ABSTRACT
In 1936 and again in 1946 Jung set out his views on society, nationalism and crowds. When put alongside more recent sociological and social psychological writing, his views are one-sided and, at times, cynical. So, for example, Jung was quite dismissive of social institutions, traditions and culture – one must work with individuals, he thought. German Nazism, in particular, and European nationalism, in general, were, for Jung, products of an alienated modernity in which people were easily ‘possessed’ by particular archetypes. Crowds, said Jung, within the context of this bleak modernity, had a strong tendency to morph into mindless mobs; they easily fell into ‘mass psychosis’. Such writing has set a bad example for later Jungians writing sociology. This chapter aims to supplement Jung’s own writings with more recent sociological writing to work towards a viable Jungian sociology.
