This is a book I am quite enthusiatic about. Although its title implies a concentration on the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, the material in the book ranges very widely over the entire scene of late ninteenth and early twentieth century thought in the German-speaking countries. It is, among other things, a scholarly and well-written introduction to the cultural world-view known as Volkism. The central themes of the book are the grounding,of Jung's thought in the Volkisch context, and the assertion that the Jungian movement may be best understood in terms of cultic religious experience.

Volkism was an important part of the turn of the century German intellectual world. As a philosophy or movement, it can be seen as an outgrowth of nineteenth century German romanticism, and in particular a reaction to the Enlightenment and the stresses of modernism and industrialism. It is, I believe, something that has only rather weak counterparts in Western Europe (i.e. France and England) and North America, and hence is not familiar to those of us living in those countries. One can certainly point to some similar movements with similar elements--for example, populism and (white) nativism in the United States--but the particular flavor and strength of the Volkist movement had no counterpart anywhere else. Of course, Volkism has a bad odor today: it is not an exaggeration to say that it was a direct precursor to Nazism.

Noll provides a fine introduction to Volkism, and indeed to many other rather odd strains of the "counter-Enlightenment" European thought of the time: among others, Wagnerism, Nietzscheanism, Haeckel's Monism, Occultism, neo-paganism, and the counter-culture centered around Ascona in Switzerland during the period 1900-1920. It is curious (or maybe it merely reflects my ignorance) how little remembered all these ideas are today, despite their survival and the subsumption of many of them into the farrago that that makes up the "New Age". Indeed, Noll remarks that while it may be the case that Freud captured intellectual heights in the twentieth century, Jung is the most direct ancestor of New-Ageism, and may be indeed regarded as the more influential, despite a lack of academic repute. As well, Freudianism has fallen on hard times of late.

As for Jung himself, Noll traces his development, always seeking to place Jung in an historical context: something that Jung's followers, with their emphasis on claims of the timeless validity of his ideas, have not been particularly interested in. Noll's claim is that during the so-called ``critical years'' of 1913-1918, Jung underwent the experiences that are usually associated with the founders of religions: a metaphorical or spritiual descent into the underworld, a confrontation with overwhelming forces and figures, a redemptive experience, and a return to the larger world to proclaim his new-found wisdom and build a movement around himself as a charismatic leader. Jung's backgound, and his initial descriptions of his ideas, were, according to Noll, thoroughly saturated with the pervasive Volkism of the time. After the rise of Nazism, Jung reworked his ideas--partly to reflect his interest in alchemy as a psychological practice--and the Anglo-American followers came to him in later years were unfamiliar with the Germanic roots of Jung's thought.

Altogether, I found The Jung Cult a fascinating exposition in cultural history. Not the least of the book's virtues is an extensive set of notes at the end that elaborate and provide links for further investigation of the many topics of the book; some of which I have already begun to pursue and hope to review here.

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