William Schoenl - C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley - Quotations

C.G. Jung: His Friendships with Mary Mellon and J.B. Priestley

Franz Jung told me that his father had “a nose and ears”-that he was human. It is a C. G. Jung with “a nose and ears” who appears in the correspondence with Mary Mellon. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page xi

Priestley did a BBC broadcast on Jung and his work; when Jung saw the transcript he commented that he had never seen a better summary of his main ideas in such a concise form-he called it a masterpiece. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page xii

Later in 1946, Priestley persuaded Jung to do a talk for the BBC: “The Fight with the Shadow.” ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page xii

Journey Down a Rainbow, by Priestley and Jacquetta Hawkes, was the last book Emma Jung read before her death in 1955. William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page xii

Under a Freedom of Information Act request, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, D.C., let me examine copies of the FBI reports on Jung. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page xiii

In 1934, Mary and Paul both read Jung’s Modern Man in Search of a Soul, with which they were impressed. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 4

While Mary had suffered from asthma since childhood, Paul had suffered from his parents’ mismatched marriage, and their separation and divorce. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 4

The Mellons did see Jung, however, in October, 193 7, at a seminar on “Dream Symbols and the Individuation Process” that Jung gave under the auspices of the Analytical Psychology Club in New York-after he had delivered his Terry Lectures on “Religion in the Light of Science and Philosophy” at Yale. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Pages 4-5

On December 16, Jung’s secretary replied that they could attend the seminar in May and June, though it would probably be impossible for them to see Jung individually. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 5

From Claridge’s in Brook Street, Paul asked Jung’s secretary whether he [Paul Mellon] could work with Toni Wolff, Jung’s closest associate, during their stay. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 5

Mary even went to his lectures in German at the Federal Institute of Technology, where Jung taught. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 6

When Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, Jung at first thought Mary had left Europe. When he realized she had remained, he wrote her that it was courageous to stay and share whatever fate had in store for them. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 7

As the analysis proceeded, a strong transference and countertransference developed between Mary and Jung. The growing strength of the transference and countertransference can be seen in the quality of the subsequent correspondence and in the signatures. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 7

In December, Mary sent Jung a picture of himself and one of Ascona that Paul had taken. She teased that she could just hear him laugh: Did she look like a wet mouse the day of the party? Did he feel like a caged lion? ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 7

He mentioned “a hell” of a trick her Christian name Mary played with him, as he was thinking of Gnostic texts and the name Maria. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 7-8

Mary subsequently gave the name Bollingen to the idea that she conceived for the translation and publication of Jung’s works in English. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 8

He [Jung] wrote that the Swiss government had advised people to lay in stores of food: Switzerland could support itself if its people would eat one-fifth less. [During WWII] ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 8

He [Jung] had seen a good number of the French interned in Switzerland, and said it was a complete moral crash on the part of France. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 9

He concluded by saying that Europeans were now in prison [WWII]: God save our souls. That was more important than butter! ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 9

Germany’s war against Britain, and the destruction of France, he said, were almost more than one could bear. The devastation of London by bombing had hurt Jung as if England were his own country. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 9-10

Her plans for an enclosed garden at the Mellon house-something not only in the mind but in earth and stone-gave him a feeling of peace and restfulness, something to look forward to beyond the abomination of war and Germany’s Nietzschean insanity. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 10

Jung continued, saying it was now a question whether they in Europe could retain the treasures of culture against the onslaught of the powers of darkness. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 10

It would be madness to attack Switzerland, said Jung, but the Germans were mad. All the Swiss sympathies were on the British side. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 10

A Swiss from Berlin mentioned that workmen criticized Hitler and called him a liar. But the young people in Germany were still full of illusions, though the mood in the army had dropped since Britain could not be conquered. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 10

Perhaps Switzerland would fall under German domination. In that case he would certainly be silenced; he would not mind, provided he still had his books and a roof over his head. But he hoped to see [Mary] her again and sent her every good wish. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 10-11

Subsequent correspondence in 1941 shows that Mary was becoming too much identified with Jung: it was showing in her dreams. In April, Jung responded to dreams about “twin children, twin men, twin Jungs.” ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 11

Sometimes I have a strong feeling that· you would like to see me as much as I want to see you. I wonder if that is true. Then it fades away. Tell me if you ever do because it would help me to know it sometimes. Anyway the grass is green and the fire still burns. ~Mary Mellon – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 15

She signed the letter: All my love to you, Mary. The letter and the dream together indicate that in her transference Mary projected images of father, lover, and modern prophet on Jung. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 15

Jung suggested that Mary probably had a living image of him and it might keep her too much away from herself, no matter what he was. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 16

He [Jung asked her [Mary] not to misunderstand him: he was in a healthy condition of mind but he merely described, with utmost honesty, the effect of a letter of hers. There was a living connection through the non-space, an unconscious identity. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 16

By cable Jung replied by cable that Ximena’s changes were unimportant. Barbara Hanna had pestered him about them. There was no worry. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 17

A letter from Jung explained the situation further. He [Jung] apologized if he had disturbed Mary by his impetuous telegram. He had become somewhat irritated by Barbara Hannah’s complaints about Ximena’s changes in the Zosimos manuscript. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 17

The letter went on to say that Frau Froebe-Kapteyn wished to collect for the Eranos archive a vast number of ancient and medieval pictures of Hermes-a decidedly useful enterprise. But she needed some money to pay for the necessary photos. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 17

Jung contributed his collaboration and $250 annually [to Eranos], but that was all he could do. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 17

He [Jung] had always had the impression that Paul [Mellon] had the psychology of someone waiting to be picked up by something not yet in sight. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 21

She began on a personal note: Mrs. Cabot had just sent her some new pictures of Jung and Toni Wolff that had made Mary so homesick she could scarcely bear it. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 22

Mary commented that it was taking far longer to start a new venture like Bollingen than she had anticipated. What Mary really wanted to discuss with Jung was the question of translating and publishing his books in English. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 22

If he [Jung] approved, she would love to publish the VII Sermones ad Mortuos in a beautiful leather binding. It was wonderful and she had reread it many times. Of course, if he wished, no one need know it was his-it could be published pseudonymously. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 22

Jung was so very much obliged to Mary Mellon for her generous interest in his humble efforts to do something for the spiritual welfare of this “godforsaken” world that he hated to bother her for such trifles. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 18

He [Jung] concluded by saying that he hoped she [Mary] did not allow life to become too complicated. It is better when it is simple. Jung also said that he had reduced his work with patients, and had given up public lectures. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 18

The tentative [Bollingen] list of publications, as it was headed, included twelve works. Four were by Jung, one by Emma Jung, and one by Toni Wolff: Jung’s Transformation Symbolism of the Mass, Two Essays (reprint), and, under the pseudonym Basilides, VII Sermones ad Mortuos, Emma Jung’s Grail, and-Mary also hoped-a book of essays from Toni Wolff. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 23

His [Jung’s] family was beginning to feel the restrictions of rationing. Only bread, vegetables, fruit, wine, and tobacco were not yet rationed. The winter had been long and cold; even the potatoes in the cellar froze, but they were edible. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 25

The condition of Europe became worse every day: the misery in the occupied countries was indescribable. The air vibrated with lies and rumors, and it was almost impossible to tell true from false information. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 26

Jung was very surprised to receive a stiff, formal letter over Mary’s signature informing him that, due to the war emergency and restrictions placed on American citizens in their relations with persons abroad, the Bollingen Foundation had decided to cease all activities abroad, particularly in Switzerland. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 27

Her [Mary’s] lawyer, Donald Shepard, had drafted the letter. In it, Mary informed Jung that the U.S. Government had put into effect a Trading with the Enemy Act that had drastic provisions against American citizens dealing with enemy aliens, directly or even indirectly. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 27

No member of the [Bollingen] Foundation desired to have any dealings with an enemy alien, directly or indirectly. Consequently, Paul [Mellon] and she felt that it was desirable to cease all activities in Switzerland. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 27

In July, a formal letter from Donald Shepard informed Jung that the functioning of the Bollingen Foundation during the War had been further considered and it had been decided to cease all activities whatsoever. The Foundation, therefore, had been completely liquidated and dissolved-it was now out of existence. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 27

On· the occasion of Jung’s birthday, Mary and Paul Mellon sent him a telegram wishing him a very happy birthday and informing him that they had a son born to them and named Timothy. The telegram was signed “love.” ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 27

Though Jung did not say so to Mary, friends of his in Zurich told Cary Baynes in later years about his resentment of the cold letters. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 27

Jung did not respond for six months and he did not give Mary the English-speaking rights to his works. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 31

Except for brief telegrams there appears to have been little communication between Jung and Mary in 1944. During that year Jung fell ill, and almost died from embolisms in the heart and lungs. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 31

In her letter she told Jung that various rumors had come to them for some time, accusing Jung of being pro-Nazi in an apparent effort to discredit his work. An agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had interviewed Bertine some weeks previously in an attempt to discover whether Jung was connected with the Nazis and whether he was anti-Semitic. Fortunately, she had several letters from him that cleared up the first point to the agent’s apparent satisfaction. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 32

Bertine asked the agent what possible concern the FBI might have with a Swiss citizen’s opinion; the agent replied that he was not allowed to tell her but the FBI had received suspicious information-including the statement that Jung was presently in the United States! ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 33-34

Bertine also reported a second recent incident to Jung. There had been a suggestion that she be asked to give a few lectures at a school of adult education in New York, but the idea was met with the undocumented allegation that Jung was pro-Nazi. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 34

Bertine told the woman who had suggested the lectures that the woman could tell the school people that Bertine had proof of Jung’s point of view [on Nazis] if they were really interested. It had to date not been asked for. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 34

A quite liberal weekly [the New Republic] had published a review of Brill’s Freud’s Contribution to Psychiatry in which the reviewer irrelevantly stated that Jung had betrayed Freud’s progressive viewpoint and that Jung had become one of the most important influences on fascist philosophy in Europe. At present, Bertine went on, it looked to her like a deliberate smear campaign. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 34

She [Eleanor Bertine] suspected that the whole nasty business of charging Jung with being pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic dated from some misrepresentations from the time when he was president of the International Medical Society for Psychotherapy. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 34

He [Jung] had decided to publish his “Psychologie und Alchemie” with Routledge in Britain and in the United States as well. He would not object should Mrs. Mellon want to publish one or another of his works, but he had to reserve his ultimate decision for each individual case. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 37

He [Jung] went on to say that it would be nice to see her [Mary] again after many years of separation and, on his side of the Atlantic, imprisonment. The Swiss, he said, had lived in suspense and a sort of unreality-never too sure of their existence. ~William Schoenl, Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 38

…a great change occurred in February of 1944. After he [Jung] slipped on an icy road, broke his fibula, and spent six days in a hospital bed, he had a very bad embolism in the heart and, within about a week, two more embolisms in the lungs. He almost died. He became partially unconscious, partially delirious, and partially ecstatic. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 39

Then he [Jung] got a thrombosis of both legs up to the abdomen. He had spent four and a half months in the hospital and was a complete wreck when he returned home. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 39

Since then, Jung reported, he had picked up again, though slowly. Because his heart had a scar he had to walk slowly and avoid exertions of all sorts, including mental effort. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 39

He [Jung] had grown thinner but that was mainly due to their forced vegetarian diet and lack of fat. He could smoke and they still had decent tobacco. If she could send something like English tobacco or “Granger” from the United States, however, it would be most welcome. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 40

Jung went on to say that thirty-five years ago he had told the late Medill McCormick that the United States was on the march to domination of the Pacific and to the Imperium Americanum. McCormick laughed, but President Harry Truman cannot laugh with a skeleton in the cupboard-the atomic bomb. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 40

“I hope Mrs. Jung is well and all your family. Please give her my kindest regards and my love to Toni.” …”I can feel all through me how I will feel when I lay eyes on you again.” ~Mary Mellon – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 43

In January, 1946, Mary cabled that the Bollingen Series had asked Rascher Verlag for exclusive English language rights to Psychologische Betrachtungen, edited by Jolande Jacobi, in 1945. She was happy to tell Jung that Routledge had given the Bollingen Series first option to American rights for Psychologie und Alchemie. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 46

He [Jung] found the book by Paul Radin (The Road of Life and Death, on a ritual drama of the Winnebago) especially interesting. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 46

Of the persons associated with Jung, Toni Wolff stood out in Mary’s mind as the one who understood his work best. Jolande Jacobi had also been mentioned for the position. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 48

She [Mary] remembered meeting Jacobi in Ascona and, frankly, she did not like her very much, but that might have been a first impression only. In Jung’s view she might be better suited to be his representative, or he might have another suggestion. Still, Mary said, she was hoping he would suggest Toni Wolff. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 48-49

In mid-July, Mary suddenly canceled her plans to go to Zurich. This was in part because she had not yet recovered from a recent operation, but there was another reason as well. She had consulted the I Ching on whether to make the trip to Europe; she had got exhaustion as the “prognosis.” She had been and was exhausted. She concluded that it was not the time to go. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 51-52

In early October, she and Paul were returning from a hunt when an attack began. Her [Mary] atomizer containing a medication had broken, and the attack grew more severe. She was put to bed at Oak Spring, but she suffered another attack that was too much for her heart. There she died at the age of forty-two. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 54

John Barrett arrived at Oak Spring the following day. Paul Mellon immediately told him that Mary’s death would not prevent their going on together to accomplish what she had wanted. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 54

Barrett cabled Jung the tragic news that Mary Mellon had died suddenly and all were grieving. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 54

Jung wrote that she was a woman who had it in her to play a great role in the world. He shared Paul’s grief and suffering. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 54

When the contracts for The Collected Works were signed in August of 1947, Jung stipulated that the first volume be published within three years, save for war, governmental restrictions, or acts of God. Three times he reluctantly granted a year’s extension, until 1953 when the first volume appeared. ~William Schoenl – C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 54

Many years after Mary’s death, Franz Jung remembered his father speaking to him of his admiration for her and awe for her drive: she got things done. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 55

In 1946-the same year that Mary Mellon died Jung’s friendship with J. B. Priestley began; that friendship promoted a greater awareness of Jung’s psychology in Britain. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 59

Their mutual friend, Gerhard Adler, had written to Jung on Priestley’s behalf, and Jung had agreed to see Priestley should the latter come to Zurich in May. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 59

To meet Jung, Priestley decided to visit Switzerland then, and he looked forward to the event.1 In response, Jung invited Priestley and his wife to a quite informal dinner at the Jung’s. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 59

Priestley also said he had read Jung for years and regarded him not only as an original thinker in our time but also as one of its few liberators. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 60

However much of the poet or mystic there might be in Jung, thought Priestley, his methods of research had been scientific, and his evidence was based on years of careful observation, analysis, and clinical work. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 60

It was perhaps sufficient to say this unconscious wanted its life, even as the conscious mind did. And it had, Jung insisted, its own wisdom, like the ancient mother it was. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 61

The Germans, a scientifically educated nation, allowed Hitler to bewitch them, and then all the dark forces of the unconscious-demons we had pretended to exorcise from the world-raged unchecked, and the most fantastic cruelties and monstrous perversions. were let loose. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 61-62

There had been, Priestley continued, some silly rumors lately that Jung had shown pro-Nazi sympathies. Priestley would as soon expect a cancer specialist to have pro-cancer sympathies. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 62

Perhaps Jung’s greatest achievement was this: using the instrument of the modern West-the scientific intellect-he had cleared a way through dark jungles into mountain air. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 63

Jung was even more impressed by Priestley’s broadcast after he had read it; he had never seen a better summary of his main ideas in such a concise form-he called it a masterpiece! ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 64

As a psychologist Jung noticed the extroverted hero who lived the better part of his life forgetting nothing but himself and his relatedness to certain human beings. An introvert would have forgotten the greater part of the world! ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 64

Jung gave his broadcast talk in the Third Programme of the British Broadcasting Corporation on November 3, 1946. Entitled “The Fight with the Shadow,” it was first published in The Listener (London) on November 7. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 65

The individual was the sole carrier of mind and life. Society and the state derived their quality from the mental condition of individuals: they were made up of individuals and their organizations. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 68

Priestley and Jung had become such good friends that in the following year, 1947, Mrs. Jane Priestley wrote to Jung when one of the Priestleys’ daughters suffered from a psychological illness. Jung immediately replied. The illness is discussed in Vincent Brome’s biography, J. B. Priestley. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 68-69

In January, 1948, the British Council in Zurich was threatened with closure; consequently, the Council asked Jung to help. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 69

Linda Fierz-David, a pupil of Jung, published an English edition of her book on Poliphilo’s Dream. It contained an analysis of Priestley’s autobiography, Rain upon Godshill (1939). ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 69

He [Priestly] also told Jung that he had just read a new edition of H. G. Baynes’ Mythology of the Soul. He enjoyed it but he wished that somebody would publish case histories in which there was less mythology. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 70

Priestley had had marital difficulties, and since 1947 had pursued an affair with Jacquetta Hawkes, an archaeologist and a brilliant writer. The story of their love is told in Brome’s f. B. Priestley and in Hawkes’ A Quest of Love. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 71

In September, 1953, Priestley informed Jung that he had had a divorce (in June); his former wife remarried and he remarried, too. He told Jung of his present wife’s keen interest in Jung’s work. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 71

In 1954, Priestley published two articles supporting Jung, who was deeply touched by his English friend’s kindness and understanding. The Times Literary Supplement published Priestley’s “Jung and the Writer.” ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 71

Priestley presented Jung as a declared enemy of the “nothing but” jailers of the human spirit. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 72

The timeless and masklike beauty of Greta Garbo made her a wonderfully acceptable anima figure, and of this her producers and directors were obscurely aware. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 74

In The New Statesman and Nation, in October, Priestley next reviewed The Collected Works of C. G. Jung that had appeared. He considered Jung to be a rare great thinker who did not regard himself as the plaything of a malevolent fate. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 75

In this review, Priestley defended Jung against the most common charge against him: that he was “mystical” or “metaphysical.” ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 75

Priestley was deeply touched by Jung’s expression of gratitude for his two articles: Jung had given his wife and him so much and held such a high place in their thoughts. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 76

Jung was very grateful indeed for Priestley’s support, . support that had come when it was badly needed. A lack of acceptance of his work in the scientific world and, recently, responses to the German edition of his Answer to Job bothered Jung. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 76

He [Priestly] told [Upton]Sinclair that the book [Answer to Job] was rather revolutionary and apt to be misunderstood; indeed, it was already misunderstood to a grotesque degree. A number of theologians, however, thought highly of it. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 77

When the English edition [Answer to Job] appeared he read it and was in awe: Jung’s wisdom seemed as vast as his knowledge, and his mischievous humor delighted [Upton] Sinclair. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 77

Jung responded that his Answer to fob was left by Bollingen Foundation to the English publishers-they apparently feared something like “Unamerican activities” and the loss of prestige. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 77

The way in which the “scientific world” reacted reminded him [Jung] strongly of those times in the first decade of the twentieth century when he had stood up for Freud against a world blindfolded by prejudice. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 78

Today-Jung minced no words in saying-some incompetent and profoundly ignorant reviewers sneezed at him. On average, he felt, he got bad reviews, which ought to convince him that he was writing pretty good stuff. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 78

If they [Priestly and Hawkes] felt the book [Journey Down a Rainbow] was good enough they would dedicate it to Jung. After it was published they sent him [Jung] a copy. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 78

On November 27, 1955, Emma Jung died after she became seriously ill in early November. Journey Down a Rainbow was the last book that she read-and with great pleasure-before she could read no more. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 79

Jung’s correspondence with Priestley ended in 1955. Their friendship endured. When Jung’s Undiscovered Self was published in 1958 he sent the Priestleys an inscribed copy. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 79

The Press [Bollingen] is going forward slowly, as it should.

I have got Mrs. Baynes to say that she would let me publish the I Ching after the Eranos book, then will come yours.

I think that makes a very good beginning.

Zimmer will probably contribute something after that, and I have found a little 16^th century book in French on Alchemy which I want to translate and reprint. It is written by “Un Amateur de la Verite”. ~Mary Mellon, Jung’s Friendships with Mary Mellon and J.B. Priestley, Page 14

I’m very much upset that one of your letters has been lost-I have too few of them in the first place without the British Empire taking liberties.

I know of no way to retrieve it either.

I wonder if any of mine have gone astray.

You never answer specifically so it is hard to tell-except about the dreams-when they are too much to overlook.

The one about your betraying me was a terrible shock-and I know I needed it in just that fashion.

Cathy, who is a barometer for me, said just about that time-on looking at the snake medallion on my wrist-“I’m tired of that one-why don’t you wear the other” (meaning the clover Paul had given me) that set me thinking and coupled with the dream I had an inkling that something of the sort, which you told me in your letter, was wrong.

Then you explained it.

But it is so hard, Dr. Jung, to be so connected and not run into such pitfalls.

I can’t help the former and it takes eternal vigilance to be aware of the danger of losing myself in you.

But the opposite is true too. I look back now on the two years since I have seen you of your feeling for me. Paradoxically, that is what left me free to be myself and really love you.

I know, as well as you, that we may never see one another again, but after your last letter I feel better about it.

I begin to see just why not seeing you again could never alter anything, though at the same time there is nothing I want more-and perhaps we shall.

The whole thing is so strange that it may contain that too.

All these realizations about myself in connection with you are the sole cause, I am sure, of my being able to conceive another child-which has just happened.

No one else would believe or understand-nor does anyone else have to-but it is true.

It is a strange thing-the feeling of being with child again and stranger still to know and, though it doesn’t sound like very much-a good deal has happened through you, but not of you-so to speak-if you understand what I mean.

I know that everything is the result of the miraculous year I spent with you-but one thing leads me to believe that I have kept or gained my own identity.

That is the difference there is between my expression and that of those around me who have also been touched by you.

In other words there are people who live and breathe Jung, as you know.

It is a pattern they take up-based on your ways, your likes and dislikes, your mode of living, speech and to my great amazement-even handwriting. I have had letters from one or two in the N. Y. Psychological Club-and I swear I had to look twice to see if it weren’t yours.

I am sure I would have fallen into the same pattern had it not been for the realization or feel (sic] what connection it has with what has happened to me these past three years.

I express it badly but somehow, somewhere, some way you are in this child too.

It is as if I had been twice impregnated, for had it not been for the brutal and spiritual anguish which you and I have forced me to go through, I do not believe I would ever have conceived again.

I would never have got to the place where I knew what Paul is-who I am in relation to him, what I must be in relation to the world-and what I am in relation to you.

It all came to me in a wave the night of October 7-and I wrote Paul a letter.

This child was conceived soon after.

It is all so strange and mysterious-so very difficult and marvelous-that I am baffled and can only thank God that I understand even a slight part of it.

37 years ago, you once told me, you began to analyse-37 years ago I was born. I don’t understand. ~Carl Jung, Jung’s Friendships with Mary Mellon and J.B. Priestley, Pages 18-20

The war proved to be a great trial to me. People in the army were much better off. They could do something.

I only could seek a refuge for my daughter-in-law, who was in the 8^th month, and for my grandchildren in the western part of the Alps.

That was in the blackest days of May 1940, when France broke down.

On account of my critique of the German tyranny I was on the black list of the Gestapo, and if the Germans had invaded Switzerland, I would certainly have been put on the spot. Well informed Germans told me so.

My pupils in Germany were forced to repudiate my views publicly.

I tell you these things, because you probably have heard the absurd rumor that I am a Nazi.

This rumor has been started by the Freudian Jews in America.

Their hatred of myself went as far as India, where I found falsified photo’s [sic] of mine in the Psychological Seminar of Calcutta University.

It was a photo retouched in such a way as to make me appear as an ugly Jew with a pince-nez! These photos came from Vienna!

This rumor has been spread over the whole world.

Even with us it has been picked up with such alacrity, that I am forced to publish all the things I have written about Germany.

It is however difficult to mention the anti-Christianism of the Jews after the horrible things that have happened in Germany.

But Jews are not so damned innocent after all-the role played by the intellectual Jews in prewar Germany would be an interesting object of investigation.

I have challenged the Nazis already in 1934 at a great reception in Frankfort in the house of Baron van Schnitzler, the Director of the I. G. Farben concern.

I told them, that. their anticlockwise Swastika is whirling down into the abyss of unconsciousness and evil.

And this prediction has come off “and how”!

After all this you can imagine our inexpressible joy, when we heard, that the Americans had gone ashore in Morocco! 38-39

You will never know what joy your long letter gave me.

It was so long and complete and told me exactly what I wanted to know. I had to cable you when I received it.

As I told you in the cable, it arrived at exactly the moment I needed it most.

By some miracle they have always done just that. In the meantime I received your cable in answer to mine about the Paracelsus book.

You remember that I wanted to give you the “Splendor Solis” before I left Zurich, and that it had been sold. This then is my 70th birthday present to you.

From all I could find out about it, it is a very rare book, containing 10 parts to the British Museum’s.

But I didn’t want to go ahead with it until I was sure you wanted it. You may have it in your hands by this time.

It comes to you with my great love.

If it is as rare as they say, no rarer person could receive it.

It appears that I may be able to publish your “Psychology and Alchemy” after all.

I have gone to all lengths in England (personal emissaries, cables, letters-all but myself) to find out the exact status of the book in relation to American rights.

Routledge says no one has the option and I am negotiating for it now.

You see-within the Bollingen Series I want to found a Library of Alchemy. I have already published Plato’s “Timaeus” and yours as the next would be perfect.

There is no such thing in the whole world, I am sure, as a Library of Alchemy. Mary Mellon, Jung’s Friendships with Mary Mellon and J.B. Priestley, Pages 41-42

But I must see you-myself-you and I had the idea together and I cannot rest until I am with you again.

I must talk to you, Dr. Jung, about so many things-I am tied up in this idea, my personal life is, I mean, I have conflicts which only you will understand, and you must help me too in the long range plan about yourself.

I can only tell you this. In face of the criticism which you relayed to me and which I have heard here, and in consideration of the people you have behind you in this country and England, I am absolutely certain that I can be of great service to you with the outlet I have started.

It needs authority behind it which I have acquired (God knows why except for my great love for you which all must feel is more than a passing fancy) and it needs the funds which I have at my disposal.

It needs wisdom which I am gaining as time goes on, and it needs a certain moving in a sure direction without looking to right or left, sure in the direction and the goal to which it points-and no hysteria about you and your work.

With your help I want to gather you up, so to speak, for the future.

That is the backbone of the Bollingen Series-and what I am working toward.

At the same time I mean to publish works that are pertinent and of fine quality to go alongside of you. It is much like Eranos, in print.

Your fertilization of all those lectures has made Eranos.

Yet you needed and will always need the other ones around you to feed you and bring in the ideas which need fertilization.

To no one except those working with me have I expressed this.

But I must talk to you. I need you myself on top of all this, as you must know.

Whatever brought us together I don’t know-but I do know it was meant to be, and that I am meant to do something about us.

You [Carl Jung] must look like the bust Toni Wolff has of you, when you were much younger, if you are thin.

Take care and stay as well as you can during this hard winter to come.

The famine in Europe is too frightful to think about. I am sending you 11 pounds a week, made up of butter (or fats) and sugar.

Let me know what else you want in the packages. Coffee? Tea?

If what we send carries properly then I will send more to you and others.

Let me hear from you again as soon as you can. ~Mary Mellon, Jung’s Friendships with Mary Mellon and J.B. Priestley, Pages 42-43

I have heard from many people who came from England and through letters, how much it was appreciated and how excellently you [Mary Mellon] succeeded in presenting the essence of my ideas.

Unfortunately in spite of all efforts I could not hear your broadcast since all British stations were inaudible due to atmospheric disturbances.

All the other people here who knew about this broadcast tried also in vain to listen in.

Nobody in Switzerland has heard it as far as I know.

We were very disappointed indeed! Would there be a possibility of having your manuscript, so that I could get an idea of how you did it?

Since I saw you I have read several of your novels and plays and I enjoyed them very much.

I was particularly impressed by the two aspects of your personality.

Your one face is so much turned to the world that one is surprised again and again to meet another face which is turned to the great abyss of all things.

I just wanted to tell you my impression as I s want to let you know how much I appreciate the superhuman faculty of looking at things with a straight and with an inverted eye. 63-64

I wanted to read your book first and now I have at last completed its lecture.

It is a most delightful book and I enjoyed it very much indeed.

There are quite a number of things to hich I can subscribe immediately, for instance what you say about tobacco!-Now, since yo-… r second letter has come, I cannot wait any longer to answer it.

. . . I’m quite astonished that an English version of Mrs. Fierz’s attempt should have got into your hands.

When about two years ago-the question of an English translation of her book on Poliphilo’s Dream was discussed I insisted that her analysis of your book should be left out in the English edition.

I discussed the matter several times with her as well as with Mr. Barrett of the Bollingen Series.

Poliphilo’s Dream in itself is an excellent study of 15^th Century psychology.

I never felt quite happy about her insistence on the comparison with a modern writer.

It doesn’t add to the better understanding of old Francesco Colonna.-Well all sorts of things seem to be going on behind the screen about which I’m singularly uninformed.

Your reaction is quite remarkable and Mrs. Fierz is going to write to you probably quite soon. 70

You as a writer are in a pos1t10n to appreciate what it means to an isolated individual like myself to hear one friendly human voice among the stupid and malevolent noises rising from the scribbler infested jungle.

I am indeed most grateful for your warm-hearted support and your generous appreciation.

Your succour comes at a time when it is badly needed: soon a little book of mine will be published in England which my publishers in USA did not dare to print.

It’s title is: “Answer to fob”.

It deals with the wholly unsatisfactory outcome of the book of Job and what its further historical consequences for the development of certain religious questions including Christian views were.

The book will be highly unwelcome in certain spheres and will be misunderstood and misinterpreted accordingly.

The German edition over here has already upset the representatives of three religion~, not because it is irreligious, but because it takes their statements and premises seriously.

Needless to say that the best of the so-called free-thinkers are equally shocked.

Sir Herbert Read who is informed about its contents, wisely said:

“You certainly understand how to put the foot into it.” But I am really glad that they are willing to print it. ~William Schoenl, C.G. Jung-His Friendships with Mary Mellon & J.B. Priestley, Page 76-77