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Dr Phil McCash - Personal Myth

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This chapter focuses on a highly significant but neglected area of Carl Gustav Jung’s late work: the personal myth. The evolution of Jung’s thought in relation to the personal myth is traced with particular attention paid to the influence of Adlerian ideas. The key features of the personal myth are then delineated. It is argued that it represents Jung’s arrival at an integrative stance in relation to his scientific and more personal works. It is further proposed that the personal myth should be seen as an evolving lifelong and lifewide project. It is an attempt to find a middle way between the twin extremes of fatalism and agency. The personal myth includes ideational and cultural material and is mythopoetic in conception. It entails coming to terms with one’s distinctive life pattern and bringing it to its fullest possible expression. Overall, personal myth means to carry life and weave together the golden threads that connect us all.

See this research publication online: The Plural Turn in Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies: The Work of Andre (routledge.com)

McCash, P. (2021). Personal myth and analytical psychology. In S. Carpani (Ed.), The plural turn in Jungian and post-Jungian studies: The work of Andrew Samuels. Routledge.


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Dr Phil McCash is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick. Phil teaches on the Centre’s postgraduate courses in career development work and provides supervision on the PhD programme.

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