The Origins And History Of Consciousness

464 Pages·2015·5.45 MB·English

by  Neumann

The International Library of Psychology

THE ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF
CONSCIOUSNESS

Founded by C. K. Ogden
The International Library of Psychology
ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
In 12 Volumes

I Studies in Analytical Psychology Adler
II Complex/Archetype/Symbol in the Psychology of C G Jacobi
Jung
III Psychology of C G Jung Jacobi
IV Experiment in Depth Martin
V Amor and Psyche Neumann
VI Art and the Creative Unconscious Neumann
VII The Origins and History of Consciousness Neumann
VIII Jung’s Psychology and its Social Meaning Progoff
IX Religion and the Cure of Souls in Jung’s Psychology Schaer
X Conscious Orientation van der
Hoop
XI Lucifer and Prometheus Werblowsky
XII The Secret of the Golden Flower Wilhelm
THE ORIGINS AND HISTORY
OF CONSCIOUSNESS

ERICH NEUMANN

Foreword by C G Jung
He whose vision cannot cover
History’s three thousand years,
Must in outer darkness hover,
Live within the day’s frontiers.
GOETHE, Westöstlicher Diwan
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
THE PRESENT EDITION of this book contains the author’s corrections and revisions
of his original text. Certain minor omissions, mostly of repetitive material, have
been made with his permission, and a few small passages added in connection
with the illustrations, which the author has assembled for this edition.
Quotations are in most cases taken from or based upon the standard English
or American translations indicated in the footnotes; but where it was necessary
to translate directly from the German texts cited by the author, reference is made
to the German sources only.
I would like to express my most cordial thanks to Dr. Gerhard Adler for his
help in elucidating many difficult passages in the text, and for his careful
revision of the translation in typescript.

R. F. C. HULL
NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT for permission to quote is made to the following:
the Cambridge University Press for illustrations and text passages from J. M.
Woodward, PERSEUS; The Dial Press, New York, for the prefatory motto, from
THE PERMANENT GOETHE, edited by Thomas Mann, copyright 1948 by The Dial
Press; Harrap and Co., London, for a passage from J. C. Andersen, MYTHS AND
LEGENDS OF THE POLYNESIANS; the Princeton University Press for a part of E. A.
Speiser’s translation of the Gilgamesh Epic, from ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN TEXTS,
edited by J. B. Pritchard; to Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, for a passage
from E. A. Wallis Budge’s translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead; and to
the Viking Press, New York, for D. H. Lawrence’s poem “The Ship of Death,”
from his LAST POEMS, copyright 1933 by Frieda Lawrence.
CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FOREWORD BY C. G. JUNG
INTRODUCTION
PART I: THE MYTHOLOGICAL STAGES IN THE EVOLUTION OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
A: THE CREATION MYTH
I The Uroboros
II The Great Mother
III The Separation of the World Parents : The Principle of Opposites
B: THE HERO MYTH
I The Birth of the Hero
II The Slaying of the Mother
III The Slaying of the Father
C: THE TRANSFORMATION MYTH
I The Captive and the Treasure
II Transformation, or Osiris
PART II: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF PERSONALITY
A: THE ORIGINAL UNITY
Centroversion and Ego Formation
The Ego Germ in the Original Uroboric Situation
Development of the Ego out of the Uroboros
Centroversion in Organisms on the Uroboric Level
Centroversion, Ego, and Consciousness
Further Phases of Ego Development
B: THE SEPARATION OF THE SYSTEMS
Centroversion and Differentiation
The Fragmentation of Archetypes
Exhaustion of Emotional Components: Rationalization
Secondary Personalization
The Transformation of Pleasure-Pain Components
The Formation of Authorities within the Personality
The Synthetic Function of the Ego
C: THE BALANCE AND CRISIS OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
Compensation of the Separated Systems: Culture in Balance
The Schism of the Systems: Culture in Crisis
D: CENTROVERSION AND THE STAGES OF LIFE
Prolongation of Childhood and Differentiation of Consciousness
Activation of Collective Unconscious and Ego Changes in Puberty
Self-Realization of Centroversion in the Second Half of Life
APPENDICES
I The Group and the Great Individual
II Mass Man and the Phenomena of Recollectivization
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX