and Practice; E.A. Bennet Foreword
In 1935 the late Professor C. G. Jung, then in his sixtieth year, gave a course of five lectures in London to about two hundred doctors, at the Tavistock Clinic.
A report of the lectures and the succeeding discussions was recorded in a typescript volume edited by Mary Barker and Margaret Game, and this is now published in book form.
Jung’s work was well known to his audience but few had heard him speak.
His lectures attracted a representative group ofpsychiatrists and psychotherapists of every ‘school’ as well as many from the mental hospitals and a sprinkling of general practitioners.
His custom was to lecture for an hour and follow on with a discussion for a second hour.
Right from the start his unusual material, his informal manner, and a surprising fluency in colloquial English, established an easy and stimulating atmosphere, and the discussions ran far beyond the appointed time.
In addition to his fascination as a speaker Jung selected his words with care and he had the knack of saying precisely what he meant in comprehensible form, free from doctrinaire jargon.
Jung confined himself to the principles upon which his own contributions rested, presenting them under two main headings: the structure and content of the mind, and the methods used in its investigation.
He defined consciousness as the relation of psychical facts to *a fact called the ego’, its character being dependent on the general attitude type of the individual, whether extrovert or introvert. Its relation to the outer world was through the four functions of thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition.
As the ego, the focal point in consciousness, is derived from the unconscious, consciousness and its functions could only be understood
in conjunction with the hypothesis of the personal and collective unconscious.
This and the meaning of the functions raised numerous questions, and Jung gave a clear explanation of the sense in which he used these terms, many of which he himselfhad introduced to Analytical Psychology.
In explaining the methods he used in the investigation of unconscious mental activity Jung gave an account of the word association test, dream-analysis, and active imagination.
Some were surprised by his emphasis on the word-association test, as it had long since ceased to be used. He referred to it because this test held a key place in his early research.
There was no established body of psychological knowledge when Jung, then a young assistant at the Burgholzli Hospital in Zurich, set out to investigate the mystery of mental illness.
His experiments in word-association produced unexpected and highly significant results. Amongst the most valuable was the discovery of the
autonomous nature of the unconscious.
Mental activity outside consciousness had been assumed for decades before Freud or Jung saw its clinical applications.
In his refinements ofthe wordassociation test Jung confirmed the validity of the hypothesis, and by demonstrating the existence of the feeling-toned
complex provided proof of Freud’s theory of repression.
Originally, the stimulus word in the test was followed by a response confined to a single word; Jung thought this limited its value, and he introduced some changes in technique.
While the test was proceeding in its old form ofreaction-time measurement, a simultaneous and separate mechanical record was made
showing graphically the effect of emotion on the pulse rate, the breathing, and the quantitative variations in the electrical conductivity ofthe skin.
Noting that the body and mind functioned as a unit, Jung was the first clinician to recognize the significance of the physiological accompaniments of emotion, familiar nowadays under the name ofpsychosomatic phenomena.
Stepping over the border into dreams, as he put it, Jung spoke of the personal and collective elements in dreams, and in particular of dream-analysis, the principal therapeutic instrument in his work – *the dreams bring out everything that is necessary’.
At one point Jung, answering a rather involved question, replied in German – to the consternation of his questioner!
When pulled up by the Chairman he remarked with a smile, ‘You see, the unconscious really works autonomously.
I recall the remark well, diough it was not taken down in the
transcript.
An interpretation of a dream containing archetypal imagery, using the method of dream-interpretation by amplification, was given in the fourth lecture. Jung showed that amplification through parallel instances in dreams was comparable to the method of collation in philology.
The mind was described as a self-regulating system in consequence of the compensatory bond between the conscious and the unconscious, similar in fact to the homeostatic mechanisms ofthe body.
Unfortunately there was not time to finish the analysis of this unusually interesting dream, and Jung said he would complete the study in his concluding lecture.
Dr Hugh Crichton-Miller, however, proposed as an alternative that Jung might speak on the difficult problem of transference, and this was accepted.
He explained transference as an example ofthe more general process
ofprojection, and pointed out that often it may prove to be the main problem in analysis.
Ofspecial importance was the experience
and skill of the analyst when confronted with the phenomena
of counter-transference.
The aetiology of transference and
its entirely spontaneous and unprovoked nature led on to what
Jung described as the difficult and complicated therapy of
transference.
Short though it is, Jung’s survey of transference provides an
admirable prelude to his later and more detailed work on the
subject.
In his writings at the time there was relatively little
on the transference; he had dealt with it in an essay written in
1916,
The Transcendent Function’, published for the first time
in 1957 (see vol. 8 in the Collected Works).
In 1946 The
Psychology of the Transference appeared in German. Jung did not change his concept of transference, but his understanding of it deepened.
He was to return to it again in his last major book, Mysterium Coniuncdonis.
In the present discussion Jung was asked to explain his use of the term active imagination^ and he gave a comprehensive answer.
He described the purposeful and creative character of active imagination in analysis and showed how this might be used therapeutically in combination with spontaneous painting and drawing.
Some were surprised to hear that he frequently advised his patients to express themselves by pencil and brush.
This had proved to be of the greatest value, particularly with those who
were unable to put their fantasies into words; and, in addition, it enabled patients to participate actively in the treatment in their own time.
Jung died in 196 1 at the age of eighty-six, that is, twenty-six years after giving these lectures.
His publications over this period were numerous and showed development and growth, especially in his study of the unconscious mind and its relevance in our understanding of the health and the sickness of the mind.
As an introduction to the principles upon which Jung’s work rested these lectures are excellent.
They are systematic, yet presented informally ; and the record ofhis spoken word conveys a lasting impression ofhis personality. ~E.A. Bennet, Analytical Psychology Its Theory and Practice, Page xiii-xvi
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