by Phil Goss
Jung’s ‘Red Book’
Jung recorded, and graphically illustrated, his innermost experiences from the period when he explored his unconscious, in his ‘Red Book’. This book is written as a description of a series of fantasy journeys, arising from a realization that in serving the spirit of the modern age (which he saw as being all about how much ‘use’ or ‘value’ we can be to human society), he had lost his soul…. He then encounters his own soul and embarks on a journey in which figures emerge from his unconscious and guide him towards his individuation task: to integrate the different, sometimes seemingly contradictory influences in his psyche, and to find a new worldview which encompassed older religious and cultural influences as well as fresh psychological and wider scientific understanding.
A mandala drawn by Jung, featuring masculine and feminine figures (The Red Book, p. 105)
A central example in the ‘Red Book’ of seemingly opposed or antithetical influences is the encounters he describes with Elijah and Salome. While the male prophet Elijah represents ancient, serious and persistent truths, the young woman Salome represents new possibility, sensual youth and movement. Jung’s journey in integrating these opposites to get to a new post-Christian worldview unfolds through the manuscript. The figure of Elijah also provided Jung with the template for an ‘imaginal’ figure in his psyche (imaginary but psychologically real and autonomous) that he would often meet in his journeys of active imagination (see definition below and Chapter 12 for a fuller description). This was Philemon, a wise prophet who guided him into understandings and insights about himself, the human condition and archetypal influences.
Jung also had a ‘Black Book’, a set of notebooks where he recorded his fantasies before transferring them to his ‘Red Book’, in which, as he puts it: ‘I tried an aesthetic elaboration of my fantasies, but never finished it’ (Jung, 1963, p. 213). He did not finish it because:
‘I became aware that I had not yet found the right language, that I still had to translate it into something else. Therefore I gave up this aestheticizing tendency in good time, in favour of a rigorous process of understanding. I saw that so much fantasy needed firm ground underfoot, and that I must first return wholly to reality. For me, reality meant scientific comprehension. I had to draw concrete conclusions from the insights the unconscious had given me – and that task was to become a life’s work.’
Thus his ‘Red Book’ provided the wellspring of experiences and ideas that Jung then took and fashioned into a theoretical framework based on grounded scientific principles. This book was not published until 2009 (48 years after his death), because Jung’s family and some of his followers wanted to keep it out of the public eye until it was felt that enough time had passed for its unusual imagery and text to find general acceptance. Jung was a controversial figure, as we will explore in greater detail later in this book, and his vivid exposition of his encounters on his inner journeys may have reinforced perceptions in some clinical and academic circles that he and his ideas were too wayward from Western scientific and secular principles to be taken seriously. He and his ideas had made some enemies, and so to release The Red Book too soon may have brought more trouble than appreciation. When the book was published, the general response was one of curiosity and excitement, not just in the analytic community but also across the psychotherapeutic field and beyond, with some writers, artists, filmmakers and media commentators picking up on it as a significant cultural and intellectual moment.
Spotlight: The Red Book causes a storm
When The Red Book was published in 2009, it caused considerable interest around the world, not least in the United States, where a special series of dialogues were set up at the Rubin Museum in New York. As it says on the museum website, ‘personalities from many different walks of life were paired on stage with a psychoanalyst and invited to respond to and interpret a folio from Jung’s Red Book as a starting point for a wide-ranging conversation’.
Those involved, alongside the analysts, included Twitter co-founder Jack Doursey, novelist Alice Walker, musician David Byrne, composer Meridith Monk and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner. Podcasts of all discussions can be found on the website: http://www.rubinmuseum.org/redbook
Key terms
Active imagination: A technique Jung developed in order to engage with the unconscious more fully. Images are allowed to form spontaneously through a kind of ‘daydreaming’ and, after dialogue with them, new insights can be derived.
Analysand: The term Jung coined for people who came for analysis, to distinguish the Jungian approach as distinct from Freud’s use of ‘patient’.
Anima: The feminine influence and image in men.
Animus: The masculine influence and image in women.
Archetypes: The essence of phenomena which crop up everywhere in the world and in human experience. They generate instinctual responses and images that can strongly influence our perceptions and behaviour, especially when we are not conscious of this. They are ‘bipolar’: the opposites within an archetype (such as night and day in the archetype of the earth’s cycle around the sun) sit at either end of an ‘archetypal pole’, with many variations on these at points in between.
Depth psychology: A general term used to encompass approaches that focus on the importance of working with the unconscious. It includes psychoanalysis, Jungian analysis, object relations and more recent developments such as relational psychoanalysis.
Individuation: The task to realize our unique selfhood. This is a ‘work in progress’ which lasts a lifetime and involves facing aspects of ourselves we do not like (the ‘shadow’) and integrating these and other aspects.
Psyche: From Greek mythology, ‘soul’. In psychology it refers to the mind’s overarching ‘container’ of thought, emotion and behaviour – all that is conscious as well as unconscious. In Jungian terms, the psyche is also seen as having a life with a sense of purpose.
Shadow: For Jung (1968), ‘the thing a person has no wish to be, but is’: aspects of ourselves we deny, cannot see or try to hide from others. Sometimes this also refers to healthier aspects that have got lost in shadow and that we therefore cannot utilize.
Dig deeper
Ellenberger, H., The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry (New York: Basic Books, 1970)
Jung, C. G. (1963), Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Glasgow: Fontana, 1995)
Jung, C. G. (1966), The Practice of Psychotherapy, CW16, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1993)
Jung, C. G. (1968), Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, CW9ii, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1991)
Samuels, A., Shorter, B. and Plaut, F. (eds.), A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis (London: Routledge, 1986)
Shamdasani, S., Introduction, in Jung, C. G., The Red Book (Zurich: Philemon Foundation, 2009)
Storr, A., (ed.), Jung: Selected Writings (London: Fontana, 1986)
Storr, A., Freud: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)
Fact-check (answers at the back)
1 What is ‘depth psychology’?
a Psychology that explores deep issues in a range of disciplines
b Jungian ways of exploring the depths of the unconscious
c All established theoretical and therapeutic approaches stemming from psychoanalysis, including the Jungian approach
d A way of understanding phobic responses to physical depths and heights
2 Why did Jung confront his own unconscious?
a He was fascinated by his dreams
b He thought this might provide him with a way of understanding himself, and the nature of the unconscious, better
c Freud recommended he do so
d He thought it might provide inspiration for his writing
3 Why did Jung use the term ‘analysand’ for his patients?
a To help distinguish his approach from Freud’s
b To help reinforce how analytical his approach was
c To
help people analyse themselves
d To reflect his critically analytical attitude to his patients
4 According to Jung, why are archetypes ‘bipolar’?
a They are like the magnetic influences of the north and south pole
b In some cases they create a serious ‘bipolar’ mental health condition
c They have two opposite poles with a continuum of possibilities in between
d They help you see things from both sides
5 What does ‘individuation’ mean?
a To be different from everyone else
b To grow up via different developmental stages
c To confront the unconscious
d To integrate aspects of ourselves so we are more completely ourselves
6 What is ‘active imagination’?
a Letting your thoughts run wild
b When others activate images for us, e.g. in films or on TV
c Noticing images arising from our unconscious (e.g. via daydreaming) and actively engaging with them
d Unhelpful fantasy
7 To what did Jung relate the scarab in his vision?
a The end of an era
b An Egyptian myth of rebirth
c The coming world war
d An archetype of beetles
8 Why did Jung write The Red Book?
a He wanted to record his experiences of confronting his unconscious
b Red was his favourite colour
c He wanted a break from writing psychological theory
d It helped him stay sane rather than get lost in his ‘active imagination’ work
9 What are the six archetypal figures inhabiting the inner world?
a Persona, psyche, anima, animus, ego, self
b Persona, shadow, individuation, ego, anima, animus
c Persona, ego, shadow, psyche, anima, animus
d Persona, ego, self, shadow, anima, animus
10 Where did Jung practise psychiatry while engaged in confronting his unconscious?
a In various psychiatric hospitals
b In his private practice
c At the Burgholzi hospital, Zurich
d Nowhere – he did not practise during this period
2
The dreamer awakes: Jung’s early life
This chapter provides an overview of Jung’s childhood and adolescence, with an emphasis on his inner development. It is important to know something about what influenced Jung as he grew up in Switzerland in the late nineteenth century, to help us understand what drove him into psychiatry and psychoanalysis in his adult life. It will also help us make sense of how Jung’s ideas were able to grow and flourish in later years; to ‘analyse the analyst’, one might say.
A child of the unconscious?
‘Who spoke to me then?… Who but the alien guest who came both from above and from below?… What happened then was a kind of burial in the earth, and many years were to pass before I came out again. Today I know that it happened in order to bring the greatest possible amount of light into the darkness … My intellectual life had its unconscious beginnings at that time.’
Jung (1963), Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 30
Chapter 1 conveyed a clear sense of how important Jung’s inner life was to him. The notion that the unconscious has a life of its own, an idea germane to his thinking, sprang from a series of powerful dreams and imaginary encounters in Jung’s early life. In the book about his life, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963), Jung described some dreams from his childhood that can seem astonishing to the ‘average dreamer’ because of their rich symbolism and vivid imagery.
Spotlight: Who really wrote Memories, Dreams, Reflections?
It is fair to describe this book as more biography than autobiography. Aniela Jaffé, a Swiss analyst, was asked to take charge of the task as Jung approached the end of his life, and she wrote much of the book, drawing on conversations with him. Jung did, however, provide a good deal of direct material about his childhood, which he felt impelled by his unconscious to record before it was too late. The first three chapters are his, as is some of the material on his journeys abroad, and the final chapter. Otherwise, the book was put together by Jaffé, who had to re-edit more than once due to worries about the portrayal of some of the more controversial aspects of his life, before its publication.
Beginning with this vivid encounter with the unconscious at an early age, this chapter explores some key early influences, such as his ‘two personalities’, his wrestle with religion and the influence of his father’s beliefs, plus other important dreams he had. Reflections on Jung’s development through childhood and adolescence will be brought to bear on the discussion, including one or two voices from writers who have raised questions about Jung’s mental health…
Formative influences: family
Carl Gustav Jung was born on 26 July 1875 at Keswill, a village on the banks of Lake Constance in Switzerland. His father, Paul Achilles Jung, was a priest in the Swiss Protestant Church, and had studied Oriental languages and Theology. His mother, Emilie Preiswerk, adopted a conventional female role in this most conservative of nineteenth-century societies – although there was, unsurprisingly, more to her than this. It is important to bear in mind that, as Brome puts it (1978, p. 27): ‘Switzerland in 1875 was a country where women wore skirts which almost swept the ground, the family was sacred…, religion penetrated all areas of life… and sex was regarded by some as an unfortunate prerequisite of reproduction.’
Spotlight: 1875
The year of Jung’s birth also featured the establishment of the anti-slavery union in New York, the invention of snooker and first recorded hockey game; and Matthew Webb became the first person successfully to swim the English Channel to France.
Within the straitened social context of Switzerland, what could not be spoken about easily – deeper instincts as they related to sexual, aggressive and self-interested drives and wishes – became all the more powerful for not being expressed. This observation corresponds to Sigmund Freud’s conclusions in Vienna at this time about the manifestations of ‘hysteria’ he treated in his women patients. Freud came to the view that the fainting, paralysed limbs and uncontrolled weeping involved were directly linked to the oppressive social climate which thoroughly censored female sexuality, although he also diagnosed a more direct link to the effects of repressed memories of sexual abuse (1896).
Within the inhibiting atmosphere described, the young Carl Jung became aware there was rather more to life than what could be consciously explained or understood. The power of his unconscious to generate dreams was one example of this that fascinated him. Another was the occult. He came to share with his mother a curiosity about unexplained phenomena, which apparently occurred in their home (then in Kushnact, in the Zurich suburbs). According to Jung (1963), this included a sudden crack which split the dining room table across the middle, and a shattered bread knife inside a sideboard, which they were sure had been placed inside the kitchen drawer a few minutes earlier. Both incidents left them wondering whether their home was haunted.
From such apparent mysteries, Jung’s interest in spiritualism grew, and would eventually lead him to attend weekly séances where his cousin, Helene Preiswerk, appeared to channel the spirit of a woman named Ivanes. In turn, this would lead Jung to focus on occult phenomena in his 1902 doctoral thesis (‘On the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena’).
Formative influences: Jung’s ‘big’ dream
In his thinking on dreams, Jung identified what he simply termed ‘a big dream’ (1964, p. 42). As implied, this refers to dreams we may have now and again which really make an impact on us, leaving us affected by the emotional and symbolic power of what we have experienced, and pondering what the meaning may be for us. They also have a collective meaning: the ‘message’ of the dream emanates from the collective unconscious, the reservoir of shared human images, instincts and experiences, beneath the personal unconscious where archetypal influences
have their source. Jung’s dream at the age of three, which he described in Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963), falls into this category.
In this dream, the little boy sees a large hole in the ground of a meadow near the vicarage where he lives with his family. Carl goes down the stone stairway inside the hole. He makes his way through a heavy green curtain in the archway at the bottom, and finds himself in a long room with a ‘wonderfully rich throne’ on a raised platform at the far end. He then goes on to describe what he can see standing on the throne:
‘Something was standing on it which I thought at first was a tree trunk twelve to fifteen feet high and about one and a half to two feet thick. It was a huge thing, reaching almost to the ceiling. But it was of a curious composition: it was made of skin and naked flesh, and on top there was something like a rounded head with no face and no hair. On the very top of the head was a single eye, gazing motionlessly upwards.’
Jung, 1963, p. 27
Jung reports being afraid that this ‘thing’ might at any moment crawl, worm-like, towards him. But then, he hears his mother’s voice from above ground shouting: ‘Yes, just look at him. That is the man eater!’, before he wakes up, terrified.
Jung himself came to see this dream as signalling a key theme of his life’s work: to uncover the fuller picture around some crucial archetypal polarities – between light and shadow, God and flesh, masculine and feminine. Jung reported, much later in his life and after extensive studies, how ‘a passage in a study of religious ritual burned into my eyes, concerning the motif of cannibalism that underlies the symbolism of the Mass’ (Jung, 1963, p. 29). He then saw the parallel between the church symbolism of eating the bread (Christ’s body) and drinking the wine (Christ’s blood), and the signalling of the ‘man eater’ in the dream.