On Theology and Psychology: Carl Jung and Adolf Keller Quotations
On Theology and Psychology: The Correspondence of C. G. Jung and Adolf Keller
You describe the process of self-awareness and self-absorption that leads to the renewal of one’s disposition and, in turn, to the brotherhood of man. I concur thoroughly with this logical insight. Why are people such fools that they do not simply do this? ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 118
The task of this age is therefore the sermon of stage 1: introducing man to himself. Thus, as an extravert, Freud is more practically effective than I am because he restricts himself entirely to stage 1. I have an impact only on those who have outgrown Freud. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 118
Stage 1 is the exclusive task of the present. Apparently it contradicts the Christian principle of love and has much more in common with the inclinations of the early Christian Anchorites, apart from the mortification of the flesh. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 118
We introverts see too far! In consequence we obstruct life and simply teach people how and where one can steal fruit, but not how one acquires it for oneself. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 118
Regarding the text of your address I’d like to suggest I. Cor. 15:44–47 in accordance with my wife. The idea expressed there along with the “Secret of the Golden Flower” was the last thing to engross my mother-in-law. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 119
“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.” I. Cor. 15:44–47, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 119
There was another reason why I did no more approach you. I felt, also in what I heard from T., that I cannot claim to interest you in a personal problem which I evidently must bear alone without being pitied unduly. The messages which the “ghost” sends me are such that I see we are at an end. I wish I had known this some 25 years ago. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 120
that one should set a limit to what is destructive. You know well what my view is regarding the unconscious. There is no purpose in surrendering oneself to its ultimate consequences.… The unconscious can only realize itself with the help of the conscious and under its constant control ~Carl Jung to Tina Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 183 fn 32
An acquaintance of mine, Mr. Dulles from the American Embassy in Bern, would be glad to meet you. I explained the Fröbe matter to him and naturally also spoke about you. He was receptive and was gladly enlightened about the shadow cast at Eranos whose shade perhaps fell a little over you. Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 121
I have already met Mr. Dulles once. I already know him from New York and it would please me very much if he would visit me. We could then take the opportunity to scotch all these stupid rumors. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 121
Dr. Temple, the current archbishop of Canterbury, confessed to me once that in his view the church had committed a sin of omission by not accepting the further elaboration of the doctrine of the paraclete, banning it in the church. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 121
I am sitting at Rilke’s desk in his 12th-century tower, writing to you in your tower where even now you are perhaps thinking or writing or cooking yourself a nice soup. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 122
For us, you have been one of these forces of destiny, and I call you friend even if we only rarely see each other, and in our contact we seldom enter that splendid and fearful chamber, for the soul not only speaks to another soul, but simply is. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 123
It is in the nature of things that in my explorations much emerges in favor of justifying various forms of belief, for there would be no such thing as belief if there were no sufficient psychic foundation for this psychic fact. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 124
On the other hand I believe I must inform you of something I recently heard in strict confidence which claims that the American occupying authority is not permitting books by you into Germany. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 125
The American occupation is quite out of touch in cultural matters having to do with international understanding and the psychology of international relations. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 125
This hounding of me organized by the Freudians leaves me cold. I consider it not unlikely that my books are not permitted into Germany by the American occupying authority. No Swiss publications at all are being allowed in which says a lot for the unbelievable shortsightedness of the authority. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 126
It does me good to hear that you accept my humanity, and I only hope that this is not too difficult for you. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 132
I have had some friends but they have died. To speak with others, i.e., to speak in such a way that one gets something from it, is therefore very difficult, because they have no relation to my spiritual world and thus feel over-extended. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 132
In contrast, an inconsequential conversation seems to me to be too wearisome and makes me as tired as if I had undertaken the most laborious work. People make it too difficult for me, for I cannot and will not torture myself with futility. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 132
However, I have sent Keyserling packing. The few times I have seen him were really not pleasant. He talked me to death for 3–4 hours at a time, and I had to be quite rude when I wanted to interject a brief sentence. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 132
Therefore since I am not a beggar in the Club, I feel at home there and simply like the people who do this as people, powerfully attached to you and with humor. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 135
I have never yet encountered a theory that could exhaustively sum up the individual man. That I could even attempt to do justice to an individual in a theory so contradicts all my convictions that I can only experience such an opinion as a grievous reproach. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 136
I have no experience of “redemption” as I have never yet encountered any “redeemed. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 136
But how one subjectively experiences a dream is not relevant in every circumstance. During the Hitler years there were not a few people (and among them quite a few Jews) who to their horror dreamed of him as a confidante or even a lover, and there are very many dreams where precisely what is wholesome works to arouse fear. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 136
The actual reason for this letter was triggered by your remark regarding my “daimon” vulgo possession. Since you did not mean this in any way as a joke, I must therefore assume that you are of the opinion that I am “possessed by demons.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 136
I have tried forever and a day—evidently in unsatisfactory ways—to keep the evil spirits from my body. However, I do not wish to be rid of them in such a way as to simply project them onto others. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 136
I have in fact never understood properly why Jesus forced the poor innocent pigs to suicide rather than taking the evil spirits on his own account. I would have found the latter not only more congenial, but also more comprehensible and dignified. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 136
Perhaps one can incorporate demons in order to protect others from them. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 136
Now that the Catholic Church has taken the momentous step of the Assumption, Protestantism has been all the more nailed down to the patriarchal line of the Old Testament and has fallen behind as regards dogmatic development. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 143
I don’t want to go back to the unconscious fog of Catholic concretism, therefore I also battle against Protestant concretism in historicity and the abstractness of the Protestant message, which today can only be understood as a historical remnant. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 143
If Christ means anything to me, it is only as a symbol. As a historical figure he might just as well be called Pythagoras, Lao-tze, Zarathustra, etc. I find the historical Jesus completely unedifying, simply interesting because controversial. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 143
However, to locate God’s revelation only in the mythological seems to me to limit God’s freedom. In large part, contemporary theological discussion takes place in the arena where one asks whether the kingdom God intervenes in history, or whether God is also at work historically as well as mythologically. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 144
The question about where Christianity and depth psychology might encounter and enrich each other, both intellectually and culturally, has been occupying me for some time. Freud must of course be excluded, due to his illusion theory. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 145
The only comment I’d like to make now is that I’ve not become more “Christian,” but rather that only now do I feel more or less able to proffer something on the psychology of Christianity. Dreams can be many things, but we have only one theoretical requirement for their explanation. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 146
I hope you have now recovered once again and that you are taking proper care of yourself. If we, at our age, are to learn to die in due course, now that so many others have had to leave us, it is vital that what we still have to say really gets said, and you still have much to say. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 146
I experienced your archetypal impact on the Châtelaine here in Rilke’s tower, a naïve and shrewd woman in middle age upon whom, unbeknownst to her, you had the effect of a wise old man, providing in counterbalance an open catholicity. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 147
I marvel at you and wonder how, in Küsnacht and Bollingen, you actually manage, first of all, to track down the obscure texts you cite, and then how you are able to make sense of them at all. I have never yet seen you sitting in the Central Library, and yet I am unwilling to assume that the Holy Spirit is imparting direct verbal inspiration to you. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 150
I had thorough- going conversations with Aldous Huxley and Thomas Mann about your stance in relation to today’s problematic world situation and its psychological aspects. Huxley has a disease of the eyes and therefore must see with spiritual eyes. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 151
Next week I am to introduce Buber here at a big banquet. He attacks your position but remains objective and gracious, whereas the Freudians are going full pelt and waging an all-out war. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 151
Coleridge said: “I belong to that holy and infallible church of which I am the only member!” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 152
This, all the more so since the Club asked me after Toni’s memorial service to pay tribute to her in a short obituary where there would also be room for Linda Fierz’s words. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 153-154
But fundamentally, the kingdom of the soul is also the kingdom of God. And souls have limits, notably that ultimate boundary before which you and I stand, hoping confidently to cross it when the time comes. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 153
I recently learned that the Carmelites in France are in a certain sense reigniting the ancient controversy, already rejected by the pope in 1698, namely the argument with the Jesuits over the Carmelite claim that the prophet Elias was the founder of their order. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 154
My friend Upton Sinclair sends me an excerpt of a letter containing your view of his new book “What did Didymus do? ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 169
You have now reached that Churchillian age when you no longer need worry about other people because they have learned to define you by standards other than those of a grandmother or school- teacher. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 156
You are now hidden in that realm where you no longer need to worry about hordes and prattle, but there are many who are thinking your thoughts onwards even when the Christian theologians cannot yet take their doctorate in Gnosticism. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 156
I had some correspondence with Upton Sinclair; he seems, like most Americans, to live very much in the public eye. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 156
I have never deluded myself that psychology is the only answer to all human questions; but even if one is in no position to proclaim the eternal truth, one might still be allowed to make some small contributions to the general culture. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 156
I have found in your deliberate and often fiercely protected or defensive solitude and remoteness from people that authentic and profound human intimacy that defines not only civilized culture but also one’s destiny and fellowship with God. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 156
The photographer [Time Magazine], who bored me intensely with his interminable shoot, must have caught me at a moment of absent-mindedness when I’d sunk into my thoughts. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 158
Now we’re approaching Aquarius, about which the Sibylline Books declare: Luciferi vires accendit Aquarius acres! [Aquarius inflames the wild powers of Lucifer]. And even now we stand only at the very beginning of this apocalyptic development! ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 158
I’m now a great-great-grandfather and can see those distant generations coming on, who long after us will inexorably live in that darkness. I’d accuse myself of the pessimism of old age if I didn’t know that the H-bomb stands ready, a fact that is sadly now indisputable. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 158
I have constant contact mainly with Catholic theologians, particularly Père Bruno de Jésus-Marie, the publisher of Études Carmélitaines. They are about to publish a book by a Belgian Jesuit about my psychology. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 158
I’ve already read the draft of this book; the author makes the fundamental mistake of treating me as a philosopher and thinks that my concepts are concerned with philosophy, which of course is completely wrong. They are concepts that describe facts that, unlike philosophical terms, do not exhaust themselves. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 158
I’m also currently corresponding with a Benedictine father from Ettal Abbey, Upper Bavaria, who is recounting his mystical experiences to me, all in the style of the 13th century. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 172
He [White] hopes to be able to link Thomist psychology to mine. Of course, once again the incommensurability of concepts is a great hindrance here. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 159
The significance of the Aquarius saying is this: “Lucifer inflames the evil powers of Aquarius.” Aquarius is not necessarily benign towards man. As a double sign it has another aspect, like Pisces. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 160
Now even White calls [Jung’s] interpretation “impossible,” and “a cruel caricature,” but despite this White fears your Marian enlightenment: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 160
If you want to speak about my views, then I must ask you not to rely on newspaper articles, but to take account of what I have written about it. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 162
I don’t want to ascribe to you a conscious attitude of this kind, but the effect of your inadequate orientation unavoidably bears a certain resemblance to such mindlessness. For the sympathy of your feeling I am genuinely grateful, but as for the rest, we had better draw a veil over it. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 162
For this reason I will stop here, in spite of your patronizing misinterpretation and distortions, and insist on expressing my heartfelt thanks on the occasion of your 80th birthday, in enduring spiritual debate and with all the gains for my personal development and my theological and cultural work on a completely general problem. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 163
In such painful misunderstandings I can only think of the 12th house of my horoscope, also known to your daughter, which is generously riddled with reactions that depend perhaps in part on my relationship with other people, but also in many ways on a complex attitude to myself. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 163
For my part, I shall gladly sweep under the veil what I take to be your misunderstanding. As ever, I offer you on your birthday all that belongs to an extremely positive human relationship, along with all the mutual criticism that has its place within that too. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 210
I wrote to you and your children on the death of Emma whose loss I continue to mourn. I never heard whether you or your children received my letter. I didn’t expect you to enter into a correspondence, but I do not know whether Tina—who also wrote—at least received a formal expression of thanks. I take it for granted that I am not identified with her relationship to you ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 212
My last letter to you in no way was meant as a farewell; I was simply airing my vexation that you had overlooked just how much I have engaged with the psychology of the Christ-concept. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 214
The same thing could befall us that has happened in China, where a philosopher like Hu-Schih, for example, is ashamed of knowing anything about the I Ching[,] and where the depth of the Tao concept has disappeared and instead they worship locomotives and airplanes. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 214
Many reach prematurely for the I Ching, which Wilhelm once cast for me, or for the Tao or yoga, without grasping how our connection to these is more intimate than is cheerful and pragmatic America’s, a land that has so much “fun” but today—as Lippmann says—lives in “a quiet desperation.” ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 216
You can’t complain, despite the Freudian baiting from Marcuse. People come to you all the more when they sense from you not only scorn or irony or polemic as in Job but also understanding wisdom, respect for every mystery of becoming (including its detours), and love for mankind. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 216
Incidentally, Tina also considered herself a “Jungian” once she had worked through some resentment towards you, even if she did not wish to get into all the secrets of Gnostic theology etc. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 222
Above all I want to say that I do not wish to be identified with Tina and hold firmly to my own position, determined by the view of the whole, the persona and the shadow and the conjunctio. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 228
In relation to this gentleman, I’ve wondered why he or his friends keep sending so many letters of recommendation in advance of his arrival. They are not doing this good man any service, but merely arousing mistrust. “Good wine needs no bush” and you can spare thinking of me as a bad judge of character. I’m already feeling a certain pity for the good Mr. Hornaday. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 228
So in the meantime the comet Hornaday has risen on our horizon and, after a brief guest appearance, has departed from us once again just as meteorically. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 231
I can’t avoid thinking of the words of the poet, however: “Between the lips and the rim of the chalice hovers the hand of the dark powers.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 231
If people show no libido, then even the Kaiser has no say in the matter, i.e., no such need exists that could justify an effort. One can happily let such people stew in the juices of their own neurosis. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 238
An extravert approaches your sermon from behind and claims that he has long since accomplished everything, this because he always steals what is desirable, therefore he always has resistances to the so-called good in himself, for the very reason that he has stolen it. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 118
That is, this process must be lived, after which the following occurs:
I Stage of introversion: separation of the individual from society. Because of inordinately strong social cohesion this does not take place without misunderstanding, enmity, and hatred = war. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 118
II Stage of libido in the mother: reawakening of the archaic = psychosis. Unleashing of the highest and the deepest. An almost anarchic state, in any case a disintegration of society to a high degree. (Dismemberment motif.) ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 118
III Stage of emergence: a mystical development and unification about which I cannot yet say much, which I am better able to sense intuitively than think. For as yet we have hardly lived this out. The disintegration of tradition is not yet complete. The isolation will be insupportable. A start on this is to be found in the national experience of isolation. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 119
People have every right to feel surprised to see a medical student abandon his craft during his clinical training to speak about theological issues. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 11
Physiologists are struggling to explain life in terms of natural laws.… They try desperately to force life into the system of natural laws, when life contradicts every law of nature.…The vital principle extends far beyond our consciousness.… Or as Schopenhauer says: “Consciousness is the object of a transcendental idea.” … Let us boldly assign to this transcendental subject the name of soul. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 11
[Indeed,] deeds are needed to wake up religion, miracles are needed, and men endowed with miraculous powers. Prophets, men sent by God! Never has a religion sprung from a dry theoretician or a gushy idealist. Religions are created by men who have demonstrated with deeds the reality of mystery and of the “extrasensory realm. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 12
“It is strange that on the very same evening when I formally adopted you as eldest son and anointed you—in partibus infidelium—as my successor and crown prince, you should have divested me of my paternal dignity.… ~Sigmund Freud, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 20
From my practice, however, I was familiar with numerous cases of neurosis in which the question of sexuality played a subordinate part, other factors standing in the foreground—for example, the problem of social adaptation.… ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 20
The dream gives an answer via the symbol, which must be understood. One should not see in it nothing but a wish fulfillment, for then the analyst will merely go along with the neurotic’s fantasies. The purposes of the unconscious, which never seeks to dissemble, must be revealed. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 24-25
In contingent introversion, the external is dominant, for the ultimate goal is extravert in nature.… The normal waking state is extravert in nature, but it is perhaps a contingent introversion in order to devote oneself to reality. The sleep state is completely introverted. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 27
Intellect corrodes religion, and where intellect alone engages with a religious phenomenon, it is bound to destroy it; for it cannot bear the unconditional and absolute; religion, however, is rooted in these. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 27
Individuation was for the few. Those who were insufficiently creative should rather reestablish collective conformity with a society. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 33-34
[in the Old Testament ]“there was the primitive form of salvation, and an identification with oneself is not yet achieved. This is still the case in the Catholic Church. In contrast, Protestantism has progressed beyond this.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 35
I have sat alongside some young prisoners in their cells and have listened to their tales of woe—a dark concatenation of evil forces, a mixture of greed, doubt, selfishness, and carnality. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 38
One day the daughter of Rockefeller stood in the Lavater room and said: ‘I would like to see human beings.’ ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 41
It is really as if there is some prejudice against my profession; for example when I wished to defend Christianity, they acted as if Christianity is valueless. There must be room for the old in the new. Dr. Jung certainly seeks to find connections between them. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 48
We perpetrate abuses with the will, natural growth is subjected to the will. [That] should be reversed.… The will is an intellectual function.… The war teaches us: to will is pointless—we have got to see how it all turns out. We are completely subjugated to the absolute power of becoming.” A good year later Jung posed the question in the Society: “Why is the whole world so set against Germany? ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 33
On 25 November 1922 C. G. and Emma Jung resigned from the Club, along with Toni Wolff. The standing orders were revised and stricter entry requirements were introduced. From now on, one would have to apply for membership and be introduced by two sponsors. ~ Marianne Jehle-Wildberger, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 49
In 1924 the Jungs and Toni Wolff rejoined the Club, and shortly after this Tina Keller was unanimously re-elected to membership ~ Marianne Jehle-Wildberger, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 49
The relationship with Edith Rockefeller opened the door later for Keller to meet her brother, John D. Rockefeller Jr., from whom he received large sums of money for his theological education project for the support of poor East European churches. ~ Marianne Jehle-Wildberger, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 41
Early in 1916 a committee was formed, which included Jung and Emma Jung-Rauschenbach, Harold and Edith McCormick-Rockefeller, Toni Wolff, and two others, for the purpose of setting up a Psychological Club. ~ Marianne Jehle-Wildberger, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 46
Emma Jung, who was also working as an analyst, took on the role of president of the Club. Adolf Keller was considered for membership on the board. While he did not take up this position, he was named to the library committee along with C. G. Jung and one other member. ~ Marianne Jehle-WildbergerCarl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 47
At the board meeting in late 1916, Edith McCormick had already stressed the necessity of being more careful in the selection of new Club members than had been their habit. Emma Jung agreed with her. ~, Marianne Jehle-WildbergerJung-Keller Correspondence, Page 48
Jung: Thoughts on the Interpretation of Christianity,
Here in particular I must say a word about my acquaintance with analytical psychology, which I first encountered in its Freudian form in Geneva. In Zurich, Carl Jung was the established leader and prophet of this new school of psychology. My friend Oskar Pfister and I were the only theologians who immediately recognized the significance of psychoanalysis for the psychology of religion, pastoral care, and pedagogy, and who collaborated in a small study group which originated at the Burghölzli with Bleuler, Jung, and other psychiatrists. T
he theologian was in fact a rather peculiar fellow in this circle, repeatedly having to voice his disagreement with any exclusive “psychologizing,” and he was often sharply criticized and even ridiculed by the prevailing medical psychological worldview. This led perhaps to the boundaries between theology and psychology initially not being drawn clearly enough or to a withdrawal into a defensive position from which one could easily make petulant sorties. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 17
“I [Keller] strongly rejected the purely sexual biologism of Freud to my friend Reverend Pfister.…” ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 20
it was not a matter of a break in his relationship with Freud but rather a process of ongoing development. Freud had drawn attention to the causal explanation of neuroses. In the past, everything had been interpreted teleologically. However, neuroses had to be explained in part causally and in part teleologically. The introverted type must be thought of more teleologically, the hysteric more causally. Now, however, there was a trend towards the teleological explanation once again.…
Regression goes back to a stage where incest was not yet relevant, the warmth of the feeding mother was much more important.… For clinical practice, the new understanding of libido is very significant. For one no longer asks what caused the neurosis but instead reads the neurotic symptom as a regression to the past, because a block stands in the way, of which a man is not conscious, or about which he wants to stay unconscious. So he takes the infantile path, to get all kinds of compliments and trick his way around the obstacle in a child’s winning way.
Therefore, behind the neurosis stands the question: What obligation are you trying to duck? A duty you require of yourself.… That is why dreams must be read prospectively, as dream interpretation used to be undertaken [before Freud], in the direction of the task that is difficult for the neurotic who lacks the “standard of life.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 23
Becoming an individual: the allness is integrated, compressed into the singularity. Individuation is a process of the absolute condensation of the libido, which wants to become personal; through this arise tension, expectation, heat through the inward direction of the inclinations, which want to become personal. Out of this tension, the images are generated.
Life proceeds through the images. One can see the value of the symbol only through the introverting process, as when we enter into the object, for then the object becomes alive and real and has no symbolic meaning. This we find only when we abstract. Then the libido brings the imaginal into me and I hold the world as imago within myself. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 30
Today collectivity and individuation are antithetical. There are two sides, one where the moral accent is on the collective, the other where it is on the individual basis.… The individual is also of the collective. Nothing must be split off.… Differentiation pushed too far is sickness (diminished adaptation) with respect to the conditions. Today we have no culture—the spiritual height of development contrasts with the actuality of the collective. Culture first of all draws upon and reworks collective residues.… The concept of sacrifice no longer applies. It comes from the time when one believed one could beat it [the real collective] to death or skin it alive. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 32-33
“Through consciousness one purifies oneself and is liberated from the constraints of the unconscious = the ascent of the mountain of salvation = union with his soul = the liberated individual can integrate his being (his soul).… When the union with the soul occurs man is also united with the cosmos reflected in the unconscious. In this way he becomes godlike, and not clearly defined. What is individual is felt, but man is undifferentiated from the world, in mystical participation with it.… For the first part of an analysis the psychology of the Christian worldview should be used. Later we come up against the problem of the one-sided definition of the concept of God.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 36
I would like to speak of life processes that are accessible both in history and in personal experience to the awareness of every individual. With this deliberate qualification, I am speaking of the gospel as an impulse towards new life which was mysteriously visited upon man in the unfolding of history. It is a new powerful surge of life that burst out of the depths of the soul and the spirit and went out among the nations and has continued without
ceasing even to this day.… Essential to this phenomenon is a new psychic life force, a dynamism, an élan vital, a breakthrough of new life forces that gave a new direction to the thoughts and energy of humanity. Seen from the perspective of the human soul, the gospel is a powerful tremor, running through the hearts, minds, and spirit of men and damming up their entire energy, creating the most powerful tension.
It is a new intuition of the invisible from which man gained a new position in relation to the moral world. It is a state ofemotional turmoil and a sanctification of the mind, which cannot be achieved by any old borrowing or possessing another good. At the same time it is an impetus of moral strength creating for the first time the vision of a complete triumph over all demonic powers. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 51-52
Even from his boyhood hints of the beginnings of his individuation are reported. The boy leaves home and family and finds himself in opposition to them. … He frees himself from the all-embracing collectivity of the people and his religion. He enters into solitude, the desert, he confronts the collective force of public opinion and of the law with his sovereign “But I say unto you.” He enters the temple with revolutionary rebellion.… He died alone.
But this aloneness does not mean a submergence into the individuation process. In his experience of God, in the founding of a new spiritual community, he achieved a higher collectivity.… Thus in the experience of God in his baptism his ego achieved a consciousness of the highest magnitude. As the son of God he achieved the highest fellowship and a worldwide mission among men. ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 52
“I carry to this day the impress of a powerful experience. One felt that here stood a man who had a message.… I was very eager to accompany my husband on these occasions. Although I had no preparation I felt that something important was being discussed, so I listened with my whole being.… I believe the attraction was due to the idea of a pioneer in a passionate search, trying to look behind the visible into the dark of the psyche.” ~Tina Keller-Jenny, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 47
…“For an entire year she accompanied me on my visits to the small alleys in the Schipfe (a then-poor quarter in the parish of St. Peter’s) where I dragged her by the hand up putrid staircases and passageways so that she was forced to take out her smelling salts on reaching the top; thus she became acquainted with the lives ‘of other people’ and with the phenomenology of poverty.” ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 40-41
“It was as if Jung was conjugating the psychological unity in the Oedipus myth, hence the opposition between ‘fathers and sons’; … Jung was even then developing intimations of the polarity of all being … which only reveals itself in opposites with a compensatory function. In this, he was pressing on reverently and critically into the hidden darkness in order to taste of the tree of life and of knowledge.” ~Adolf Keller, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 20
“Among all my patients beyond mid-life …, there is not a single one whose ultimate problem was not that of the religious attitude.… Here, gentlemen, a tremendous area is unfolding for the pastor.… It is high time that the pastor and the doctor of the soul join forces to overcome this enormous task.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 32-33
After a lecture by Emma Jung some months later, Keller pointed out that inner reality had already been discovered not for the first time in analysis but “in the mythological symbolism in religion,” which C. G. Jung promptly mitigated with: “Analytical psychology was the first to reveal this consciously as a psychological reality—in mythology and in religion it was as if they were external to us.” ~ Marianne Jehle-Wildberger, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 35
The theologians, the administrators of religion, have been shouting themselves hoarse for years trying to fight the demon of disbelief.… But the sermons we are hearing give us no clue as to who really has something special to tell us, for among the products of this [the 19th] century is an execrable jargon of the pulpit, the ‘language of Canaan,’ which is used to cover up anything which could possibly offend anyone. If we listen to certain sermons without any preconceived ideas we will soon find ourselves all agog with notions about grace and plans of salvation.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 12
The regular discussions introduced us to the early drafts of Jung’s writings. We practically witnessed the emergence of the book Symbols of Transformation. The group had a revolutionary spirit that manifested itself in a clear protest against society, tradition, and even theology and the church.” ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 18
Jung placed his confidence in Keller, giving him the drafts of Symbols of Transformation to take on his honeymoon to Egypt at the beginning of 1912. ~ Marianne Jehle-WildbergerJung-Keller Correspondence, Page 18
He sent his patient Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick to Keller. She was the daughter of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., and the wife of Harold McCormick, chief of the Harvester Company in Chicago. She lived in Zurich from 1913 until 1921. After the death of her son, she was taken ill with a neurosis and sought help from Jung and was analyzed by him for eight years. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Correspondence, Page 43
Toni Wolff referred to her in the discussion, saying “her personal concept of God shows that she is an extravert.” ~Toni Wolff, Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 40
After a lecture by Emma Jung some months later, Keller pointed out that inner reality had already been discovered not for the first time in analysis but “in the mythological symbolism in religion,” to which Jung replied “Analytical psychology was the first to reveal this consciously as a psychological reality—in mythology and in religion it was as if they were external to us. ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 40
Through consciousness one purifies oneself and is liberated from the constraints of the unconscious = the ascent of the mountain of salvation = union with his soul = the liberated individual can integrate his being (his soul).… When the union with the soul occurs man is also united with the cosmos reflected in the unconscious. In this way he becomes godlike, and not clearly defined. What is individual is felt, but man is undifferentiated from the world, in mystical participation with it.… ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Letters, Page 40
For the first part of an analysis the psychology of the Christian worldview should be used. Later we come up against the problem of the one-sided definition of the concept of God. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Letters, Page 40
Early in 1916 a committee was formed, which included Jung and Emma Jung-Rauschenbach, Harold and Edith McCormick-Rockefeller, Toni Wolff, and two others, for the purpose of setting up a Psychological Club. ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 46-47
On 26 February 1916, a first constitutive general meeting of the Club took place, with a second meeting on 11 March, with forty people present. Emma Jung, who was also working as an analyst, took on the role of president of the Club. ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 46-47
On 25 November 1922 C. G. and Emma Jung resigned from the Club, along with Toni Wolff… In 1924 the Jungs and Toni Wolff rejoined the Club, and shortly after this Tina Keller was unanimously re-elected to membership. ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 48
As a result of my experiment I learned how helpful it can be, from the therapeutic point of view, to find the particular images that lie behind emotions. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 52
So Tina Keller was one of the first clients Jung guided on the journey “into the dark.” ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 52
He [Jung] gained Tina’s trust, often inviting her to his tower in Bollingen, along with Toni Wolff and some others: a privilege! ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 52
In her analyses with Jung and Toni Wolff, Tina Keller conducted active imaginations and also painted. ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 53
In the meantime she had recommenced the analysis, this time with Toni Wolff, who had also got into a “mess” during her own analysis with Jung and so had a good deal of empathy for Tina’s problems. ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 53
She experienced the most important part of her analysis with Toni: “I believe she saved my sanity.” ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 53
[Adoph] Keller baptized Helene, Emma, and C. G. Jung’s youngest daughter, in the library of their house in Kusnacht. ~Jung-Keller Letters, Introduction, Page 57
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