In Küsnacht, Zurich, carved in stone above the entrance to 228 Seestrasse, is a Latin phrase that Erasmus borrowed from the Greeks. The inscription reads, "Vocatus atque non vocatus Deus aderit" (Bidden or not bidden, God is present). These are the words that the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung himself selected not only as a greeting to those who entered his home but as a standard for his life and work as well.

Though Jung never attempted to formulate a closed system of thought or to posit any all-inclusive cultural theory, his work has nevertheless been widely influential in the philosophical and cultural disciplines, as well as in his chosen field of psychology. In his work, frequently published first in German and later appearing in translated collections, Jung strove always to relate the individual to the larger society and culture, continually bringing to bear his considerable knowledge of...