Jung and Spinoza: God, Affect, Destiny

Taught by Dr. Robert H. Langan (Acid Horizon Research Commons)

Although separated by centuries of history and thought, the work of Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung (1875–1961) has deep and consequential ties with 17th-century philosopher Benedict de Spinoza (1632–1677). This is most evident in the similarity between Spinoza's theory of God and the monism implicit in Jung's writings, but it extends to their shared notions of knowledge and affect — namely, that our ideas of things cannot be separated from how they make us feel. Both thinkers offer strikingly similar prescriptions for transmuting everyday sorrows into active joys, and for how doing so leads to a higher understanding.

Jung and Spinoza: God, Affect, Destiny charts the three concepts these thinkers share: God, or the transcendental immanence in which all things inhere; Affect, or the nature of affective knowledge; and Destiny, or what Jung calls individuation and Spinoza calls blessedness. Beginning with an introductory overview, the course moves through the pair's respective ontologies, takes up their unification of knowledge and feeling, and concludes with the question of the psyche, synchronicity, and salvation. Ultimately, for both Jung and Spinoza, to know oneself is inseparable from knowing the Divine — an insight that makes us all, in a sense, alchemists.

Readings draw on Spinoza's Ethics and Jung's Collected Works (including "On the Nature of the Psyche," "The Transcendent Function," Symbols of Transformation, and Mysterium Coniunctionis), alongside Langan, Lloyd, and Storr.

Course Structure

This four-week seminar unfolds through a series of interconnected explorations of Jung and Spinoza across metaphysics, epistemology, and practice:

Introduction

A broad overview of both thinkers, orienting to the implicit monism in Jung and Spinoza's theory of God, with attention to the union of knowledge and affect, the notion of sub specie aeternitatis, and the question of why Jung never overtly embraced Spinoza — and what this reveals about his own "introverted bias."

Transcendental Immanence

Unpacking the respective ontologies of Jung and Spinoza in earnest: Are both dual-aspect monists, where mind and matter are complementary aspects of one underlying whole, or does that model miss something essential? Taking up the difference between pantheism and panentheism, and what it means to be an individual who inheres within the Divine.

Affective Knowledge

Examining the surprisingly similar theories of knowledge Jung and Spinoza jointly espouse, and the juncture at which Jung must choose between a hermetically sealed theory of mind and an outbound psyche — where, in a sense, he must "become a Spinozist" for his psychology to succeed.

The Blessed Self

Concluding with synchronicities, archetypes, and the question of just what the psyche or "essence" is for each thinker. What kind of salvation do Jung and Spinoza endorse, and how can viewing things from the gaze of eternity apply to everyday life?

Instructor Bio

Bob Langan holds a doctorate in Psychoanalytic Studies from the University of Essex. A scholar of Jung and Spinoza, he also specializes in speculative metaphysics and psychological types. He co-runs Univocity Drift, a blog about depth psychology, theory, and more. His book Jung and Spinoza: Passage Through the Blessed Self is available through Routledge. He can be reached at bob.langan@gmail.com or on the Acid Horizon Discord in the class channel.

Course Schedule

All sessions meet from 11:00 AM–1:00 PM EST via Zoom, with roughly the first hour for lecture and the remainder for discussion.

Session 1: October 4 — Introduction

Session 2: October 11 — Transcendental Immanence

Session 3: October 18 — Affective Knowledge

Session 4: October 25 — The Blessed Self

Students will receive permanent access to all recorded lectures and a recurring Zoom link for all sessions.

Upon enrollment, download the welcome package and use the materials to navigate to your classroom.