The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.9 Part 1) (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung) Paperback – August 1, 1981

This work, along with _Modern Man in Search of a Soul_, is one of the best places to start if you are new to reading Jung. It is also the companion piece and predecessor to _Aion_, which is another spectacular and groundbreaking work. If you want to read _Aion_, it would make sense for you to read this one first, since it is part 1 of volume nine, while _Aion_ is part two. Overall, I would say that both parts 1 and 2 of volume nine are absolutely essential reading for any Jungian, and if you're going to buy one, go ahead and buy both.As for the actual content of _The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious_, I would describe it as an overview and recapitulation of many of Jung's key concepts. As the title implies, the main concepts are archetypal images (as revealed in to people in dreams) and the collective unconscious. These are trademark Jungian concepts, and Jung devoted a large portion of his writings to explaining what he meant by Archetypes and the collective unconscious. If I could explain it to you right here I would, but Jung spends a the first two hundred pages of this book simply explaining and defining "archetype" and "collective unconscious". These are key concepts in understanding the human mind, and may help unlock the mysteries of conscious existence; it is by no means superfluous to devote such rigorous study to these ideas. _The Archetypes and the Collcetive Unconscious_ is NOT a narrowly focused, specialized, or jargonistic work. It deals with ideas that are central to understanding the human psyche or soul, and applies universally to all of mankind.There is also a pictorial section of the book in which Jung actually shows examples, in the form of paintings, of archetypal images that were seen by his patients in their dreams and subsequently drawn by the patients themselves. Some of these paintings are very artistic, and there are uncanny similarities among many of them. This pictorial section occurs about 200 pages in. After the pictures, Jung goes into a detailed explanation of each one, which I found to be somewhat tiresome, especially considering many of the paintings were extremely similar. Overall, the final, brief, section of the book in which the paintings are described is quite boring, and I would recommend that the reader simply look at the paintings and forego the final explanations, which are extremely redundant. In other words, read the first two hundred pages, look at the pictures, stop, and then move on to _Aion_. The weakness of this final section is not enough to justify removing a star from my ratings, however, simply because of the utter profundity and potency of the first 200 pages, which represents the majority of the book anyway. Keep in mind that the vast majority of Jung's writings consist of essays not more that 100 pages long each. You will find that most of his complete works contain numerous profound and insightful essays, occasionally laced with the odd, specialized, highly esoteric essays. When you come across one of these rare but unreadable essays the best idea is to just skip it rather than get bogged down. This is not to take anything away from Jung and his great, prophetic works; I am just trying to give you the heads up on how to avoid some of the rough patches.

After reading Keirsey, Meyers, Jacobi, van der Hoop, Eve Delunas, and others, i finally decided to bite the bullet and get Jung himself. I was afraid of Book Six, but got it anyway and gave it the coveted place in the washroom.Psychological Types is a misnomer. This book focuses not on types, but is mostly Jung rambling on the attitude type and it's compensatory nature in the unconscious. Only the final chapter focuses on the psychological functions themselves, and is more of a treat to anyone who made it through the book.After reading the authors mentioned above, i believe that each author has a different approach and application:Keirsey - He has prominence because he talks about temperament theory (how we act in the outside world) and ingeniously correlates it to the MBTI. The correlation is first mentioned by van der Hoop, who leaves it up to someone else to do the actual correlation.Keirsey's book has nothing to do with Jung or the MBTI. It just happens to correlate with it. Indeed, he *completely* misunderstands what the actual functions are, and dethrones I/E from any importance. He also mentions that Is becomes Es, and vice versa. He explains I/E and being shy or not. S/N as what I/E mostly is. T/F based on emotions, and J/P as order. His mistakes are laughable but understood once realized that Keirsey is a shy extrovert. After that, the rest makes sense.His book is good because it is based on a history of over two thousand years, correlates many theories together, and shows how the types interrelate and act in the outside world.Meyers - She worked with and continued the work of her mother (Briggs). Briggs brought practical application to Jung's original theory, and worked with Jung via post to devise it. While Jung wants to know what make people tick, Briggs wanted to know how it was useful is getting women into the workforce. In essence, she is practical Jung, and is really what made the typology available to others.She also added the J/P to the inventory to note with function was dominant and which was auxiliary, though, it was done by showing the extroverted function (so it is the main function for extroverts, and auxiliary by introverts). It is more useful this way when dealing with outside-world application.Jacobi - Without her, Jung would be a closed book. She risked her life (the Nazis were after her because she was head of the culture committee and Jewish) to finish her degree (which Jung demanded). She explains the life-cycle and symbols and archetypes (goes to more length than Jung), amongst others. It's almost as if she gives the big picture, and Jung fills in the details.van der Hoop - He wrote two books, the first of which deals with early Freud, and the last chapter deals with where Jung argued with Freud in approach. His second book is exclusively Jung, and broken into three parts. The first part explains how each of the four function works. Not how they apply, but what they do. This is something Jung does not do, as he just defines functions as a set way of psychic processing.He also argues with Jung, calling Sensing a non-function, and instead substitutes instinct, but explains both in great detail. Whereas Jung explains intuition as a mostly unconscious function (leading to Keirsey's black-box explanation), van der Hoop explains how it is a pattern matching function without deciding that actual pattern (T or F do that). It is an image that can only be understand when it is totally there (hence the "Aha!") and is subjective as it is tied to the ego. Thinking is judging whether something exists or not (done by breaking things down to their smallest parts), Feeling (as opposed to emotion, a difference he explains in detail) is judging the comparison in between objects by giving each a value and deciding greater-than, less-than, or equal to.Without van der Hoop, the functions are seen only on the outside. But it is important to note that he disagrees with Jung in a couple places.Eva Delunas - A student of Keirsey, she actually read Jung and applies both theories. (She also notes Keirsey's bias to make everything fit nicely.) Not essential, but worth noting.Jung is just theory, and mostly I/E. If the entire MBTI theory is what your looking for, this should be one of the books read. Otherwise, it isn't necessarily practical. Overall though, i was so happy after reading it that i got Book 9a and started that one right away.