Now, obviously, both Havelock and Ong reject Jung's claim that "the ancients lacked a capacity for directed thinking, which was a modern acquisition."
However, once we accept Havelock's and Ong's linking of what Jung here refers to as directed thinking with phonetic alphabetic literacy in ancient Greek culture, then we can see what Jung here refers to as fantasy thinking is aligned with what Havelock refers to as the Homeric mentality, on the one hand, and, on the other, what Jung here refers to as directed thinking is aligned with what Havelock refers to as the Platonic mentality.
Similarly, apart from Jung's mistaken claim about directed thinking being a modern acquisition, we can also align what he refers to as fantasy thinking with what Ong refers to as orally based thought and expression, on the one hand, and, on the other, we can align what Jung refers to here as directed thinking with what Ong refers to as phonetic alphabetic literacy.
Having made these alignments here, I now must point out that Jung engaged in extraordinary self-experimentation in which he allowed himself to experience what he refers to here as fantasy thinking. In due time, he came to refer to this dangerous process as engaging in active imagination. Joan Chodorow assembled all the passages in which Jung describes active imagination in the book Jung on Active Imagination (Princeton University Press, 1997).
It should be obvious that neither Havelock nor Ong believes that persons today can return to what Havelock refers to as the Homeric mentality or to what Ong refers to as orally based thought and expression.
Indeed, Ong explicitly refers to residual forms of primary oral cultures today - suggesting that he does not think that pristine examples of primary oral cultures exist today. Moreover, Ong famously differentiates our contemporary secondary oral culture brought to us by communications media that accentuate sound from primary oral culture based on oral-aural communication.
In any event, in 1952, Jung published the revised version of his 1912 book Transformations and Symbols of the Libido. The 1952 revised and re-titled version has been published in English as Symbols of Transformation: An Analysis of the Prelude to a Case of Schizophrenia, 2nd ed., translated by R. F. C. Hull (Princeton University Press, 1967). See Part One, Chapter II: "Two Kinds of Thinking" (pp. 7-33).
Now, in both the 1912 edition titled Transformations and Symbols of the Libido and the 1952 revised and re-titled edition titled Symbols of Transformation, we find two words repeated: (1) Symbols and (2) Transformation (singular in 1952, but plural in 1912).
Now, Ong entered the Jesuit novitiate in Florissant, Missouri, in September 1935, slightly more than two years after he had graduated from Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst University) in Kansas City, Missouri. For Ong and for all Jesuits, Jesuit formation is lengthy, and Jesuit formation clearly aims to bring about the transformation of the Jesuits being formed.
Questions: To what extent was young Ong transformed during his lengthy Jesuit formation? To what extent, was Father Ong subsequently further transformed after he had been ordained a Jesuit priest and had completed his Jesuit formation and had undertaken his doctoral studies in English at Harvard University?
In any event, in the early 1950s, when Ong was researching his Harvard University doctoral dissertation on the French Renaissance logician Peter Ramus (1515-1572), he experienced the big breakthrough insight that transformed his adult life. Thereafter, Ong never tired of talking and writing about what he in his 1958 massively researched book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue referred to as the aural-to-visual shift in cognitive processing in our Western cultural history.
In my case, my life was transformed when I transferred to Saint Louis University in the fall semester of 1964 and took my first course from Father Ong. (Over the years, I took five courses from Ong.) At the age of 20 in 1960, slightly more than 60 years ago now, I became infatuated with Father Ong and his work - and my infatuation with his work has endured for more than 60 years now.
However, my life was further transformed when I began writing about his work in late December 1973 and early January 1974. As a result, I tend to think of 1974 as the inception of my mid-life crisis.
During my years of teaching at the University of Minnesota Duluth (1987-2009), my life was further transformed in December 1994 when I bought a house in Duluth and became a homeowner.
After I retired at the end of May 2009, my adult life was further transformed as I moved from being a classroom teacher to becoming an op-ed commentator in September 2009 when I posted my first of now more than 650 OEN articles - including some about Ong's work.
After I retired at the end of May 2009, my life was also further transformed as I undertook various home improvements.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
