2.15.24 | Lecture: Jung & The Numinous

In a famous letter to P.W. Martin Jung writes:

“It always seemed to me as if the real milestones were certain symbolic events characterized by a strong emotional tone. You are quite right, the main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. The fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character.” (Jung, Letter, vol. 1:  p. 377)

The Numinous, a concept heavily appropriated from Rudolf Otto’s classic study The Idea of the Holy (1917), is at the center of Jung’s experience of the psyche as well as his therapeutic approach. This lecture will make clear what the Numinous means to Jung and why he insists on valuing it so highly.