Super beautiful writing and fascinating material! Thank you, Jesse! I love this larger context you are offering us. I had a question: From your research on Freud's life and work, how much do you think Freud's anxiety around the spiritual was part of his need to assimilate as a "rational and scientific" Jew? In other words, he was already facing criticism that his "science" was not a science, in the rise of antisemitism of his time. Whereas Jung (being a member of dominant Protestantism) perhaps didn't have to prove his "rationality."
Great Question Kimberly. I think you're right that Freud very much wanted legitimacy for the fledgling field of Psychology as a discipline, he said as much to students as well as Jung I believe. He was fighting to create a the impression that it was legitimate science, and I am sure Jung's fascination with spirituality concerned him. And it is true that being a Jew during a time of antisemitism most likely had an effect on him, as he was yet again placed within the margins. Yet I also believe that his own worldview was primarily informed by being a Dr and a neurologist, and that scientific materialism (and its bias towards secularism and skepticism) was a core part of his philosophy and ontology. Based on his many decades of research and papers after his split with Jung, my sense is the former was a bigger part of the picture than the latter.
Thanks, Jesse ! I am so interested in all these issues you are raising and I am so appreciating learning from your many years of study! Thanks for writing these essays!
What a powerful story, and especially that last line — thank you for putting this to words!
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
so cool that Jung was a part of AA.
and love his NDE.
Great article!
Thank you Em!
Super beautiful writing and fascinating material! Thank you, Jesse! I love this larger context you are offering us. I had a question: From your research on Freud's life and work, how much do you think Freud's anxiety around the spiritual was part of his need to assimilate as a "rational and scientific" Jew? In other words, he was already facing criticism that his "science" was not a science, in the rise of antisemitism of his time. Whereas Jung (being a member of dominant Protestantism) perhaps didn't have to prove his "rationality."
Great Question Kimberly. I think you're right that Freud very much wanted legitimacy for the fledgling field of Psychology as a discipline, he said as much to students as well as Jung I believe. He was fighting to create a the impression that it was legitimate science, and I am sure Jung's fascination with spirituality concerned him. And it is true that being a Jew during a time of antisemitism most likely had an effect on him, as he was yet again placed within the margins. Yet I also believe that his own worldview was primarily informed by being a Dr and a neurologist, and that scientific materialism (and its bias towards secularism and skepticism) was a core part of his philosophy and ontology. Based on his many decades of research and papers after his split with Jung, my sense is the former was a bigger part of the picture than the latter.
Thanks, Jesse ! I am so interested in all these issues you are raising and I am so appreciating learning from your many years of study! Thanks for writing these essays!
Good stuff! Thanks for the articulation ~
Thank you friend 🙏🏼
Wonderful. Thank you, brothers Estrin.
Thanks Tom!
Most enlightening! Thank you!!