Freud, Jung and Spiritual Psychology
Rudolf Steiner

Introduction by psychologist, Robert Sardello
5 lectures, Dornach, Nov. 11 and 12, 1917; Munich, February 25 and 27, 1912; Dornach, July 2, 1921
Translated by May Laird-Brown; revised by Sabine H. Seiler

In the lecture series Freud, Jung and Spiritual Psychology, Rudolf Steiner lays the foundation for a truly spiritual psychology. He begins by examining the principles of Freud and Jung. While Steiner agrees that the phenomena originating psychoanalysis are real, he claims that because Freud did not recognize spirit, the human soul experience was cut off from the larger whole and reduced to subjective, personal history. Beginning with a phenomenological description of the threefold structure of human consciousness - reflective or mirror consciousness, supraconsciousness, and subconsciousness - he outlines an alternative psychology that takes into account both the soul's hidden powers and the complex connections between psychological and organic, bodily processes. Robert Sardello contributes a vital introduction from the perspective of a psychotherapist.

"These lectures on psychoanalysis and spiritual psychology, given at the very time when the 'talking cure' was in its beginnings, force us to confront the inadequate knowledge used in founding psychoanalysis and psychotherapy as a method of soul work . . . . A truly spiritual psychology leads to wisdom of the soul . . . [it] not only takes us out of the limited domain of psychology as concerned with subjective states and into the broader culture, it also takes us into an understanding of the body as the necessary organ through which spiritual perception must find its orientation." - From the Introduction

Previously published as Psychoanalysis and Spiritual Psychology.

See also: Anthroposophy - a Fragment

Anthroposophic Press
144 pages, paperback
ISBN 0 88010 492 9

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) called his spiritual philosophy 'anthroposophy', which he defined as 'the consciousness of one's humanity', and the disciplined methods of studying this he termed ‘spiritual science’.  As a highly developed clairvoyant and spiritual initiate, he spoke from his direct cognition of the spiritual world. However, he did not see his work as religious or sectarian, but rather sought to found a universal 'science of the spirit'.

His many published works (written books and lectures) - which include his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development - invite readers to develop their own spiritual faculties.  He also provided indications for the renewal of many human activities, including education - both general and special - agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. He wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe, and in 1924 founded the General Anthroposophical Society which today has branches throughout the world.
 

Robert Sardello, Ph.D., has been a practicing psychotherapist for over twenty years, working in existential, Jungian and archetypal psychologies. He is co-director of the School of Spiritual Psychology in North Carolina, which is based on the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner.

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