Abstract

The dissertation is a theoretical study examining the parallels between Platonic philosophy and Jungian psychology, the Platonic self and Jung's archetype of the self. Plato identified the self as double, a dual-unity of the divine and human. Dual-unity defines the two as the same, yet different. They are brought into unity through the development of the subtle body of soul, considered by Plato as "the third." The subtle body of soul, in a third ontological category between the divine and sensory-based ego, is the true individual self. Using a hermeneutic method, the author discovered that Jungian psychology is rooted in many facets of Platonic philosophy, and that Jung develops the Platonic double self of a "third" individual subtle body of soul unifying the divine God-image and the personality complexes. His archetype of the self is therefore a dual unity, referred to in the study as the dialogic archetype of the self. Developed through the philosophic life in Plato, and individuation and the transcendent function in Jung, the subtle body of soul is a differentiated organ that provides for psycho-spiritual structure and function. Chapters of the study describe the psycho-spiritual phenomenon of soul's subtle body in the author's experience, Plato's Dialogues, Plotinus' Enneads, Henri Corbin's eastern Platonism, and Jung's Collected Works. The fundamental identity between Platonic philosophy and Jungian psychology is brought out prior to the explication of the self as subtle body of soul in both systems. The last chapter describes a method of analytic psychotherapy based on the subtle body of soul as the developing self, and its role as the essential healing agent