Editing Carl Jung (section)

===Spirituality===
{{Further|Jungian interpretation of religion}}
{{Esotericism}}
Jung's work on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose beyond material goals.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://archive.org/stream/memoriesdreamsre007394mbpmemoriesdreamsre007394mbp_djvu.txt| title = Aniela Jaffe, foreword to ''Memories, Dreams, Reflections''| year = 1963| publisher = Vintage Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Dunne|first=Clare |title=Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul: An Illustrated Biography|year=2002|page=3|chapter=Prelude|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uegLZklR0fEC&pg=PA3 | isbn=978-0-8264-6307-4 | publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group}}</ref> The main task for people, he believed, is to discover and fulfill their deep, innate potential. Based on his study of [[Christianity]], [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Gnosticism]], [[Taoism]], and other traditions, Jung believed this journey of transformation, which he called [[individuation]], is at the mystical heart of all religions. It is a journey to meet the [[self]] and at the same time to meet the [[Divinity|Divine]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Frick|first=Eckhard|author2=Lautenschlager, Bruno|title=Auf Unendliches bezogen – Spirituelle Entdeckungen bei C. G. Jung|publisher= Munich: Koesel|year=2007|page=204|isbn=978-3-466-36780-1}}</ref> Unlike Freud's [[Atheism|atheistic]] worldview, Jung's [[pantheism]] may have led him to believe that spiritual experience was essential to well-being, as he specifically identifies individual human life with the universe as a whole.<ref>{{cite book|last=Crowley|first=Vivianne|title=Jung: A Journey of Transformation: Exploring His Life and Experiencing His Ideas|year=2000|publisher=Quest Books|location=Wheaton Illinois|isbn=978-0-8356-0782-7|url=https://archive.org/details/jung00vivi}}</ref><ref>Andrew Reid Fuller, "Psychology and Religion: Eight Points of View", 2002, p. 111</ref>

In 1959, Jung was asked by the host, [[John Freeman (British politician)|John Freeman]], on the [[BBC]] interview program ''[[Face to Face (British TV programme)|Face to Face]]'' whether he believed in God, to which Jung answered, "I do not need to believe. I ''know''."<ref name=bbc>{{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AMu-G51yTY| title = BBC ''Face to Face'' broadcast, 22 October 1959| website = [[YouTube]]| date = 10 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rollins |first1=Wayne Giibert |title=Jung and the Bible |date=2013 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers [reprint of 1983 edition] |location=Eugene, Oregon |isbn=978-1-62564-261-5 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_spNAwAAQBAJ&q=jung+god+%22the+listener%22&pg=PA121 |access-date=23 January 2020}}</ref> Jung's ideas on religion counterbalance Freudian skepticism. Jung's idea of religion as a practical road to individuation is still treated in modern textbooks on the [[psychology of religion]], though his ideas have been criticized.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wulff|first=David|title=Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Views|year=1991|publisher=Wiley and Sons|page=[https://archive.org/details/psychologyofreli00wulf/page/464 464]|isbn=978-0-471-50236-4|url=https://archive.org/details/psychologyofreli00wulf/page/464}}</ref>

Jung recommended spirituality as a cure for [[alcoholism]], and is considered to have had an indirect role in establishing [[Alcoholics Anonymous]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Levin|first=Jerome David|title=Introduction to Alcoholism Counseling|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1995|page=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontoal00levi/page/167 167]|chapter=Other Etiological Theories of Alcoholism|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_y7H9Sq5g6kC&pg=PA167|isbn=978-1-56032-358-7|url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoal00levi/page/167}}</ref> Jung treated an American patient named [[Rowland Hazard III]] who had chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some time and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that, occasionally, such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics when all other options had failed. Hazard took Jung's advice seriously and sought a personal, spiritual experience. He returned to the United States and joined a Christian [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] movement known as the [[Oxford Group]]. He told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he brought into the Oxford Group was [[Ebby Thacher]], a long-time friend and drinking buddy of [[William Griffith Wilson]], later co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Thacher told Wilson about the Oxford Group, and through them, Wilson became aware of Hazard's experience with Jung. The influence of Jung thus indirectly found its way into the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original [[twelve-step program]].

The above claims are documented in the letters of Jung and Wilson.<ref>Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (1984) ''Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message Reached the World.'' New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-916856-12-0}}, page. 381–386.</ref> Although some historians dispute the detail, Jung discussed an Oxford Group member, who may have been the same person, in talks around 1940. The remarks were distributed privately in transcript form, from shorthand taken by an attender (Jung reportedly approved the transcript), and later recorded in his ''Collected Works'', "For instance, when a member of the Oxford Group comes to me in order to get treatment, I say, 'You are in the Oxford Group; so long as you are there, you settle your affair with the Oxford Group. I can't do it better than Jesus.{{'"}}<ref>Jung, C. G.; [[Gerhard Adler|Adler, G.]] and Hull, R. F. C., eds. (1977), ''Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 18: The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-09892-0}}, [p. 272, https://web.archive.org/web/20070908023121/http://www.stellarfire.org/additional.html]</ref> Jung goes on to state he has seen similar cures among [[Roman Catholics]]. The 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous has a psychological backdrop involving the human ego and the dichotomy between the conscious and unconscious mind.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hopemakersrecovery.com/psychology/jungian-12-steps|title=Jungian 12 Steps|website=Hope Makers|access-date=5 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609020111/https://www.hopemakersrecovery.com/psychology/jungian-12-steps|archive-date=9 June 2019}}</ref>