Introduction

Concepts such as ‘self’, ‘individuation’, ‘archetypes’, and ‘active imagination’, which are central to the theory and practice of Jungian analytical psychology, were all shaped to some extent by his investigations into texts and ideas from the ancient traditions of China and India. Successive waves of Eastern thought have over the past four hundred years washed over the minds of Western Christendom. Jung's interest in the East developed strongly in the 1930s. Jung may also have exaggerated the extent to which individuals are ‘rooted’ in their own cultures and hence are barred from participating meaningfully in another. Moreover, although it would be a mistake to identify Jung with the so-called postmodern outlook – his concern with the self as life's goal and with universal archetypal structures prevents that – his hermeneutical approach to Eastern thought is one which bears a marked affinity in certain respects with recent intellectual attitudes.