Charet uncovers some of the reasons why Jung's psychology finds itself living between science and religion. He demonstrates that Jung's early life was influenced by the experiences, beliefs, and ideas that characterized Spiritualism and that arose out of the entangled relationship that existed between science and religion in the late nineteenth century. Spiritualism, following it inception in 1848, became a movement that claimed to be a scientific religion and whose controlling belief was that the human personality survived death and could be reached through a medium in trance.

The author shows that Jung's early experiences and preoccupation with Spiritualism influenced his later ideas of the autonomy, personification, and quasi-metaphysical nature of the archetype, the central concept and one of the foundations upon which he built his psychology.

F.X. Charet's profile page

F. X. Charet has lectured in the Psychology and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Ottawa and McGill University, among others. He is currently researching another book on Jung and religion.

"I like and admire the great care with which the author blends together such a large number of sources of information about Jung and his ideas. He has done an amazingly thorough job of researching the subject." — John T. Granrose, The University of Georgia