Roderick Main | University of Essex (original) (raw)
Papers by Roderick Main
Carl Gustav Jung’s (1875-1961) concept of synchronicity – designating the experience of meaningfu... more Carl Gustav Jung’s (1875-1961) concept of synchronicity – designating the experience of meaningful coincidence and the implied principle of acausal connection through meaning – has been extensively discussed and deployed within the field of analytical psychology. However, there has been little success in integrating the concept into frameworks of thought beyond that of analytical psychology or operationalising it within non-Jungian programmes of research. In this article I explore the relationship of synchronicity to holistic thought as one of the more promising directions in which synchronicity could gain greater purchase within wider academic and intellectual culture. The article takes its starting point from the view that Jung’s psychological model is itself a richly articulated form of holistic thought, which would repay study in relation to its core holistic ideas, its affinities with contemporaneous currents of holism, and its influence on subsequent holism. For such a project...
European Journal Of Psychotherapy & Counselling, Dec 1, 2007
Although he was a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, C.G. Jung (1875–1961) did not extensively pre... more Although he was a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, C.G. Jung (1875–1961) did not extensively present his novel concept of synchronicity (meaningful acausal connection) in terms of clinical observations and reflections. It remained for subsequent analysts to follow Jung's pioneering work with more clinically focused discussions. In order to take stock of some of the main trends within this work, this paper
Routledge eBooks, Apr 24, 2018
Religion Compass, Apr 3, 2008
In sociology of religion, there is an ongoing debate about whether alternative, holistic or New A... more In sociology of religion, there is an ongoing debate about whether alternative, holistic or New Age spirituality represents a significant resurgence of concern for the sacred in the West and, if so, whether it amounts to counter-evidence to the thesis that the West is undergoing an irreversible process of secularisation. In this article, I examine representative accounts of the contrasting views that New Age or holistic spirituality is not significant and that it is significant. Both views turn on interpretations of the importance within New Age spirituality, or the 'holistic milieu', of the self and its relation to society and the sacred. However, neither sociological perspective explores in depth the nature of this central concept of the self. For a deeper theorisation of the self that may cast some light on the contradiction between the two sociological viewpoints and provide a model for appreciating the potential significance of New Age spirituality, I propose an interdisciplinary intervention from the perspective of Jungian analytical psychology. Jungian psychology, I argue, is particularly fitted to contribute to the debate about secularisation and New Age spirituality because of its having emerged out of, and embedding insights from, both secularising and sacralising tendencies in modern Western culture. The Jungian approach points to a conception of the self, congruent with New Age notions, that counters the all too common assumption that the new forms of subjective spirituality are socially insignificant.
Journal of Contemporary Religion, May 1, 1999
... Image of Hexagram 34. (Ritsema & Karcher, 1994: 483) It is then left to the individua... more ... Image of Hexagram 34. (Ritsema & Karcher, 1994: 483) It is then left to the individualuser of the oracle to allow the meanings to combine in a way that resonates with his or her situation. Doing this, we are told, "is a living process. ...
Routledge eBooks, Apr 28, 2023
Religion Compass, Jun 28, 2008
The psychology of religion is a complex field involving a variety of approaches that have not alw... more The psychology of religion is a complex field involving a variety of approaches that have not always developed in clear relationship to one another. As an aid to orientation, this article aims to provide an overview of the history and current status of the psychology of religion. It discusses the early contexts and origins of psychology of religion; depth psychological approaches to religion, especially those of Freud and Jung; empirical approaches stemming from mainstream scientific psychology; and some ways in which religion and psychology have stood in a more reciprocal relationship to each other. Common issues addressed by the article in relation to these diverse approaches include methodology; the content of religion; the origin, development, and effects of religion; and evaluationsboth the theories' evaluations of religion and scholarly evaluations of the theories.
Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, Apr 1, 2006
This paper aims to contribute to a reassessment of the social significance of C.G. Jung's (1875-1... more This paper aims to contribute to a reassessment of the social significance of C.G. Jung's (1875-1961) analytical psychology. Contrary to a tenacious perception that Jung's work is little concerned with society, this paper suggests that the social dimension is a concern that permeates all of Jung's work, even his apparently most esoteric. The paper looks first at Jung's diagnosis of the problem of modernity, next at his understanding and general analytical psychological critique of mass society, and then at the contribution of his concept of synchronicity (meaningful acausal connection) to this critique. It concludes with a brief reflection on the possible usefulness of synchronicity for illuminating contemporary social and cultural events.
Zygon, Nov 26, 2017
In this article, I draw on historical and conceptual arguments to show, first, that disenchantmen... more In this article, I draw on historical and conceptual arguments to show, first, that disenchantment and the influential view of the relationship between science and religion to which disenchantment gives rise are rooted in the metaphysics of theism. I then introduce the alternative metaphysical position of panentheism and identify Jungian psychology as an important, if implicit, mid-twentieth-century instance of panentheistic thought. Using the example of Jungian psychology, I demonstrate how the viewpoint of panentheism undoes the implications of disenchantment for the relationship between science and religion, promoting greater opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation between science and religion. I note, however, that these closer relations may depend on understanding science and religion differently from how they are understood under disenchantment. While the original tension between science and religion is eased, another tension-between panentheistic and disenchanted understandings of science and religion-is exposed. I conclude by reflecting on some implications of this discussion for sociology.
Introduction. A Radical Challenge. Part I: The Theory of Synchronicity. Synchronicity and Analyti... more Introduction. A Radical Challenge. Part I: The Theory of Synchronicity. Synchronicity and Analytical Psychology. Intellectual Difficulties. Part II: Synchronicity in Context. Sources and Influences. Religion, Science, and Synchronicity. Part III: Synchronicity Applied. Synchronicity and Jung's Critique of Science, Religion, and Society. Synchronicity and the Spiritual Revolution. Conclusion. The Rupture of Time.
Routledge eBooks, Sep 1, 2020
Journal of Analytical Psychology, Jun 1, 2010
With characteristic rigour, erudition, and clarity Robert Segal develops in his paper a most inge... more With characteristic rigour, erudition, and clarity Robert Segal develops in his paper a most ingenious argument that, if accepted, has unsettling implications for understanding Jung. He argues (especially pp. 378–81) that, for those who accept them, social scientific explanations of belief in God make it improbable that God exists. The social sciences provide naturalistic explanations. If one accepts that one’s belief in God has a natural cause, such as in Freud’s theory a projected wish, then one must also accept that any supernatural cause of the belief (such as God’s existence) is redundant and, moreover, that one’s holding of the belief is based on faulty reasoning (such as the error of projection). God’s existence is made improbable because it is unlikely that a redundant cause (God) postulated on the basis of faulty reasoning (projection) actually exists. Since Segal includes psychology among the social sciences (p. 363) and claims that Jung aspires to make his psychology as scientific as a natural science (p. 364), he can treat Jung’s psychological explanation of belief in God (that it stems from projection of an archetypal God-image) as a naturalistic social scientific explanation and so can apply to it the argument summarized above. Segal’s professed aim in his paper is mainly to show that ‘Jung was wrong to deny that the psychology of religion can bear on the issue of the existence of God’ (p. 362). However, the bearing that Segal shows psychology – or any other social science – can have is negative only: reducing the likelihood that God exists. He does not draw attention to the contradiction that this exposes between the atheistic implications of Jung’s professional work and Jung’s private belief that God exists (affirmed by Segal on p. 374). In this brief response I shall suggest that some of the claims on which Segal bases his argument need to be qualified. I acknowledge that the evidence in Jung’s work to which Segal appeals does, on its own, tend towards the conclusions he draws. But I think one can point to other evidence, also in Jung’s work, which indicates that Jung, rather than being outright split between his professional and private views, was simply more ambivalent than Segal depicts about the relationship between psychology and philosophy.
International Journal of Jungian Studies, Sep 1, 2011
Since C.G. Jung's (1875Á1961) death fifty years ago the majority of work on synchronicity has con... more Since C.G. Jung's (1875Á1961) death fifty years ago the majority of work on synchronicity has concentrated, like Jung's, either on the connections of the concept to science, religion, and the relationship between science and religion, or, more fully than Jung's, on the clinical implications of the concept. However, Jung also hinted at important social and cultural implications of synchronicity that so far have been little explored. The present paper looks at synchronicity in relation to disenchantment Á a theme that connects to both science-religion debates and sociological and cultural debates. Using as a reference point Charles Taylor's characterisation in A secular age (2007) of the transformations that led from the enchanted, pre-modern world to the disenchanted, modern world, the paper considers the extent to which Jung's concept of synchronicity contributes to a re-enchantment of the world. It concludes that the re-enchantment is substantial but avowedly partial, for Jung was attempting not, impossibly, to return to pre-modernity but rather to transform modernity by retrieving important aspects of the pre-modern.
The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Sep 1, 1998
... David Tacey, Jung in the Academy: Devotions and Resis-tances, with responses by Roger Brook... more ... David Tacey, Jung in the Academy: Devotions and Resis-tances, with responses by Roger Brooke, Renos Papadopoulos, and Ann ... anger and destruction'), Pygmalion ('mimesis where art becomes life through desire'), Hermes, Aphrodite, Persephone, or Dionysosthen the ...
Carl Gustav Jung’s (1875-1961) concept of synchronicity – designating the experience of meaningfu... more Carl Gustav Jung’s (1875-1961) concept of synchronicity – designating the experience of meaningful coincidence and the implied principle of acausal connection through meaning – has been extensively discussed and deployed within the field of analytical psychology. However, there has been little success in integrating the concept into frameworks of thought beyond that of analytical psychology or operationalising it within non-Jungian programmes of research. In this article I explore the relationship of synchronicity to holistic thought as one of the more promising directions in which synchronicity could gain greater purchase within wider academic and intellectual culture. The article takes its starting point from the view that Jung’s psychological model is itself a richly articulated form of holistic thought, which would repay study in relation to its core holistic ideas, its affinities with contemporaneous currents of holism, and its influence on subsequent holism. For such a project...
European Journal Of Psychotherapy & Counselling, Dec 1, 2007
Although he was a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, C.G. Jung (1875–1961) did not extensively pre... more Although he was a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, C.G. Jung (1875–1961) did not extensively present his novel concept of synchronicity (meaningful acausal connection) in terms of clinical observations and reflections. It remained for subsequent analysts to follow Jung's pioneering work with more clinically focused discussions. In order to take stock of some of the main trends within this work, this paper
Routledge eBooks, Apr 24, 2018
Religion Compass, Apr 3, 2008
In sociology of religion, there is an ongoing debate about whether alternative, holistic or New A... more In sociology of religion, there is an ongoing debate about whether alternative, holistic or New Age spirituality represents a significant resurgence of concern for the sacred in the West and, if so, whether it amounts to counter-evidence to the thesis that the West is undergoing an irreversible process of secularisation. In this article, I examine representative accounts of the contrasting views that New Age or holistic spirituality is not significant and that it is significant. Both views turn on interpretations of the importance within New Age spirituality, or the 'holistic milieu', of the self and its relation to society and the sacred. However, neither sociological perspective explores in depth the nature of this central concept of the self. For a deeper theorisation of the self that may cast some light on the contradiction between the two sociological viewpoints and provide a model for appreciating the potential significance of New Age spirituality, I propose an interdisciplinary intervention from the perspective of Jungian analytical psychology. Jungian psychology, I argue, is particularly fitted to contribute to the debate about secularisation and New Age spirituality because of its having emerged out of, and embedding insights from, both secularising and sacralising tendencies in modern Western culture. The Jungian approach points to a conception of the self, congruent with New Age notions, that counters the all too common assumption that the new forms of subjective spirituality are socially insignificant.
Journal of Contemporary Religion, May 1, 1999
... Image of Hexagram 34. (Ritsema & Karcher, 1994: 483) It is then left to the individua... more ... Image of Hexagram 34. (Ritsema & Karcher, 1994: 483) It is then left to the individualuser of the oracle to allow the meanings to combine in a way that resonates with his or her situation. Doing this, we are told, "is a living process. ...
Routledge eBooks, Apr 28, 2023
Religion Compass, Jun 28, 2008
The psychology of religion is a complex field involving a variety of approaches that have not alw... more The psychology of religion is a complex field involving a variety of approaches that have not always developed in clear relationship to one another. As an aid to orientation, this article aims to provide an overview of the history and current status of the psychology of religion. It discusses the early contexts and origins of psychology of religion; depth psychological approaches to religion, especially those of Freud and Jung; empirical approaches stemming from mainstream scientific psychology; and some ways in which religion and psychology have stood in a more reciprocal relationship to each other. Common issues addressed by the article in relation to these diverse approaches include methodology; the content of religion; the origin, development, and effects of religion; and evaluationsboth the theories' evaluations of religion and scholarly evaluations of the theories.
Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, Apr 1, 2006
This paper aims to contribute to a reassessment of the social significance of C.G. Jung's (1875-1... more This paper aims to contribute to a reassessment of the social significance of C.G. Jung's (1875-1961) analytical psychology. Contrary to a tenacious perception that Jung's work is little concerned with society, this paper suggests that the social dimension is a concern that permeates all of Jung's work, even his apparently most esoteric. The paper looks first at Jung's diagnosis of the problem of modernity, next at his understanding and general analytical psychological critique of mass society, and then at the contribution of his concept of synchronicity (meaningful acausal connection) to this critique. It concludes with a brief reflection on the possible usefulness of synchronicity for illuminating contemporary social and cultural events.
Zygon, Nov 26, 2017
In this article, I draw on historical and conceptual arguments to show, first, that disenchantmen... more In this article, I draw on historical and conceptual arguments to show, first, that disenchantment and the influential view of the relationship between science and religion to which disenchantment gives rise are rooted in the metaphysics of theism. I then introduce the alternative metaphysical position of panentheism and identify Jungian psychology as an important, if implicit, mid-twentieth-century instance of panentheistic thought. Using the example of Jungian psychology, I demonstrate how the viewpoint of panentheism undoes the implications of disenchantment for the relationship between science and religion, promoting greater opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation between science and religion. I note, however, that these closer relations may depend on understanding science and religion differently from how they are understood under disenchantment. While the original tension between science and religion is eased, another tension-between panentheistic and disenchanted understandings of science and religion-is exposed. I conclude by reflecting on some implications of this discussion for sociology.
Introduction. A Radical Challenge. Part I: The Theory of Synchronicity. Synchronicity and Analyti... more Introduction. A Radical Challenge. Part I: The Theory of Synchronicity. Synchronicity and Analytical Psychology. Intellectual Difficulties. Part II: Synchronicity in Context. Sources and Influences. Religion, Science, and Synchronicity. Part III: Synchronicity Applied. Synchronicity and Jung's Critique of Science, Religion, and Society. Synchronicity and the Spiritual Revolution. Conclusion. The Rupture of Time.
Routledge eBooks, Sep 1, 2020
Journal of Analytical Psychology, Jun 1, 2010
With characteristic rigour, erudition, and clarity Robert Segal develops in his paper a most inge... more With characteristic rigour, erudition, and clarity Robert Segal develops in his paper a most ingenious argument that, if accepted, has unsettling implications for understanding Jung. He argues (especially pp. 378–81) that, for those who accept them, social scientific explanations of belief in God make it improbable that God exists. The social sciences provide naturalistic explanations. If one accepts that one’s belief in God has a natural cause, such as in Freud’s theory a projected wish, then one must also accept that any supernatural cause of the belief (such as God’s existence) is redundant and, moreover, that one’s holding of the belief is based on faulty reasoning (such as the error of projection). God’s existence is made improbable because it is unlikely that a redundant cause (God) postulated on the basis of faulty reasoning (projection) actually exists. Since Segal includes psychology among the social sciences (p. 363) and claims that Jung aspires to make his psychology as scientific as a natural science (p. 364), he can treat Jung’s psychological explanation of belief in God (that it stems from projection of an archetypal God-image) as a naturalistic social scientific explanation and so can apply to it the argument summarized above. Segal’s professed aim in his paper is mainly to show that ‘Jung was wrong to deny that the psychology of religion can bear on the issue of the existence of God’ (p. 362). However, the bearing that Segal shows psychology – or any other social science – can have is negative only: reducing the likelihood that God exists. He does not draw attention to the contradiction that this exposes between the atheistic implications of Jung’s professional work and Jung’s private belief that God exists (affirmed by Segal on p. 374). In this brief response I shall suggest that some of the claims on which Segal bases his argument need to be qualified. I acknowledge that the evidence in Jung’s work to which Segal appeals does, on its own, tend towards the conclusions he draws. But I think one can point to other evidence, also in Jung’s work, which indicates that Jung, rather than being outright split between his professional and private views, was simply more ambivalent than Segal depicts about the relationship between psychology and philosophy.
International Journal of Jungian Studies, Sep 1, 2011
Since C.G. Jung's (1875Á1961) death fifty years ago the majority of work on synchronicity has con... more Since C.G. Jung's (1875Á1961) death fifty years ago the majority of work on synchronicity has concentrated, like Jung's, either on the connections of the concept to science, religion, and the relationship between science and religion, or, more fully than Jung's, on the clinical implications of the concept. However, Jung also hinted at important social and cultural implications of synchronicity that so far have been little explored. The present paper looks at synchronicity in relation to disenchantment Á a theme that connects to both science-religion debates and sociological and cultural debates. Using as a reference point Charles Taylor's characterisation in A secular age (2007) of the transformations that led from the enchanted, pre-modern world to the disenchanted, modern world, the paper considers the extent to which Jung's concept of synchronicity contributes to a re-enchantment of the world. It concludes that the re-enchantment is substantial but avowedly partial, for Jung was attempting not, impossibly, to return to pre-modernity but rather to transform modernity by retrieving important aspects of the pre-modern.
The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Sep 1, 1998
... David Tacey, Jung in the Academy: Devotions and Resis-tances, with responses by Roger Brook... more ... David Tacey, Jung in the Academy: Devotions and Resis-tances, with responses by Roger Brooke, Renos Papadopoulos, and Ann ... anger and destruction'), Pygmalion ('mimesis where art becomes life through desire'), Hermes, Aphrodite, Persephone, or Dionysosthen the ...
This international, interdisciplinary conference will explore the possibilities and problems to w... more This international, interdisciplinary conference will explore the possibilities and problems to which the concept of holism gives rise, both academically and in practice. Across many areas of contemporary culture we hear the concept of holism being invoked, as in holistic science, holistic spirituality, holistic healthcare, and holistic education. While there are different varieties of holism, each case implies a perspective in which the whole of a system is considered to be more important than the sum of its parts. Advocates of holism associate it with desirable qualities such as inclusion, integration, balance, and wider vision and champion it as a remedy for the fragmentation that is considered to beset the modern world. Critics argue that holism is vague, erases differences, and, by subordinating individual elements to a superior whole, ultimately leads to totalitarianism.
This international, interdisciplinary conference will explore the possibilities and problems to w... more This international, interdisciplinary conference will explore the possibilities and problems to which the concept of holism gives rise, both academically and in practice.
Across many areas of contemporary culture we hear the concept of holism being invoked, as in holistic sciences, holistic spirituality, holistic healthcare, and holistic education. While there are different varieties of holism, each case implies a perspective in which the whole of a system is considered to be more important than the sum of its parts.