Editing Collective unconscious (section)

=== Criticism of Jung's evidence ===

[[Karl Popper|Popperian]] critic Ray Scott Percival disputes some of Jung's examples and argues that his strongest claims are not [[falsifiable]]. Percival takes special issue with Jung's claim that major scientific discoveries emanate from the collective unconscious and not from unpredictable or innovative work done by scientists. Percival charges Jung with excessive [[determinism]] and writes: "He could not countenance the possibility that people sometimes create ideas that cannot be predicted, even in principle." Regarding the claim that all humans exhibit certain patterns of mind, Percival argues that these common patterns could be explained by common environments (i.e. by shared nurture, not nature). Because all people have families, encounter plants and animals, and experience night and day, it should come as no surprise that they develop basic mental structures around these phenomena.<ref name="Percival1993">R. S. Percival, "Is Jung's Theory of Archetypes Compatible with Neo-Darwinism and Sociobiology?", ''Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems'' 16.4, 1993.</ref>

This latter example has been the subject of contentious debate, and Jung critic [[Richard Noll]] has argued against its authenticity.<ref>See: Richard Noll, ''The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement'', New York: Free Press, 1997. For a synopsis of Jung and Noll: Wouter J. Hanegraaf, ''New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought'', State University of New York Press, 1998, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xnrT97nXzgQC&pg=PA505 505]–507. For a milder criticism on the same issue, from an analytic (i.e., Jungian) psychologist: George B. Hogenson, "Archetypes: emergence and the psyche's deep structure", in Joseph Cambray, Linda Carter (eds.),  ''Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in Jungian Analysis'', New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=JZAaRpOyYa4C&pg=PA42 42].</ref>