Jung, Spirits and Madness: Lessons for Cultural Psychiatry

An understanding of the nature and meaning of ‘dissociative,’ ‘altered’ or unusual states ultimately turns on the meaning and definition of consciousness. The view of consciousness from the discipline of psychiatry is largely based on a biomedically endorsed, culturally specific perspective of ‘normal’ consciousness as an integrated pattern of quotidian relationships with the ‘observable’ physical world. This perspective underlies the nosology for mental disorders, particularly psychoses, suggesting irreconcilable difference in cognition and affect of persons with these diagnostic labels. This article reviews some theories of Carl Gustav Jung regarding the structure and content of human consciousness and their relationship to aspects of ‘dementia praecox’ or ‘schizophrenia.’ It traces the origin and development of these ideas in part to Jung’s early contact with, and intense interest in spiritualists and spirits, to later influences comprised of his own altered states (dreams