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book1949

The Origins And History Of Consciousness

Disciplines:
philosophy
mythology
consciousness
jungian psychology

Summary

Erich Neumann's 1949 Jungian masterwork — proposing that the development of human consciousness (from participation mystique through ego-consciousness to self) mirrors the development of world mythology — the most ambitious extension of Jungian archetypal theory.

Core Contribution

Creates the recapitulation model of consciousness and mythology — Neumann argues that each stage of individual psychological development (uroboros, creation myth, dragon fight, transformation) corresponds to a stage in the history of mythological consciousness; the framework provides a developmental account missing from Jung's own writing.

Historical Influences

Carl Jung Mythology

Intellectual Lineage

Erich Neumann Pantheon Books Foreword by C.G. Jung

Allied Works

The Hero with a Thousand Faces Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Contemporaries & Peers

No recorded contemporaries.

Minds Influenced

Jungian psychology Jordan Peterson

Intellectual Posterity

The Origins and History of Consciousness Consciousness recapitulates mythology

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