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Jung and Spinoza: Passage Through the Blessed Self

Author(s) : Robert Langan

Reviews and Endorsements

It is a delight to see Dr. Langan’s study on Jung and Spinoza in print! A masterful exploration of the interconnections and links between two great thinkers: one of the founders of depth psychology and the other a renowned philosopher who helped create the modern view of the mind and its place in nature. While the parallels and overlaps between these two figures are made evident, readers are also offered a compelling solution to the riddle of why Jung did not more overtly embrace Spinoza in his written works.
Joseph Cambray, PhD, IAAP, Past-President-CEO, Pacifica Graduate Institute

The first full-length monograph on the dyad of Spinoza and Jung, this is a deeply insightful work that will be essential reading for anyone studying the relation between these two thinkers, as well as for those studying the philosophical underpinnings of Jungian psychology more broadly. Offering the intriguing, and ultimately convincing, thesis that Jung had something of a “Spinoza complex” due to an introverted bias, and that Jung was much closer to Spinoza than he admitted, this book manages to be both scholarly and personal, both rigorous and exciting. It is an important and brilliant work that also happens to be a pleasure to read.
Grant Maxwell, PhD, author of Integration and Difference: Constructing a Mythical Dialectic

This major study not only clarifies the historical puzzle of Jung’s ambivalent relationship to the thought of Spinoza but also intervenes weightily in cutting-edge debates about Jung’s implicit ontological and epistemological views. Writing with great clarity, authority, and verve, Bob Langan guides us on an exhilarating intellectual journey through the subtleties of the two thinkers’ ideas to reveal their deep and consequential affinities. No future philosophical examination of Jung’s psychology can afford to ignore this book.
Professor Roderick Main, University of Essex

A surprising topic, this is an important and illuminating study of both philosophers/psychologists. A true pleasure to read and study.
Yitzhak Melamed, Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, author of Spinoza’s Metaphysics: Substance and Thought

Far from conducting a mere comparative study between two highly enigmatic thinkers, Robert Langan’s study employs the subtlety and systematicity of Spinozist philosophy as a way to distill Jungian psychology down to its finest points. Far from taking Jung’s disavowal of Spinozism at face value, Langan finds in it an opportunity to push Jungian thought toward an immanent, embodied, and possibly salvific horizon. Jung and Spinoza is a mutually clarifying study that should be warmly welcomed by scholars of both traditions.
Eric Aldieri, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bridgewater State University

This fascinating and surprisingly readable book is a pioneering and authoritative study of what is revealed to be a very rich seam: the relationship between the psychology of C. G. Jung and the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. In Jung and Spinoza: Passage Through The Blessed Self, Langan’s acute philosophical approach delves deeply into aspects of Spinoza’s thought and thereby sheds genuinely new light upon Jungian psychology. It turns out that Spinoza’s metaphysics provides an excellent – even transformative fit with Jung’s implicit ontology. Particularly enlightening is Langan’s emphasis upon the crucial role of affect in Spinoza and its implications for Jung and his collective psyche. All in all, a game-changing treatment of a difficult but profoundly rewarding topic.
Mark Saban, PhD, IAAP & UKCP, University of Essex