The black flood of occultism

[This is my "official" review of Lachman's book]

"Jung the Mystic" is Gary Lachman's attempt to write yet another biography of the controversial Swiss psychoanalyst. In my opinion, it's not as interesting as the book on Steiner written by the same author. Ironically, while intended as a defence of Carl Gustav Jung, "Jung the Mystic" might actually be off-putting to many readers. After reading it, I got the impression that early psychoanalysis (both Jungian and Freudian) was an almost literal mad house, with the analysts frequently being just as crazy as their patients! And just as influential...

Nor does Jung come across as a particularly likable character. After a troubled childhood, Jung grew up becoming an egotistical, opportunist, vulgar bully who constantly cheated on his rich wife (while living off her savings), often having sex with his female patients. His relationship with Freud was strikingly dysfunctional (as was Freud's relation with him), and Jung's visions or "fantasies" were frequently very, very bizarre. I don't understand why Lachman constantly compares Jung with Steiner, who seems to have been a paragon of normality compared to the psychoanalytical community. (Yes, the same Steiner who founded Anthroposophy.) Most of the negative information on Jung found in this book is old hat for those of us who've read Richard Noll's ferocious attack "The Jung Cult".

Lachman's main point in writing the book is to argue that Jung really was a mystic, something Jung himself hotly denied. Some of his followers deny it still. Lachman has little trouble showing that Jung's ideas weren't "scientific" in the strict sense of that term, definitely not materialist, and had certain similarities to ancient Gnosticism. Jung had a life-long interest in the paranormal (the most famous incident being "the poltergeist in Freud's bookcase"), and it's obvious that he believed in the objective existence of such phenomena. Lachman criticizes Jung for his attempts to sound scientific and scholarly when discussing the paranormal, which leads to constant contradictions in his published works. The author clearly would have preferred if Jung had come clean about his real views, rather than hiding behind a "scientific" persona.

I don't doubt that "the sage of Küsnacht" might have had this or that interesting thing to say, but as a human being, he left much to be asked for. I also get the impression that Jung constantly went "inwards" and "downwards" in his spiritual quest, this in contrast to Steiner who had an orientation "outwards". Jung comes across as a man who wallows in his own inner demons, while Steiner at least tried to do something constructive in the real world. So yes, I suppose Carl Gustav Jung was a mystic - in the worst sense of that term.