Soren Kierkegaard is widely acknowledged today as one of the most insightful philosophical and religious thinkers of western historY. Until very recently Psychologists have been more interested in him as a subject of analysis, rather than as a psychologist in his own right. Fortunately, the tide has now turned and Kierkegaard's particular brand of Christian Psychology has been well documented. It is notable, however, that whilst Kierkegaard has been exhaustingly investigated from a Freudian perspective, with the exception of a few very brief comparisons by Jungian Scholars, it remains that an extensive Jungian orientated study has yet to be completed. Carl Jung is a complex and controversial figure in the world of psychology and yet so significant are his psychological insights that he is a difficult figure to ignore. This inquiry will seek to look at in detail the relationship between lung and Kierkegaard, both in ยท terms of their work and their personalities. I argue that the affinity in the thought of Kierkegaard and lung is much greater than Jung himself, at least consciously, realised. There are aspects of these thinkers' insights that converge with one another and this points towards a significant conceptual parity and complementarity in their thought. We might summarize the most important of these points of commonalities as: the creation of meaningful existence through inward deepening; the overcoming of self deception through self creationlrecovelY; and self determination through the creative exercise of freedom in conjunction with a reference (guiding) point outside of ones own. It will be the most thorough work to date both in terms of looking at the affinity between their models of psychological development and illness but also in its primary concern of addressing lung's outright and venomous rejection of ierkegaard. I will identify the extensive overlap in their thought in order to reveal both an intellectual and spiritual cOlTespondence that serves to illuminate just how surprising and odd it is that lung was not able to find in Kierkegaard a kindred 4 spirit. In lung's psychology we see the continuation of Kierkegaard's project of I selfhood as a divine call to become a self before God. Such complementarity between these two significant figures illustrate the possibility for philosophy and psychology to complement each other in theIr respective visions of authentic selfhood.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:613440 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Cook, Amy |
| Publisher | Bangor University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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