Carl Jung on “Psychic Mimicry.”
C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1: 1906-1950
To Emil Egli
Dear Dr. Egli, 15 September 1943
Many thanks for kindly sending me your book, Der Schweizer in der Landschaft.
I entirely agree with the pages you have marked.
The more so as my thoughts have often moved along similar lines.
At one time I related the idiosyncrasies of Paracelsus to his early environment and also dropped similar hints in my answer to Keyserling’s expose of Switzerland.
I am deeply convinced of the-unfortunately-still very mysterious relation between man and landscape, but hesitate to say anything about it because I could not substantiate it rationally.
But I am fully persuaded that if you settled a Siberian tribe for a few hundred years in Switzerland, regular Appenzellers would come out in the end.
It is probably a matter of something like psychic mimicry.
Altogether your book makes very interesting and delectable reading.
Again with best thanks,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 538-539.