Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides C. G. Jung's a historical re-examination of his political perspective that will challenge those who have portrayed Jung as an un-worldly scholar or a reactionary mystic. It examines the history of Jung and his ideas, but takes up the issues he raised. The book looks at how the idea of the collective unconscious evolved and presents a detailed discussion of how Jung's work drew on Environmental Determinism and Volkisch roots. It discusses the idea of 'immanent archetypes' which are not true archetypes but ideas that are latent in the nature of the external world or the human condition. The chapter deals with the task of explaining Adolf Hitler's character and compares contemporary commentators and some historians with Jung's assessment of the Reichs Fuhrer.