Jung describes this nekyia in his Black Books
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Jung describes this nekyia in his Black Books, and narrativises it in his Liber Novus, which was published in 2009.
However, his closest disciples had long known about the experience and existence of Liber Novus (Toni Wolff and Tina Keller for example, as will be discussed later).
The public learned about it in 1962, when Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections––wrongly viewed by many as his autobiography––came out.
Since Liber Novus represents a new testimony of this time of crisis in Jung’s life, a troubled and controversial chapter of the history of psychology has opened up again with its publication: Jung’s alleged madness. ~ Quentin Schaller, Jung’s Alleged Madness: From Mythopoeia to Mythogisation, Page 3
Hence, Jung’s days were devoted to his family and professional activities, compensating, in an effort to find the right psychic balance, for the introversion of his visionary evenings (Shamdasani 2009:201).
The professional isolation Jung addresses in Memories does not seem as unintentional as it appeared in the narration.
However, Maeder emphasized that even if Jung kept relationships with his disciples and some colleagues, he was, between 1914 and 1919, ‘extremely reserved and somewhat distrustful, even toward his most faithful disciples.
None of them suspected the interior experience he was then undergoing’ (Ellenberger 1970:673).
One understands thus that Jung, even surrounded by a crowd, could have been plunged into loneliness at that time.
But what about his personal isolation?
Another figure of major importance supported him during this confusing time and gave him comfort in the solitude of his evenings: Toni Wolff.
~ Quentin Schaller, Jung’s Alleged Madness: From Mythopoeia to Mythogisation, Page 19
