Hi all. We had a great Alliance board council meeting this morning and agreed that it would be great to put together a list of books that people recommend as a good introduction to various aspects of depth psychology. As you know, we consider depth psychology very inclusive, so there are probably thousands of books that might be appropriate.
Please reply below and share any books you feel have served you well that you would recommend, and if they are specific to a depth topic (i.e., dreams), please stipulate. Any comments you have on the books as they are posted are greatly welcomed!
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Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts. There are so many portals to Depth Psychology.
I just added to our video collection a video interview with Jungian Andrew Samuels, "Jung and the Post-Jun... which discusses, among other things, some controversy around Jung as food for thought.
I also highly recommend "Toward Psychologies of Liberation" by Mary Watkins and Helene Shulman. I believe this is a fundamental and developing aspect of depth psychology.
Jung:
Man and His Symbols for those who prefer a nice introduction
In my case the introduction was Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche (for those who prefer "I agree (disagree) with this man approach", especially if you still don't know that he was interested in alchemy and spirituality)
Other authors:
Hesse, Coelho, some weirdo interested in mysticism...
This is really interesting, as it is making me remember how I got into this subject.
Basically, I came from a dreamwork attitude, not knowing that it was a component of depth psychology at all. I just wanted to understand this phenomena, because it affected my reality so much. Before that, I had gone thoroughly through some of the comparative mythology with a heavy emphasis on Joseph Campbell, then some of the German philosophers like Kant, Nietzsche, then started to get fascinated more as I read Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein. Actually, I became sort of manic after reading the last two.
That might be considered the real beginning for me. I started to realize that most of the knowledge I was looking for was probably all printed a hundred years ago and that I was reading (mostly) books from that era anyway, even non-scientific books like Sylvan Muldoon’s Projection of the Astral Body, from 1929. That was incredibly helpful for my dreamwork but I was lucky not to be too taken in by the metaphysical slant. I would say the same about the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The first eighty pages of that did more for my dream studies than almost anything else, up to that time.
When I had picked up Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, I had also got Memories, Dreams, Reflections and Symbols of Man. My life changed then and there. I don’t know if I would recommend the order of books I read after that. As Bonnie said, the subject is so inclusive, it would depend on what mosts interests the reader.
Fascinated by the medieval search for reality, I read Mysterium Coniunctionis, Symbols of Transformation and Psychology and Alchemy. This was my path into the subject.
Looking back, after the first two books by Jung, I would probably have read Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. This incredible book was only available in hardcover, was more expensive as a result and worth every penny. I can talk about all my favorites, yet the subject itself is the topic at hand.
Somewhere in the beginning, I read Psyche and Matter by Marie-Louise Von Franz, which paired well with my study load at the time. I also cannot say enough about her Fairy Tale series, for those interested.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections - C.G. Jung (Jung's Biography)
The Essential Jung - Anthony Storr (An Anthology of the basics including Freud and Jung's relationship)
Jung's Map of the Soul - Murray Stein (A wonderful overview of Jungian Psychology: I used this as my text for teaching Jungian theory at JFK)
Ego and Archetype - Edward Edinger (Classic text on Jungian Psychology)
Revisioning Psychology - James Hillman (Intro to Archetypal Psychology)
more to come...
For some history, The Discovery of the Unconscious by Ellenberger.
Freud's Outline of Psychoanalysis.
Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology by Shamdasani.
The Religious Function of the Psyche by Corbett.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Jung/Jaffe.
The film A Matter of Heart.
Suggested intro books:
Freud:A Very Short Introduction - by Anthony Storr
Jung: A Very Short Introduction - by Anthony Stevens
Inner Work - by Robert Johnson
The Symbolic Quest - Edward Whitmont
Man and His Symbols - by Carl G. Jung, M.-L. von Franz, et al.