ABSTRACT
The main point discussed in this chapter is Jung’s stance on literature, with the definitive point made that Jung’s approach to literature may be viewed as valid insofar as for him, literature and artistic creativity more generally are not reducible to analytical psychology but are in their totality analogous repositories of the same. The psychological aspect that I explore in Jungian poetics is the formation of such art in the creative self, in what is to Jung a transformative “psyche”, for which mythological and alchemical symbols contribute to expressions of the individuation process. Although Jung called for logos in his theories, he stressed the importance of mythos. Logos alone was not enough for understanding the psyche, and in turn, humanity; however, mythos, which can manifest as narrative or poetry with its language of symbolism and imagery, is necessary to reveal the hidden aspects of the collective unconscious in the work of individuals. I discuss how, for Jung, myths were narratives that both expressed and shaped the psyche, which is where poetry and psychology meet. Archetypes are not wholly discrete essences separate from empirical experience. Rather, they exist in the empirical world like transcendental truths as the constructors of individual experience.
