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In this compact and interesting book Paul Kugler places Jung where he belongs: at the
heart of twentieth-century developments in intellectual concerns and methodologies. Jung may be considered among the first of the structuralists, certainly the first structurally orientated psychologist and clinical practitioner. This claim is substantiated by archetypal theory generally and, in particular, by Kugler's examination of the implications for psycholinguistics of Jung's Word Association Test.
It is well known that Jung used the results of his experiments both to validate Freud's hypothesis of the unconscious and also as a basis for his own concept of the complex, working with affectivity and the inner psychic feeling tone of his subjects' responses. It is less well known that Jung found that there were phonetic associations as well as meaning associations, and that the former increased with the level of unconsciousness (boredom with the test which caused attention to wander, subjects tested on awakening, and, to a degree, fatigue). Analytical psychology has never followed the line of investigation suggested by phonetic association, preferring, with the Freudians, to attribute phonetic connections to chance. For Kugler though, not only the words, but also the very sound of the words is of prime importance.
Using Freud's famous report of a dreamer's association of violet and violate, Kugler points out that there is a significant association via sound as well as one via feeling. There is therefore a meaning relation between words that are phonetically associated. Kugler's contention is that this is based on an underlying archetypal image. It is not a ‘lexical, syntactic or etymological connection’ (p. 22). In fact, Kugler is led to speak of an ‘acoustic image’. Back to flowers for a moment: carnation—carnal, reincarnation, carnage. How can such a link be? In the image.
Kugler does not follow Jung (or Freud) in seeing ‘an inverse proportion between sound and meaning, i.e., th