Freud and Jung
I had the opportunity to meet that fellow from Vienna and his colleague from Switzerland – what was his name. Yes, Sigmund Freud and the other fellow was Carl Jung. They were invited here by my friend, G. Stanley Hall, who has been president of Clark University –another Massachusetts educational institution. Freud and Jung offered some interesting ideas and I greatly admire the way in which they challenge existing European notions about human nature. And both came from the profession of medicine – like I did. So, I admire the way they have based their concepts in the practice of trying to heal people. This keeps them more grounded than many of the more theoretical philosophers of their time. That is why I have gravitated to psychology. It puts some muscles on the frail body of contemporary philosophy.
I do wonder what has happened to their ideas and practices. Have they remained odd and unaccepted voices in the wilderness of human knowledge, or have they made any headway? My major concern with their ideas, goes back to my fundamental tenant. Humans are decision-makers and control their own destiny. I worry that this whole gobble-gook about unconscious processes and boys wanting to make love to their mothers is a bit off-putting. Freud and Jung would seem to be replacing the wrathful God that Jonathan Edwards preaches about, with an equally vindictive unconscious monster – the Id – that pulls humankind back to the evolutionary state that the fellow from England, Charles Darwin, declares is our heritage. I am also a bit uncomfortable with all of the focus on sex in the work of Freud (more than Jung). I am still a bit of a Puritan when it comes to any discussion about love making or the emotion called “lust.”
Psychology of Choice and Freedom
Let me return to my own perspectives on the field of psychology. I believe that when people have choices to make, then there will be significant individual differences. I am particularly interested in the differences that occur in the formation of religious beliefs. I was asked to provide a series of lectures in Scotland—the prestigious Gifford Lectures. I turned these lectures into a book called “Varieties of Religious Experiences”. It is of some interest to note that my book came out about the same time as Freud’s book on dreams. I think this is some of the best work done by both of us. It was at the start of the 20th Century when both books were published. Perhaps this was the century for the flourishing of a new discipline: psychology. One of the main theses of my religion book was that we must each find our distinctive pathway through life. For some of us, the pathway leads to something I call the twice-born pathway. We make one or more major changes in our life and shift, like Saul in the Old Testament, to a new faith and new perspective. We become the new-born Paul. Twice-born is about conversion. I know about this process, because of the work done by my father as a famous pastor, the founder of a church, and someone who was very demanding of all his children.
