The 21 best books by Carl Gustav Jung

April 21, 2024

Throughout the history of psychology numerous authors have elaborated a great amount of explanatory theories of the human mind and the disorders and problems that afflict it.

From different schools and currents of thought the different students of the psyche have fixed their attention on specific aspects of the mind, creating a large number of concepts and ways of understanding our being.

The postulates of psychoanalysis

One of the best known at the popular level is psychoanalysis , which focuses on the drives and unconscious forces to explain the ways of facing the reality of each one including those of people with mental disorders.

Although the most popular author and one of the most prolific of the psychoanalytic current is its founder, Sigmund Freud, it is not the only author with great importance in the history of psychodynamic psychology. In fact, from it have emerged other conceptualizations of the psyche that question some aspects of the original theory, configuring other schools.

One of them, which is separated from the more orthodox psychoanalytic tradition, is that of Carl Gustav Jung, from whose work we are going, next, to make a selection of his twenty best books.

Jung and analytical psychology

Considered one of the neo-Freudians, a group whose thinking diverged partially from the Freudian conception of the psyche, Carl Gustav Jung is the founder of analytical psychology . In this way of understanding the human mind it was the psychic energy and not only the libidinal drive that moved the behavior, leaving the sexual in a relatively secondary role.

It also differs from Freudian theory in considering that there is not only an individual unconscious, but that it proposes the existence of a partially inherited collective one. In other words, it focuses not only on a psychology of the individual but also on that of the community. The analysis of both types of unconscious and the structure of personality from basic processes are a fundamental part of analytical psychology.

Also known as a more spiritual conception of the human being, Jung studied profusely the symbolism of the acts and feelings both expressed and inhibited . Jung is due to concepts such as complexes and archetypes, elements that contribute to the creation of one's identity and individuation and make us who we are.

It is also of great interest the analysis of dreams and spontaneous creations, which for this author arise as a method of compensation and clarification of consciousness.

Twenty books by Carl Gustav Jung

While not as prolific as other authors, Jung's work is extensive and one of the most influential within the psychodynamic current throughout the 20th century .

Let's see some of the main works of this author below.

1. The red book

Originally called Liber Novus, this book is a work that Jung took around 15 years to complete . In her the bases of the greater part of their work can be observed, being considered by the own author like the vertex of his later elaborations.

Some of the themes that can begin to be observed is the existence of the most relevant archetypes or the connection between the structure of the mind and culture. Jung elaborated the Red Book through self-exploration and confrontation with his own unconscious, using the technique of active imagination. As a curiosity, it should be noted that despite being a work of great importance would not be known until many years after his death, entered the year 2009, due to the initial opposition of his heirs to be published.

You can buy it here.

2. Archetypes and collective unconscious

This book deals with one of the most relevant themes of Jung's work: the idea of a collective unconscious . In it we also observe one of the main concepts created by Jung, the archetype as a psychic expression of the structures inherited from our peers, this being the basis on which this important work is based.

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3. Psychological types

In this work Jung explores the different types of personality in terms of three basic processes: the libidinal (which marks whether we are introverted or extroverted), the rational (which tells us if we are reflective or sensitive) and the irrational (which lets us see that we are intuitive perceptual). These processes mark both conscious and unconscious attitudes, provoking a certain way of being.

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4. Man and his symbols

Dreams and symbolic elements such as culture and art they are elements of great importance to the creator of analytical psychology.Inside this volume we can see how the author, based on the analysis of dreams, proposes an explanation of the profound meaning of our dream projections, art, myths and even our actions in everyday life.

This is the last work the author wrote before his death, and it was intended to be a way to bring Jung's theoretical conceptions of symbolism closer to the general public.

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5. The complexes and the unconscious

Another of the great concepts introduced by Jung was the complex trapped emotional experiences that do not manage to be consciously recognized and are trapped in the personal unconscious, generally coming from repressed experiences that suppose emotional shocks.

This work explores the unconscious or shadow of the person, and its representation in different facets such as dreams.

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6. Aion, contributions to the symbolisms of the self

A work centered on the conception of the self or selbst, the psychic totality whose obtaining is the objective of the individuation process. This book uses the symbols of the Christian religion , making Christ an equivalent of selfhood, and of alchemy to explain what it is and how we structure our sameness, integrating the various concepts and archetypes that lead us to the attainment of individuality.

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7. Conflicts of the child's soul

Childhood and youth are periods of fundamental development in the configuration of the human being . The existence of serious conflicts and damages in these stages can cause serious damages that can affect the individual throughout the rest of his life.

Throughout this volume Jung makes reference to this fact, expressing still some Freudian influence and analyzing the effects of the infantile psychosexual development and the importance of the parents and the environment.

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8. Psychology and education

Linked thematically to the previous work, in this volume Jung continues to worry about childhood and human development . In this case, the author links culture and symbolism to the construction of the psyche, dealing with issues of pedagogy and the psychology of education.

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9. The psychology of transfer

The concept of transference is a constant in the psychoanalytic or psychodynamic current . Understood as the process by which the patient projects his feelings, emotions and lived experiences into the therapist, the transference relationship is a complicated and essential part of the therapeutic relationship between patient and professional (although the therapy for this author must be based on the collaboration between patient and therapist and not in transferential processes).

In this book, Jung reflects the complexity of the transference processes and his observations on the matter, making an obvious parallel with the practice of alchemy.

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10. Psychogenesis of mental illness

Much of Carl Gustav Jung's early works deal with mental disorders . In this case, throughout the book in question we will observe the conclusions of the author and the therapeutic practices used during the treatment of subjects with mental disorders.

Topics such as the curability of the disorders, the way of understanding the processes that produce the pathology or the effect of the unconscious in these cases are some of the topics that are reflected throughout the essays present in this compilation.

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11. Psychic energy and essence of sleep

Analytical or profound psychology relies heavily on the idea of psychic energy as the basis of the psyche and human performance. Understanding this energy as the emotional and emotional force that governs us, in this book we proceed to visualize in a theoretical way the bases of behavior and the transformations that take place of this drive energy (such as dreams or complexes). ). Also in this work he relates the unconscious with the instinctive and spirituality.

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12. Formations of the unconscious

In this work Jung delves into those formations through which the unconscious is expressed and channeled , such as literature, poetry or artistic representation. The symbolic elements of each element are treated, such as the identification and transformation itself and of the work itself.

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13. Two writings on analytical psychology

This volume brings together two of the first essays by the creator of analytical psychology , in which reference is made to the relationship maintained between the two types of unconscious, individual and collective, as well as between these and the structured set of the self.

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14. Writings on spirituality and transcendence

A strongly spiritual man, religion is an important element for Jung and relatively frequent throughout his work.Regardless of the specific religious confession in question, religious belief and spirituality is part of the culture and way of seeing the world and acting on it. In this book the author makes a dissertation on spirituality and transcendence trying to understand how the mind is in search of a meaning for reality and being.

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15. The practice of psychotherapy

For Jung the individual suffering from a disorder suffers from it because of the inhibition of his unconscious . The main objective of psychotherapy, then, is to facilitate the reconduction of the individuation process from the dialogue between conscious and unconscious. In this compilation the writings included focus especially on the conception of psychotherapy for Jung, its context, the collaboration with the patient (which must collaborate actively in therapy) and the way to carry it out.

Acquired here.

16. Synchronicity as a principle of acausal relationships

It is called synchronicity to the coincidence of two phenomena linked together in a way that, although its connection makes sense, it can not be causal. In other words, one situation is not a consequence of the other, but its relationship is not limited to coinciding in time. This fact, which the author relates to intuition, is explored in the work that concerns us.

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17. Answer to Job

Using the biblical account of the Book of Job, Jung establishes an interesting controversy between the emotional and the rational , the person and the shadow. In this work we can observe the suffering caused by the passions and emotions, which are unbridled before the attempt to make them rational. It is an interesting reflection of the psychology of the unconscious.

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18. Civilization in transition

This work collects several texts of the author , in which we can contemplate the process of social transformation of the time, with varied sociological themes such as the role of psychology at the time, the role of women, love and catastrophe, the conceptions of different peoples or concepts of good and bad according to analytical psychology.

It is worth taking into account the historical context in which the work was published, from the end of the First World War until shortly before the construction of the Berlin Wall (through the happy twenties, the Great Depression and the Second World War, among others). ).

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19. Memories, dreams, thoughts

A work done in collaboration with Aniela Jaffé , in this volume Jung lets see part of his autobiography, exploring the author's childhood and personal life. He does not limit himself to making a biography of these aspects, but also collects his work as a researcher of the human mind, his theories and hypotheses about the unconscious, the role of symbolism and phylogenetic history, the therapeutic relationship and psychotherapy.

It is therefore a book that helps to understand the figure of the author, his story and his deepest thoughts about the human psyche and the role of the psychologist.

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20. Metamorphoses and symbols of libido

Although other volumes reflect better the ideas and theories of Jung, this work has been considered within the present list because we are dealing with the work that initiated the first divergences that culminated in the separation of Jung from Freud, due to the secondary conception of the sexual aspects and the rejection of the Oedipus complex (in the second part) for the creator of deep psychology.

21. Freud and psychoanalysis

This set of writings by Carl Jung contains texts that belong to the era in which psychoanalysis ends up consolidating in Europe, especially during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Here the principles of the Freudian theory are exposed , concrete aspects about how it was applied, and the criticisms that Jung addressed to what he understood to be a suffocating discipline that considered the religious and spiritual dimension of the human being too rigidly.