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Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume I, 1906-1950 (Vol 1)
To Mary Mellon Bollingen, 18 April 1941
My dear Mrs. Mellon, anna miseriae
I should have written to you long ago, but I was kept so busy by lectures, meetings, patients, that I never found a quiet moment.
On top of all I felt very tired and deeply depressed by the senselessness of this war.
It is mere destruction.
Why in hell is Man unable to grow up?
The Lord of this world is surely the Devil.
Mrs. Frobe brought me cheerful news about yourself and the splendid work you do.
She was in high spirits, as I well understand.
I am missing the great world and the travelling therein and I envied her.
I think such reactions are just human, all-too-human.
You hardly can imagine the thickness of the black cloud suspended over Europe, and one wishes to escape from the soundless pressure of evil and dull idiocy.
Excuse these lamentations ! They always come first, when I have to reach out into the world to shake somebody’s hand across the Atlantic.
I feel then how far I am withdrawn from this world of illusion and of ever-renewed attempts at an illusory goal.
I am deeply indebted to you for all you do for the common cause.
I naturally agree with the Bollingen Press idea.
Little Bollingen at Yale!
It is marvellously grotesque.
In as much as I am able to advise you I shall be only too glad to do it, but then I have to dictate letters.
Your dreams: Twin children, twin men, twin Jungs-this series suggests the projection of a dualism in yourself which, however, becomes chiefly visible in myself.
It is probable, therefore, that it should be seen in myself rather than in yourself; in other words: it should be seen as an objective and not as a subjective problem.
It is matter of a dualism in the unconscious (therefore projected) personality, which we designate as the self or the unknowable totality of man, for which I am the paradigm in your dream.
You can formulate the idea in the well-known Hindu style: I am the victim and the killer, the food and the eater, I am yea and nay!
My invitation means that you should come up to the level of such understanding, whose vehicle is love and not the mind.
This love is not transference and it is no ordinary friendship or sympathy.
It is more primitive, more primeval and more spiritual, than anything we can describe.
That upper floor is no more you or I, it means many, including yourself and anybody whose heart you touch.
There is no distance, but immediate presence.
It is an eternal secret-how shall I ever explain it?
I wish you could come again to Ascona.
But the world-wide darkness is still on the increase.
I am grateful to fate that you have such dreams, otherwise the world would be rather empty in the Western Hemisphere.
I hope your husband has received my letter about mathematics.
Please give him my best regards!
Also to Prof. Zimmer, when you see him.
I had a letter from Ximena de Angulo about my Zosimos.
I am going to write to her.
At all events you can set her mind at peace by telling her she should not worry about the German text, since the English text is carefully revised and fully reliable.
My best and sincerest wishes to you!
Affectionately yours,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 297-298.
P.S. Excuse me sending you such an unaesthetic letter!
We are rationed but living conditions are still normal. Of course no petrol anymore, no cars, English tobacco on the decline.
Central heating very limited, general state of health therefore much better, decrease of children’s diseases by about 50%.
No grippe to speak of! I am planting potatoes and beans. At times I feel old and rotten.
But I have recovered from the worst of my fatigue.
Next time I shall answer more promptly.
