Graduate Research Library: A Library Guide to Jung's Collected Works: Amplification

Dictionary definitions
Encyclopedic overviews

Amplification. In Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts (Print copy) by Sharp, D. (Ed.).
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Call Number: BF109.J8S53 1991
Publication Date: 1991
Available as a free download from the publisher
"Amplification. A method of association based on the comparative study of mythology, religion and fairy tales, used in the interpretation of images in dreams and drawings."
Amplification (Analytical Psychology). In International dictionary of psychoanalysis by Joan Chodorow
Call Number: Ladera: REF RC501.4.D4313
Publication Date: 2005
"Amplification is a part of Jung's method of interpretation of clinical and cultural material, especially dreams. Amplification involves the use of mythic, historical, and cultural parallels in order to clarify, make more ample and, so to speak, turn up the volume on material that may be obscure, thin, and difficult to attend to. [Read more]
Amplification. In A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis by Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F.
Call Number: BF173.J85 S275 1986
Publication Date: 1986
"Part of Jung's method for interpretation (particularly of dreams). By way of association he tried to establish the personal context of a dream; by way of amplification he connected it with universal imagery. Amplification involves use of mythic, historical and cultural parallels in order to clarify and make ample the metaphorical content of dream symbolism. Jung speaks of this as 'the psychological tissue' in which the image is embedded." [Read more]

Amplification. In Encyclopedia of psychology and religion (3rd ed.) by Joe Cambray
Publication Date: 2020
"Amplification is Jung’s signature method for identifying and accurately applying mythic, historical, cultural and universal analogies to unconscious material of a collective nature. This can foster engagement with deeper resources in the personality, facilitating individuation. The idea developed as a part of his general study of associations and their dynamics, as when applied to dreams, fantasies, delusions or hallucinations. In exploring such material as the fund of personal associations becomes depleted yet considerable psychological energy remains with an image, Jung recommended employing parallels from history and culture that drew upon the patterns in the collective unconscious such as myths, legends, folklore, fairy tales, alchemy and so forth. This became a part of his method for understanding dreams." [Read more]
"Psychological Criticism" in The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics by A. Preminger, T. Brogan & F. Warnke (Eds.)
Publication Date: 1993
"Jung published the first archetypal analysis of a literary text in 1912 in “Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido,” an extensive treatment of the structures underlying Longfellow’s Hiawatha. Here Jung introduced his interpretive method know as amplification. Earlier, Freud had demonstrated the importance of free association for understanding the unconscious motivation and meaning of a person’s dreams. Jung extended this idea not only to the personal associations of the dreamer but also to intertextual associations within the dreamer’s cultural canon and, in some cases, cross-cultural associations as well. By establishing a larger intertextual context for the dream image through philological, iconological, mythological, and historical research, Jung showed, the process of amplification deliteralizes the image, cultivating an attitude which psychologically questions the naive, literal level of lang. and image in order to expose its more shadowy, metaphorical significance.

Analysis of archetypal structures and the phenomenological amplification of images has characterized archetypal criticism from the 1920s to the mid 1960s, esp. in the early work of Maud Bodkin, John Thorburn, Herbert Read, and Elizabeth Drew, through the later Kathleen Raine and Graham Hough ... " (p. 1000)

Jung on Amplification

Jung's essays on Amplification from the Collected Works:

On psychological understanding (pp. 179-193)

Jung, C. G. (1960). On psychological understanding (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 3. Psychogenesis of mental disease (pp. 179-193). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1914)
On the nature of the psyche (pp. 159-234)
Jung, C. G. (1969). On the nature of the psyche (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 8. Structure and dynamics of the psyche (2nd ed., pp. 159-234). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1954) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850952.159

From the index (CW 20): "Amplification"

Vol. 7: 122&n
Vol.10: 618, 646, 733, 771
Vol. 12: 771
Vol. 18: 173, 174
— in alchemy/amplificatio, 12 403
— of archetypes, 8 403, 404
— Freud and, 16 246
— method of, 3 413n
— self, 14 655

Books
Articles

Ebooks available from the library:

Analytic methods revisited in Analytical psychology: Contemporary perspectives in Jungian analysis by Joseph Cambray & Linda Carter
Publication Date: 2004
Abstract: This chapter brings emergentist models of the mind that are informing recent reformulations of Jungian theory to the subject of analytical methods. Reassessing Jung's innovative clinical methodology that stems from his formulation of the transcendent function, we argue that amplification, active imagination, and work with dreams can all be enhanced by incorporation of research findings from multiple perspectives, including from cognitive science and neuroscience as well as attachment and complexity theories in conjunction with the narrative traditions associated with mythology and story-telling.
Amplification: Unveiling the emergence of meaning in Jungian psychoanalysis by John Hill
Call Number: BF173.J85 J887 2010
Publication Date: 2010
Abstract: The traditional as well contemporary form of dream interpretation in Jungian work is collaborative. Meanings are not imposed or handed down by an authoritative analyst. They are the product of dialogue and exchange within the creative matrix of the analytic setting. In this chapter, the author discusses the analyst's important contribution to this dialogue. The method of amplification was specifically designed by Jung to expand the meaning of dreams and other material from the unconscious to include collective in addition to personal references.

Print books available from the library:

The Dream and Its Amplification (Print copy) by Nancy Furlotti & Erel Shalit (Eds.)
Call Number: BF1078 .D74 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Summary: The Dream and Its Amplification unveils the language of the psyche that speaks to us in our dreams. We all dream at least 4-6 times each night yet remember very few. Those that rise to the surface of our conscious awareness beckon to be understood, like a letter addressed to us that arrives by post. Why would we not open it? The difficulty is in understanding what the dream symbols and images mean. Through amplification, C. G. Jung formulated a method of unveiling the deeper meaning of symbolic images. This becomes particularly important when the image does not carry a personal meaning or significance and is not part of a person's everyday life. Fourteen Jungian Analysts from around the world have contributed chapters to this book on areas of special interest to them in their work with dreams. This offers the seasoned dream worker as well as the novice great insight into the meaning of the dream and its amplification.

Journal articles on Amplification:

Cambray, J. (2001). Enactments and amplification. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 46(2), 275–303.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1465-5922.00237

PsycINFO

Hillman, J. (2007). Amplification as consecration (for Philip Zabriskie: In Memoriam). Quadrant, 37(25–29).

Library Archives

Hobson, R. F. (1971). Imagination and amplification in psychotherapy.The Journal of Analytical Psychology, 16(1), 79–105.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1971.00079.x

PsycINFO

Hubback, J. (1984). Amplification: Reflections and queries. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 29(2), 135–138.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1984.00135.x

PsycINFO

Prochaska, H. (1984). ARAS and amplification. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 29(2), 101–111.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1984.00101.x

PsycINFO

Prochaska, H. (n.d.). Amplification of symbols. Retrieved from The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) website: https://aras.org/library/collections/online-books/amplification-symbols-harry-prochaska

ARAS.org

Russack, N. W. (1984). Amplification: The spiral. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 29(2), 125–134.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1984.00125.x

PsycINFO

Spencer, M. J., & Spencer, M. J. (1984). Amplification: The dance. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 29(2), 113–123.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1984.00113.x

PsycINFO