Jungian Shakespeare

Coming Down to Earth in King John, Twelfth Night, and Cymbeline

Joel Crichton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040678183
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Salud mental en psicología

Jungian Shakespeare is an original work of Jungian literary criticism, examining the psychological expression within three plays from different times in Shakespeare's career through a Jungian framework.

The book focuses on King John, Cymbeline, and Twelfth Night. Each play is explored both as a dramatic work meant to be fully realized onstage and as an expression of deep psychological processes. The eternal boy archetype and its relationships with father, mother, and trickster are examined through King John; Twelfth Night helps to unpack performance and the histrionic personality, while Jungian personality typology illuminates Cymbeline's remarkable psychological wholeness. Rather than merely applying theory to text, the analysis reveals what Shakespeare's works inherently understand about psyche. The two fields—Shakespearean and Jungian—are brought together in a way that not only keeps the work of art intact but attempts to enrich both art and psychology.

This interdisciplinary work appeals to Jungian analysts, psychotherapists, theatre practitioners, Shakespeare scholars, and enthusiasts of literature and theatre, as well as anyone interested in the connections between Jungian psychology and Shakespeare.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: Coming Down to Earth
• 1 “A strange beginning”: Introduction to King John
• 2 The Faithless Eros of King John
• 3 “Smiling at grief”: Introduction to Twelfth Night, or What You Will
• 4 The Histrionic Pattern in Twelfth Night
• 5 “But what’s the matter?”: Introduction to Cymbeline
• 6 The Achievement of Normality in Cymbeline
• 7 Postlude: Good (Enough) Ground
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Index