Radical Jung – review

In his latest work, Rob Faure Walker reclaims the renowned psychotherapist Carl Jung from the clutches of rightwing discourse, using Jungian insights to ‘guide us through the crises of digital era capitalism’.

Jung’s ideas about archetypes, the shadow, individuation, the collective unconscious and synchronicity have proved politically adaptable. Jungian thought and ideas were formed purely through Jung’s own works into the human mind, and so apply generally across the broader human condition, rather than prescribing a particular ideology.

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This doesn’t mean that Jungian thought cannot be applied to the political arena, or to inform leftwing concerns. With acute awareness and understanding of both Jung’s work and ideas and the perilousness of our current situation, Faure Walker has demonstrated in this fascinating and thought-provoking read how Jungian influence can provide creative solutions to the multifaceted crises of modernity and aid us through the existential malaise that is a natural consequence of living in an age of what Mark Fisher termed capitalist realism.

Whereas rightwing thinkers such as Jordan Peterson read Jung’s work (particularly his work on archetypes and the collective unconscious) as vindication of traditionalist, and even nationalist, sentiments, Faure Walker recognises the broader meaning within Jung’s ideas, applied to the current moment’s demand ‘that we decentre ourselves,’ using them to argue for a slowing down – a radical idea in these times. For Faure Walker, we need ‘deeper and unconscious ways of knowing,’ to aid us to understand what must be done to change and save our world.

Jung, degrowth and repair

In essence, Faure Walker’s call is for degrowth – that taboo word, heresy to our ruling classes – and repair. It is here that Faure Walker really excels. Identifying the relationship between capitalism and our mental health, Faure Walker writes explicitly of the ‘psychic abuse’ suffered at the hands of ‘manipulative’ corporations, pointing to an exacerbation of mental health crises in the age of social media and as a result of numerous economic disasters, as well as in the helplessness felt in the face of climate change and genocide, both of which have inextricable ties to capital.

Like Mark Fisher before him, Faure Walker provides great insight into this link between capital and mental wellbeing, and readers of Radical Jung are likely to come away vindicated and emboldened in the fight against capitalism. Conversely, readers unsympathetic to anti-capitalist sentiments may also be enlightened by Faure Walker’s analysis; it would be interesting to see such a person wrestle with the book’s premise and its exposure of capital as highly destructive on both an individual and collective level.

Faure Walker has demonstrated how Jungian influence can provide creative solutions to the multifaceted crises of modernity

Critics may well point out that degrowth and repair are easier said than done. Capitalist society may not be normal or sustainable, but it is the norm in the sense that it is what people know and recognise as the way of life. What is demanded of us, then, is seismic in scale. To achieve the change in direction that is so critically important, we must first of all establish a different perspective, an alternative view of how we live, individually and collectively. For critics of anti-capitalism, change of this magnitude may well seem impossible, and hardly worth the effort (see the opposition to net zero, for example). 

Yet Faure Walker pre-empts these counterarguments, writing compellingly on a range of solutions that could help us reconnect with our inner selves and the natural world. Such reconnection can produce the insight needed for change. Taking Jung’s lead, Faure Walker begins with dreams, and the guidance ‘we might glean from our dreams,’ making the link between dreams and the spiritual wisdom of Indigenous and pre-colonial peoples, back to a ‘Gnostic way of thinking.’ For Faure Walker, ‘it is only by engaging’ in this kind of ‘deep introspection … that we are able to see through our culturally imposed expectations and properly engage with the material world.’

Acid Jungianism

One area, however, where Faure Walker diverges from Jung is in his open-mindedness to the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, recognising ‘the healing potential of … visionary experiences’. This recalls the 1960s convergence of psychedelic culture and leftwing politics, later revisited by Fisher in his idea of Acid Communism.  

Not that Faure Walker is proposing regular hallucinatory states, though. In discussing the therapeutic usage of psychedelics, Faure Walker is concerned with the potential treatment of psychological suffering rather than physical illness. Again, it is all about reconnecting with the inner self, ‘the unconscious aspects of the self,’ and the natural world. Sharing insights from his work in ecotherapy, Faure Walker shows how the unconscious, and even visionary experiences, can be reached soberly through interaction with nature. Ecotherapy, as Faure Walker attests, enables us to heal our minds, to achieve states of clarity, and a deeper understanding of things.

Faure Walker’s scope in Radical Jung, then, covers a broad area, and is emphatic in its criticisms not just of capitalism, but of the damage done across centuries by Judaeo-Christian-informed nationalism and heterosexual patriarchy as the dominant ruling force within our societies. And despite its recognition of the perilousness of our current situation, Radical Jung is as illuminating as it is compelling, being of particular use to anyone who is struggling under the strains of capitalist reality. 

Pointing to the ouroboros, Faure Walker reminds us of the cyclical nature of life, of all things, including our moods, moving ‘through us just as water moves through the world’ (Ian Siddons Heginworth, Environmental Arts Therapy and the Tree of Life). This reminder is a powerful one, tied in with the importance of decentring, of looking inward in order to connect with the external, and away from pain and suffering inflicted within the current reality of the world. 

Ultimately, through his reading of Jung, Faure Walker has produced a work of huge importance for us all, making the case convincingly for what so many of us on the left are advocating for – a time for degrowth, slowing down, an end to capitalism as the driving force behind all things, and the space for repair and healing.