Fear of Jung: The Complex Doctrine and Emotional Science

The current neuroscientific research in the field of emotion studies highlights a paradigm of scientific research that must be categorized as functional science. As functional science, the neuroscientific theory of the "neuron doctrine" combined with a Jungian theory of the "complex doctrine" hold significant potential for a natural human science and a psychological study of affectivity. Though researchers utilize psychological constructs similar to those proposed by Carl Jung, there appears to be a "fear of Jung," that is, a professional fear of invoking Jung's name or his psychological research. One familiar with Jung's works notice similar terminology, ideas, and even conclusions. The marginalization and neglect of Jung's psychological insights from a serious "empirical-scientific" approach to psychology is due to many factors. Jung did not reduce psychological experience to the body or brain; a reductive science does not consider seriously the reality of the psyche. This work is an initial contribution to a psychological and neurological study of personal emotional experience. The complex is a personal reality that exists as a confluence of body and psyche, and is present to the psyche as an image. Affective science must consider the functional role of the complexes as well as the neurological functions in the human experience of emotions.

Table of Contents:
Overture: nature of the problem under consideration -- Introduction -- Philosophy first, not first philosophy -- Ruminations on the psyche -- Jungian complexes in perspective -- Discussion of Jung's emotional complex doctrine -- Intermezzo: the complex brain nuclei -- A complex consideration -- The complex and post traumatic stress disorder -- A complex integration: rethinking Jung's complex doctrine -- A functional finale

About the Author :
Theo A. Cope has an M.A. in Psychology, and he is currently completing his Ph.D. in Analytical and Chinese Cultural Psychology at South China Normal University (SCNU), Guangzhou, China. He is a Psychology instructor at SCNU and a counselor in private practice.

Review :
'Theo Cope took a considerable risk with Fear of Jung. It was a bold endeavour but he has pulled it off and in so doing has written an extraordinary book... To the empiricists, Jung is frequently a dirty word and to the Jungians, the empirical tradition seems arid and trivial. Theo Cope has successfully bridged this apparently impossible divide and managed to fit Jung's views on emotion into the received psychological wisdom of the 'psychology as a science' tradition. He has even gone so far as to make some sense of Jung's views within the rigorous domain of neuroscience. The book is a pleasure to read, both for its erudition and its courage.' - Professor Ken Strongman PhD FRSNZ Pro-Vice-Chancellor, College of Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand'His major work succeeds in strongly improving the quest for a harmony of methodologies that is so desirable for the ultimate goal of clinical psychology. But this needs courage and independence of thought. Theo Cope has both.' - Dr Mauro Mancini, Psychotherapist, member of IAAP