Reddit reviews The Portable Jung (Portable Library)

First off, read anything by Carl Jung. His theories on archetypes and the collective unconscious form the groundwork upon which not only games, but the entire modern entertainment industry are built.

Basically Jung argues that there is a collective set of symbols and ideas that all humans, regardless of culture or upbringing will respond to. Understanding these symbols, and building your game around them - either as mechanics or story - allows you to influence how the player will respond.

Jung: A Very Short Introduction is a pretty easy way to get started. After you read that I'd suggest getting into the meat of Jung's own words with The Portable Jung (coincidentally edited by Joseph Campbell)

And with that, you should also read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. He takes Jung's ideas, and shows the specific symbols used in the Hero's Journey - one of the most common story types. People talk about the Hero's Journey all the time - but it's a really important concept to understand if you're doing any sort of creative works. Here are two quick video primers on it:

A more serious one: Ted Ed: What Makes a Hero

A more awesome one: Glove and Boots: The Hero's Journey :)

If you want to go further on the narrative route I'd also suggest The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker. He takes the Hero's Journey and shows how it is just one of several different plot archetypes, all of which have their own internal path, rules, and idiosyncrasies.

Now, in case you're thinking "Why are you sharing these books about narrative with me? Games are not stories!" remember that people have been responding to stories for all time - and good storytellers are masters at making people feel the desired emotion at the desired time.

Therefore I'd also direct you to Story By Robert McGee as well as Poetics by Aristotle. Both of these books look at story in a mechanical sense, and explain the precise methods storytellers (both ancient Greek ones and modern Hollywood ones) use to evoke emotions in the audience. These principles almost directly translate to game design.

After that I'd suggest looking at Chris Crawford's list of books all game designers should read. Unfortunately I can't find a copy of the list on the internet, but it's at the end of his book Chris Crawford on Game Design

Personally I think a better questions is 'how should one read Jung?' I have a friend who studied psychology with a neuroscience concentration, and that area doesn't tend to take Jung or most psychoanalysts seriously, and while that's not my background, I can see why. I used to be someone who took those methods of self-description and analysis very seriously, but in addition to occasionally taking me some weird places, it's really not taken seriously by most professionals in the fields of, say, psychology.

That said, there are a couple reasons to still study psychoanalytics. One is if you're interested in things like art, film or literature, which were all hugely influenced by ideas about the subconscious. I read a lot of James Joyce and Marcel Proust, and those writers can't be fully understood without some decent understanding of the understandings of psychology that fed into those authors works (Joyce even had his daughter be analyzed by Jung). Artists like Picasso and Pollock were heavily inspired by psychoanalysis, and much can be said for numerous filmmakers, and even some interesting religious study has been done with their work (Joseph Campbell comes to mind here). So if you're interested in that angle, I'd say go for it, as they've got a lot of interesting insights into how art, literature and even religion work.

Another way you can read them is for personal growth, rather than as a transmission of analytic information (I'm not sure I'm phrasing that very well; apologies). I have a few authors that I love to read, but would hesitate to use them to back up some assertion made in an academic paper, unless it was for a very specific purpose, or maybe just finding some flowery quote that I put at the front of a chapter to be pretentious. Jung's been great for me to understand myself, but I would be wary of using him in some academic setting (outside of some where it makes specific sense). I read him like I do Joseph Campbell, Peter Sloterdijk and Allan Watts.

TLDR: Yes, but only sorta. Expect personal growth, but not rigorous psychology, and you should find a lot of value in his work. I'd also recommend Joseph Campbell, since he developed a lot of psychoanalytic stuff into some somewhat more accessible work, and even edited some of Jung's work into an anthology.

The Portable Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell is a great start. https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706/ref=pd_sbs_14_4/138-0390382-5034008?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0140150706&pd_rd_r=22352824-6871-4d67-9ff9-b86df902f665&pd_rd_w=qcbN7&pd_rd_wg=3sR8D&pf_rd_p=43281256-7633-49c8-b909-7ffd7d8cb21e&pf_rd_r=M0SP543AFA7CVB5CA533&psc=1&refRID=M0SP543AFA7CVB5CA533

the portable jung has a section on the shadow and many other bits that JP speaks about like 'the relations between the ego and unconscious' ...tis a good starting point that covers alot.
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706

I recommend The Portable Jung. It's on my bookshelf, and it's your best bet.

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If you /u/blueishwings or /u/bulbabutt find this stuff interesting, understand that Joseph Campbell the author of the hero with a thousand faces is a scholar that studied comparative religions, comparative stories, and comparative mythologies / aesop fables, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

Joseph Campbell is also one of the big editors / summaries of Carl Jung (MBTI is not Carl Jung, but MBTI is based off Carl Jung's theories) in fact one of the most famous Carl Jung works is the essays that Joseph Campbell assembled various Jung essays and put them into one work known as The Portable Jung

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706

According to George Lucas the most influential work on Star Wars was The Hero with A Thousand Faces. If you look at the ROTJ Emperor and Vader vs Luke scene that is a perfect example of the transcendent hero that has mastered all aspects of the psyche ("You failed your highness, I am a Jedi like my father before me.")

The Joseph Campbell stuff was so influential on Lucas he allowed PBS during their making of a documentary series explaining Joseph Campbell work known as The Power of Myth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Myth Which is 6 interviews between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. Bill Moyers actually died after the interviews were filmed but prior to the documentary being aired on PBS. Note in the various vhs and dvd releases the interviews with George Lucas with Bill Moyer and Leonard Maltin were trying to re-emulate the power of myth interviews with Joseph Campbell. ^(Bah I am getting side track) George Lucas is an extreme recluse (almost to the point of being a shutin), but during the filming of the Power of Myth he allows Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers to do some of the filming at Starwalker Ranch in the 1980s.

I am a child who got the 1995 VHS trilogy box set of Star Wars before understanding what star wars was. I was 9 at the time. So I remember the movies but I also remember the Leonard Maltin interviews which I watched several times, even though most of the times I watched the movies at the age of 9 I fast forward through the interviews with Leonard Maltin and George Lucas.

 

 

 

Oh one of my favorite Gilmore Girl References, note there were multiple Power of Myth references in the Spring Break episode.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/34/f2/d2/34f2d221d94d7902d4bb22f29bc6c4f6.jpg

http://foreveryoungadult.com/2013/11/13/the-gilmore-girls-rewatch-project-29/

You might try

• Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth
  
• Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces
  
• this Carl Jung Reader is pretty good
  
  Technically these deal with mythology, but they're sufficiently enlightening on the meaning of myth symbolic myth content to serve you for literature.
  
  One other thing worth reading: the Bible. Particularly a literary Bible like this or this.
  
  Much of the symbolism in literature hearkens back to religion or mythology (which is just old religion). So it's never a bad idea to study the most read religions in their own right. Snake, Apple, Water, Flood, Rain, Fire, Smoke. These are all fairly omnipresent symbols with a wealth of genesis in books like the Bible.

I'm partial to Jungian psychology so I recommend anything dream-related by him or those he worked close with, namely Marie Louis Von Franz (IMO). A simple—and I mean simple—and good intro would be the book 'Inner Work' by Robert Johnson. It addresses a four-step approach to dream interpretation and active imagination. After that, I'd just read as much of Jung's writings about dreams as you can. Start with Dreams (from the Collected Works). Since Jung's psychology is so much about the unconscious, virtually everything you read will be relatable to dream interpretation in some way. There is a nice compendium edited by Joseph Campbell called The Portable Jung that features a great and mind-blowing essay called something like 'Relation Between the Ego and Unconscious,' and actually, now that I think of it, excerpts from the 'Dreams' book as well. 'Man and His Symbols' by Jung was the last thing he wrote and was intended to introduce the general public to his psychology, so you can also start there if you haven't checked out any Jung before. Get the one with pictures.

While my Spirit Twin is Pinkie Pie for her unwielding goofiness and friendship-magic, I think my favorite fictional character is Kenneth from 30 Rock. He somehow sneaks in some incredibly dark comedy in between his "aw shucks" moments on the show. Plus, despite how small it seems, he's pretty much living his dream life.

I'd like a used copy of [The Portable Jung] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0140150706/ref=wl_it_of_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=36FKHTABECFGT&coliid=IOXMVP4MRSFBE&condition=all), which has a handful of under a buck copies, from my Books WL. Or any of the used books on that list that fits the price criteria.

I encourage you to start out with “The Portable Jung”, which is edited by Joseph Campbell.

The Portable Jung (Portable Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140150706/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_aPU4CbVD7J8S3

I'd go with this lil book, it'll give you an idea of the man and the basics of his ideas http://www.amazon.com/C-G-Jung-Speaking-C-G/dp/0691018715

His work can get pretty fucking dense but never fear, a man named Edward Edinger or a woman named Marie Louise Von Franz did immense work communicating the ideas in more understandable ways.

Also there's this one, it was the one book he approved for the layperson - http://www.amazon.com/Man-Symbols-Carl-Gustav-Jung/dp/0440351839/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404996952&sr=1-1&keywords=man+and+his+symbols

but if you do find that his ideas are worth further reading there's a great compilation http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404997014&sr=1-1&keywords=the+portable+jung