The Tao of Jung

by David H. Rosen

This work tracks Carl Jung's life and spiritual development as the embodiment of the way of the Tao. Jung was well acquainted with the body of Tao knowledge - in his later years he was close to and worked with Wilhelm, a translator of the I Ching. Rosen finds that Jung's life and his psychology reveal the Tao at work. His description of the natural world of the psyche is similar to the natural world as described by Taoists. The essence of both philosophies is that the integration of opposites, such as shadow/persona and yin/yang, leads to wholeness. The Tao, Rosen holds, enabled Jung, who started out as a Freudian, to leave Freud in the major crisis of his life and to end up a more complete person. Rosens's book is modelled on the Tao Te Ching itself and invites readers to further explore the connection between Tao and Jung by looking to the works of the two themselves.