Book Description

An autobiography put together from conversations, writings and lectures with Jung's cooperation, at the end of his life. ... Read more

Reviews (35)

Story about the inner life...
This is not a typical biography. Rather than the usual record one might expect about an individuals life, that is, chronological time, events of significance, famous personages met and their influence, etc, Jung records momentous aspects about his inner life, his life long and extraordinary relationship with the unconscious. As he states from the beginning, this book is a reflection concerning his self-realisation of the unconscious and its manifestations. In old age, he realised that so-called outward memories, the temporal existence of the senses, had faded, and what remained were memories of his inner life, which manifested in dreams and visions. He found that he could only write his life in terms of a personal myth, because he believed 'autobiography', as a form of truthful expression, was at best, unreliable. Memory, in other words, cannot be trusted. Thus, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, is a personal 'story' about a man's journey of spiritual enlightenment and self-realisation, the process of the unconscious finding expression in the outer world.

Jung's inner life was certainly extraordinary. From an early age, the sheer power of the unconscious made itself known to him in terrible visions. Jung must have been an unusually grounded child in order to withstand the psychic forces that pushed their way into his consciousness at such a young age. He survived these onslaughts, I believe, because he didn't resist them, but chose to grapple with the images, follow his instincts and, along with the violence of these images, came also a knowingness and feeling of safeness, that he was, even at a young age, following what he was meant to do. It is no wonder he became a psychiatrist, a "doctor of the soul" as he calls it; because by helping others through their personal journeys of realisation, he came to better understand his own.

At the end of Jung's life he maintained that he was not a mystic, a wise man or a sage. He admits that he drank from the stream of knowledge and life, but was not the stream itself. But what is a mystic in the traditional sense of this term? A mystic is one who, through meditation, prayer or other means, achieves direct intuitive experience of the divine. A mystic experiences these 'other realities' and brings their experiences back, in some cases, to share with the rest of us. To the mystic these experiences are real. Taking this definition at face value, Memories, Dreams and Reflections is a record of one man's intuitive experience with the divine. Jung made it his life's mission to express these experiences in such a way as to make them real, and to then formulate them into a psychological method, in the hope of helping others lost and searching for meaning in their lives. Jung was most assuredly a mystic. His writings tell us that there is something greater than ourselves within us, and our task is to grapple and understand this power, that he has chosen to call the unconscious; and by better understanding this greater part of ourselves, we can become more human.

This is a wonderful story about the inner life of a man, a mystic and original thinker.

Wisdom from the inner life in Jung's own words
These writings come straight from Jung's own inner experience and it is his last book before his death in 1961. I have read and re-read this work because at different times in my life I needed to re-evaluate where I was and where I was going. Other books by Jung are more intellectual and scientific, whereas, this autobiography has the wisdom of a person in the later part of life and it was written not so much to teach but to leave with us his legacy. Having myself had a near death experience, I was especially re-affirmed by Jung's own near death experience and his dealings with this phenomenon. His acceptance of his own humanity and his returning from this state to share with us his knowledge and vision is a gift to all of us. It is not easy to return to our humanity and deal with the sufferings we encounter but growth is the only evidence of life. We have to come down from the mountain top and work in the valley. This brings to mind two books written by Hannah Hurnard called Mountains of Spices and Hinds Feet in High Places. Allegories about living our lives with others and not in solitude. Solitude is a wonderful place but if we stay too long we become self-centered, afraid to reach out to others. Another author who gives a good perspective on life is Henri Nouwen and his books Out of Solitude and Reaching Out.

A glimpse into the humanity of the healer
This book does give a good overview of Jung's ideas, and how the developed in his life and interior thought. What I most love about this book, however is the feeling I came away with for Jung himself. It made me feel that he was a deeply compassionate, openminded and rational man, if imperfect as all men. Its greatness is that it puts a human face behind all of the science and ideas of his legacy, and gives the reader an insight of his own inner experience which one can relate to.

Controversial, insightful, self-contradicting...
Admittedly, this is the most important book for those interested not only in the Jungian approach in psychology, but also in the life itself of Carl Gustav Jung. Indeed, this is an autobiography, imbedded in which is most of Jung's theories and quite an adequate outline of his cosmotheory as well.

Now, this being the book that "allows" us a glimpse into the soul of this psychologist, i was for one somewhat puzzled by the overall insight i got. While for the most part i appreciated Jung's bold approach in matters considered heavy taboos in his time (not to mention our time as well for certain particular issues), on the other side i found that Jung is self-contradicting at times, or murky, for lack of a more descriptive term.

Jung dares to look on the "other side" and consider it openly an integral part of "this" side. What others deem as "paranormal" or "supernatural" is to Jung just the other side of the same coin. He discusses the reality under the accepted reality but he is not straightforward about it. If i wanted to take it far enough I'd even say he's not honest about it. He does mince hiw words much too often and stops short of telling you what he really thinks. But this hardly undermines his openmindedness. Same goes for his treatment of religion.

In the beginning of the book he goes to great lengths in his denouncing of the western religion, and yet, all throughout the book he leaves countless hints that he's religious himself, without ever explaining in what sense. This was in my view perplexing.

The part of the book where he details his views on psychotherapy and explains how he approached his patients is definately the highlight of this book, and it should be of paramount importance for those interested in that subject area.

The last third of the book is mostly about Jung's travels. That part, might be disturbing for some, as one can sense that Jung felt some kind of well hidden superiority over the people he encountered. This superiority is often enough brought forward as his surprise over the insights these people offered him, but it still remains a mystery (at least to me) what he actually "took" from these people pertaining to their beliefs and approach in life. If anything, that is.

All criticism aside, this is still essential reading. Jung was a person torn between the desire to explore the off-limits and his fear of being ostracised by the scientific community. In the gray area within that struggle is where one discovers Jung's most thought-provoking theories because that is where he presents himself bare.

Pure Genius
When I first started reading this book, I was highly naïve as to what my possible reactions could be. I never realized that this book would spark an internal flame within me, causing me to yearn for more knowledge and a broader insight into many subjects. It even lead me to come to many realizations about myself and my actions that I could never explain, but turned out to be so true and conclusive.
The extremely difficult vocabulary content did not discourage me one bit, it just made my curiosity grow. Jung amazed me with the beauty of his language choice and writing style and further astonished me with this extensive knowledge on so many various subjects and interesting way of interpreting them. Jung constantly referred to literary works and ideas of other authors and always stressed his references. This was perfect because this was the first book that I've ever willingly read from cover to cover in the psychology field, and it gave me an idea of other books like this one that I could read on topics that I liked and could hand-pick.
The book was most interesting knowing that it was written in autobiography-style and at the end of Jung's life, thus giving myself (the reader) his life-experienced and life-proven philosophies. It was a very difficult read but it was well worth it. I could honestly say that sometimes I just couldn't put it down; and no other book has been able to do that for me. ... Read more

Book Description

Carl Gustav Jung, along with Sigmund Freud, stands as one of the two most famous and influential figures of the modern age. His ideas have shaped our perception of the world; his theories of myths and archetypes and his notion of the collective unconscious have become part of popular culture. Now, in this controversial and impeccably researched biography, Richard Noll reveals Jung as the all-too-human man he really was, a genius who, believing he was a spiritual prophet, founded a neopagan religious movement that offered mysteries for a new age.

The Aryan Christ is the previously untold story of the first sixty years of Jung's life--a story that follows him from his 1875 birth into a family troubled with madness and religious obsessions, through his career as a world-famous psychiatrist and his relationship and break with his mentor Freud, and on to his years as an early supporter of the Third Reich in the 1930s. It contains never-before-published revelations ab! out his life and the lives of his most intimate followers--details that either were deliberately suppressed by Jung's family and disciples or have been newly excavated from archives in Europe and America.

Richard Noll traces the influence on Jung's ideas of the occultism, mysticism, and racism of nineteenth-century German culture, demonstrating how Jung's idealization of "primitive man has at its roots the Volkish movement of his own day, which championed a vision of an idyllic pre-Christian, Aryan past. Noll marshals a wealth of evidence to create the first full account of Jung's private and public lives: his advocacy of polygamy as a spiritual path and his affairs with female disciples; his neopaganism and polytheism; his anti-Semitism; and his use of self-induced trance states and the pivotal visionary experience in which he saw himself reborn as a lion-headed god from an ancient cult. The Aryan Christ perfectly captures the charged atmosphere of Jung's era and presents ! a cast of characters no novelist could dream up, among them Edith Rockefeller McCormick--whose story is fully told here for the first time--the lonely, agoraphobic daughter of John D. Rockefeller, who moved to Zurich to be near Jung and spent millions of dollars to help him launch his religious movement.

As Richard Noll writes, "Jung is more interesting . . . because of his humanity, not his semidivinity." In giving a complete portrait of this twentieth-century icon, The Aryan Christ is a book with implications for all of our lives. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

Fascinating, but not totally convincing
In this book, Noll argues that not only did Jung create a religious movement but that Jung himself believed he was a savior of sorts. The first claim is, of course, completely convincing (and is, I believe, the main focus of Noll's _The Jung Cult_, which I have yet to read); the letter to C. Long which the author quotes late in the book pretty much closes that debate.

On the other hand, I remain unconvinced concerning the nature of Jung's 'revelation' in 1913 and how he saw himself subsequently; i.e., whether he really believed he was the "Aryan Christ". Noll quotes extensively from dozens of documents, and many of them are very suggestive of this, but when actually coming to this point, I feel Noll loses his grip a little; in each case where this is stated, Noll momentarily leaves the historical evidence behind and infers this final point, which is, unfortunately, the basic thesis of the book.

Still, despite that consistent flaw, which pops up about half a dozen times in the book, Noll's thesis that Jung saw himself as a god or savior is compelling, and I suspect that, if and when the Jung estate opens its archives, he will be proved correct. In the meantime, however, I must remain doubtful.

The rest of the book concerns the development of Jung's various theories and is critical of the concept of the 'collective unconscious' while occasionally lauding Jung's contributions to personality typology. In contrast to critics of this book, I see no evidence that Noll has a 'hidden agenda'. In fact, for the most part I think he has been more than fair to Jung and his movement.

Banquet for Jungophobes
I find Noll's previous Jungicidal effort more interesting and persuasive: first and foremost microanalyzing the roots of CGJ's intellectual edifice, from Haeckel and Driesch to Nietzsche. Unfortunately, insightful material was pretty much devalued by Noll's unique blend of personal vendetta against all things Jungian and glaringly obvious intent to write a bombastic bestseller. Anyway, I think Noll has accomplished at least three things:

1. Wrote a convincing record on Jung's, er, "shadow"

2. Traced his Lehrjahre and conceptual development ( albeit distastefully gloating over Jung's polygynistic "scandals" ). Still, I like the "neovitalism" and Mithraism parts - although, in all sincerity, I can't buy anti-Semitism, anti-Christianity and Blut-und-Boden Nazi parts. These two books ( I'd say, intentionally ) overlook Jung's later development, with Christ emerging as the most powerful ( for Westerners ) symbol of Self. In short: Jung's was/is a neo-Gnostic Christ, not "Aryan". Especially ridiculous is the contention that Jung considered himself to be a sort of "Messiah".

3. Vented his rage and lo and behold...he was showered with $$$$$s and academic awards ( at least, one big fish in the net ). If Jung is pop, this is hip-hop, rave and rap combined.

All in all: cca 40-50 pages from both books [The Aryan Christ and Noll's earlier work The Jung Cult] are valuable. The rest is a salacious chronicle a la Seutonius.

how projections and hurt feelings write a book
an atrocious bunch of lies, innuendoes and half-truths rush to
print aided by the New York Times book review, noted Jung-hater. One of the most irresponsible books to hit the presses in recent years, it
masquerades as science in areas that most would not be able to
challenge. And like the DaVinci Code (that at least has the grace to call itself fiction), Noll calls into question sacred cows. Noll obviously has a vendetta and is out to discredit and smear Jung. Reader beware! BS camouflaged as "scientific research".

Neither History nor Biography
This is neither well-written nor well-supported argument. Terms are bandied about, such as the adjective "magical" to disparage activities, or "lie"--if everything I ever misremembered or simplified (after 60 years) was called a lie, I would be the anti-christ. People do forget, do simplify, do misremember without an active agenda of misrepresentation.

Also, if all that my students ever did was laid at my door, I again would not relish the picture people formed of me. Jung was groping towards ways of articulating his perceptions, and he was treating and attracting a great many obviously disturbed people. That they misinterpreted him, etc., does not mean he encouraged that. Also, their memories are in several instances obviously shaped by personal agendas.

There was not the clear exposition of the contentious view that Jung was a proto- or pronazi in the early years of Hitler. Except of course that he had "volkish" tendencies. The level of argument here would suggest that everyone who ever owned a volkswagen was anti-semitic and prohitler.

No balance at all. Stupid stuff.

Agenda masquerading as a scholarly work
Evident in the beginning of this book is the author's obvious disenchantment with Jung and his subsequent dislike of the man. Much of the book is filled with conjecture that is, in turn, used later as if it were fact. For example, early on Noll describes Jung and his associates as a cult, thereafter referring to any member of the Jungian persuasion as a "disciple" or "apostle", instead of what they truly were: patients, colleagues, and admirers. Noll also seems to be confused on the matter of Jung's concept of a person's deification. Anyone familiar with this Jungian concept or similar concepts based upon Gnosticism is probably aware that the terms "inner-god" or "Self" do not literally indicate a person's Godhood or the transformation into a God in the Classical sense, yet indicate a change in awareness that elevates the person's consciousness to a primal state that is in harmony with the universe. Although I can't remember the page this is on, Noll gives a quote by Jung that specifically states his view that psychoanalysis is but one way in which to achieve greater self-awareness, something that doesn't quite fit into the common cult mentality. Another example of the author's clear bias toward Jung is in his disregard for the accounts of patients helped by Jung's analysis. Whenever referring to one of Jung's new patients or followers, Noll uses such phrases as "fallen under Jung's spell" or "snarred by Jung", in obvious attempts to paint these people as if they were victims. When speaking of those that defected from Jungian thought, he uses the word "escaped". The fact that these people were clearly not victims, in fact mant were either cured or enjoyed prestigious careers due to their encounters with Jung, is conveniently never brought up. Fanny Bowditch Katz is a good example of this. Katz came to Jung on the verge of suicide, yet after treatment by Jung and his colleagues, Katz found meaning in her life. This is all mentioned in the book, yet Noll can't seem grasp that perhaps Katz's return to a healthy mental state may be an indication of what Jung was doing right... you would thing a Harvard grad. would have the ability to realize this!
Anyway, there is so much that is bad about this book that 1000 words simply won't suffice. Many of Noll's arguments are either petty or thinly veiled attempts to portray Jung as a lunatic. He also employs that old trick of linking Jung to the Nazis in the last chapter and constantly mentions Jung's antisemitic tendancies (although he excuses Freud's anti-Gentile attitude). If the antisemitism of a thinker was a disqualifying factor for their ideas, we would have to disgard the likes of Luther, Goethe, Kant, Paine, Franklin, and a whole host of others. It is these types of irrelevant remarks attempting to discredit Jung that make up the bulk of this book.
The only reason I don't rate the book lower is due to its cleverness in delivering its deceit.
A true piece of trash produced by an otherwise intelligent individual. ... Read more

Book Description

This abridged edition makes the Freud/Jung correspondence accessible to a general readership at a time of renewed critical and historical reevaluation of the documentary roots of modern psychoanalysis. This edition reproduces William McGuire's definitive introduction, but does not contain the critical apparatus of the original edition. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A fight of Titans for primacy in the field of Psychanalisys.
This is a sad book to read. In fact, one would not expect that such a type of bad development would occur between the two most important figures of psychoanalisys. It is as if Marx and Engels had broken their friendship for life and began to fight for fame and glory in front of everybody. The spoil was huge: nothing more than the primacy for fame and glory in the first steps of psychanalisys.

Sure, the letters span a pretty much limited space of time of no more than 8 years (1906-1914) but the reader has to keep in mind that what was at stake was the establishing of the foundations of psychoanalisys all over Europe and also in the whole World.
What began as a cordial friendship and evolved into an almost father (Freud) to son (Jung) relationship, deteriorated into the most depressive fighting of personal primacy on many subjects. In this regard, it seems that the feud was initiated by Freud who considered Jung a type of his personal assistant to market the developments of his findings
THe fact that this is a abridged edition does not mean nothing except that here the common reader will find the most important material exchanged by the two great men and will be saved from some meaningless material of more burocratical tone.
Also of value is the introduction that ilustrates all the effort made by the two family sides to publish the letters, in spite the view by Jung that the ideal time for them to be published would be 20 to 30 years after his death.

THis is a must reading for anyone interested in the history of psychanalisys. ... Read more

Book Description

Deirdre Bair has written about some of the most influential figures in 20th century culture--Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and AnaÔs Nin. Now she turns her expert eye to the one person whose teachings and writings are the most influential of all: psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. The founder of analytical psychology, Jung became the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1910. Jung had a professional relationship with Sigmund Freud until he broke with the elder father of psychoanalysis over his emphasis on infantile sexuality and the Oedipus complex. As Freud's influence has waned over the years, Jung's ideas--the collective unconscious, the archetypal myths underpinning all societies, synchronicity, "new age" spirituality, and much more--have achieved an overwhelming ascendancy. Bair addresses the myths about Jung--accusations that he was an anti-Semite and a misogynist, and that he falsified data--with evidence from his own writings and from those of his colleagues and former patients. The result is a groundbreaking and accessible work that promises to be the definitive life of Carl Jung. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Jung at Heart
Having been a Jung devotee since my college days in the 70s, I was enthralled to pick up the latest entry on the subject of the great Master. However, I must say to D. Bair what the emperor said to Mozart in the movie, Amadeus; TOO MANY NOTES. In this case, footnotes. There are 202 PAGES of them. One chapter had 171, another 168. My only wish here is that the writer herself would be forced to read the book, having to flip time and time and time again, from the text to the footnotes. If this had been a PHD dissertation, then maybe one could get away with the neverending notes, but to the general reader and buyer, it was overkill. And even sadder was that you HAD to read them, because occasionally one would be vital to ones understanding. In addition, this was a book sadly in need of a proofreader and an editor. Typos, misinformation, sentences that were incomplete or made no sense; all of these abounded in the book. But most important of ALL, and this is a CONDEMNATION of the whole publishing industry: IF THE BOOK IS PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH THEN YOU MUST PRINT IN ENGLISH ALL QUOTES IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE !! Which this book doesnt do at all! Now having said all of that, I did plod through to the end and I was glad I did, because the bottom line is I do know more now about the man that I did before hand and aint that what reading is all about.

wonderful, definitive life of Jung
I agree with Louis Jaffe, that this a great contribution to an
understanding of Jung. Here is no 'saint', but in an strange and
wonderful way, the man emerges despite all the shadows, as the rich, profound and complex man we have come to know. Bair starts
out rather unsure of her subject's "likeableness", yet by the end of the story, she grows in respect for this great man, despite her intense objectivity (unlike the review of the NewYork Times, or Publishers Weekly, which says more about the reviewrs' agenda, than it does about Jung!) In this regard, she is a master of fairness, incredible research and new information; and even his very-'Swissness', (which is not always positive) sheds new light on his psychic backgound.
Like all circles around agreat personality, the infighting is
legendary, and gives a fascinating insiders view. Her detail is
amazing, and sometimes threatens to overwhelm the reader, but those who persist will be amply rewarded.

A Complete Biography of Carl Gustav Jung
I picked up Deirdre Bair's book "Jung: A Biography" because of my long held interest in 20th century European history, particularly the halcyon years before World War I. Certainly Carl Gustav Jung made a significant impact on European intellectual culture over is long life (1875-1961). Our very language is enriched by terms derived from his work: "archetype", "collective unconscious", "introvert" and "anima". The impact of psychoanalysis extended so far beyond the clinical interpretation and treatment of mental disorders that by 1935 "Politicians were being psychoanalyzed by reporters in the daily newspapers, the literary world was entranced with the possibilities the new science offered for individual creativity, and critics in every field were busy applying and misapplying its doctrines to many disparate genres and disciplines".

Deirdre Bair's book is masterful historical biography. Anyone with a serious interest in the evolution of psychological theory, treatment, and philosophy will benefit from this work. She explains the man and the people around him, his peers - particularly his relationship with Sigmund Freud -- , his travels, and professional activities. The book is monumentally detailed as evidenced by the 200 pages of notes and is a great source for understanding the publication and translation issues in bringing his major works to publication. The World War II period was particularly interesting, when Jung who was suspected as a Swiss German of being a Nazi sympathizer, actually was providing analysis of the German leadership to Allen Dulles.

The definitive treatment so far
Some have knocked this latest bio of C.G. Jung for not explicating his philosophy. But that is precisely one of its strengths! There are innumerable books that try to explain Jung's thought. Bair's focus is on Jung's life, told objectively, with particular attention to the many controversies about him that persist to this day. She doesn't flinch from such tough issues as his rumored womanizing or his alleged support for the Nazis. (On which point she reveals, among other surprises, that Jung actually worked as a special agent for the U.S. in Switzerland during WWII, reporting to Allen Dulles, future head of the CIA.) Unlike such writers as Richard Noll in "The Jung Cult," her goal isn't to vilify her subject. Ultimately she pictures a man who was far from perfect but deserved his place among the great thinkers. A must for anyone interested in Jung.

Fascinating & Well Written
This book is clearly the definitive biography of Carl Jung. Ms. Bair has carefully researched the details of Jung's life and provides the reader with an unvarished but quite balanced view of this profoundly important psychologist. The book focuses on Jung's life and the people who were important to him and not on his theoretical and practical contributions to Psychology. As a scholar in the field I learned much and am grateful to the author for her work. ... Read more

Book Description

This lively, entertaining text beckons the reader with simple explanations of Jung's major concepts and light-hearted exercises of self-discovery. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

"Must" reading for all students of Jungian psychology.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is an amazing man whose personal researches and inquiries into the mystical traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, Protestant and Catholic Christianity, Gnosticism, mythology, and psychology, created a profound influence on succeeding generations of truth seekers is presented and surveyed in a single volume that does full and complete justice to the man and his thoughts. Jung: A Journey Of Transformation will enable the student of metaphysical, spiritual, and psychological insight to fully grasp this original thinker's manifold observations, insights, ideas, and findings. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

This new biography of Carl Jung, the groundbreaking psychologist who introduced the world to the concepts of individuation, archetypes, and the collective unconscious, is less an outward chronicle of the events in his life than it is a look into the mind and heart of a 20th-century genius. Chronicling Jung's life from a childhood filled with terrifying visions to his early adulthood in which he pursued outer, material goals and, finally, to his midlife return to the realm of inner transformation, this book portrays Jung's down-to-earth, human side, with all the strengths and frailties that accompany the human condition. What emerges is a cohesive portrait of a healer whose skills arose from having first attended to the wounds in his own soul. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A lovely life, beautifully pictured
This is a beautiful book. I expected that, but there isn't an index, so it is difficult for me to see at a glance what else I might learn from this book. The notes are extremely brief, mainly to give page numbers in MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS by C. G. Jung much more than any of his other works, or to give page numbers in the two volumes of his letters, plus THE FREUD/JUNG LETTERS, and the compilation published by The Analytical Psychology Club of San Francisco, Inc. in 1982, C. G. JUNG, EMMA JUNG, TONI WOLFF. In the contents at the beginning, we find that in Part 1, Wounded, there are two pages for "Toni," and in Part 2, Healer, pages 101-05 for "Helpers: Emma, Toni," and in Part 3, Of the Soul, pages 141-47 for "Answer to Job" and pages 169-172 for "Toni," who died suddenly in her sleep at the age of 65. The caption of the picture on page 170 states, "Although Jung tried to get Toni Wolff's scientific writings published after her death in 1953, as yet they remain unpublished." But sometimes things change faster than photo captions, and Jung managed to write an introduction "When Toni's STUDIES IN JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY was published." (p. 171). Jung destroyed "Toni's letters to him and his to her."

Shortly before Walter Kaufmann died in September, 1980, he finished work on the third volume of DISCOVERING THE MIND, which he called FREUD VERSUS ADLER AND JUNG. As a philosophy professor, Kaufmann sought sound scholarship, innovative science, a well-organized writing style, and the sort of penetrating self-knowledge that he was used to from all the work he did on Nietzsche. The first page of section 70 of his book, page 397, explains how Jung achieved success without being particularly profound, by failing in ways that enhanced his popularity, a strategy that ultimately might be considered more professional than scientists can claim to be. He quotes Jung as someone who, "much more even than Adler, became a guru" to a group that expects professionalism above all: "About a third of my cases are not suffering from any clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and aimlessness of their lives. . . . Over two thirds of my patients are in the second half of life."

As a mere philosophy professor, Kaufmann never benefited from having a consistent publisher for his own work, though coming out in paperback made it possible for his translations of Nietzsche to be fully successful. Most of his page 397 is about books. "Among Jung's patients were wealthy American women, eager to do something for the cause. Eventually, the publication of his collected works, in English and German, was subsidized, and the volumes were produced very beautifully and underpriced, and then also made available in extremely attractive paperbacks." Though CARL JUNG: WOUNDED HEALER OF THE SOUL/ AN ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHY by Claire Dunne (who was born in Ireland, lived in Australia, and founded two Australian multicultural radio stations) is not entirely the work of women, it is as attractive as any that could describe itself as "--the book is itself a work of art, the kind of enduring tome which is picked up again and again for the pleasure of the eyes as well as that of the mind." (back cover, Olivier Bernier, "who directs the Van Waveren Foundation, was the first to acknowledge the manuscript with a publication development grant." Acknowledgments, p. 218).

The picture on page 104 which shows Freud and C. G. Jung standing, with Emma Jung and Toni Wolff seated in front of them at the Third International Psychoanalytic Congress, 1911, also shows an arm of Lou Andreas-Salome at the edge of the picture by Freud, as more of the same picture is displayed on page 136 in JUNG A BIOGRAPHY by Gerhard Wehr, translated from the German by David M. Weeks. The latter, hefty biography of Jung, for whom "the superindividual was paramount" (Wehr, p. 4) has an index of names on pages 539-549, with the number of listings for Toni Wolff taking 2 lines as only a few names, like Alfred Adler, Jesus Christ, and Friedrich Nietzsche do. Sigmund Freud and Aniela Jaffe each need 3 lines in the index of Wehr's book, which seems to devote much more to Jung's work than to his life. People who are more interested in what kept Jung motivated should see the picture of Toni Wolff on page 50 of Claire Dunne's book, dated December 1930. I'll bet she was about 44 years old then, when Jung was 55, and thought she was only 42. Some people aren't good with numbers, at that age, but people who are likely to buy this book don't have to be adept at math.

A penetrating examination of the man and his ideas
This wonderfully illustrated, spiritual biography of one of psychology's most original thinkers will be welcomed with enthusiasm by Jungian scholars and students. This penetrating examination of the man and his ideas which helped revolutionize psychology and our understanding of the mind is multidimensional and highly recommended.

A Work of Art
With 150 color and B&W illustrations, including some never before seen paintings from Jung's "Red Book," this biography is extremely reader-friendly and gorgeous. It's written in succinct chapters, and the artwork is stuff I'd like to frame. It's available in hardcover and softcover. Jung LIVES in this book as a human being struggling to become who he is meant to be at the deepest level...just like us. ... Read more

Book Description

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli, whose work contributed to developing the bombs that decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, suffered from disturbing dreams that led him to psychologist C.G. Jung.This groundbreaking study traces Pauli's thoughts and dreams over the course of his life. ... Read more

Book Description

After decades of myth making, C.G. Jung remains one of the most misunderstood figures in Western intellectual history. This comprehensive study of the origins of his psychology provides a new perspective on the rise of modern psychology and psychotherapy. It reconstructs the reception of Jung's work in the human sciences, and its impact on the social and intellectual history of the twentieth century. The book creates a basis for any future discussion of Jung by opening new vistas in psychology. ... Read more

Book Description

A collection of journalistic interviews which span Jung's lifetime. This book captures his personality and spirit in more than 50 accounts of talks and meetings with him. They range from transcripts of interviews for radio, television, and film to memoirs written by notable personalities. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I second Griebel....
...you must have this; there are treasures here you won't find anywhere else. One of the finest collections of Jung and Jungiana I've seen.

A must! if you are interested in Jung.
A must! if you are interested in C.G. Jung and his psychology.

Why is "C.G. Jung Speaking" a must?

FIRST OF ALL, simply because the Collected Works doesn't include the information found here. These are not works of Jung, but the works of others--interviews, characterizations etc. In other words, you will find some information here which you could only dig out with great difficulty, scattered in numerous works.

SECOND, in the interviews Jung is sometimes caught off-guard by a surprise question, and so, forced to develop on the aspects of his theories that he may perhaps have though self-explanatory.

THIRD, you see Jung through the eyes of others -- Esther Harding, Charles Baudoin, Michael Fordham, Charles Lindbergh, and others.

Some subjects, touched upon in this book:

- Jung's own type, according to his typology (Introvert. And Thinking, Intuition, Sensing/Perception, and Feeling, in that order)

- Freud's type (extravert--hence his pleasure principle)

- Adler's type (introvert--hence his power complex)

- The psychology of dictators (Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and, yes, Roosewelt)

- The nature of intuition

- introvert vs. extravert intuitives

- Creative achievement

- Jung's breaking with Freud.

- Jung and Nazism/anti-Semitism (Jung defends himself in December 1949)

And the somewhat transcendent questions:

- God

- death and life after death

- astrology and alchemy

Edited by William McGuire, executive editor of the Collected Works (CW), in collaboration with R.F.C. Hull, translater of CW, it is no surprise to find that this excellent book contains numerous references to CW, as well as a comprehensive index. ... Read more

Book Description

In this provocative reassessment of C. G. Jung's thought, Richard Noll boldly argues that such ideas as the "collective unconscious" and the theory of the archetypes come as much from late nineteenth-century occultism, neo-paganism, and social Darwinian teachings as they do from natural science. Noll sees the break with Sigmund Freud in 1912 not as a split within the psychoanalytic movement but as Jung's turning away from science and his founding of a new religion, which offered a rebirth ("individuation"), surprisingly like that celebrated in ancient mystery cult teachings. Jung, in fact, consciously inaugurated a cult of personality centered on himself and passed down to the present by a body of priest-analysts extending this charismatic movement, or "personal religion," to late twentieth-century individuals.

Noll carefully reconstructs the intellectual currents of fin-de-siecle Germany which influenced Jung. In conjunction with his scientific training in medicine, Jung was drawn equally to these other ideas and teachings of the time: the vitalist school in biology associated with Naturphilosophie, the evolutionary biology and monistic religion of Hackel, racialist speculations on Aryan origins and character, Nietzsche's theory of the "new nobility," neo-pagan sun worshippers, and the speculations of philologists and archeologists on prehistoric cultures and their matriarchical religions. Many of the themes and symbols of these volkisch beliefs were used by the National Socialists and have become so identified with Hitler and the Nazis that it is difficult to disentangle the sources from this later use. Noll deftly uncovers the worldview of early twentieth-century German culture and firmly separates Jung and his teachings from the later National Socialist movement.

Richard Noll's groundbreaking work of historical reconstruction brings scholarship on C. G. Jung to a new level of sophistication. Noll's book does for Jung what Frank Sulloway's Freud: The Biologist of the Mind did for modern Freud studies. Written for the general reader this book will also be an important source for historians of science and psychiatry and will form the basis of all future Jung criticism. ... Read more

Reviews (38)

A salutary threat to the incomes of Jungian analysts
Reading some of the truly vicious customer reviews below, I cannot help but suspect that most of them were written by Jungian analysts. Having spent several years within the Jungian world (as neither a patient nor an analyst, I hasten to add), I feel that Noll has done the public a great service with his book. While I admire many of Jung's ideas as reflections of an interesting mind, I have seen no evidence of their practical applicability. Even more, I wonder about the damage done to patients by their being applied so narrowly, doggedly, slavishly by Jungian analysts. The Jungian world is filled with mediocrities -- people as unimaginative as Jung, for all his faults, was imaginative -- who band together tightly and congratulate each other endlessly on their genius, their sensitivity, their depth, their soulfulness. Meanwhile, they often seem to be engaged in particularly vicious power games, perhaps because they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge their "shadow" sides. And the patients too often seem to get lost in the shuffle, or actually damaged. Noll's book serves to underline the painful truth that the man these analysts take for a God was in fact not only deeply flawed but little concerned with the truth or otherwise of his theories, and not very interested in his patients'welfare. He has created a model of egotism that all too many Jungians seem to follow, without possessing his genius.

Well, so what?
Frankly, this was a disappointment. I went back from it with far more sympathy for Jung - and far less for Noll - than I had believed possible; and that in spite of the fact that - after a juvenile pash for Jung more than twenty years ago - I have long since given up on psychoanalysis (and in particular on the doctrine of Archetypes) as a system of knowledge and explanation; and that I was and am not impressed with Jung's private life and his abuse of patient/doctor relationships. The basic problem with this book is the juvenile, unmeditated, unintelligent pseudo-rationalism at its heart. Noll is apparently under the impression that there is something called "the historical Christ" which contradicts the teachings of historical Christianity; and therefore he approves of Freud, in spite of the howlingly obvious elements of pseudo-science, self-justification and superstition, because Freud takes religion to be a disease in need of curing rather than a legitimate way to view the world. Conversely, he opposes Jung because Jung, however distant his view from any orthodox religion, justifies religion as a state of mind. This, of course, is the reason why Jung's success continues in spite of his more than dubious scientific standing; because, however you look at them, in terms of the most basic issues of human thought Freud is a jailer, chaining us to the lowest processes of our bodies and offering us nothing more liberating than sex, and Jung is the man who turns the key and sets us free. I regard neither of them as in any way scientific, reliable or intellectually sound, but I also regard the influence of Jung as infinitely less pestiferous than that of Freud - and I owe this view to Noll's book, because it placed starkly in my face the sheer ugliness of the motives of those who attack Jung and defend Freud.

noll peered at his inner self and didnt like what he saw
The lid has been opened in the "Zaius" interview. There stands the "scholar" in full disclosure, bitter, arrogant, dismissive, full of expletives, and uncontrolled anger at the junguians. " I get no respect!" he whines again and again. He classifies his early admiration for Junguian thought, as "I was in my twenties and fool". Well, how's that for self disclosure! On the same interview, he argues that "they shouldnt be looking at my motives!". How Noll-ian!

The Would-be Messiah of Zurich
Psychoanalysis has existed as a recognized discipline (one hesitates to call it a science) for little more than a century. In this time, it has exerted great intellectual and social influence, far beyond what one might expect of a narrow medical specialty. Terms like "ego," "id," and "collective unconscious" have entered the popular vocabulary, and the analyst's consulting room and couch provide the setting for innumerable cartoons. Given the cultural significance of psychoanalysis, it is odd how little curiosity historians and social critics have shown about its origins. Most regard it simply as an invention of the late nineteenth century, like the light bulb or the automobile.

In "The Jung Cult," Richard Noll has brilliantly placed Jungian analysis in its historical context. He has also, in the process, shed much light on Freud and a number of his other disciples. Psychoanalysis was to a large extent the product of German philosophical and literary thought, and had much to do with the collapse of orthodox religious belief amongst the educated classes. German romanticism, the radical nihilism of Nietzsche, Haeckel's efforts to construct a modern "scientific" structure of ethical thought along religious lines, a "völkisch" hearkening back to Nordic paganism (as in Wagner's operas), and late nineteenth-century occultism as exemplified by H.P. Blavatsky, were all ingredients of the bouillabaisse out of which analysis emerged. These elements were (and remain) obscured by the trappings of science and medicine, which serve principally to give psychoanalysis an intellectual respectability it would otherwise lack.

While Freud, who described himself as a "godless Jew," believed that religion was the problem, and its elimination the solution, Jung concluded that the moral stringency of orthodox Christianity had to be replaced by another type of religious belief, ecstatic and archaic in character. In the Jungian view, the dominant philosophical background is mystical and magical, as Noll documents. He argues persuasively that Jung viewed himself as a religious figure, and that he was in some sense the founder of a kind of religion.

Noll's book has been portrayed by some Jungians as a hatchet job. While it is not written from a sympathetic point of view, it is far from that. It is thoroughly documented and copiously annotated. I found it a fascinating exercise in intellectual history. Jung stands between Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard in the dubious pantheon of the founders of modern religions. For what it is worth, he accomplished what he did with far more eclat and subtlety than either of these "neighbors."

Highly recommended
"The Jung Cult" by Richard Noll is well-researched, precise, and readable. It gives penetrating insights into the mind of one of the most influential thinkers in recent history.Highly recommended for those with an interest in psychology. ... Read more

Book Description

Here Anthony Stevens examines every stage of Jung's personal and professional development to throw light on his theories of the life cycle, dream symbolism, and the collective unconscious. Jung's life experience made him a profound, stimulating, and immensely influential writer on almost every aspect of human behavior; this lucid and penetrating study makes the ideal introduction to his life and ideas. This new edition contains a preface intended as a rebuttal to the recent attacks on Jung made by Noll and McLynn. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

the perfect brief summary of Jung and Jungian theory
The reader is treated to both a concise statement of Carl Gustav Jung's theories of life-stage development and a parallel narrative of Jung's experiences as he moved through each of these stages. Stevens traces the idea of the unconscious from its conception (which he believed to be around 1700) to the earliest investigations by Freud in the 1890s. The split between Freud and Jung (essentially spirituality versus sexuality) is described as having a profoundly shattering effect on Jung, as it had on others ejected from the Freudian camp for their failure to endorse, without question, Freud's theories that all neuroses is based in sexual development. (Two of these ex-Freudians actually committed suicide after being spurned by Freud.) Stevens's unique method of combining a primer of Jung life-stage theory with a biography of Jung is an effective introduction to the man and his work. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

An indispensable sour companion
Anybody interested in Jung should read this book, but read it with a grain of salt. The author is no great admirer of Jung; was this a result of learning so much about him while writing his biography? I do not know, but I am grateful to McLynn for writing a book that has taught me so much about a man who has taught me so much.

That said, let me state that this book can by no means substitute for reading Jung. The brilliance, fire, and life of his writing is almost entirely absent from this book: a great loss.

Also absent are photographs. I would like to see what Jung and Co. looked like at various stages.

So let's put out a new version with photos!

the last page causes a sigh of relief
McLynn doesn't like Jung ideas. Not a problem, really, but then why write a book about him? So the book crawls slowly, unhappily amassing all negative gossip about Jung, leaving the reader ( as probably also it did to the writer), miserable, exhausted, untill, at last the book ends, and a sigh of relief is impossible to avoid. Was this really necessary? Was this a paid, imposed job? This is really a pathography, a subgenre of our sick postmodern times, and I hope that these kind of people never go so far as the write a new life of Christ.

Disappointing
Exhibits little, if any, understanding of the immensity of Jung's work. Try Wehr's biography instead.

Masquerade
Wanting an introductory overview to C. G. Jung and his work, and reading the editorial reviews that Mr. McLynn has presented an objective and clear account of them, I eagerly picked up this biography, but was disappointed to find it a tendentious polemic relentlessly and repetitively attacking Jung (and, by the way, I am not a "Jungian"), dwelling at unnecessary length on the Freud-Jung relationship and insufficiently on Jung's influence as an original thinker of the XXc, and most signally, failing to present any sort of precis of Jung's seminal ideas that would be helpful to the general reader. Don't bother with this one: wait for a better biography, something on the lines of Peter Gay's Freud: a Life for Our Time.

Freud, Freud, Freud.
So far, I find this book captivating like a traffic accident. Page 222 of 529, for example, consists, in it's entirety, of three paragraphs about Freud. And it's so chock-full of whiney, vague "interpretation," that McLynn has become in my mind the handlebar-moustache-twisting, bound-lady-on-the railroad villain of all biographies. What other reviews of this book have said comes to mind: McLynn's book is valuable precisely because it is OBVIOUSLY the most unfair and degrading description one could credibly sling together based on any interpretation of the facts (in fact, I would say, well beyond "credibly," except, naturally, I am not aquainted in a thoroughgoing way with every detail of Jungs's life... which it's worth noting, the author assumes I am. McLynn omits a vast array of details as if he were *deliberately* trying to make himself sound even more of the dire propogandist than he actually is.) One wonders if this book was written in an attempt to discredit the whole field of critical biography of Jung. That's my theory. Jung must be above reproach, if his foremost critics are the likes of McLynn. ... Read more

Book Description

Beginning with Jung's earliest correspondence to associates of the psychoanalytic period and ending shortly before his death, the 935 letters selected for these two volumes offer a running commentary on his creativity. The recipients of the letters include Mircea Eliade, Sigmund Freud, Esther Harding, James Joyce, Karl Kernyi, Erich Neumann, Maud Oakes, Herbert Read, Upton Sinclair, and Father Victor White. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Confusion about which book this is
Amazon's presentation on this Web page is very confusing as there are two completely different books being referred to here under the title "C.G. Jung":

C.G. Jung: Letters Vol.2 1951-1961, and
C.G. Jung: Word and Image [a biography].

The ISBN number used for this Web page is 0691097240, which refers to volume 2 of Letters (1951-1961). However, when you click on the "Paperback Edition" link, it takes you to Word and Image; ISBN: 0691018472! The Book Description obviously thinks this is the Letters book, but the reviews are clearly also referring to Word and Image.

This is all especially confusing for those looking for a used version of Letters Vol.2 and who are tantalized by the lower prices for an apparent paperback version. Jung's two-volume Letters collection has never come out in paperback and the used paperback that is actually being offered is Word and Image!

It might be time for Amazon to fix this discrepancy before someone receives a different book than the one he thought he was ordering.

A Guided Tour to Carl Jung
This is a biography of Carl Jung (1875-1961), but so much more than that. It traces his life and professional development, drawing on letters and extensive quotes from the Collected Works. It is profusely illustrated, not only with photographs of Jung and the relevant people and places in his life, but also with his drawings. After Jung's break with Freud in the early 1910's, Jung went through a about a decade of professional isolation and rich personal growth. During that time, he kept a journal called the "Red Book", which he decorated with drawing and paintings based on his dreams and active imagination. Many striking images from the Red Book are reproduced in this volume: a drawing of Philemon, Jung's inner spiritual guide; the viscerally disquieting "Meeting with the Shadow"; and a singularly captivating image, "The Light at the Heart of Darkness". Photos of Jung in his travels and at his house in Bollingen round out this engaging visual tour of Jung's contribution. This is a wonderful introduction to Jung's life and work, especially for someone of an artistic inclination.

mind-blowing, dogma-shattering
A very fine collection...with plenty of glimpses at Jung's trans-analytic speculations and personal reactions. Soulful and, in places, very funny too. ... Read more

Book Description

`This book offers a fresh and full introduction to Jung's psychology - it will be appreciated by many, from novice counsellors to the well-read analyst who will find... that there is much to learn about C G Jung' - Journal of Analytical Psychology

`Ann Casement achieves an almost impossible task in her contribution to this useful series from SAGE, namely to create a lively overview of a complex man and his equally complex contributuions to analytic psychotherapy.... Casement achieves in this short book what Jung may have hoped to do when he reported a dream following a meeting with a publisher who was encouraging him to write a popular text of his ideas for the non-specialist. He had rejected the idea out of hand, but later he had a dream that changed his mind. "Jung found himself `standing in a public place addressing a great multitude of people who were listening to him with rapt attention and understanding what he said'" ' - Self & Society

`Clearly written and well-informed, this impressive book is likely to become the single volume of choice for those psychotherapists and counsellors engaging with Jung and Jungian psychology as part of their training (whether wholly Jungian or more pluralistic). Ann Casement writes as an informed and enthusiastic insider who has also managed to retain her critical distance - hence what she has to say will also be relevant to more experienced readers' - Andrew Samuels, University of Essex

Carl Gustav Jung is an enlightening and insightful guide to the life and work of one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy and most influential thinkers in modern times.

Combining insights from his early life and his wide-ranging intellectual interests in philosophy, mysticism and parapsychology, Ann Casement traces the development of Jung's ideas on the functioning of the human mind, including the origins of core Jungian concepts such as archetypes, teleology, alchemy and the collective unconscious. Examining the relationship between Freud and Jung through their prolific correspondence, the author charts the growing divergence of opinion, which culminated in the birth of analytical psychology, the branch of psychotherapy established by Jung.

Notwithstanding his unquestionable contribution to modern intellectual thought, Jung has been subject to severe criticism, including allegations of anti-Semitism and sympathy with the Nazi party. The book sets out clearly both the arguments levelled against Jung and responses to his critics.

Particularly for the reader new to Jungian thinking, this book places the central concepts fully into context and provides the ideal starting point for further study of Jung and his work.

Ann Casement is a Jungian Analyst in Private Practice, London and Chair of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy.Her previous publications include Post-Jungians Today.

Book Description

"The profound insights of Jung and the equally profound teachings of the Peoples of Turtle Island have a common root below ground."

Jung and the Native American Moon Cycles describes the life of C. G. Jung as seen through the lens of the Moon Cycles, a Native American teaching about the archetypal influences and forces that affect us at different times in our lives. Through this lens we see how the rhythm of Jung’s life coincided with the great events of the 20th century.

This book offers new insights into Jung’s life and death, and provides a fascinating perspective on some of Jung’s more important dreams. It also unexpectedly casts new light on Jung’s fateful associations with Freud and Picasso and the controversial areas of his life, particularly his relationships with women and his supposed anti-Semitism. Michael Owen also shows how readers will be able to place the events of their own lives on the Moon Cycles of the Native American Medicine Wheel, gaining a new perspective into the births and deaths in their life (inner and outer). They will see what learning periods are ahead of them, and understand the critical importance of the nine-month and three-year cycles.

Some of the "patterns of time" and other insights revealed:

• Both Jung’s parents were the thirteenth and youngest in their families.
• Freud died twenty-seven years almost to the day after he fainted in Jung’s presence and said "How sweet it must be to die."
• Jung dreamt of the firebombing of Dresden twenty-seven years before it happened.
• Jung’s writings about Picasso and its relationship to Jung’s death. ... Read more

Book Description

A new volume in the acclaimed Past Masters series, this is the most lucid and up-to-date introduction to the thought of Carl Gustav Jung available.Though he was a prolific writer and an original thinker of vast erudition, Jung lacked a gift for clear exposition and his ideas are less widely appreciated than they deserve to be.In his extremely readable introduction, Anthony Stevens--one of Britain's foremost Jungian analysts--clearly explains the basic concepts of Jungian psychology: the collective unconcious, complex, archtype, shadow, persona, anima, animus, and the individuation of the Self.He examines Jung's views on such disparate subjects as myth, religion, alchemy, "synchronicity," and the psychology of gender differences. He also devotes separate chapters to the stages of life, Jung's theory of psychological types, the interpretation of dreams, the practice of Jungian analysis, and to the unjust allegation that Jung was a Nazi sympathizer. Finally, he argues that Jung's visionary powers and profound spirituality have helped many to find an alternative set of values to the arid materialism prevailing in Western society.

A small masterpiece of insight and concision, this volume offers the perfect introduction to one of the twentieth century's most important thinkers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Phenomenal Introduction to Jung
This is probably the best introduction to Jung on the market. It is simple, concise, and VERY reader-friendly. It is very current as well including a short introduction to all the major aspects of his work and life. I can't recommend this one highly enough! ... Read more

Book Description

This "meticulously researched" (The Times [London]) biography explores the complex character of one of the world's most influential psychoanalysts. Having gained access to a substantial amount of previously unpublished material, Ronald Hayman offers a rare insight into how Jung's revolutionary ideas grew out of his own extraordinary experiences. With notable objectivity, Hayman investigates the most crucial questions surrounding this enigmatic figure. What actually went on during Jung's sessions with patients? Was his mother insane? Was he a borderline case? What were the consequences of a homosexual episode in his boyhood? Was he pro-Nazi or anti-Semitic? Why did he fail to sustain any of his friendships with men? Did he sometimes mean "God" when he said the "Unconscious"? Why was he so secretive? 16 pages of b/w photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Freudian Reading Of Jung
Other reviews have pointed out some serious problems with this book: the scattered telling of the story, the sometimes unclear writing, the fact that one does not come away with a very clear picture of Jung's thought even after 450 pages of summarizing his theories. But there is another reason I was disappointed in this book: namely, that Hayman is a Freudian who criticizes Jung through Freud's eyes (Read Louis Breger's "Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision" for an example of how bad an idea that is). While Hayman assumes as common sense that we accept the theories of the typically modern, sex-crazed, materialistic Freud, he criticizes Jung precisely for presuming to break with Freud, thereby assuring (in Hayman's mind) that Jung and Jungians will remain in the arena of madness, rather than mental health. Hayman quotes a psychoanylist, with marked approval, who says: "If [Jung's] main life's work was in the end to be founded on a personal and scientific incompatibility with Freud, there are those who believe, like myself, that this was a disaster, and in part an illusion, from which we suffer and will continue to do so until we have repaired the damage." (p. 213) In short, the only way to be an acceptable Jungian is to be a Freudian. As many of us have found the modern ethos of sex and materialism to be a dead end, and trying to re-think spirituality in an age of the dessicated fanaticism of fundamentalist religions hard enough in itself, a dependence on Freud is surely no help. If one need not acept Jung as if he were a god -- always the problem of Freudians in relation to their master -- at least Jung has pointed the way for many people to a view of life that is compatible with a regenerative spirituality, not just Freudian myths about repressed childhood trauma and the primacy of sexuality in self-understanding. Hayman's biography has the very desirable effect of presenting Jung as a man whose life was troubled by psychosis and full of the turn-of-the-century Spiritualism that tends no longer to be accepted as factual among thinking people. Worshippers of Jung doubtless don't like this aspect of the book. For myself, I found the manner of Jung's break with Freud -- his experiences of internal dialogue and vivid fantasy, his belief that sexuality is only one factor among many in human life, his refusal to submit to the enervating Freudian materialism as a final arbiter in all judgements, his wide-ranging interest in creation myths as opposed to Freud's reductive readings of Oepipus et al, his belief that we should explore the fantasies and delusions we encounter in life in relation to the world of archetypes rather than trying to extirpate them by analysis and replace them with Freud's own truncated little fantasies -- to be more creative and productive than if he had remained a Freudian true believer. But let's not worship Jung, either: reading Hayman may not make Jung quite clear, or an acceptable object of worship, but the former (along with the implicit Freudianism) is the real problem I had with his book, not the latter.

Dropping in on the neighborhood madman.
Sometimes I feel guilty for not starting at the beginning of a book like this and reading right through. Hayman removes such guilt by the curious expediant of neglecting to put his anecdotes into any coherent form. It hardly seems to matter where you start -- the author seemed to have trouble even putting individual chapters into order. One interesting theme he mentions was how Jung served as a link between pre-modern and post-modern spirituality. Neither this nor other themes were developed. But ultimately I forgave Hayman, mostly, because much of what I found was interesting, despite the mayhem. It is like dropping in on an eccentric friend at irregular and unscheduled intervals: you do get a feel for who the man is, perhaps as much because of as in spite of the disorder.

There were times when I found myself wondering, "Why did this guy write a book about a pers