From Biology to Psychology in Jungian and Evolutionary Theory

This ground-breaking book re-positions C.G. Jung's legacy, and the field of analytical psychology, within the panorama of contemporary knowledge in biology, psychology and anthropology, on the grounds of the role of affects and emotion as the foundation of all psychic activity.

This groundbreaking book repositions C.G. Jung's legacy, and the field of analytical psychology, within the panorama of contemporary knowledge in biology, psychology and anthropology, on the grounds of the role of affects and emotion as the foundation of all psychic activity.Within this new volume, Stefano Carta aims to provide a new, up-to-date way of understanding Jung's work, and to show the effect to which his central positions can be better understood in relation to topics such as the nature of the psyche, of the Self, of the collective unconscious and of archetypal theory. From an evolutionary and biological perspective, this book describes, with extensive substantiations and an original discussion, the transformation of the biological processes into psychological ones. Additionally, the book aims to identify current tendencies which view analytical psychology in increasingly reductionistic ways and reaffirm the dynamism of Jung's paradigm.Spanning two volumes, which are also accessible as standalone books, and with international appeal and original and interdisciplinary in scope, they will be of great interest to Jungian scholars and analysts, as well as students and those on Jungian-oriented training courses.

Autorentext

Stefano Carta is a psychologist and a Jungian analyst graduate at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. He is Professor of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Ethnopsychology at the University of Cagliari, Italy, and has been Honorary Professor at the Department of Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, UK. He is a member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology and former President of the Associazione Italiana di Psicologia Analitica (AIPA). Among his many publications, he has edited the three volume entry on "Psychology" for the Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems by UNESCO.

Klappentext

This ground-breaking book re-positions C.G. Jung's legacy, and the field of analytical psychology, within the panorama of contemporary knowledge in biology, psychology and anthropology, on the grounds of the role of affects and emotion as the foundation of all psychic activity.

Inhalt

1. Introductory Remarks 2. Explanations and Experience 3. Jung's Motivational Theory: Affects, Emotions and Feelings 4. Jung and Affects 5. Affects and Neurobiology 6. The Problem of the So-called Instinct 7. Affects, Feelings and Co-evolution 8. The Psychosomatic Complex 9. Cognitive Development 10. Dispositionality, Teleology, Complexity and Object Presenting 11. Numinosum and Individuation