Jungianism as a term circulates across the depth-psychology corpus with considerable ambivalence, naming at once a living intellectual tradition and a target of internal critique. The range of positions is striking: Samuels maps a pluralistic post-Jungian field in which ‘unknowing Jungians’ populate mainstream psychoanalysis, suggesting that the movement’s influence far exceeds its institutional borders; Giegerich, by contrast, mounts a sustained polemic against ‘mainstream’ or ‘official’ Jungianism, arguing that its inheritors have forfeited Jung’s rigorous engagement with the soul in favour of therapeutic pragmatism and suburban complacency. Sedgwick distinguishes a literary-lecture Jungianism of popular self-help culture from the clinical practice of Jungian psychotherapy proper. McCabe raises the contested question of Jungianism’s cultishness—and, via Noll and Shamdasani, tracks the historiographical stakes of that charge. Giegerich further contends that archetypal psychology, as developed by Hillman, constitutes a genuine theoretical advance beyond conventional Jungianism rather than a school beside it. Russell’s account of Hillman records the effort to break free from ‘orthodox Jungianism.’ The term thus functions, in this corpus, less as a stable denomination than as a contested field marker—at once a badge of intellectual inheritance, a site of theoretical disappointment, and an object of sociological suspicion.
I am talking about a dominant trend in what one might call ‘mainstream’ or official Jungianism in many (not all) countries, in professional societies and in publications.
Giegerich launches a sustained polemic against institutional Jungianism as a dominant trend that has forfeited Jung’s intellectual heritage, distinguishing this critique from any attack on individual practitioners.
, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020thesis
archetypal psychology as a theory… is a real advance of psychological theory beyond conventional Jungianism. It is not a school beside the so-called classical and the developmentalist schools, because it is not on one level with them.
Giegerich argues that Hillman’s archetypal psychology supersedes rather than merely supplements conventional Jungianism, representing a qualitatively new level of psychological reflection.
, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020thesis
there is a sense in which analysis and psychotherapy today are in fact ‘Jungian’. We really need a new category— unknowing Jungians.
Samuels proposes that Jungian influence extends invisibly through mainstream psychotherapy via ‘unknowing Jungians,’ dramatically widening the scope of Jungianism beyond its self-identified adherents.
, Jung and the Post-Jungians, 1985thesis
Shamdasani examined the claim by Noll that Jung effectively founded the cult of Jungianism in an inaugural address to the psychological club in Zurich in 1916.
McCabe engages the Noll–Shamdasani debate over whether Jungianism was founded as a cult, while offering a nuanced personal assessment of Jungian training as involving cult-like commitment without coercive brainwashing.
, Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous: The Twelve Steps as a Spiritual Journey of Individuation, 2015thesis
Depth-psychology exists only if its outlook is not practical (pragmatic), but theoretical (theoretical even where it is a praxis). One cannot really reproach Jungians for not realizing that the best way of praxis… is for psychology to have a relentless theoretical comm
Giegerich indicts Jungian practice for instrumentalizing depth-psychological concepts within a pragmatic means-end framework, thereby betraying the theoretical commitment that constitutes genuine depth psychology.
, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020thesis
the question of whether Jungianism and A. A. are cults should still be addressed, albeit briefly, because both organisations have been subject to this criticism.
McCabe frames Jungianism and Alcoholics Anonymous as parallel objects of the ‘cult’ criticism, situating the question within a broader discussion of institutional allegiance and spiritual commitment.
, Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous: The Twelve Steps as a Spiritual Journey of Individuation, 2015thesis
This is a literary- and lecture-based Jungianism, oriented toward personal growth but with limited overlap with Jungian psychotherapy as discussed in this book.
Sedgwick distinguishes a popular, text-based Jungianism oriented toward personal growth from formal Jungian psychotherapy, identifying distinct sociological constituencies for each.
, An Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy: The Therapeutic Relationship, 2001thesis
He did challenge Hillman’s adherence to ‘orthodox Jungianism’ at the time, and believed that his influence helped Hillman break free from it.
Russell records how Guggenbühl-Craig challenged Hillman’s orthodox Jungianism, framing the trajectory of archetypal psychology as a deliberate emancipation from that orthodoxy.
, Life and Ideas of James Hillman, 2023supporting
The selection of new candidates for training in analytical psychology is frequently in tune with the ‘little house in the suburbs’ mentality… This is mindless literalism.
Giegerich critiques the training culture of institutional Jungianism for applying external, common-sense criteria that exclude the very psychological depth the tradition ostensibly requires.
, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020supporting
post-Jungians have felt able to challenge or attack Jung’s work, often arguing with him on the basis of stringent criticisms from non-Jungians, as well as adapting and integrating parallel developments in other approaches.
Samuels characterises the post-Jungian movement as one defined by critical engagement with and revision of Jung’s legacy rather than doctrinal fidelity.
, Jung and the Post-Jungians, 1985supporting
Orthodox Jungianism has a tendency to ‘privilege’ the more collective imagery, but this usually takes place when there is a very symbolically oriented, classical ‘Jungian analysis’ taking place.
Sedgwick identifies ‘orthodox Jungianism’ with a clinical disposition to privilege collective, archetypal imagery, distinguishing this tendency from more flexible post-Jungian approaches.
, An Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy: The Therapeutic Relationship, 2001supporting
this school is in a deplorable state of affairs and has given up the very distinction that makes JUNG’s work singularly important.
Giegerich characterises the school of analytical psychology as having abandoned Jung’s foundational contribution—the rigorous notion of soul—leaving it theoretically impoverished.
, The Soul’s Logical Life Towards a Rigorous Notion of, 2020supporting
the question of whether A. A. and Jungianism are cults… will be addressed simply because both organisations are subject to the criticism that they are ‘cult-like.’
McCabe signals his intention to address the cult question as it pertains to both Jungianism and A.A., treating it as a legitimate challenge requiring scholarly engagement.
, Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous: The Twelve Steps as a Spiritual Journey of Individuation, 2015supporting
Jungianism cultishness 117, 121–122
An index entry locating the treatment of Jungianism’s cultishness within McCabe’s text, confirming the term’s presence as a discrete topic of inquiry in the volume.
, Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous: The Twelve Steps as a Spiritual Journey of Individuation, 2015aside