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The relative lack of interest Jungians have shown for the field of transpersonal psychology warrants attention. Although Jung is considered a founding father of the transpersonal movement (alongside figures like William James, Roberto Assagioli, and Abraham Maslow), the Jungian establishment has all but ignored this movement's existence. As of early 2017, in the 62 year history of the Journal of Analytical Psychology there are a total of 25 citations to the combined works of Abraham Maslow (5), Stanislav Grof (6), Charles Tart (7), Ken Wilber (6), Michael Washburn (1), and Richard Tarnas (0). Given the extent to which each of these figures has directly contributed to Jungian interests, this could be considered striking.
Jorge Ferrer's work is concerned with articulating a ‘participatory’ approach to spirituality. In his first book, Ferrer (2002) mounts a challenging critique towards many of the conventional assumptions of transpersonal theorizing. He conceptualizes these assumptions in terms of the field's sustained reliance on experientialism, empiricism, and perennialism. Each of these lines of criticism can be argued to have direct relevance for Jungians, since to a considerable extent all three tendencies are also evident in the history of analytical psychology. By experientialism, Ferrer refers to the fashion in which transpersonalists have tended to treat spiritual phenomena only as the intrasubjective experience of individuals, a trend which he views as promoting narcissism and obstructing spiritual integration. Ferrer's concern with empiricism, meanwhile, focuses on the inadequacy of attempts to align spiritual inquiry with the scientific method. Partly reflecting an apparent criticism of Jung (whom he cites as having been influential in establishing this tendency), Ferrer's concern with the limits of the scientific method are nevertheless very much in keeping with certain statements of Jung himself. Finally, Ferrer challenges transpersonal psychology's broad