Carl Jung: Encyclopedia II - Carl Jung - Influence

Carl Jung - Influence

Jung has had an enduring influence on psychology as well as wider society. He has influenced psychotherapy (see Jungian psychology and Analytical psychology).

• The concept of introversion vs. extroversion
• The concept of the complex
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and David Keirsey tests were inspired by Jung's Psychological Types theory. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assesses people on extraversion and introversion, Jung's function types and also on judging-perceiving, a dimension not found in Jung's original taxonomy but germane to his distinction between rational and irrational functions.
• Socionics, similar to MBTI, is also based on Jung´s Psychological Types.

Carl Jung - Spiritualism as a cure for alcoholism

Jung's influence can sometimes be found in more unexpected quarters. For example, Jung once treated an American patient suffering from chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some time, and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that occasionally such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics where all else had failed.

The patient took Jung's advice seriously and set about seeking a personal spiritual experience. He returned home to the United States and joined a Christian evangelical church. He also told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he told was Ebby Thatcher, a long-time friend and drinking buddy of Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Thacher told Wilson about Jung's ideas. Wilson, who was finding it hard to maintain sobriety, was impressed and sought out his own spiritual experience. The influence of Jung ultimately found its way in the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, drafted by Wilson, and from there into the whole 12-step recovery movement, which has touched the lives of millions of people.

Carl Jung - Influences on culture

• Jung had a 16-year long friendship with author Laurens van der Post from which a number of books and film were created about Jung's life.

• The concept of the collective unconscious is one of the main topics in the Dune novel series.

• Jung's influence on noted Canadian novelist Robertson Davies is apparent in many of Davies's fictional works. In particular, The Cornish Trilogy and his novel The Manticore each base their design on Jungian concepts.

• Jung influenced much of Joseph Campbell's thought, leading to the creation of Star Wars and, to a lesser extent, The Matrix trilogy

• Ted Hughes's 1971 collection 'Crow' shows Hughes' interest in Jungian theory.

• The progressive metal band, Tool, have incorporated ideas from Jung's work into their albums, especially Ænima. Songs such as "Forty Six & 2" and "Ænema" (the title of this song and the title of the album both being derived from Jung's anima) are particularly fraught with references. Additionally, The Police made references to Carl Jung in their album Synchronicity.

• J. Michael Straczynski's "Babylon 5" television series used many of Jung's concepts throughout the series.

• Alexander Vickers' television series ZERO.POINT revolves heavily around Jung's idea of a collective unconscious. (see ZERO.POINT homepage)

• The video games Xenogears and Xenosaga utilize many of the ideas proposed by Carl Jung as major storyline components of the game, and even create physical manifestations of his notions within actual characters, Albedo, Nigredo, Rubedo, etc.

• Jung's writing was introduced to Italian film maker Federico Fellini in the 1950s and had an effect on the way Fellini incorporated dreams into films after La Dolce Vita.

• Jungian ideas make up a large part of the intellectual foundations of the Earthsea stories, the classic fantasy series written by Ursula le Guin.

• Many events and places are named after Jung's concepts and ideas in the PSX game Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, though not necessarily correctly.

• Blue Man Group's "Rock Concert Movement #237" is "Taking the audience on a Jungian journey into the collective unconscious by using the shadow as a metaphor for the primal self that gets repressed by the modern persona and also by using an underground setting and labyrinth office design to represent both the depths of the psyche and the dungeon-like isolation of our increasingly mechanistic society which prevents people from finding satisfying work or meaningful connections with others."

• In the movie Batman Begins, the character of Jonathan Crane, aka "The Scarecrow", is a Jungian psychiatrist and at the same time personifies one of man's primal archetypes (the Trickster).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Influence", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki