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Daryl Sharp describes his recent book as ‘Jung Lexicon’ rather than ‘Dictionary’. Reference to the latter does not obviously distinguish between the two words, except to say that ‘lexicon’ is often used to mean a special vocabulary and is chiefly a dictionary of Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, or Arabic. The subtitle of Sharp's book is A Primer of Terms and Concepts, implying an introductory or elementary school book; the special or different aspect is that the words and entries contain only Jung's own writing.
The strength and limitation are clearly stated in the preface:
C. G. Jung died in 1961 without ever having presented a systematic summary of his psychology. For the past thirty years his ideas have been explained, explored and amplified by thousands of others, with varying results.
Jung Lexicon takes the reader to the source. It was designed for those seeking an understanding of relevant terms and concepts as they were used by Jung himself. There are choice extracts from Jung's Collected Works, but no references to other writers.
Jung Lexicon is not a critique or defence of Jung's thought, but a guide to its richness and an illustration of the broad scope and interrelationship of his interests.
Informed by a close reading of Jung's major writings, Jung Lexicon contains a comprehensive overview of the basic principles of Jungian psychology.
The strength of this approach is that it is clear, simple, and not confused by other people's views or comments (including the author's own), and the ample references take one directly to the source material in the Collected Works. From here those interested can delve deeper and move on from the apparent simplicity of Sharp's descriptions to the complexity of Jung's writing and psychological understanding. It