ABSTRACT
C. G. Jung's vocabulary and epistemology had a precursor in the work of the early eighteenth-century philosopher and rhetorician Giambattista Vico. Disavowing any artistic hope of employing words to paint a picture of life, Jung expressed satisfaction with a workmanlike language of conventional signs. Mythological motifs are the facts that Jung chose to investigate in order to theorize comparative anatomies of the psyche and a corresponding practice of psychotherapy. An important critic of the Enlightenment, Vico developed a theory of knowledge that sees the natural sciences and the humanities as contradictory domains. At the core of Vico's New Science is his principle of verum factum: truth is made, not perceived. Vico defined three kinds of language - the poetic, the heroic and the vernacular. Jung recommends fostering a respectful, even religious attitude toward the psychic content, and he employs the word possessed to reinforce that stance towards the psyche.
