At the origins of Jungian thought: Theodore Flournoy and spiritism

Journal title STUDI JUNGHIANI
Author/s Riccardo Gramantieri
Publishing Year 2018 Issue 2018/47-48
Language Italian Pages 21 P. 9-29 File size 223 KB
DOI 10.3280/JUN2018-047002
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The first psychiatric work of Carl Gustav Jung describes a case of dissociation. The girl was a medium and during séances expressed different personalities. The clinical case was very similar to the one described two years earlier by Theodore Flournoy in his famous From India to the Planet Mars. Many themes proposed in that clinical case will be taken up by Jung. For the first time, Flournoy sensed that the personalities that emerged during séances had a compensatory characteristic respect to consciousness. Furthermore, the characteristics of these personalities seemed to presage mature personalities of the medium in the future. The aim of this work is to highlight those themes of the future Jungian psychology that were present in an embryonic form in the work of Theodore Flournoy.

Keywords: Complexes, dissociation, Flournoy, Jung, spiritism

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Riccardo Gramantieri, Alle origini del pensiero junghiano. Theodore Flournoy e lo spiritismo in "STUDI JUNGHIANI" 47-48/2018, pp 9-29, DOI: 10.3280/JUN2018-047002