The present thesis is a critical enquiry into comparative philosophy on Jungian psychoanalysis and Yogācāra Buddhism. Since the mid-60s, the unconscious and the storehouse consciousness (ālayavijñāna) have been compared by Western scholars seemingly on the base of their similarities. Drawing on Clifford Geertz’s metaphor of webs of meaning I propose an alternative interpretation, namely that this comparison owes much more to the diffusion of psychoanalytical theory outside the consulting-room—which was openly advocated by Freud and Jung—than on real resemblances. For this purpose, I examine Jung’s works from the viewpoint of religious studies, contextualizing his thought and entanglement with philosophical surroundings. Gained a critical understanding of psychoanalysis, I undertake a cross-cultural enquiry by considering the Taiwanese perspective on Jung’s concept of the unconscious and the storehouse consciousness. The aim of the final part is twofold: (i) to prove that psychoanalysis found in Taiwan a fertile soil for comparative developments with Chinese and Yogācāra philosophy, and (ii) that these developments took place in the context of the Yogācāra revival. Finally, the conclusion invites to carry on the research on the role of psychoanalysis within Yogācāra philosophy in the East Asian region and Chinese cultural context.
Abstract in English, Chinese, and Italian 6 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction. The journey of Buddhism to the West, The journey of psychoanalysis to the East 11 How did we get here? 11 The goal of the thesis 13 The research question 14 The state-of-art and methodology 14 My Sources 17 Chapters of the thesis 18 Chapter one. Imagining psyche: Coming to terms with Jungian terms 20 1.1 Out of the consulting-room 1: Problematizing Jung’s works in academia 21 Methodological approach and some general issues 22 Jung: Unconscious ‘wisdom’ vs. Academic intellectualism 25 Skeptic academics, Jungian devotees, and enthusiast specialists. 27 1.2 What is psychoanalytic psychotherapy? 32 Introductory remarks 32 Psychoanalysis and the cure of souls 34 1.3 Out of the consulting-room 2: Placing (psycho)analysis in modern society 37 The autonomy of the unconscious according to Jung 37 “Making the darkness conscious”: Defining ‘numinosity’ as a psychological fact 40 The analytical attitude and the West 44 “A powerful mythology” 48 Chapter two. Jung, Orientalism, and Buddhology 52 2.1 Collective unconscious and cultural differences 52 The idea of the unconscious 53 The primitive within ‘us’ 56 2.2 Jung’s Orientalist and ethnocentric biases 60 Races and Orientalist discourse in Jung 60 A blind spot in Orientalism 64 2.3 Jung and the early Republic of China 66 European guns, Chinese wisdom 66 Jung’s Chinese Prejudice 72 2.4 Jung, Jungians, and Buddhologists 76 Psychoanalysis and Buddhism in dialogue 1: Hybrids 78 Psychoanalysis and Buddhism in dialogue 2: A new tradition? 81 How do you solve a problem like ālayavijñāna? 1: The Western perspective 84 Chapter three. A case study of comparative philosophy on Jungian psychoanalysis and Yogācāra: Taiwan 92 3.1 Psychoanalysis in Taiwan 93 Preliminary linguistic remarks 93 New terms for a Western theory 95 The culturing process (bentuhua) of psychoanalysis in Taiwan 100 3.2 Wu Rujung and his book in East Asian context 103 The author and the Yogācāra revival 103 The book: Sources and topics 106 3.3 Comparative philosophy on Yogācāra and Jungian psychoanalysis 109 Defining a comparative study (bijiao yanjiu) 109 The qi of the experience 112 Coming to terms with the psychoanalytic self in the Chinese system of thought 116 How do you solve a problem like ālayavijñāna? 2: The Taiwanese perspective 121 Concluding remarks 127 Works cited 131
