The official reading list for The Jung Project, covering the full field: psychoanalysis, neuroscience, biology, physics, philosophy, literature, and the history of ideas that shaped Jung’s thinking. It’ll bring an autodidact up to polymath level.
Start with the If You Read Nothing Else section if you want to stack your bedside table. Otherwise, go to wherever pulls you.
Or, just start with The Jung Project — we incorporate the material from these texts as we go. Listen to the first few episodes and let that inner feeling of “hey, this is interesting!” guide you.
The most important thing is starting. I didn’t create this list to look pretty. The books are waiting for you, mate.
Every book on this list shaped The Jung Project — a line-by-line walkthrough of Jung’s Collected Works for those ready to go deeper.
If You Read Nothing Else
The Discovery of the UnconsciousHenri F. Ellenberger · 1970
On JungAnthony Stevens · 1999 [1990]
Archetype: An Updated Natural History of the SelfAnthony Stevens · 2002 [1982]Starter Pack16
The first “must read” from every section on this list.
137: Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession Arthur I. Miller · 2010 [2009]
Archetype: An Updated Natural History of the SelfAnthony Stevens · 2002 [1982]
Evolution: The History of an IdeaPeter J. Bowler · 2009 [1983]
Five Lectures on PsychoanalysisSigmund Freud (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1910]
Galileo Galilei: First PhysicistJames MacLachlan · 1997
Jung: A Very Short IntroductionAnthony Stevens · 2001
Le Morte d’Arthur (Winchester Manuscript)Sir Thomas Malory · 1998 [c.1469]
Memories, Dreams, ReflectionsC. G. Jung (+ Aniela Jaffé) · 1989 [1962]
On JungAnthony Stevens · 1999 [1990]
Private Myths: Dreams and DreamingAnthony Stevens · 1996 [1995]
Rediscovering Pierre Janet: Trauma, Dissociation, and a New Context for PsychoanalysisGiuseppe Craparo, Francesca Ortu & Onno van der Hart · 2019
The Archaeology of MindJaak Panksepp & Lucy Biven · 2012
The Discovery of the UnconsciousHenri F. Ellenberger · 1970
The Double HelixJames D. Watson · 2001 [1968]
The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections from His WritingsAlfred Adler (Ed. Heinz L. Ansbacher & Rowena R. Ansbacher) · 1964 [1956]
The Last Days of SocratesPlato (trans. Harold Tarrant) · 2010About Jung/His Model4
Jung was a Swiss man, born in 1875, who lived in a unnecessarily glorious mansion. He was obsessed. Weird. Brilliant. Rough-edged. These books show you “the man”. Jacobi’s book is here purely because it’s the strongest attempt I’ve ever seen to “systematise” Jung. I’ve drawn on her secondary scholarship as an ongoing reference frame for The Jung Project, which actively systemises Jung every Friday.
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Jung: A Very Short IntroductionAnthony Stevens · 2001
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On JungAnthony Stevens · 1999 [1990]
Jung: A BiographyDeirdre Bair · 2003 [2003]
Complex/ Symbol/ Archetype in the Psychology of C.G. JungJolande Jacobi · 1971 [1959]C. G. Jung: Primary Works8
This is the actual Carl. The man’s own words, which are frequently stranger, funnier, and more rigorous than the secondary literature would have you believe. Individual volumes are listed below in the order I’d recommend encountering them — the sequence that makes the most sense if you’re building a working model of the psychology rather than just playing around with a bucket list. We start with CW8 in The Jung Project, but that’s because I’m acting as a guide. If you’re doing this on your own, go with MDR and CW7 first. These are the core of Jung; everything else should come afterwards.
Note on Editions
Stick to Princeton/Bollingen. Avoid older standalone editions where the translations predate the Collected Works standardisation — the terminology drift is genuinely confusing for anyone trying to follow the concepts precisely.
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Memories, Dreams, ReflectionsC. G. Jung (+ Aniela Jaffé) · 1989 [1962]
Collected Works Volume 7: Two Essays on Analytical PsychologyC. G. Jung · 1966 [1953]
Collected Works Volume 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the PsycheC. G. Jung · 1969 [1960]
Collected Works Volume 6: Psychological TypesC. G. Jung · 1971 [1921]
Collected Works Volume 16: The Practice of PsychotherapyC. G. Jung · 1966 [1954]
Collected Works Volume 17: The Development of PersonalityC. G. Jung · 1954
Collected Works Volume 12: Psychology and AlchemyC. G. Jung · 1968 [1944]
Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932–1958C. G. Jung & Wolfgang Pauli · 2014 [2001]C. G. Jung: Expanded Field3
Primary literature I endorse wholesale. Jung gave his own list of endorsed material in 1948. Neumann, Harding and others are on it. For the work we’re doing at The Jung Project, I don’t really rate those as “must reads”. Not because they’re bad, but because their empirical edge hasn’t held up over the decades. Practically, you’re looking at the work of the Zurich School, and Anthony Stevens.
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Private Myths: Dreams and DreamingAnthony Stevens · 1996 [1995]
Ariadne’s Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of HumankindAnthony Stevens · 2001 [1999]
Studies in Word AssociationThe Zurich School (trans. by M.D. Eder) · 1919C. G. Jung + Biology3
More primary literature I endorse wholesale. Jung was not a prophet of archetypes, waltzing around like a candle salesman. He was a trained physician, embarking on a scientific enterprise, who took biology seriously, and these three books continue that work brilliantly.
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Archetype: An Updated Natural History of the SelfAnthony Stevens · 2002 [1982]
Neurobiology of the Gods: How Brain Physiology Shapes the Recurrent Imagery of Myth and DreamsErik D. Goodwyn · 2012
Jung in the 21st Century Vol. 1: Evolution and ArchetypeJohn Ryan Haule · 2010Sigmund Freud7
You have to read Freud. I know it’s fashionable in some Jungian spheres (and psychology in general) to bash him, but that’s simply illiteracy and the inheritance of a dramatized split from 1913. Jung references Freud more than anyone else.
Note on Editions
Freud is widely available in English in the Standard Edition, translated by James Strachey — if it says “translated by James Strachey” on the cover, you have the right text regardless of which publisher’s name appears on the spine. Be aware, Strachey’s version has many known issues. Mark Solms has spent years producing a revised translation that corrects these distortions and restores Freud’s original voice, published in 2024 as the Revised Standard Edition. If you want the best available Freud in English, that is the one to seek out. If you just want to get reading, any Strachey edition will do the job.
Studies on HysteriaSigmund Freud & Josef Breuer (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1895]
The Interpretation of DreamsSigmund Freud (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1900]
Three Essays on the Theory of SexualitySigmund Freud (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1905]
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Five Lectures on PsychoanalysisSigmund Freud (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1910]
Beyond the Pleasure PrincipleSigmund Freud (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1920]
Civilisation and its DiscontentsSigmund Freud (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1930]
An Outline of PsychoanalysisSigmund Freud (trans. James Strachey) · 2001[1940]Pierre Janet3
Janet is the great casualty of psychoanalytic history. Jung references him endlessly, and endorses practically everything the man ever said. He presumes his concepts as a given, and presumes you’re familiar with them.
Note on Editions
Most of Janet’s output remains in the original French. Most of his work remains inaccessible to the English-speaking world, but in recent years that’s begun to change.
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Rediscovering Pierre Janet: Trauma, Dissociation, and a New Context for PsychoanalysisGiuseppe Craparo, Francesca Ortu & Onno van der Hart · 2019
Catalepsy, Memory and Suggestion in Psychological Automatism: Total AutomatismPierre Janet (Ed. Giuseppe Craparo & Onno van der Hart) · 2021 [1889]
Subconscious Acts, Anesthesias and Psychological Disaggregation in Psychological Automatism: Partial AutomatismPierre Janet (Ed. Giuseppe Craparo & Onno van der Hart) · 2021 [1889]Alfred Adler1
Jung took Adler’s inferiority complex as a given, along with his broader compensatory model and telic aim in neurosis. He writes as if you’re just “supposed to know” about Adler. That’s because everyone genuinely did. The one book below will cover you in full.
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The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections from His WritingsAlfred Adler (Ed. Heinz L. Ansbacher & Rowena R. Ansbacher) · 1964 [1956]Wolfgang Pauli3
In my estimation, Pauli is the strongest collaborator Jung ever had. Their letters — over 25 years — prove that both of them considered the other their intellectual equal. That said, read him only if you care about the psychophysical side of things — otherwise, stick to other sections on this page.
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137: Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific ObsessionArthur I. Miller · 2010 [2009]
Writings on Physics and PhilosophyWolfgang Pauli (Ed. Enz & von Meyenn) · 1994
Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932–1958C. G. Jung & Wolfgang Pauli · 2014 [2001]Hypnosis4
Hypnosis is where the unconscious became a clinical reality before anyone had a theory adequate to explain it. Janet discovered dissociation here. Freud started here and then abandoned it. Jung never fully left it (formally he did, but he dragged Janet with him constantly). It’s modern day shamanism. Any study of depth psychology should account for the full range of hypnotic phenomena.
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The Discovery of the UnconsciousHenri F. Ellenberger · 1970
HypnoanalysisLewis R. Wolberg · 1964 [1945]
Mind-Body Therapy: Methods of Ideodynamic Healing in HypnosisErnest Rossi & David Cheek · 1988
Hypnotic Realities: The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect SuggestionMilton Erickson, Ernest Rossi & Sheila Rossi · 1976Literature / Myth11
After a decade of serious reading, these are the works I believe anyone genuinely engaged with depth psychology today cannot afford to miss. I’ll be adding more soon, but this is the core.
Note on Editions
Translation choices matter enormously here and I’ve been specific throughout.
The IliadHomer (trans. Robert Fagles) · 1990 [c.8th century BC]
The OdysseyHomer (trans. Richmond Lattimore) · 1965 [c.8th century BC]
The Poetic EddaOld Norse Scribes (trans. Jackson Crawford) · 2015
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Le Morte d’Arthur (Winchester Manuscript)Sir Thomas Malory · 1998 [c.1469]
The Divine ComedyDante Alighieri (trans. C. H. Sisson) · 2008 [c.1320]
HamletWilliam Shakespeare (Arden Shakespeare) · 2006 [c.1600]
MacbethWilliam Shakespeare · 2015 [c.1606]
Timon of AthensWilliam Shakespeare · 2008 [c.1606]
Don QuixoteMiguel de Cervantes (trans. Edith Grossman) · 2003 [1605/1615]
Moby-DickHerman Melville · 2002 [1851]
Faust | Parts One and TwoJohann Wolfgang von Goethe (trans. David Luke) · Part One: 1987 · Part Two: 1994Evolution5
The early psychoanalysts were almost universally Lamarckian and Haeckelian, with Darwin “hanging around” but not taken as bedrock. The books below will give you the full story of evolution, as we understand it today, including ideas “outside the mainstream”.
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Evolution: The History of an IdeaPeter J. Bowler · 2009 [1983]
On the Origin of SpeciesCharles Darwin · 2008 [1859]
The Selfish GeneRichard Dawkins · 2016 [1976]
The Genetical Theory of Natural SelectionRonald Fisher · 1999 [1930]
The Structure of Evolutionary TheoryStephen Jay Gould · 2002Molecular Biology7
People ask me constantly how to learn molecular biology. Here’s how you do it in full, without a degree.
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The Double HelixJames D. Watson · 2001 [1968]
The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in BiologyHorace Freeland Judson · 1996 [1979]
A Short History of ChemistryIsaac Asimov · 1965
The Epigenetics RevolutionNessa Carey · 2011
Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum BiologyJim Al-Khalili & Johnjoe McFadden · 2014
Lehninger Principles of BiochemistryDavid L. Nelson & Michael M. Cox · 8th ed., 2021
What is Life?Erwin Schrödinger · 1992 [1944]Neuroscience & Consciousness2
Only two books here. The Panksepp volume is the load-bearing one, and Solms’ book integrates Panksepp into his and Friston’s free energy theory of consciousness. If you have these locked down, nothing will stop you navigating the rest of the field with ease.
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The Archaeology of MindJaak Panksepp & Lucy Biven · 2012
The Hidden SpringMark Solms · 2021Philosophy9
The separation of philosophy from the natural sciences is modernist nonsense. Plato, Kant and Nietzsche are canonical. Sidney, Bacon, James and Bergson — they’re ones I’ve simply loved. Montaigne sits in the middle.
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The Last Days of SocratesPlato (trans. Harold Tarrant) · 2010
The SymposiumPlato (trans. Robin Waterfield) · 2009 [c.385 BC]
The Defence of PoesySir Philip Sidney · 1595
On ExperienceMichel de Montaigne (trans. M. A. Screech · 2004[1580–1592]
De Augmentis ScientariumSir Francis Bacon · 1883 [1623]
Critique of Pure ReasonImmanuel Kant (trans. Paul Guyer & Allen Wood) · 2025 [1781/1787]
Beyond Good and EvilFriedrich Nietzsche (trans. Walter Kaufmann) · 1966 [1886]
The Varieties of Religious ExperienceWilliam James · 2012 [1902]
Creative EvolutionHenri Bergson · 2014 [1907]Mathematics & Physics7
Six popular science books which I’m convinced could make anyone fall in love with the field. The last entry is the stack of textbooks I’m very slowly working through, and won’t pretend to have completed until I’ve done so. They’re there if you want to join me.
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Galileo Galilei: First PhysicistJames MacLachlan · 1997
Isaac NewtonJames Gleick · 2003
The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the UniverseArthur Koestler · 2014 [1959]
The Great Physicists from Galileo to EinsteinGeorge Gamow · 1988 [1961]
Men of MathematicsE.T. Bell · 1937
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the UniverseSir Roger Penrose · 2007 [2004]
The StackProper Blokes