Topic: Evolutionary Biology and Neuroscience meet Jungian thinking

[Matt Koeske]

Please use this topic to post links to articles online about the relationship of evolutionary biology and neuroscience to Jungian ideas of archetype and psyche.

Some I have come across recently:

Jungian Analysis and Biology by Maxson J. McDowell
The Three Gorillas: an Archetype Orders a Dynamic System by Maxson J. McDowell
     Other articles by McDowell relating ideas from the articles above to autism can be found here: http://www.jungny.com/id6.html
Evolutionary Jungian Psychology by Bruce MacLennan
     Other Articles by Bruce MacLennan can be found here: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/other-res.html#neurotheol
Evolution and Archetype: The Biology of Jung by J.R. Haule (a nearly complete book in progress on the topic)

[Matt Koeske]

"The Bones in the Cave: Phylogenetic Foundations of Analytical Psychology" by Meredith Sabini

"A Response to Meredith Sabini" by Tom Kelly

"The Baldwin Effect: A Neglected Influence on C.G. Jung's Evolutionary Thinking" by George B. Hogenson

[Kafiri]

According to this essay a merger is set to take place:

The Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience (ECN) discipline, and its associated fields, may produce tools that advance humanity's ability to understand and manage itself. Simultaneously, ECN may also yield brain-centric weaponry that drastically alters human warfare. The United States Department of Defense (DOD) may marshal significant resources--as it did during the 1941 to 1946 Manhattan Project—to drive ECN research, development and testing. DOD is the only entity in the United States with the capability to fully fund ECN programs. The DOD's Defense Science Board and the United States' Intelligence Community has recently suggested research thrusts into ECN and the merging of data-heavy sciences and social sciences. Success will ultimately depend on program directors and researchers' acceptance of general Evolutionary Theory and, in particular, Evolutionary Psychology. Failure to do this will result in a mosh-pit of studies based on dated science and methodology.


The Evolutionary Psychology and Neuroscience disciplines are set merge into a unified field known as Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience or ECN. ECN may produce novel integrated micro, macro models of brain-behavior relationships based on the principles of general Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology and the findings of Neuroscience. Applications may range from predictive human behavior models to neuroweaponry.
Found at: http://cryptome.org/ecn.htm (Accessed July 7, 2007)

I must confess I find this a little frightening.  How does it strike you?