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The Cat, Dog and Horse Lectures, and “The Beyond”
RELATIONSHIP WITH MARIE-LOUISE VON FRANZ
The story of Barbara Hannah would not be complete without reporting her relationship with Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz.
The two women met for the first time in 1937 when they were both involved in a translation project for Jung.
The record is not clear on whether their decision to share living quarters was the result of a dream or a suggestion from Jung.
In any case, Jung was pleased with the arrangement, which on the surface seemed to be an unlikely one in view of the age difference.
Barbara was forty-six and Marie-Louise was twenty-three.
When Barbara asked Jung, “Why are you so keen on putting us together?”
Jung replied:
She has a very negative mother complex, and I want her to see that not all women are such brutes as her mother.
It will also teach you not to be jealous, and you had better not be jealous of her because she is a genius.
Jung said that Dr. von Franz was the only one of his pupils who fully understood his ideas.]
The real reason you should live together is that your chief interest will be analysis and analysts should not live alone.
They get too much into their patients’ material, and it is better for them to have some difficulties of their own.
I have given you someone who will give you a lot of trouble.
Jung’s perception was correct.
Barbara recalled that neither of them liked living with the other at first.
She said that they “fought the good fight” for ten years and nearly parted.
Jung had promised them that he would be available to them when they found the other difficult, but unfortunately, he had a heart attack two days after they moved in together, so they had to “fight their own battles” for a few months.
After the first ten years, “we hardly had a row,” Barbara said.
They were a strong support for each other when Jung died.
“I don’t know if either of us could have stood his death had we lived alone,” she said.
Barbara and Marie-Louise lived in a flat on the Zurichsee until they moved to the house at Lindenbergstrasse 15, which they shared until Barbara’s death some twenty-five years later.
In 1958, Marie-Louise built the Tower on a hill above Bollingen which served as a retreat for both her and Barbara.
Barbara wrote most of her biography of Jung at the Tower.
When asked, “What makes Barbara Hannah such a unique person?” Dr. von Franz responded:
The straightforwardness and honesty of her character.
She has been a loyal friend through all these years.
The women around Jung had a jealousy problem, and naturally, we also had one, but she was not catty about it.
You could have it out with her, which you could not do with many people.
She helped me by preventing me from making childish scenes.
She was more grown-up; I was nineteen when I began my analysis with Jung.
I was inclined to make a childish fuss about things that were of no interest whatsoever to Jung.
I could often react with her about those things so that it was not necessary for me to carry them to Jung.
She helped me a lot with her common sense.
She is a model of the individuation process.
In response to the question, “Have you often dreamed of her?”
Dr. von Franz replied with a gleam, “Oh, yes, in all colors! In the beginning, I projected my negative mother onto her,
because she could be my mother since she is twenty-three years older.
I do not dream of her so often now, but when I do, she appears as a benevolent companion and a loyal friend.”
Barbara Hannah spoke of Dr. von Franz with the greatest professional admiration and with personal affection.
Good-natured bantering characterized their relationship.
When Barbara was ninety-two, she cancelled an afternoon appointment because she was too tired after spending the morning with the hairdresser and the manicurist.
When Dr. von Franz learned of the cancellation, she said to Barbara, “At your age you should not be so vain!”
They both had international reputations as analysts and writers. ~Dean L. Franz, The Cat, Dog and Horse Lectures, Page 18-20
