Reviews for Biotechnology and pharmacy

The average rating for Biotechnology and pharmacy based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-03-29 00:00:00 Richard Cleveland Having previously read Jung's The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious , as well as writings by Elaine Pagels, various Apocryphal Gospels, and other Gnostic commentaries, I was immediately interested in digesting this writing, which addresses Gnosticism in the work of Carl Jung. Perhaps the most tragic thing about Gnosticism is that only fragments of its texts and writings remain because the early Catholic church did everything in its power to destroy them. Ironically, we learn much about Gnosticism from the writings of the early orthodox writers who condemned it. Despite the Catholic suppression of Gnosticism, it has continued to flourish in an esoteric way, in philosophy, poetry and novella. Certainly, one lesson humanity should learn is that annihilation of things we don't like is more apt to regenerate them than would allowing them to exist as explained in history. What is Gnosticism? As in Protestantism today, there were many different sects of Gnosticism, so the task of piecing together a catch-all definition of Gnosticism is difficult. Generally, Gnosticism is the belief in antithetical dualism between an immaterial goodness and evil matter. Human bodies are made up of such matter but do contain a bit of immaterial goodness that is entrapped within. It is through knowledge (Gnosis) that humans gain revelation of this entrapment and uncover their true self. Some Gnostic influence remains inherent in orthodox Christianity, particularly within the Gospel of John. Many modern authors, poets, and philosophers have been influenced by Gnostic thought, not the least of which include Hegel, Blake, Goethe, Melville, Byron, Shelly, Yeats, Heidegger, Marx and Nietzsche. Gnostics generally bear a dissatisfaction with the world and confidence that amelioration is possible. Gnostics believe that humanity can change the world with knowledge (gnosis). Certainly, there are parallels between ancient Gnosticism and the existentialism that has gained a foothold in more modern times. However, where Gnosticism sees the material world as demonic and hostile, existentialism considers it natural and indifferent. Jung's Gnosticism To really understand why Carl Jung was so interested in Gnosticism requires some bit of prerequisite into his psychological theories. Central to Jungian theory is the idea of the "collective unconscious", which is almost a synonym for the Godhead. It is very important for the reader to recognize that when Jung speaks of the "unconscious" he is referring to a mysterious, ineffable something that is not fully knowable and often identified as supernatural. A reader must understand that a psychotherapist, such as Jung, witnesses many things that emerge from the minds of his patients and Jung observed entities that he recognized as alien to the patient's visible personality. As with Freud, Jung saw the ego as active in the conscious mind and below that something he termed the "personal unconscious". The personal unconscious consisted of those things the conscious mind chose to suppress or purposely forget because of pain, discomfort or embarrassment. But, even below this "personal unconscious" Jung witnessed the emergence of things or entities that seemed fully foreign to the patient's particular personality. The remarkable thing is that Jung revealed these entities to bear common characteristics from within a wide range of patients and this led Jung to identify them as specific "archetypes" that emerge from what he termed the "collective unconscious". For Jung, the "collective unconscious" is therefore a historical prefiguration, something that exists beyond the patient's personal history and something that exists for all humans even though most are unaware of its presence. Jung believed that at birth humans are entirely unconscious and that consciousness emerges only slowly. Therefore, consciousness arises out of the unconscious and manifests in what we refer to as the ego. Jung contended that primitive humans had a much weaker consciousness and that the ego is much larger and more independent in modern men. Jung contends that most men continue to tend to their unconsciousness through religion. The juxtaposition between the unconscious and the growing ego is fundamentally intertwined with religious thinking. In the creation story, the first man, Adam, wrestles with awareness in the Garden of Eden, as his ego begins to separate him from the bliss of unconsciousness . The rise of ego, as sin, becomes responsible for the loss of the blissful ignorance of the garden and caps the theme of the story. Jung's contention is that modern men have a more developed ego than primitives, meaning they have developed greater independence from the unconscious. In fact, many modern men reject the unconsciousness altogether, as in the style of the angry atheist, who scoffs at it as a prescientific delusion, and lashes out at all things religious. The angry atheist imagines he is only what he thinks or knows about himself. But this tendency of modern man to dismiss the unconscious doesn't eliminate it. The unconscious nevertheless remains intact within humans and is projected, whether or not one realizes it. We see this projection in the emergence of certain superstitions, ancient astronaut theories, Nostradamus-like predictions, etc. Everyone, whether they realize it or not, fills the gaps in actual knowledge with projections. It is on this basis that the Gnostics contend that Gnosis (knowledge) is the key to gaining awareness. Jung's Psychotherapy Jung believed that neurosis developed in modern men because they didn't tend to their unconscious like primitive peoples. By forcing everything under the law of reason, modern man becomes vulnerable when things escape his control. Because he has rejected religion and all of the attributes of the unconscious, modern man lacks the kind of fulfillment that religion provides. Therefore, he becomes angry and frustrated, particularly because he has previously boasted of having transcended the needs that religion fills. This is especially true when the stirrings of the unconscious become active and unexplainable psychic forces manifest in the world around him; or when his faith in himself is shattered by powerful nonrational inclinations. Jung suggests that reconnection with one's nonrational side, the broader unconsciousness, can lead the patient out of neurosis and away from the overwhelming sense of aimlessness afflicting their lives. Alienated from God, one becomes increasingly agitated by the dark stirrings of the unconsciousness. Jung contends that, instead of standing independent of the universe, one should exist in unison with it. Jung saw the problem with modern men as a situation where traditional religious forms had become obsolete. Modern men need new outlets for their unconscious that are more relevant to their cultural reality. Jung felt his psychology was a way of doing this. Essentially then, for Jung, successful psychotherapy involves determining how to become more conscious of God (the realm of spiritual beings). For Jung, the Godhead symbolizes the unconscious before the ego emerges out of it, just as Adam emerged from the bliss of Eden. Just as Adam, modern men seek to empower themselves at the expense of abandoning the instinctual paths laid out for them unconsciously. Just as the pet Adam became conscious of himself and so distinguished himself, so goes modern man. But even though this insatiable quest for independence arises via the ego, the unconscious remains within us, linking us to that from which we emerged, to the godhead. However, it's important to recognize that Jung is not suggesting this sort of alienation is chronic among all men. Jung recognizes that only a minority of modern men are even aware that they have severed themselves from their unconscious. As in my earlier example, the angry atheist exhibits constant neurotic protest at all religious forms. Jung contends that so long as such a human remains unaware of the spark of God that resides within him, he remains an unrealized self, essentially merely ego. The Nature of Ego The ego is like a child because it wants at once to be independent of the unconscious but also sheltered by it. In this regard, the ego is much like the rich liberal who wails and protests constantly for the government to do something about human suffering but is never moved to personal action. Like a parent, the Godhead patiently emanates parts of itself, while the ego flees, rebels, repudiates its origins, and seeks to remake itself, perhaps even blaming the state of the world upon God. In moderns, the ego has become so rebellious as to sometimes deny that it was created at all. Many moderns have become fully ignorant of the presence of the spark within. Others have subscribed rashly to the notion that unmitigated grace allows them to romp freely about the world without consequence. The highly egotistical ones stumble through life, smugly chasing after every fleeting glitter of materialism. But the consequences of our choices and actions do come to bear and it is when such woes descend upon us that motivation to rediscover the unconscious Godhead occurs. The Refined Ego When the exaggerated personal ego becomes corralled, the vast expanse of the unconscious can be again tapped into. But Jung warns that this too is a potential trap, as many may gain excessive pride in the presumed uniqueness of their relationship with the unconscious; thereby developing an outright psychosis. This brings to mind the raving mad street preacher, the one trapped in cultic involvement or other examples of going off the deep end. When this occurs, the entire consciousness becomes threatened with dissolution. Jung preaches "balance", a state in which the unconscious is recognized and mined, but wherein the ego personality is retained and utilized within the conscious realm. The goal is not a return to the original state of sheer unconsciousness (Adam before the fall) but rather to bring the unconsciousness into consciousness. In this way, the Adam-man, who was once an animalistic pet driven solely by instinct, has experienced his rebellion (like the prodigal son) and returns to the Godhead as a new-man who remains consciously aware; but who has freely chosen association with the Godhead. Remarkably, this state of mind, which Jung refers to as "individuation", does not deprive one of the ability to create themselves; rather, it allows them to develop a more evolved personality that is manufactured with the help of the Godhead. The reader will recognize that it is here where Jung departs from many mainstream religions that cite as their goal a restoration of the pristine unconsciousness, or full dissolution of the ego into the ultimate oneness of the unconscious. Instead, Jung seeks an integration of the unconscious with the ego consciousness and he develops this into his process of therapeutic psychology. In this sense, Jung actually advocates the opposite of Gnosticism. What for Jung is the appropriate end - the integration of the unconscious with the ego, is for Gnosticism the present predicament - the association of divinity with matter. Jung states that the goal of his therapy is the development of a "wider personality" in which the unconscious supplements, not supplants, ego consciousness. My perception of Jungian psychology is that it encourages humans born within the materialistic realm to utilize it as a medium to mold the world appropriately, as opposed to getting lost in mystic practices that advocate escaping from the world. Jung is looking to aid present day living by offering explanations for the psychic problems confronting modern humans. Within a modern perspective, we might think of the unconsciousness as a vast hard drive containing all of the psychic material accumulated by humankind since the manifestation of awareness. In this sense, the ego is like the active memory that accesses the hard drive. The memory dances over the vast array of information, picking and choosing what to access and digest; but it becomes overloaded when it attempts to hold all of the information. As a result, the ego must selectively choose what part of the unconsciousness it wishes to harbor at any given time and it is this selected material that shapes and defines it. Another analogy for this would be relating the unconscious with a parliamentary democracy and the ego with a tyrannical monarch or totalitarian that chooses to consult it or ignore it. We have to understand that we must rely upon the broader expanse of humanity to bear forth ideas and thoughts because the egotistical self is too limited to contain it all. The best the ego can hope for is to sustain an open connection with the broader information, just as one connects to the internet but doesn't attempt to download every bit of the information therein. Jung's premise is that the healthy ego will recognize the vast unconscious by picking and choosing wisely what it wishes to be, as opposed to getting lost and overwhelmed by insatiable hungry forays into the vast well of unconscious material. The intent here is the idea of the self as that more limited memory (ego) which can access the unconscious to give birth to forms from the spiritual realm. And so, we must ask ourselves: what are we creating or bringing forth into our minds? What projections are we allowing to spring forth form the unconscious spiritual realm? How we populate our world of thoughts and imagery bears real consequences within our present dimension. Jung recognized that such imagery could be witnessed in our mythology. The Collective Unconscious as The Spiritual Dimension Jung begins to identify archetypes that emerge from the collective unconscious, as he has observed when conducting psychotherapy upon his patients. Jung finds this realm occupied by many mysterious entities and personas from the past. Jung comes to see the unconscious as symbolizing the entire realm of spirits, the dead, and of our ancestors. Conversely, living people symbolize the ego. REVIEW CONTINUED IN COMMENT SECTION BELOW

Review # 2 was written on 2012-03-15 00:00:00 Carlton Walke I wondered when/if I would ever finish this! Determined to do so last week when on holiday in the Lake District. I used to read a lot of psychology, including Jung, and decided to pick up on this book on the suggestion of my husband who has written an essay on Medium.com (under the name Graham Pemberton) called 10 books which changed my life. Well, I've given The Gnostic Jung five stars because I know it deserves it, but I don't really feel equal to giving it an appropriate review. It stresses the importance of an individual spirituality as opposed to adhering to an organised religion and uses a series of 'revelations' called the Seven Sermons to the Dead to make the point. I did find it a very dense read, but overall inspiring. I've decided to try to upgrade my reading and certainly hope to return to this topic.