Psyche, Science and Society: Essays on Jung and Sociology

In this new volume, Gavin Walker attempts to open a conversation between sociology and Jungian psychology, both often overlooked by each other, through a series of wide-ranging essays.This book provides a Jungian counterpoint to the more accepted Freudian perspective in sociology by engaging with several key themes, including race, gender, urban sociology, religion and the environment. The chapters here consider methodological issues, such as how Jungian psychology might contribute to our understanding of human nature, and Jung’s – and sociology’s – complex and manylevelled relationship with anthropology. As a whole, this unique work provides an open-ended exploration of what sociology includes and excludes from its agenda, and asks how engagement with Jung might shift the centre of gravity of a heterogeneous discipline.Psyche, Science and Society will be of interest to academics and students working in the fields of analytical psychology and sociology, as well as psychoanalysis, anthropology, feminism, environmentalism, comparative religion and the history of science.

About the Author

Gavin Walker studied sociology at Glasgow College of Technology and the University of Edinburgh, and Environmental Science at the University of Strathclyde. He taught Social Sciences at West College Scotland until his retirement in 2020. He is the author/editor of Jung and Sociological Theory: Readings and Appraisal (2018).