James Hollis - What is the Ego?

In an interview with Jungian psychoanalyst and scholar James Hollis, EnlightenNext's Amy Edelstein explores the developmental and spiritual role of the ego according to the father of analytical psychology, C.G. Jung.

Carl Jung is perhaps best known for his exploration of the human psyche through dreams, art, myth, religious experience, and philosophy. His original conceptions of the collective unconscious, archetypes, and synchronicity have become pillars of modern, secular spirituality (not to mention the New Age). But Jung was first and foremost a pioneering psychologist, and his investigations and theories about the ego are no less compelling than those of his famous mentor and colleague, Sigmund Freud. But where Freud saw the ego as a repository of repressed fears and negative feelings, Jung saw it as a well of deep significance both positive and negative, a source of incapacitating neuroses and also brilliant creativity—even spirituality. Hollis defines these many faces of the ego, delving into the ways ego can serve the spiritual quest or hinder it, support the vertical development of the individual or stymie profound personal evolution. Given that the ego is not only an object of psychological fascination in the West but is also the arch nemesis of enlightenment in the East, this conversation is required listening for all sincere seekers on the spiritual path today.

BIO

James Hollis, Ph.D., was born in Springfield, Illinois. He graduated with an A.B. from Manchester College in 1962 and with a Ph.D. from Drew University in 1967. He taught the Humanities 26 years in various colleges and universities before retraining as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute of Zurich, Switzerland (1977-82). He is a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Houston, Texas, where he is also Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center of Houston. He lives with his wife Jill, an artist and therapist, and together they have four adult children. He is a Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, was the first Director of Training of the Philadelphia Jung Institute, and is vice-president of the Philemon Foundation, which is dedicated to the publication of the complete works of Jung.

He has published eleven books with total sales well over 100,000 copies, the most recent being Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life (Gotham Books/Penguin). Various of these books have already been translated into Russian, German, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, and Japanese.