Carl Jung Depth Psychology Facebook Group

Black Books

Tuesday. Jung saw five patients. On November 10, Julius Vodoz gave a presentation to the Association for Analytical Psychology on Victor Hugo’s Marriage of Roland.

In the discussion, Jung commented,

“Prof. Vodoz said that the poem was a confrontation with the unconscious- a poem is never a confrontation with it-it is only a formation of
the unconscious. A confrontation would be to describe the contents of the unconscious, which enter consciousness through dreams, fantasies etc. and to examine its meaning afterwards as if it was a counterpart.”

To this Erika Schlegel asked,

“Can’t a poem be the result of a confrontation?”

Jung replied,

“It can be, but not eo ipso. e.g., in Faust, there is a lot of confrontation, but the second part is still so symbolic that it is not yet a confrontation. Of course, the formation is already a huge task and a part of life. But if the solution is still so symbolic that there is no
clarification but only a symbolic representation, it is no confrontation from the analytical point of view. Faust I I does not deliver such an absolute solution that the problem would be solved. It is similar in the case of Zarathustra. It contains a lot, but an essential piece is missing: that Nietzsche himself had proved Zarathustra through his ability to live” (MAP, pp. 23-24) . ~The Black Books, Vol. VII, Page 158, fn 51