Two in one or one in two? Pushing off from Jung with Wolfgang Giegerich

Abstract

This paper responds to a recent paper by Wolfgang Giegerich entitled 'Two Jungs: apropos a paper by Mark Saban'. Giegerich disputes my assertion that the 'rigorous notion' at the heart of his psychology 'finds no source in Jung's psychology, implicit or explicit'. In order to do this he posits the existence of two Jungs, an exoteric Jung and an esoteric Jung. The implications of Giegerich's binary scission of Jung are explored in this paper, and show that the tendency to exalt one Jung while disparaging the other betrays a comprehensive blindness toward the contradictory complexity of Jung's psychology as a whole. It is suggested that this blindness is the consequence of Giegerich's systematic prioritization of a neo-Hegelian agenda that is in profound conflict with the telos of Jung's psychology.

Keywords: C.G. Jung; C.G.Jung; Parole chiave: C.G. Jung; Traumdeutung; circumambulatio; deux personnalités; dos personalidades; dream interpretation; due personalità; interpretación de los sueños; interpretazione dei sogni; interprétation des rêves; two personalities; zwei Persönlichkeiten; К.Г. Юнг; две личности; интерпретация сновидений.