Jung's Alchemical Philosophy: Psyche and the Mercurial Play of Image and Idea

Description

Traditionally, alchemy has been understood as a precursor to the science of chemistry but from the vantage point of the human spirit, it is also a discipline that illuminates the human soul. This book explores the goal of alchemy from Jungian, psychological, and philosophical perspectives. Jung's Alchemical Philosophy: Psyche and the Mercurial Play of Image and Idea is a reflection on Jung's alchemical work and the importance of philosophy as a way of understanding alchemy and its contributions to Jung's psychology. By engaging these disciplines, Marlan opens new vistas on alchemy and the circular and ouroboric play of images and ideas, shedding light on the alchemical opus and the transformative processes of Jungian psychology. Divides in the history of alchemy and in the alchemical imagination are addressed as Marlan deepens the process by turning to a number of interpretations that illuminate both the enigma of the Philosophers' Stone and the ferment in the Jungian tradition. This book will be of interest to Jungian analysts and those who wish to explore the intersection of philosophy and psychology as it relates to alchemy. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgments Preface Introduction 1 Philosophical tensions in the historiography of alchemy: the history of science and the history of the human spirit Jung and the study of alchemy Criticisms of Jung and Eliade (Principe and Newman) Limitations of Principe’s and Newman’s Criticisms (Tilton, Caliăn, Hanegraaff, Cheak) 2 The eye of the winged serpent: Mercurius and overcoming the split in the alchemical imagination Mercurius duplex The pre-alchemy Jung: initiation and the descent into the unconscious The Rosarium philosophorum 3 Benign and monstrous conjunctions The hermaphrodite Abraxas Mercurius Mysterium Coniunctionis 4 Classical development of Jung’s ideas of alchemy and the Philosophers’ Stone in Von Franz and Edinger Marie-Louise von Franz Edward F. Edinger 5 Innovations, criticisms, and developments: James Hillman and Wolfgang Giegerich: James Hillman and archetypal psychology: imagination is the cornerstone Hillman’s alchemical psychology Wolfgang Giegerich and the soul’s logical life Giegerich’s alchemy 6 James Hillman and Wolfgang Giegerich: unification and divergence in their psychological and philosophical perspectives 7 Exposition and criticism of Giegerich’s philosophical view of psychology proper and the human-all-too-human 8 The problem of the remainder: the unassimilable remnant – what is at stake? Facing the darkness: imbibing philosophical vinegar 9 The alchemical stove: continuing reflections on Hillman’s and Giegerich’s views of alchemy and the Philosophers’ Stone Resistance of the remainder Sparks of reiteration Mystical death Turning to stone Must we turn to stone? The stone that is not a stone 10 The philosophical basis of the remnant in Kant’s thing-in-itself and in Hegel’s move to surpass it Phenomenon and noumenon: the unresolved tension of limit and transcendence in the thought of Kant and Jung Hegel’s introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit: from clouds of error to the heaven of truth Hegel’s alchemy: splendid isolation or fullness of soul 11 A reflection on the black sun and Jung’s notion of self Self and no self Depth psychology and the negated self: the strategy of “sous rature” The entrance problem The absolute 12 Spirit and soul Tarrying with the negative 13 The self, the absolute, the stone Self and absolute knowing The Philosophers’ Stone as chaosmos and the dilemma of diversity Mercurius the mediator Conclusion Epilogue Bibliography Index