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The Red Book (Jung)

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The Red Book is the name commonly given to a manuscript written and illustrated by Carl Gustav Jung between approximately 1915 and 1930. The work is inscribed by Jung with the title Liber Novus ("The New Book"). The folio size manuscript (11.57 inches by 15.35 inches) was bound in a red leather binding, and was commonly referred to as the "Red Book" by Jung.

The Red Book, Liber Novus, consists of 205 pages of text and illustrations, all from Jung's hand. 53 pages are full images, 71 pages contain both text and artwork and 81 pages are pure calligraphic text.[1] He began work on it in 1913, first in small black journals, during a difficult period of "creative illness", or confrontation with the unconscious, and it is said to contain some of his most personal material.[2] During the sixteen years he worked on the book, Jung developed his theories of archetypes, collective unconscious, and individuation.[3]

Context

Jung was associated with Sigmund Freud for a period of approximately five years, beginning in 1907. Their relationship became increasingly acrimonious. When the final break came in 1913, Jung retreated from many of his professional activities for a time to further develop his own theories. Biographers[4] disagree as to whether this period represented a psychological breakdown. Anthony Storr, reflecting on Jung's own judgement that he was "menaced by a psychosis" during this time, concluded that the period represented a psychotic episode.[5]

Jung referred to the episode as a kind of experiment, a voluntary confrontation with the unconscious.[6] Biographer Barbara Hannah, who was close to Jung later in his life, compared Jung's experiences to the encounter of Menelaus with Proteus in the Odyssey. Jung, she said, "made it a rule never to let a figure or figures that he encountered leave until they had told him why they had appeared to him."[7]

Content

The Red Book was a product of a technique developed by Jung which he termed active imagination. As Jung described it, he was visited by two figures, an old man and a young woman, who identified themselves as Elijah and Salome. They were accompanied by a large black snake. In time, the Elijah figure developed into a guiding spirit that Jung called Philemon. Salome was identified by Jung as an anima figure. The figures, according to Jung, "brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life."[6]

The Philemon figure represented superior insight, and communicated through mythic imagery. The images did not appear to come from Jung's own experience, and Jung interpreted them as products of the collective unconscious. In addition to the words of Philemon and the other figures, the Red Book contains detailed illuminations on two-thirds of its pages.[3] Several of these are reproduced in Aniella Jaffe's book, C.G. Jung: Word and Image.[8]

Publication and display

Until 2001, Jung's heirs refused to permit publication of the book and did not allow scholars access to it.[9] As of September 2009, only about two dozen people had seen it.[10] Historian Sonu Shamdasani, an employee of the Jung heirs and their advisor in the handling of unpublished Jung material, created the Philemon Foundation in order to facilitate publication of Jung's works. Ulrich Hoerni, Jung's grandson who manages the Jung archives, decided to publish it after three years of convincing by Shamdasani.[10] W. W. Norton & Company is preparing an edition of the Red Book in its original German, with English translation and extensive footnoting. In 2007, DigitalFusion scanned one-tenth of a millimeter at a time with a 10,200-pixel scanner.[10] It is scheduled for publication in October 2009. In mid-September before it was even available, the Red Book was Amazon.com's #3 bestseller.[11]

The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City will display the original book and Jung's original small journals from October 7, 2009 to January 25, 2010.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ https://philemonfoundation.org/projects/red_book/ Sonu Shamdasani notes that Jung himself referred to the Red Book as Liber Novus and used that name for it in his extensive notes to the work. C.G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus (edited and introduced by Sonu Shamdasani), W.W.Norton: New York, 2009, pg.1.
  2. ^ Hayman, Ronald (1999). A Life of Jung. p. 175. ISBN 0-393-01967-5.
  3. ^ a b c "The Red Book of C.G. Jung". Rubin Museum of Art. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  4. ^ Shamdasani, Sonu (2005). Jung Stripped Bare By His Biographers, Even. ISBN 1-85575-317-0.
  5. ^ Storr, Anthony (1996). Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners and Madmen, A Study of Gurus. p. 89. ISBN 0-684-82818-9.
  6. ^ a b Jung, C.G. (1961). Aniela Jaffe (ed.). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. p. 178-194.
  7. ^ Hannah, Barbara (1976). Jung: His Life and Work. p. 115. ISBN 0-87773-615-4.
  8. ^ Jaffe, Aniella (1979). C.G. Jung: Word and Image. p. 66-75. ISBN 0-691-01847-2.
  9. ^ Bair, Deirdre (2003). Jung: A Biography. p. 745. ISBN 0-316-07665-1.
  10. ^ a b c Corbett, Sara (September 16, 2009). "The Holy Grail of the Unconscious". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  11. ^ Corbett, Sara (September 21, 2009). Carl Jung’s Secret Book. Trustees of Boston University (WBUR "On Point with Tom Ashbrook"). Event occurs at 25:00. Retrieved 2009-09-24.

Bibliography

  • Jung, Carl Gustav (2009). The Red Book. Liber Novus. Edited and Introduced by Sonu Shamdasani. Translated by Mark Kyburz, John Peck and Sonu Shamdasani. Philemon Series & W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-06567-1
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