Someone recently made a connection between Jung and Plato. I just read in
Jung's "On the Concept of the Archetype" the following:
"In former times, despite some dissenting opinion and the influence of
Aristotle, it was not too difficult to understand Plato's conception of the
Idea as supraordinate and pre-existent to all phenomena. 'Archetype,' far from
being a modern term, was already in use before the time of St. Augustine, and
was synonymous with 'Idea'in the Platonic usage....I cannot let myself
presuppose that my peculiar temperament, my own attitude to intellectual
problems, is universally valid. Apparently this is an assumptionin which only
the philosopher may indulge, who always takes it for granted that his own
disposition and attitude are universal, and will not recognize the fact,if he
can avoid it, that his 'personal equation'conditions his philosophy."
I'm not sure why the swipe at philosophers - perhaps one had recently landed on
Jung's views. However, in my "personal equation," philosophy and psychology are
very similar in scope and method; they are both systems of belief or opinion.
M. T. Clanchy, I believe, regarded Abelard as a psychologist.
Kathryn
Wildgen
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