
The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)

The structure of modern consciousness rests on this integration, and at each period of its development the ego has to absorb essential portions of the cultural past transmitted to it by the canon of values embodied in its own culture and system of education.
Erich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
It is the task of this book to show that a series of archetypes is a main constituent of mythology, that they stand in an organic relation to one another, and that their stadial 3 succession determines the growth of consciousness. In the course of its ontogenetic development, the individual ego consciousness has to pass through the same archetypal
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In the beginning is perfection, wholeness. This original perfection can only be “circumscribed,” or described symbolically; its nature defies any description other than a mythical one, because that which describes, the ego, and that which is described, the beginning, which is prior to any ego, prove to be incommensurable quantities as soon as the e
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In the first part of our exposition—The Mythological Stages in the Evolution of Consciousness—the accent lies on the wide distribution of the mythological material, and on demonstrating the connections between the symbols and the various strata of conscious development. Only against this background can we understand the normal developments of the p
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The relation of the ego to the unconscious and of the personal to the transpersonal decides the fate not only of the individual, but of humanity.
Erich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
The connection between his psychology and the deeper layers of humanity still alive in him is therefore the real starting point and subject of this work.
Erich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
It is the task of this book to show that a series of archetypes is a main constituent of mythology, that they stand in an organic relation to one another, and that their stadial 3 succession determines the growth of consciousness. In the course of its ontogenetic development, the individual ego consciousness has to pass through the same archetypal
... See moreErich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
Besides uncovering the evolutionary stages and their archetypal connections, our inquiry also has a therapeutic aim, which is both individual and collective. The integration of personal psychic phenomena with the corresponding transpersonal symbols is of paramount importance for the further development of consciousness and for the synthesis of the
... See moreErich Neumann • The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton Classics Book 9)
The structural elements of the collective unconscious are named by Jung “archetypes” or “primordial images.” They are the pictorial forms of the instincts, for the unconscious reveals itself to the conscious mind in images which, as in dreams and fantasies, initiate the process of conscious reaction and assimilation.