JUNG'S LIFE AND WORK

The analyst on the couch.

Jung (1875-1961) was fascinated by the archetypes of symbol, understanding, and social life that, he believed, made up a kind of collective unconscious of humankind. Toward the close of his life, he published an autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, that sought to place himself in the great landscapes of human consciousness. There, childhood reminiscences dovetail with a lifetime of dreams. His book, however, was not the undertaking of the old man on his own. Instead, it grew out of a series of interviews and conversations, pieced together to create a seemingly seamless narrative. This new book publishes the transcripts of those interviews, enabling us to get behind the analyst and see the human being in all his vulnerability. “Yesterday I had a dream I’d like to relate to you: in the dream, I’m on a journey, or at a station….A wide field spreads out before me.…A dark expanse. Stretching into infinity. And there is an awareness in me that I’m on a journey.” Jung’s journeys were more like quests, searches for a holy grail of understanding. It’s not surprising, then, that he often invoked the legends of King Arthur to locate himself. Merlin is central to his story. He is “the great tragic figure from this whole epic,” the magician who can solve any problem, who remains in exile but who sees more than any other. He is, in short, the figure of psychoanalysis itself. Wading through the stories in this long, often repetitive collection, we can glimpse, every now and then, light in the dark expanse. It’s like being trapped in one vast therapy session, waiting for awareness.

The raw materials behind Carl Jung’s autobiography, full of insights for the patient reader.