The chapters of this volume were originally given as lectures at the Eranos Meeting at Ascona, Switzerland, and deal specifically with a process which the author calls 'individuation', defined as 'the psychological process that makes of a human being an "individual"—a unique, indivisible unit or "whole man"' (p. 3). His now famous concept of the collective unconscious is discussed in great detail. The book is written with a casual display of erudition that is at times somewhat staggering.

Jung discusses briefly Janet's and Freud's concepts of the unconscious, stating that according to both theories 'the unconscious is little else than psychological material that happens to lack the quality of consciousness, though it need not do so, and that differs