Soren Kierkegaard is widely acknowledged today as one of the most insightful
philosophical and religious thinkers of western history. Until very recently
Psychologists have been more interested in him as a subject of analysis, rather than as a psychologist in his own right. Fortunately, the tide has now turned and
Kierkegaard's particular brand of Christian Psychology has been well documented. It is notable, however, that whilst Kierkegaard has been exhaustingly investigated from a Freudian perspective, with the exception of a few very brief comparisons by Jungian Scholars, it remains that an extensive Jungian orientated study has yet to be completed. Carl Jung is a complex and controversial figure in the world of psychology and yet so significant are his psychological insights that he is a difficult figure to ignore.
This inquiry will seek to look at in detail the relationship between Jung and
Kierkegaard, both in terms of their work and their personalities. I argue that the
affinity in the thought of Kierkegaard and Jung is much greater than Jung himself,
at least consciously, realised. There are aspects of these thinkers' insights that
converge with one another and this points towards a significant conceptual parity and complementarity in their thought. We might summarize the most important of these points of commonalities as: the creation of meaningful existence through inward deepening; the overcoming of self deception through self creation/recovery; and self determination through the creative exercise of freedom in conjunction with a reference (guiding) point outside of ones own. It will be the most thorough work to date both in terms of looking at the affinity between their models of psychological development and illness but also in its primary concern of addressing Jung's outright and venomous rejection of Kierkegaard.
I will identify the extensive overlap in their thought in order to reveal both an
intellectual and spiritual correspondence that serves to illuminate just how
surprising and odd it is that Jung was not able to find in Kierkegaard a kindred
spirit. In Jung's psychology we see the continuation of Kierkegaard's project of
selfhood as a divine call to become a self before God. Such complementarity
between these two significant figures illustrates the possibility for philosophy and psychology to complement each other in their respective visions of authentic
selfhood.