Archetype Revisited (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian)

Much of Dr. Anthony Stevens' life work has been attempting to connect Jung's theory with the achievements of modern biology, psychology, and sociology and showing the relevance of Jung's ideas to modern science. In Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self Dr. Stevens succeeds in doing just that. The main premise of the book is that Carl Jung was well ahead of his time, and that Jungian theory, in author's opinion, has been, for the most part, validated by scientific research in the last forty years. The ideas presented in the book are complex, but their understanding is made easy by Dr. Stevens' impeccable style and clearly presented arguments. In the best Jungian tradition, the author is not shying away from applying theoretical considerations to contemporary mores, which makes for valuable practical lessons, as well as welcome and refreshing commentaries. It may well happen that this and other books of Dr. Stevens (most notably Evolutionary Psychiatry written with John Price) will be viewed ultimately as what brought Jungian theory out of relative obscurity and into the mainstream of psychology and biological science. I found this book very interesting and useful for understanding the key ideas, practical implications, and contemporary scientific proof of Jungian psychology. I highly recommend this book to anyone (especially someone with medical or biological background) interested in Carl Jung and his theory.

I appreciated the biological side of Jungian Psychology which Stevens brings to bear. Good reinforcement to my favored psychological school. A great read and goes on the shelf with my Collected Works of C.G. Jung and The Red Book. Jungians and Non-Jungians alike should read the book!

Fabulous! "The findings of the two new disciplines, evolutionary psychology and evolutionary psychiatry, in no way contradict or supersede Jung's original insights into the nature and influence of the archetypes which make up the human collective unconscious. On the contrary, they corroborate and amplify them. They confirm that human experience and human behavior are complex products of environmental and hereditary forces . . . . What evolutionary psychology is studying is the psychic unity of humankind. This is not, as some critics have suggested, a reductive universalism but an attempt to establish those psychic structures and functions, those strategies and goals, which we all have in common by virtue of our humanity. Far from diminishing our uniqueness as individuals and rendering us prisoners of our genes, this perspective enables us to celebrate with deeper appreciation the ways in which people living in widely different environmental circumstances work out variations of great complexity on similar sets of archetypal themes . . . . In the presence of pervasive cultural uncertainty, it becomes a matter of urgency to understand the basic archetypal needs and resources of humankind."