Ancient Indian Thought in the Formation of Jung’s Psychology (1896-1912)

Abstract

Eastern religion played a crucial role in the development of Jung’s psychology and most studies have focused on the period of Jung’s major interest, namely between 1921-1939. Jung’s first discussions concern Indian religion, particularly the Upanisads and the Vedas, appear in Transformations and Symbols of the Libido (1912) and, later, in Psychological Types (1921). Indian references are also amongst the most frequent in Liber Novus, except for Christian ones. Prior to 1912, however, there are few references to Eastern thought in any of Jung’s published works or correspondences. In this article, I aim to show that, nevertheless, a particular notion of ‘Indian thought’ entered implicitly into Jung’s developing psychological notions prior to 1912, particularly his libido theory, mediated primarily by Schopenhauer’s philosophy. Schopenhauer’s understanding of Indian thought was, in turn, shaped by his reading of the Oupnek’hat, a text whose history reveals a complex conflation of European and Asian sources.