An archetypal analysis of C. G. Jung's life and work...

Curless, M. (1999). An archetypal analysis of C. G. Jung's life and work informed by the hermetic tradition of astrology (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 1999). UMI no. 9987395

The goal of the dissertation is to demonstrate the efficacy of astrology in describing the archetypal principles that organize and shape the ideas and life experiences of a person. The demonstration of astrology's efficacy at describing personality is demonstrated through the astrological analysis of C. G. Jung's life and psychological writing. A new theoretical concept, the archetypal composite, was defined to help explain the astrological method used in this dissertation. The astrological method consists of grouping specific astrological factors together to form one composite image made up of several archetypes.

The author's personality is described through the analysis of his astrological natal chart. The purpose of the analysis is to demonstrate how the author's unique approach analyzing astrological charts correlates to the archetypal dominants of his personality.

An interpretation of C. G. Jung's astrological natal chart revealed three archetypal composites titled the Lover/Artist lunar composite, the Capricornian ascendant composite, and the Self solar composite. The astrological analysis of C. G. Jung begins with his childhood experiences and proceeds to his psychological writings. The analysis focuses on how C. G. Jung's main life events and psychological insights correlate to his three archetypal composites symbolically depicted in his astrological chart.

The results of this analysis suggest that Jung's main life experiences and psychological theories do correlate to specific archetypal composites depicted in his astrological natal chart. A surprising result of this analysis was the discovery of how strongly Jung's childhood experiences influenced the formulation of his psychological theorizing. This analysis of Jung concluded with the insight that Jung's psychological theories derive from the equal blend of archetypal and personal-historical influences.

In the final chapter the possible role of astrology is discussed in relation to students of psychology, education in graduate schools of psychology, and society at large.