Franklin Merrell-Wolff continues this series by introducing the third postulate of Jungian psychology concerning the notion of “archetypes.” He comments upon the nature of the “shadow,” the “anima” and “animus,” “Mephisto,” and the “Sage,” pointing out that archetypes were often projected as gods in classical civilization. Wolff offers a self-analysis of his experience with the psychological aspects symbolized by the Grail myth and emphasizes his orientation to thought and the way of the hermit as opposed to the interest in the girl and the competitive spirit. He goes on to give an account of his brief interest in Napoleon Bonaparte as his hero; but, he points out that this was replaced by an orientation to Sir Isaac Newton as carrying the image of the Sage. He states that in the field of competition the hero gains status by defeating his opponent, while in the field of thought, the accomplishments of the Sage do not imply the defeat of the other fellow. Wolff goes on to present more autobiographical material and to introduce another system of typology based upon three cues to understanding: the visual type, the auditory type, and the motor-verbal type. He discusses pure mathematics and the religious orientation, and the basic hostility between pure mathematics and the experimental psychology of the day. He continues his analysis of the psychological orientation with a critique of Jung’s intuitive formulation and his inability to comprehend and appreciate the importance of mathematics and the mathematically-oriented psychological type. Wolff asserts that the true meeting of East and West is a marriage of the Eastern orientation to the aesthetic component and the Western orientation to the theoretical component, and suggests that instead of Christ being the primary figure with respect to Western man, it really is Pythagoras. Wolff concludes this part of the series by referring to the work of Kant and by introducing his notion of introceptual cognition as a way of knowing metaphysical truth precluded by Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
Recording Location
Lone Pine, Calif.
Recording Date
? October 1977
Recording Information
Transcript
Recording Duration
74 min
Sort Order
269.00