The Problem of Culture and Nature in Carl Gustav Jung’s Psychoanalytical Concept

Abstract

According to the classical approach culture is the opposite of nature, and man, as a world-transforming being, is the engine of civilization development. C. G. Jung's writings contain a non-classical concept of culture, according to which the collective unconscious determines the way of interpreting and understanding reality, and thus the development of culture. The psychiatrist considers man as a symbol-forming creature. He wrote about the "symbol drive" which causes the creation of symbols to happen spontaneously. There is a connection between the action of instincts, which have a biological basis, and the archetypal source of symbols. There are forces of nature in the unconscious - in particular, the libido and instincts. Culture arises between the unconscious and consciousness, and at the same time, the process of its development has a species-specific aspect.