This essay is about the similarities and differences between the philosophies of the two principle fathers of Western philosophy, Plato [Socrates], Aristotle and contemporary psychology. It is very evident that Depth-psychology, particularly Jungian but also Freudian, mainly follow on the line of Plato. Both Freud and Plato esteem reason as a way to come to terms with the unruly energies contained in what Freud referred to as the id and Plato, the wild beast in our nature. Plato also saw the need for laws to help contain humankind’s wildness, while Freud, coming out of a repressed Victorian age, saw the need for reason to mediate between the id and the overly repressive ideals and morality of the superego. Regarding Jung, the similarity is essentially based on the common significance of Jungian archetypes and Platonic ideas. The essential difference between Jung and Plato is that Jung’s archetypes are psychoid and contain and go beyond both spirit and matter, while Plato’s ideas are only substantial in the realm of the spirit if not only thought. Although Aristotle can legitimately be understood to be the father of scientific psychology, both his scientific attitude and influence on alchemy link him indirectly, if not directly, to Jung. In fact Jung’s approach to psychology can be understood to be a reconciliation of Western thought and the redemption of matter
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