In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

PREFACE The transcendent function is the core of Carl Jung’s theory of psychological growth and the heart of what he called “individuation,” the process by which one is guided in a teleological way toward the person he or she is meant to be. This book exhaustively reviews the transcendent function through the seminal essay that bears its name, Jung’s other writings, commentary by others , and exploration by the author. It analyzes the 1958 version of the essay “The Transcendent Function” from Jung’s Collected Works, the original version written in 1916, and every reference Jung made to the transcendent function in his written works, his letters, and his public seminars. In addition to describing the transcendent function within Jung’s psychology, this book hypothesizes that it became his root metaphor for psychological growth or even psyche itself. It compares and contrasts the transcendent function with transitional and mediatory phenomena from other schools of psychology, identifies its deeper foundational even archetypal roots, and suggests ways that it can be vivified in everyday life. Jung’s theory of individuation, that a person is pulled forward in a purposive way by psyche, was a central departure from the theories of Sigmund Freud, whose drive theory posited that a person’s life was largely determined by the push of early life events and traumas. Jung believed that psychological growth and individuation were only possible through an ongoing conversation between consciousness and the unconscious. He felt that every idea, attitude, or image in consciousness was opposed or compensated for by another in the unconscious and that the two struggled with each other in a kind of polarized dance. If these opposites were held in swaying tension, he posited , a new, third thing would emerge that was not a mixture of the two but qualitatively different. This mechanism he called the “transcendent function.” It was key to his thinking because only through a process of engaging in the transcendent function can a person foster the psychological growth that leads to individuation. xi Jung first explored this key process in 1916, soon after his break from Freud, in a paper called “The Transcendent Function.” Though he went on to refer to the concept extensively in eight of his other written works, in four published letters, and in five public seminars, the paper was not published until 1957 when it was discovered by the students of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Jung revised the paper in 1958 for inclusion in the Collected Works in 1960. Appendix A presents a word-by-word comparison of the two versions to show how Jung’s thinking changed on the subject. This book is the first to analyze and review the excerpts about the transcendent function in Jung’s written works, published letters, and public seminars. Through this process, the book presents a scholarly overview of the transcendent function’s role within the Jungian paradigm. From this Jungian foundation, the book compares and contrasts the transcendent function with mediatory and transitional concepts from other schools of psychology. Object relations (Winnicott and Klein), ego psychology (Freud), self-psychology (Kohut), archetypal psychology (Hillman), gestalt therapy, client -centered therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy are all analyzed in this context. This study also explores the deeper roots and archetypal foundations of the transcendent function as a psychological construct. Finally, the book seeks to usher the transcendent function from the abstract realm of psychological theory into the world of modern life. It concludes with a discussion of how the transcendent function can be animated in human relationships, and cultural dialogue in our day-to-day lives in the form of a metaphoric field, a third area between ourselves and whatever or whomever we are interacting with, that invites the emergence of new attitudes, situations, or perspectives. X I I Preface ...

Share