1. Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung – Anthology

Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung – Anthology

Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung: by Aniela Jaffé from conversations with Jung

But even in analytical psychology circles there was anti-Semitic discrimination during the war years: in 1943 Toni Wolff informed Jaffe that her membership of the Psychology Club had been refused, allegedly to “protect” C.G. Jung from possible German sanctions. An outraged Jung subsequently campaigned energetically on Jaffe’s behalf threatening his resignation from the Club if she were not to be accepted. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 241

The following comments came a short time after Jung had told me how Freud had exhorted him – like father to son – to uphold the latter’s theory of sexuality; Jung, however, had very early on fostered his own ideas which deviated from Freud’s. Just before this conversation, Jung had looked through a collection of essays written by Toni Wolff and sent them to the publisher Daniel Brody, including the two articles “The Individuation Process in Women” and “Structural Forms of the Feminine Psyche.” He had also recently received some letters and publications dealing with the topic of nationality.  ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 36

In connection with a recollection of his final visit with Richard Wilhelm, Jung came to speak about transgressions and sins, which were necessary and for which a debt had to be paid. He said that some transgressions were ordained by fate. Only by humbly acknowledging the transgression could redemption become possible.  ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 50

There are things in life which herald a stroke of fate. I knew this the moment I was confronted with the problem of Toni Wolff. After our analytic work came to an end, I discharged her appropriately, even though I felt a very strong connection with her.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 50

Then a year later I had a dream: we were together in the Alps, and we found ourselves in a valley surrounded by cliffs. Suddenly from inside the mountain, I heard elves singing and Toni was about to disappear into the mountain. I was deeply shocked and thought: no, it cannot be! That is when I wrote to her again.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 50-51

The dream about the mountain cliffs reminded me of the Elf King. I heard the quiet calling of the elves and saw how Toni was disappearing the mountain – and I pulled her back. Then I knew: now it is inevitable. The anima demands her victim, I cannot avoid it any longer. It was a decision of life or death, also for me.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 51

Of course, by taking up the relationship with her [Toni], I was thrown into such chaos that I no longer knew which way was up and which was down. But what a power drive might have been unleashed if I had evaded the anima! ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 51

During my difficult time of inner seeking she [Toni] accompanied me with profound psychological and human understanding, considerable natural intelligence and great sensitivity. In giving me a firm hold, she fulfilled the role of anima in a most beautiful sense. She was fertile ground for me.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 51-52

Shortly before her death in 1955, Emma Jung referred to this support, saying: “I will always be grateful to Toni for doing for my husband what neither I nor anyone else could have done for him at a most critical time.” From: Van der Post, L., 1976, p. 178. Dieter Baumann, a grandson of C.G. ~ Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 52, fn 5

Jung, recalled how his grandfather had once told him at a family gathering in 1945 how important Toni Wolff’s help had been to him for his discovery of the anima. Cf. BBC Broadcast, Carl Gustav Jung: 1875-1961, recording 14July 1975, editor: Ean Begg.  ~Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 52, fn 5

No one could be less of an introvert than Keyserling! Every time I met him, I was completely swamped. He talked at me like a raging torrent. Completely without interruption, every time we met. I could not get a word in edgewise, so to speak.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 54

He [Keyserling] was an aristocrat, and it was this background that wanted to assert itself, that had to assert itself a tout prix. It was his nature and he was driven by it. For this reason, I once wrote that he was not a person but a phenomenon. That pleased him enormously.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 55

I wrote that I found it hard to imagine Count Keyserling as a lay brother “charged with working in the kitchens.” Life in a monastery requires submission and humility … But he did not like hearing these words.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 55

Through Keyserling, my wife and I were once invited by the Grand Duke of Hesse to stay at the ducal palace. The Grand Duke was a very friendly gentleman. In his free time he liked to sit sewing at his embroidery frame.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 56

The American academics, however, rarely comprehend me because most of them only understand things in terms of statistics. But I have always been enormously popular among the general public in the USA. The other professors could not explain my success, precisely because they were not able to grasp what I was actually talking about.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 59

Two young audience members were so close in front of me going down the stairs that I was able to overhear their conversation. One asked the other: “Did you understand that lecture?” The answer has stayed with me: “Well, I couldn’t follow it, but that fellow knows what he is talking about!”  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 60

To visit Rome and come face to face with the spirit of antiquity that is still so alive there, and the equally vital spirit of early and late Christianity, would have caused in me such excitement and agitation that I was never able to bring myself to go, even though I so wanted to.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 61

What does Rome mean to me? An anima to be avoided, which I am not developed enough to face. Like the seat of the fire. But I was able to visit Pompei. After I had managed to visit northern Italy without trouble, in 1912 I took the ship from Genoa to Naples, from where I was to sail for New York. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 61

In Naples I experienced a particular aspect of the ancient world – a sense of its uncouthness.

When I looked at people and studied their physiognomy, I kept getting an impression of a base nature which reminded me of the mysteries of Persephone on Samothrace – a sort of Samothracean Kali. I saw faces that were purely animalistic, unnaturally demonic shapes, grotesque ugliness. At every turn I sensed the strange and dangerous ancient spirit.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 62

There in Naples I could sense the spirit of antiquity, the frightening aspects of the coarse and ruthless, and the concealed animal spirit – it had not remained in the past. I also felt it in Pompei, which did not surprise me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 62

Just think of Rome: the blood sports and the gladiators of the ancient cults. The cruelty is unimaginable. And its spirit can still be felt today. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 62-63.

The dark has played a significant role in my life ever since childhood. Just think of my experience with God and the Basel Munster. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 64

Once when I was still a young student and very unsure of myself something happened that unsettled me greatly. Back then I harbored this desire to experience the eternal spirit directly, to see God! Then I had a dream in which I felt, or rather I knew: now it is coming, now I will finally experience it!  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 64

The feminine numen is a compensation for our masculine God-image.  A God-Mother complements a God-Father. The animal form is simply an early stage. With the expansion and differentiation of consciousness, the image of a divine mother is transformed into its highest sublime form. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 65

As I was preparing the draft of my chapter about Bollingen, I asked Jung whether the separate room in the second tower, which was added in 1931, was intended as a kind of chapel. He then told me about his longing for a place of seclusion and timelessness, a longing which had been with him since his student days. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 66

I never intended to build a chapel, rather I wanted to create a place I could withdraw to, and where I could be completely alone, by myself. A place of retreat, like a kind of meditation room. In India, having this kind of space for withdrawal is an absolute necessity because people live crowded so closely together. For us Europeans, this place of retreat is perhaps the locus or privy.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 66

The paintings in there are not for display. I always have the key to this room on my person, no one else is allowed to enter. On the walls I have painted what leads me into a state of solitude. It is a den for meditation, sometimes a very unpleasant meditation. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 66

The first time I experienced this particular kind of withdrawal and deep contemplation was in the crypt at Oberzell, amid the vineyards on Insel Reichenau. As a young man I made a regular pilgrimage to this small crypt during my vacations. It was my place. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 67

That is what I had in mind when I designed the tower room. It was also supposed to be a kind of tomb. At the 18th-century hermitage in Arlesheim, there is a bench in a romantic spot with an inscription above it that has remained etched in my memory, as it expressed my feelings so precisely: “o beata solitudo) o sola beatitudo.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 67

Jung went on to emphasize how vividly his early “inner experiences” were coming back to him – they were the “essential” part of his life, in contrast to outer events which were only significant when they coincided with his inner experiences and phases of development. However, he did not yet know how these could be described in words: ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 69

Fate will have it – · and this has always been the case with me – that all the ‘outer’ aspects of my life should be accidental. Only what is interior has proved to have substance and determining value. As a result, all memory of outer events has faded, and perhaps these ‘outer’ experiences were never so very essential anyhow, or were so only in that they coincided with phases of my inner development. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 69

Yet these are the very things that make up a sensible biography: persons one has met, travels, adventures, entanglements, blows of destiny, and so on. But with few exceptions they have become phantasms which I barely recollect, for they no longer lend wings to my imagination.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 70

It consists in the most peculiar and to me unexpected fact that I try to work out the history of my early days, seen as I have seen it in my youth without knowing what it meant and unable then to express it in words. Now I have the memories and the words but I am continuously disturbed by my own subjectivity. It is curious how one has an absolutely certain feeling of value on the one side and on the other an equally certain doubt about its value … ” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 71

In my life I always had to follow my inner personality, the number 2. Thus, I also had to give up my academic career. I had two alternatives: either I forge a career as an academic – a path which lay smooth before me – or I follow my higher calling.  The higher calling told me to follow those strange fantasies which had begun to emerge, but which I could not make public. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 72

Of course it was frustrating to have to renounce a career – I raged against the decision, and it was painful in many respects. But those are all transitory emotions, fundamentally they are meaningless. Remaining in touch with the unconscious, that is what is important. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 72

When I aligned myself with Freud, I also knew that I was risking my career. But even then, number 2 said: To pretend you do not know Freud is an act of deceit. You cannot base your life on a lie. And that settled the matter. Later, when I had successfully established myself in a teaching position at the university, the question raised itself again – this time, the inner figures called to me: “You, teach us the deep things!” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 73

I had been dragged out of the outer world by the “Old One.” “You know well that all this means nothing. It is all just pompous showmanship. What you are doing in that intellectual establishment has no value. The sole thing of value is your access to the depths.” And with that, I had to say: goodbye, academic career!  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 73

With number 1, I always had the feeling of uncertainty – something could always happen that one had not foreseen. After all, its world is only relative. The truth, what counts, lies in the world of number 2. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 73

Right now, I am describing how I moved from theology, which so fundamentally disgusted me, to philosophy. That is where my life and my passion is to be found.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 73

It has become vitally necessary for me to write down my memories now. If I miss just one day of working on them, I immediately experience highly unpleasant physical symptoms – nausea, loss of appetite and so on.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 73

Schopenhauer’s pessimism struck a strong chord with me – this was certainly linked to the depression I suffered at the time. Schopenhauer was the first person I came across, so to say, who spoke my language. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 75

On the contrary, religions regard the inner being as a normal figure residing in everyone. This does not prove that every individual with an inner and outer personality is schizophrenic! If all of us have the same “illness,” then it is a natural human characteristic and not a disorder. All religions presume the existence of such a structure. Otherwise there never would have been a phenomenon as widespread as religion. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 76

If we see it as a duality it is simply that our conscious understanding is not capable of seeing that we are also that inner part. One might think: “Either it is the ego or it is the Self.”  But it is actually both. The conception of a split only comes from the inability of our consciousness to see both in one.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 77

If my children say the biography belongs in the family, not in public, I simply have to look beyond it Their attitude is completely normal, I know that. The daemon in me, the creative urge, expressed itself absolutely and ruthlessly. If people around me do not understand the daemon and its effect in me and cannot bear the fact that it leads me to disconnect from them at times, I have to carry on regardless. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 77

People always want everything to be understandable even for the smallest of minds. What I have is amor fati – a feeling for fate, a love of fate. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 78

That is how I experience life – as an immense torrent. Being outside the torrent is agony, being in it is agonizing rapture. But being outside of it brings no joy, no true relief. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 78

Aside from Theodore Flournoy, he was the only outstanding mind with whom I could conduct an uncomplicated conversation. I therefore honor his memory and have always remembered the example he set me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 79

Erich Neumann was in Europe for a few months in October of 1958 and he read my draft chapters. On the twenty-sixth of that month, he visited Jung at Bollingen, and discussed the manuscript, including the draft chapters with him in detail. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 82

I expect absolutely no success at all with this book. 0n the contrary: I expect a chain of misunderstandings, similar to those after the book on Job. But Answer to Job simply had to be written, for God’s sake! The biography didn’t have to be.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 83

I have never experienced anything similar to this in my life. That is why I thought: well then! But when I was at Bollingen and read the latest pages you wrote, I was strongly affected, it gave me a jolt. It had a shock effect: what, that is in there too?! I encountered my inner situation in black and white. And what will happen after it is printed? ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 83

My uncertainty stems from a prophecy that my anima gave me once in a dream: that I would be cut up into bits and sold piecemeal. That would top it all! My “negative” attitude to the autobiography is of course a defense, or a kind of self-preservation. I dare not think positively about it. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 84

But all my life I have basically gone my own way, as well as I could anyhow, with an inner  consequence, not thinking of any childish advantage or recognition I might gain. Of course one does occasionally think of such things, it is only human, but they were not my main motivation. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 84

I have been thinking again about the possible publication of what I have been telling you about my life. One cannot write a biography without telling the truth. There are already untold numbers of false biographies. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 85

One is somewhat exposed by a biography with this level of truthfulness. And naturally one has to ask oneself if one might not feel somehow wounded by the reactions to it … But so much rubbish has already been said about me! So a little bit more or less won’t bother me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 85

You know about the importance of the objects at Bollingen for me. I relate to them as to living creatures. That contributes greatly to my feelings of well-being and relaxation there. I have to ask the objects what they want – they tell me and I have to serve them. In this way, one experiences what it means to have a participation mystique with objects. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 87-88

If I see a pair of swans here in Kusnacht I do not feel I have to feed them, but at Bollingen, I do. When I am there, I live the way people lived thousands of years ago. In olden times, objects told people what they wanted and what they would give in return.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 88

Of course, that is it, it clicks! The Red Book was never finished, and it is unfinishable. I saw immediately from the very beginning that what I say in that book would first need to be brought into a suitable form before it could be shown to the public. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 90

I knew from the beginning that the fantasies in their original form could never be presented to the world. They had a kind of prophetic nature, and I certainly did not want to be a prophet. They were raw materials that streamed out of the unconscious. But these things do not constitute the whole person. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 90

Back then, I was simply pulled into this flood from the unconscious and felt as if I were inside it. But I always maintained my conscious critical voice. It was with gnashing teeth that I allowed the fantasies to come and wrote them down, because basically I did not agree with them. That is why, apart from Septem Sermones ad Mortuos, l did not let any of them out into the world. They were finished, something complete in themselves. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 91

For a long time I had no real understanding of Islam. I could not really relate to it. But in Sudan I experienced a meaningful connection, and this was confirmed to me in India.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 95

This far-reaching voice, going out into endless space, that was living Islam for me. It contained the whole of the Arabic soul, a deeply moving expression of intense relationship to God, of the Islamic eras and the wonderful Arabic poems of love. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 95

I am convinced that the word “Allah” is a call in itself, like the Indian “Om.” Om expresses a totality, while Allah expresses a deep longing. For me as a European, Om is easier to grasp. It is meditative, contemplative, while Allah expresses something much different. It is eras and feeling. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 96

Allah does not express fulfillment. Allah is a cry in the desert, under an endless sky. It is a call to a Being which is omnipresent, like the wind that one senses everywhere. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 96

For Muslims, the religious commandments are not what is decisive. Rather, it is this yearning; a longing directed toward the great wide heavens and an unconditional and indeterminate fate. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 96

I can hardly express what I experienced in Africa. From the very beginning, I thought I would have to be quite an artist to convey it. This was my first encounter with an original, primitive, timeless world. It was like being bewitched. It is impossible to describe such emotions. It felt like being set back in time around a hundred thousand years – a feeling that accompanied me in many parts of Africa. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 99

African atmosphere, the loneliness of Africa – these were the unexpected, satisfying experiences which moved me deeply at the time, the satisfactory answer. And that was more valuable to me than a collection of ethnological trophies to be shown off later, weapons and cooking pots and heaven knows what else. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 99

Finally I asked him: “What is wrong with you Sabie?” He whispered in my ear: “Selelteni, ten thousand.” It was not the rhinoceroses or buff aloes that he feared, but the invisible dead.’ The spirits took him to the limits of his courage! I never missed an opportunity to go to those places described by the Africans as mbaja, or unfavorable. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 103

The unprejudiced way in which the Negroes accepted my intuition made a great impression on me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 104

When nature appears in its genuine form and the usual veil of familiarity is torn away, ghostly phenomena can occur. For example, if you lose your way in the jungle. Or you are in distress at sea and the situation becomes critical. This is when such phenomena can occur. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 105

War also leads to situations where ghost sightings can be observed. Think of the Central Swiss Regiment during the Second World War, when a rumor arose that the hands of Saint Nicholas of Flue had been seen holding back the German armies at the border! ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 106

We are currently experiencing the phenomenon of flying saucer sightings in many places around the world, although the question of whether they really exist is controversial and rather unlikely. Seen mythically, they are praesagia – portents, in mythological language, the intervening gods. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 106

When I was in Africa, I too found myself in situations where nature showed its wild face. I found myself in a completely altered psychic state and am almost embarrassed to describe what I experienced there. My reactions, however, proved to be on the mark. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 107

The fallowing notes were made when I was engaged in writing the book Death Dreams and Ghosts) a project which Jung had asked me to undertake. I have always been interested in reports of spirits and ghost sightings in which strange things present themselves as psychological realities. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 108

Supernatural manifestations and magic are familiar matters for Swiss farmers. But I lived here in Bollingen for ten years before I realized there is a haunted stable very close by. In almost every village around here live alleged sorcerers. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 110

In 1919 I had a very bad case of influenza with a forty-degree fever. It was the “Spanish flu.” It felt like a matter of life or death. I had a dream – though I couldn’t say for sure if it was a dream or a vision. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 114

I have sometimes asked myself if I am perhaps the reincarnation of someone from India. If that were so, I’m sure I would have been a Buddhist. That’s certain. I recall my indescribable enthusiasm on reading Schopenhauer because I learned something about India and Buddhism from him; I felt similarly moved when I read the Lalitavistara. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 118

When I then visited India myself, I became quite overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of the stupas of Sanchi. It went far beyond a natural reaction. There is also the dream I had in which an Indian man is meditating me, and as long as he keeps meditating, I continue to live. This man was also a Buddhist. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 118

In Benares I visited the grove where Buddha held the Fire Sermon. There had originally been a stupa there which was later rebuilt in Sanchi – in a wonderful place. And I was so overcome there that I had to take my leave from the others. I was so emotional, I had to hide from them. It was a tremendous shock. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 118-119

Wilhelm was astonished at my knowledge of the “Eastern soul.” “How do you know about all of this?” I had not read much, all I knew came from inside myself from my own inner experiences. If I had lived in India, I would without a doubt have been a Buddhist, of that I am sure. Buddhism was really what moved me most of all in India. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 119

I remembered this voice when I was sitting that winter evening in Bollingen listening to the kettle of boiling water singing merrily. I had a similar experience yesterday evening. With my inner ear I heard a song by Brahms. As if a great singer would have kindly taken care of me and said amiably: “I’ll sing you this Brahms piece, then you will surely sleep.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 117

And there’s another curious thing: the multiplicity of the archetypes and their fantastical forms corresponds exactly to the Buddha’s situation.

He challenged it, that is he questioned the never-ending and unexamined flow of images from a matriarchal realm, exactly as I call for reflection on what is observed and experienced. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 119

Naturally in Buddhism the same thing has happened as in Christianity: Buddha has become the imago of self-actualization, even though he said that by breaking the Nidana chain a person can attain Bodhi and can thereby also become a Buddha. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 119

That is similar to Christianity, in which Christ is the image that lives in everyone. But in the West, it led to an imitatio Christi, just as in the East it led to an imitatio of the Buddha. Hence, the Buddha statues everywhere. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 120

Because he is now a role model – and as soon as that happens, the possibility of degeneration is present. It just happens – tout sort parfait des mains du createur, tout degenere entre les mains de l ‘homme. We should be honest with ourselves about that for once. These things are mysterious and difficult. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 120

A diagnosis – for example the diagnosis of “schizophrenia” – interests me at most in connection with the question of whether the patient is treatable or not. The diagnosis does not show me what is really going on with these people.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 122

When doctors diagnose schizophrenia” or “hysteria,” they think it tells them something about the patient. But such classifications do not help the patient nor do they show what form the treatment will take. I am more likely to find that out through the dreams. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 123-124

I never relate to the pathology but rather talk to these patients as I would talk to healthy people. My aim is to establish a relationship like between healthy people. You can only treat ill persons from the perspective of their health. They are not medical objects – we have to be aware that we are dealing with specific individuals. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 124

The problem is always one of bringing the patients back to earth from their unreal world, from their fantasy realm. The doctor’s most important task is to accompany the patients on their way back to earth. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 124

As a doctor, then, one should not discourage a patient’s projections, should not dishearten the patient by rejecting or interpreting the projections. One is forced, as it were, to play a role. But only for this purpose: helping the patient to find a way back to reality. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 125

I have an innate capacity for empathy which means I can identify with n’ importe qui. I can feel what others are feeling along with them, as it were. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 127

It sometimes even shocks me how immediately I can enter into another person’s perception of life. I simply find myself there, I do not do it deliberately. Then I know exactly how other people feel – especially, for example, those who are difficult to understand. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 127

Tathagata, a name for the Buddha, literally means “the one walking thus.” The one who moves in a very specific way. The way we move is actually an expression of our individuality. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 127

The majority of suicides are committed by people who are not under medical observation. Thus, we cannot speculate about the reasons for those suicides. In the observed cases, it seems these patients see no possible way out of their difficulties and are therefore plagued by suicidal thoughts. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 129

Then there are the cases of people – I am not talking about psychosis here, only about suicide due to neurotic disorders – to whom nothing can get through. But these people rarely seek out an analyst. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 130

The death wish once got into me, when I was desperate following my dream about the murder of Siegfried, because I could not see the meaning or purpose of it at all. I knew it would take just one move of my hand and I would be dead. The loaded revolver was lying in my bedside table. I was forced to get up in the middle of the night and analyze the dream until I had worked out its meaning.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 132

The death wish can arise in a totally normal life. That is why there are suicides which seem to have no explanation. Suicide is still murder. It is murder of oneself and the person who commits suicide is a murderer. Family murders have to be seen in the same way: the self-murderer takes the family to their deaths too. But we are all potential murderers, and it is only thanks to the favorable conditions in which we live that our murderer or self-murderer does not assert itself in reality. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 132

Think of the countless Jews who committed suicide before they were taken to the concentration camps! I too would have wanted to shoot myself first in that situation. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 132

In psychology one has not really understood something until one has lived it. Just having a term for something means nothing. It needs to touch the heart or affect one’s life. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 134

But you do not become yourself until you are prepared to defend yourself in the real world. The demands and insights of my psychology make one unwelcome out there in the world. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 135

All intuitives must learn to bear a high degree of emptiness. Otherwise they are not able to grasp something with their intuition. As soon as their consciousness is filled with content, intuitions cannot get rough or are weakened. Actually it would be better for intuitives to see nothing and hear nothing. Then their perceptions could emerge via the unconscious and their intuitions could achieve a high degree of accuracy. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 136

Because it is difficult to withstand the emptiness, intuitives very often have feelings of inferiority. If they realized that the emptiness is fullness, it would be easier to bear. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 136

The mentally ill are often more deeply immersed in the essence of the world than other people, and as a result have different and more extreme attitudes. They identify with extra-personal archetypal contents, sometimes even with evil. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 137

Working with a patient who has a predominantly evil character can be damaging for the therapist. If the patient is naturally destructive, an analysis can on occasion have a very negative effect. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 138

We have long known that analysis can trigger a latent psychosis. For this reason one should refrain from undertaking an analysis in certain cases – one would only be doing the patient harm. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 138

It cannot be repeated enough – you cannot fundamentally change or improve someone. You can only make them more conscious of who they are. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 138

It can happen that dreams hold on to the continuation of a relationship between two people even when it is long finished, whether because of estrangement or the death of one of the partners. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 139

Every relationship goes through a critical moment when the projections need to be withdrawn. If this does not happen, the projection continues to be made, even if the partner is no longer there. Then it is possible that the dreams relate not to the other person, but to the projected image. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 139

After the outer relationship ends, our consciousness sadly notes that the person has gone, but the attachment to the imago remains, exactly as before. And then in the dreams it appears as if nothing at all had changed, nothing had been lost, everything had stayed the same. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 140

That is how children are. They still have some knowledge of the primordial and whole human. They still live in close proximity to the pleroma, where the eternal images are alive; and they themselves are still whole and therefore significant. That is child psychology, but you will not find it in any text book. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 142-143

0nly when we accept ourselves, without running away from or avoiding our true selves, can something new emerge within us. As reflective beings, people begin to realize that limitation is just one aspect of their existence, and that they are limited creatures living within a limitless realm.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 145

This is what I mean by the Self. It forces us to perform certain meaningful acts and rituals.

A psychological function is at work ahead of consciousness, before we have thought and reflected. That is difficult for us to accept.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 146

I have never written expressly about a life after death; for then I would have had to document my ideas, and I have no way of doing that. Be that as it may, I would like to state my ideas now. Even now I can do no more than tell stories – ‘mythologize.’ Perhaps one has to be close to death to acquire the necessary freedom to talk about it. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 146

The problem of conscious awareness is connected with the Godhead, which is why so many myths tell of the soul’s spark – the light of consciousness – flying into the sun after death. After all, it is in the interest of the Godhead for humans to become conscious. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 148

So it is also conceivable, and well within the realm of possibility, that after death individual consciousness returns to a universal consciousness. But that is a great mystery. I feel quite certain, though, that the process of becoming conscious continues after death. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 148

This world of images, which I am already experiencing, could be a precursor to a step beyond this earthly life to a mythical existence, an existence in psychic images. Life after death would then be like progressing into the world of images.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 150

Because of our nature, however, we are unable to imagine this afterlife existence as anything other than a process, a happening in time. But actually, this temporality only appears to be so, in the same way as psychic images only appear to have a particular spatial location. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 150

My exploration of the inner images serves the same purpose for me as philosophy did for Plato: it is a preparation for death. In a way it helps me to avoid ending my life in retrospection. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 150

Some old people are completely caught up in reminiscence and retrospection. They are imprisoned in their memories, while for me it is rather a case of reculer pour mieux sauter: I am trying to see the thread that has led me into my life, into the world, and will lead me out again. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 150-151

For me, these figures were never wavering. They had substance, had a kind of solidity about them, although the expression they took varied. Contrary to expectations, one knows that the images are something definite, even though this cannot be precisely expressed, nor can it be proven. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 151

When dealing with the unconscious I again and again think of the verse in Isaiah: “Thy dead shall live.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 152

If l regard the inner world of images as a precursor to a post-mortal existence, then I could also imagine that the dead for their part live on in certain involuntary fantasies of the living. Albeit not necessarily appearing as specific figures, but rather as their “arranger.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 152

The dead appear to exist in a sphere to which we are connected through our inner world of images. In psychological terms, what we call events in the land of the dead may actually take place in the unconscious psyche. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 152

 

It would seem that the psyche, or rather the unconscious, could be the region in which the dead live on.

The unconscious is limitless, unknowable, without time or space, just as the so-called “hereafter” is described as limitless, unknowable, and outside of all notions of time and space. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 152

Long after my mother died, I had a dream in which I paid her a visit at the place where she apparently now resided. She lived in a house from the 18th or 19th century, a small country cottage surrounded by roses. The house was located, I knew for certain in the dream, in the afterlife. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 153

My mother had a powerful eros attraction to faraway places. But she projected it onto me and often voiced her fantasy that I would someday travel to the East and marry an Asian woman. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 153

We usually regard ideas about an afterlife and apparent “experiences” of the beyond as “only psychological,” i.e., subjective fantasies. But actually, we do not know what kind of reality psychic contents have, and we know even less about the extent to which images and apparitions of the deceased may have something like autonomy and an objective reality. It is not always possible to distinguish them from inner images and fantasies. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 154

My mother, for all her inner expansiveness, naturalness and variety, lacked greatness. She was a country parson’s wife. Nevertheless, in her unconscious there lived a more comprehensive personality who roamed across huge expanses and stumbled across exotic things – and this side of her personality she projected onto me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 154

Perhaps there is after all something to the idea that one chooses one’s life before birth. In this case there would be a connection between previous fantasies and a specific life. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 154

I can well understand why Buddha finally, after however many incarnations, no longer wanted to return to life. I am not claiming that I would like to disappear into Nirvana forever. And I can certainly conceive of a world situation coming about in which I could not but say: “Encore une fois!” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 154-155

My burning interest now is of course the situation after death, and what one can experience there. Are time and space necessary conditions? ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 155

This raises the question of whether we have consciousness after death and if so, how much. That is the big question: whether one dies with a developed consciousness or not. Or whether one then simply is, and is blown out into existence again by the great universal wind. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 155

From my point of view, I do not need to experience another earthly existence for that. It is conceivable that in the “beyond,” after death, one will have unlimited access to insights. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 155

My sister [Trudi] died in the thirties. I was going back and forth tonight thinking about this dream. My sister Gertrud was a curious person: I was never very close to her. And now my sister appears as the anima in my dream. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 157

I always admired her [his sister Trudi]. She died of an operation that was supposed to have been a minor procedure – but she clearly knew that it was a matter of life or death. I only went to the hospital when she died, as I had no idea about the seriousness of the situation – it all happened rather quickly. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 157

Now, the sister in the dream I interpret as quasi the personification of my unconscious or my anima. She had married. Thus, she must have somehow entered into a vital connection with a masculine element. What this means for me personally, I do not yet know. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 158

I dreamed that Toni came back. Her death had only occurred due to a sort of mix-up – as if she had died through some misunderstanding. And so now she was here again, in order to somehow live a further part of her life. I can only understand this dream figure as the anima. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 161

With my wife I have the feeling of a much greater detachment or distance than with Toni Wolff. With Toni I have noticed that she still seems to be nearby. My wife has attained something that Toni has not. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 161

However, we also cannot prove that rebirth does not exist. We could call it a “healthy belief” or a “therapeutic myth.” Its positive effect does not work for everyone, however, and neither can it be seen as evidence for its existence. But such a belief about the continuation of life after death can have a kind of revitalizing effect or healing value, and maybe we have this fantasy for precisely that reason. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 161

I have always had the conscious and distinct impression that Toni is still closer to earth, which is why she manifests herself to me more easily than my wife. My wife is as if on another level, beyond my reach. Toni seems to me to be close enough that one could possibly reach her. She seems to have remained much closer to the sphere of our three-dimensional existence and would thus have the opportunity to slip back in – at any rate, this was the conclusion I drew from my dreams. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 162

With her [Toni], I feel strongly, or even know, that she has not reached a state in which a continuation of three-dimensional life would no longer make sense – on the presupposition that certain stages of insights would liberate us from the urge to return to earth. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 162

Leaving the three-dimensional world is referred to as Nirvana. But if there is any remaining karma to be dealt with, one is lured back to one’s desires; one returns to life on earth in order to live the missing part, maybe even in the belief that something needs to be completed. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 162

I was not able to put aside the question about reincarnation, I was tormented from within to give an answer. I could not find the answer using my intellect, it goes beyond human understanding. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 162

If one believes in the possibility of reincarnation, the idea logically follows that those people who are reincarnated did not complete something in their life that they were meant to do. That was very impressive for me with Toni. Basically her natural tendency was to be very down-to-earth. But for all her great humanity, she became very intellectual. Her manner was often forced and unnatural. I saw dearly how she resisted her own character, her own earthy nature. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 163

If there is a possibility of reincarnation, then in Toni’s case it would be in order for her to be more in an earthly here and now, and closer to nature. And that was evident in my dreams about her after her death. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 163

With my wife I have a very different impression. I had dreams after her death from which I suddenly awoke and knew that I had been with her, and that we had been together the whole day in Provence, where she was working on her Grail studies. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 163

With my wife, this step was not emphasized at all: she seemed to be developing further along the spiritual path. I had the feeling my wife was in a spiritual realm, while Toni was in a chthonic world. No one ever told me that my wife had appeared in their dreams. Even with me, she did not appear again – except as an image she presented to me. But here I did not feel that she was really present. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 163

The dead seem to choose the most curious forms for manifesting themselves. Even as animals! ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 166

When it began to get dark, the little bird came into the courtyard and perched on the pile of dry sticks. Hans knew it was the anniversary of Toni Wolff’s death and asked if the robin might not be her soul? I had already noticed his reaction and the same thought had also crossed my mind. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 167

The primitive soul lives on in modern educated people, who can have such experiences. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 167

The older I grow and the more I observe animals, the greater my admiration for them. The way an animal experiences the world must be of an unsurpassable abundance and originality. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 168

What we can acquire in old age goes back to the animal soul which doesn’t speak. I try to go along with the instinct, and it leads to a place without language, a self-contained world. A world in which one only has inklings or hunches. There I feel alive. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 168

It is particularly difficult for me to get an objective view of myself. I have no desire to talk about things or explain myself. I do it, as far as I can, but I have a need for this stillness. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 168

When I was very ill and had an out-of-body experience, a feeling of great relief came over me. It was no longer about age or youth; what counted was the unfolding of meaning. I experienced how the element of meaning took up its rightful space, which here in this material life is only dimly perceived or hardly recognized because of so much superficiality. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 169

Ultimately, we cannot know whether we will experience anything after death. But it seems highly probable that to a considerable extent, the psyche continues to exist, since the unconscious extends beyond limitations of time and space. It transcends our reality of here and now. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 170

For me, the image that my wife is now in the South of France working on the Grail legend is very calming. Or that my late friend Oeri is being taught by his daughter about psychology. Or that Toni Wolff, colored by the sun, is vigorously and happily tilling the land in Umbria. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 170

“Over there” separation does not exist: everything is being-in-one. But this we are unable to grasp. It is something penetrating one’s entire being. It was emphasized to me that this is not devoid of eras. Nor of what we sense as sexuality. Rather, they are major components. Think of the houris in paradise: Muslims are unable to imagine paradise without love. And why is Christ in the thalamus with his bride? ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 170

After the death of my wife, I had a dream: I saw her in an image that seemed to have been made for me. In this dream I experienced a feeling of congruence reaching as far down as the depths of sexuality. A complete unity. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 170

The depth of sensation is represented through sexuality. It is the strongest experience of union found in nature. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 170

Only two people joining together completely in spirit to become one comes close to this experience. That however is almost other-worldly. In our three-dimensional world, the potential of union is implied in sexuality. But only as potential. In actuality, it is extremely rare to experience spiritual unity.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 170

After the death of his wife, Jung had a dream or vision of her: “I knew that it was not she, but a portrait she had made or commissioned for me. It contained the beginning of our relationship, the events of fifty-three years of marriage, and the end of her life. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 170, fn 9

Many experience sexuality as a cause of enslavement and suffering, believing they will become more spiritual if they repress it. That is not true at all, quite the contrary! But they want to prove that they are different from animals. If you can tolerate your own shadow, you can also accept your sexuality. But if you fall into uninhibited sexuality, you are lost – the shadow has you in its grip. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 171

In the Indian myths, one finds the idea of eternal stretches of time, the “kalpas” or ages of universal time in which correspondingly slow changes take place in the world. According to this concept, the soul does not live on after death for eternity, but only for a very long time. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 172

Buddha said “You are mistaken. It’s true that your life will last for many kalpas, but eventually it will end.”…. Buddha said: “You see, at this moment the karma of your court ladies expired – and they are no longer. This will also happen to you one day.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 173

In India, the aspiration is to get behind the world of images, to kind of extinguish the world of images and nature through meditation. My approach is a different one. I wish to remain in the world of images and of nature, as a way to see God. I couldn’t wish for more! ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 177

I do not desire to free myself from humankind, nor from myself nor from nature. For me, all of this is part of an indescribable wonder – including, naturally, the inevitable accompanying abyss. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 177

The highest sense of being can only exist because it is – not because it is not. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 178

Because nature is the manifestation of God, God is also manifested in us. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 178

The human being is the organ of reception, the perceiver. If the Tao is in nature or not, we do not know. But it is the individual who makes the Tao, who makes God – existing and present in our existence – conscious. That is why God alone is not enough. We human beings are also necessary, an individual is needed for the experience of wholeness. Deus et homo. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 178

On this day, Jung spoke about experiencing a kind of fateful inner knowing, once when he first set eyes on his future wife, and again when he visited Freud in Vienna in 1909. He was convinced that this knowledge was already present in his unconscious. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 179

When I say there is an absolute knowledge present in the unconscious – in religious terms, that God is all-knowing – it is not a contradiction when I add that only humans or their consciousness can possess this knowledge. As a human being, I am a creature knowing that I know. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 179

But whether the animals themselves know what they are doing, we cannot say. It is the same with migratory birds: we do not know whether they are aware of their mysterious orientation knowledge. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 180

Synchronicity is a direct manifestation of the absolute knowledge in the unconscious. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 180

Eros belongs to our conscious knowledge. The feeling of obligation toward the insights obtained through logos is actually eras. Eros always wants to combine two things in one, it is a force that brings together what has been separate. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 181

Because I originally came from a state of unity, there is still knowledge of unity inside me. Eros comes to the aid of this dark knowledge. Thus one’s unconscious knowledge is brought into the light by love. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 181

Qui amat cognoscit. Human cognition is a recognition, as Plato said. That is why it is quite accurate to say that humankind is the crowning glory of creation: because we have the ability to know what is. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 181

This is why I believe that we humans are the ones that bring with us at the end of our lives our knowledge about this knowledge. he knowledge of humans means that we virtually “tell” God what the world is.  And this is why I also believe that the Godhead periodically must vacate the Godhead, as it were, and take on human form in order to experience this recognizing consciousness. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 182

People do not understand me when I say God is unconscious and requires the human being in order to become conscious. This process of becoming conscious can only take place within humans, because here God touches his other side. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 183

It caused me the most terrible conflict to have to accept that the Godhead is unconscious. As is stated in Hebrews: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 184

Our life is so important because it demands that we become conscious. We are not making a mistake when we take our own lives very seriously. Otherwise, the Godhead suffers from the stagnation of consciousness. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 186

The opinion is repeatedly stated that God wants to test the human being. No – he wants to convince himself that humans have consciousness. The human must resist the angel, that is why Jacob fights him. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 187

But were I to consider emigrating to Polynesia a la Gauguin, in the hope that I would find some perfection, or withdraw from the world like a hermit, to cut myself off from the world in order to contemplate its meaningless, the result would be neither meaning nor value.

Rather, it would be like a reproach to the creator for making such a nonsense of this earthly existence. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 188

Apparently, we need to battle for our lives with all the fibers of our being, with the aim of achieving as much consciousness and knowledge as possible – knowledge about ourselves, about the world, about eternity. That is what gives meaning to life. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 188

A consciousness is required in order to give the unconscious creation meaning. Humans can accomplish this, however, only if they understand the language of nature, the language of animals and plants. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 188

But there is one thing we must not forget: the more we know, and the further consciousness extends or the more it develops, the more dangerous it becomes. This Earth could end one day, a final catastrophe is a possibility. Why not? It is also conceivable that humankind will be destroyed and another experiment will begin elsewhere. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 188

The mysterious intention of the creator appears to me to be that existence is transfigured by the fact of knowing about itself Otherwise, nothing would be gained. A creation does not exist if no one knows about it.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 188

Being able to withstand the suffering is what gives life meaning. It means one can bear God. For God himself is in doubt about whether he can be withstood, or can become so. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 189

What does the incarnation of God in the human mean? It is like a second will within the human, and this has far-reaching moral consequences.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 190

I am answerable not only to my ego-morality, but also and in equal measure to this second will. The incarnation, however, means exactly this: God’s will occurs through me.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 190

This I must endure to the end. I am answerable not only to my ego-morality, but also and in equal measure to this second will. The incarnation, however, means exactly this: God’s will occurs through me. his I must endure to the end. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 190

It is the strange and inexplicable will of God in us that wants to be realized. When one says: “Christ in us,” it means nothing other than “God in us.” God wants to become human – i.e., God, and also God’s will, enters the empirical human. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 191

One of the tragic consequences is the atomic bomb. To acknowledge this is no trivial matter. Human intellect has discovered how to split atoms – the building blocks of the world. Humans are capable of destroying life on earth. Humanity thus now has power over world-forming forces. Thus, the image of our God-likeness emerges. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 191

It would be a mistake, however, to believe that one cannot pray to such a God. The Old Testament repeatedly tells us how to pray to a God who is also wrathful. We can learn from Judaism how to pray to an ambivalent God. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 192

The subject of religious experience itself, God or the Divine per se, is and remains a mysterium, an ineffable, about which I cannot say anything. It remains a mystery.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 193

We only can do that of which we are capable. Our achievements will be measured by our karma – by whether or not it has been sufficiently answered. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 193

Life’s meaning is fulfilled according to the full unfolding of one’s disposition, when one becomes what one already was in one’s basic structure – in the way the chicken hatches from the egg, the oak tree grows from the acorn, or the tiger cub becomes the tiger. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 193

I am not convinced that the creator intended to create this world as an ideal, but rather that a world becomes. This, in my opinion, is the purpose. But not with the idea that then everyone will be wise or happy. Some are destined to continue, some to die, some to ascend, some to decline. These are the conditions of existence. So it is, and so it always shall be. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 194

Nothing can be created without indebtedness, and only one who bears the cost can create. The person without indebtedness who renounces the world and refuses to pay life’s dues does not achieve individuation, because the dark God would find no place in him. Many paths lead to the central experience. Those who have descended to their own depths also recognize the value and legitimacy of other paths leading to the center. Knowledge of the manifold paths gives life its fullness and meaning. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 195

In her book Jung- A Biography, Deirdre Bair, disregarding basic academic research criteria, wrote much on this subject that was false or inaccurate. The present historical commentary sets the record straight on several points. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 196

From 1938 on, Paul and Mary Mellon also provided financial support to Olga Frobe-Kapteyn – founder and organizer of the Eranos conferences in Ascona – for the publication of the Eranos yearbooks and other personal research projects. Frobe-Kapteyn was to play a mediating role in an initial biography project. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 201

According to a message from Jung to Jaffe, the initial proposal for a biography stemmed from Cary Baynes as far back as the mid-twenties. “This idiotic business of a biography comes from Cary Baynes’ time (seminar 1926)[sic]. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 201

After his seventy-fifth birthday and the related interviews and articles in the press, but also upon increasing insistence from among his circle of friends, it became clear to him that, despite his ongoing ambivalence, a biography about him [Jung] would inevitably be published sooner or later ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 202

As Emma Jung was also involved in the correspondence and had exchanged letters with Freud, the couple discussed the matter and together decided that the letters did have a certain historical value. In Jung’s opinion, however, their contents were “not significant.”  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 203

In the years 1930 to 1932, Lucy Heyer-Grote underwent analysis, primarily with Toni Wolff, but also with Jung and with Eva Moritz, chair of the C.G. Jung Society in Berlin. During the thirties, her reviews of several of C.G. Jung’s works appeared in German newspapers and journals. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 204

In 1934, she [Lucy Heyer-Grote] divorced her husband, and C.G. Jung too later distanced himself from Gustav R. Heyer, due to the latter’s National Socialist sympathies. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 204

While Jung had now explicitly consented to Heyer-Grote’s authorship and concept, he was also assuming that Cary Baynes, given her previous overtures, would lend her support. But Baynes felt passed over with the appointment of Heyer-Grote, for which she held Daniel Brody responsible.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 206

Annoyed, she [Cary Baynes] approached Jung’s wife Emma, whereupon Jung promptly addressed the situation personally. He was under the impression that the biography project had been her idea, he told her, and therefore expected that she would wish to contribute. Although convinced that Lucy Heyer-Grote was the right person for the overall project, he had insisted from the start on Baynes’ involvement due to the valuable alternative perspective she would bring. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 206

In the autumn of 1953, Lucy Heyer-Grote moved from Germany to Basel to conduct the biographical interviews. Interestingly, at the start of their work, Jung presented her with the first volume of Ernest Jones’ biography of Freud, saying it would give her an idea of the sort of hearsay that was spread about him. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 207-208

In March 1954, Heyer-Grote wrote enthusiastically to Paul Mellon: “Professor Jung has shown great interest in the work and is most willing to give me all the information I need.” Jung’s perception of the situation, however, was quite different. Barely a week later, he told Cary Baynes that he could no longer carry on with “this funny kind of playing at a biography.” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 208

Jung’s doubts likely did not diminish when his wife was diagnosed with cancer in the late summer of 1954, leading to an operation and subsequent radiotherapy. Emma and C.G. Jung were clearly very worried and initially kept these events to themselves, not even telling their own children.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 209-210

Meanwhile, surprising news from London in March brought further grounds for reflection: Anna Freud had come across the lost letters from Jung to her father. The Freud Archive in New York, wishing to make copies, contacted C .A. Meier, president of the Jung Institute Zurich, to discuss the possibility of publishing the correspondence. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 210

He sarcastically pointed to the much greater public appeal of the life of Albert Schweitzer, who had, in Jung’s opinion, run away from the challenges in Europe to become a lauded ‘savior’ for poor Africans. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 210

Although he seldom spoke of it, the unexpected death of Toni Wolff in March, 1953, affected him greatly. He tried to continue cooperating on the biography, but along with his reservations about the project itself he felt growing self-doubt. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 208

In the postwar years, public criticism and controversy about his attitude toward National Socialism had not abated, leaving him feeling embittered and at times resigned. Furthermore, he had been painfully affected by the harsh critical reactions to Answer to Job after 1952.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 210

Emma Jung (who was also involved in some of the biographical conversations) had promised to make her own correspondence with Freud available to Heyer-Grote, but then neglected to do so, without explanation.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 211

According to Lucy Heyer-Grote’s detractors, it would damage Jung’s reputation if a former German Nazi supporter were to write about him. Jung strongly refuted the allegations. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 211-212

At the beginning of 1955, Emma Jung was hospitalized again. Her serious illness, Jung wrote, was consuming all of his spare time. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 212

While the aforementioned events were unfolding in February 1955, Aniela Jaffe was working on a portrait of C.G. Jung for the renowned Swiss cultural magazine, DU. Little did she know that within two years, she would be tasked with a further biographical project. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 214

A friend of physicist Wolfgang Pauli, she also wrote a review of his and Jung’s joint publication The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 215

Emma Jung was a member of the small editorial committee and also one of the authors, along with Aniela Jaffe. Impressed by Jaffe’s intellectual abilities and sensitivity, in late 1954, Emma Jung asked her younger colleague to lend editorial support to the project when her own capacities became limited due to illness. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 216

By spring 1955, it was becoming ever more urgent to find someone to fill the role of Jung’s private secretary, no suitable replacement having been found for Marie-Jeanne Schmid, who had retired after decades of service. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 216

Emma Jung, keen to relieve the burden on her husband and Trusting Jaffe’s competence and character, pushed for Jaffe to transfer from the Institute to Jung’s home office in Kusnacht. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 216

Until then, the relationship between Her [Aniela] and Jung had, in her own words, taken place in a more or less protected space for many years: “The imminent confrontation with external reality was reason enough for two introverts to consider the situation thoroughly and to make the necessary preparations.” She would remain his personal secretary to the end of his life. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 216

In October, Emma Jung asked Aniela Jaffe, who by then had been working as Jung’s private secretary for several months, to join the editorial team of the Collected Works. In view of her already heavy workload, Jaffe turned down the request.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 217

It was later a source of considerable regret for Jaffe that she had turned down one of Emma Jung’s last requests. Despite her initial refusal, Jaffe subsequently gave unstinting practical and intellectual support to the preparation of the Collected Works, as well as being one of the main points of contact with the Bollingen Foundation.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 217

It also fell to Jaffe, in early October 1955, to inform Kurt Eissler, secretary of the Freud Archive, that C.G. and Emma Jung would not agree to publication of the letters at that time. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 217

Later in the year, Jung suffered another great loss: on November 27, 1955, his wife Emma died. With her passing and the death of Toni Wolff in 1953, Jung had lost his two most significant female companions within the space of less than three years.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 218

In February 1956, she [Aniela] wrote to their mutual friend, author Laurens van der Post: “He carries the loneliness most courageously. Sculpting a stone with Chinese motives and a text was his help in the darkest days. But now he seems to come back from where he has been.”  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 218

In May of that year, a “Letters Committee” was established, to which Jung appointed his daughter Marianne Niehus-Jung along with Aniela Jaffe and Gerhard Adler as the editors of a selection of his correspondence, from which the letters to Freud were expressly excluded. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 218

“I too am in a retrospective phase and am occupying myself, for the first time in 25 years, thoroughly with myself, collecting my old dreams and putting them together.

There are all sorts of strange things among them. How little one still knows of the ‘unconscious’!” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 220

He [Jung] replied that, because he was such a complicated phenomenon, a full portrayal could not be given by one single biographer. Bennet should write about him from the medical perspective, if he really were to decide to engage himself. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 220-221

Jung evidently believed that his collaborator and private secretary Aniela Jaffe was capable of creating a synthesis of his various developmental strands from a psychological point of view. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 221

Aniela Jaffe, daughter of prosperous industrialist, jurist and passionate art collector Alfons Jaffe (1861-1948) and his wife Hedwig (1878-1963), was born on February 20, 1903, in the elegant residence of her grandparents, the Fi.irstenbergs, on Viktoria Strasse in Berlin. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 222

Aniela’s mother, who had converted to Christianity as a young woman, had all three daughters christened in the Protestant church and raised them as Christians. Nevertheless, their social environment was dominated by Jewish representatives of a cultural and economic elite. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 225

Aniela Jaffe fell in love at a young age with Jean Dreyfus, the son of an art historian from an old Basel banking family. This relationship enabled her to escape National Socialism by emigrating to Switzerland a few years later. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 228

During her [Aniela] time in Hamburg, she also immersed herself in the cultural philosophy of Ernst Cassirer and his theory of symbolic forms, and attended lectures by the young Erwin Panofsky on the visual arts, which had interested her since childhood.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 231

While Jaffe was immersed in the world of academia and scholarship, the 1929 global economic crisis, triggered by the New York Stock Exchange’ s Black Friday, caused upheaval to the social and political landscape around the world. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 232

With the rise to power of the National Socialists – something deemed unthinkable by most – the now twenty-seven-year-old Jaffe became aware of much more widespread anti-Semitic behavior among her compatriots. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 232

Aniela Dreyfus-Jaffe’s Protestant baptism and upbringing did not prevent her from being the target of anti-Jewish discrimination on account of her name – she was excluded from student excursions, for example. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 232

Although at that time no-one in her [Aniela] family or academic circle imagined the extent to which anti-Semitism would escalate under Adolf Hitler, the latent and increasingly manifest aggression simmering at all levels of society was painfully clear to her.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 232

When, a few days after the National Socialists seized power in February 1933 and issued the decree “Recht ist) was dem Fuhrer dient” [the law is what serves the Fuhrer], Ernst Cassirer was one of the first to realistically predict the consequences of this political development: “If tomorrow all German lawyers do not rise up as one man and protest against these paragraphs, then Germany is lost.”  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 233

In Hamburg, some fifty Jewish academics, including William Stern, Ernst Cassirer, Erwin Panofsky and Fritz Saxl, were immediately suspended from the university. Aniela Dreyfus-Jaffe was one of many young students who thus suddenly lost their doctoral supervisor. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 233

When Aniela Dreyfus-Jaffe refused to give the Hitler salute, she too was peremptorily removed from the university roll. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 234

The extent of the risk of remaining in Germany became shockingly clear when her brother-in-law, the conductor Efrem Kurtz, was sought by the Gestapo and had to flee immediately to Paris with Aniela’s youngest sister Kathe. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 234

Like many emigres, the challenges Aniela Dreyfus-Jaffe encountered were not just professional but also personal. She and her husband had planned to have a large family, but after suffering a miscarriage, she discovered that she would not be able to have children. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 236

Life for her family back in Germany became more and more difficult and humiliating: the architect husband of her older sister Gabriele had his professional license revoked in 1935, and when their son dared to contradict the teacher’s anti-Semitic remarks in class in defense of his Jewish grandfather, the boy was immediately expelled. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 236

During their marriage, Jean Dreyfus and Aniela Jaffe had often been separated by work and study commitments, and although they would go on to maintain a lifelong close friendship, in February 1937 the pair divorced. Thereafter, the young woman who had grown up in a highly privileged and protected milieu urgently needed to earn her own money. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 236

In the midst of those dark times, Jaffe began immersing herself in the psychology of C. G. Jung. This led to a profound personal turning point during the destructive pre-war and war years. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 237

In the winter semester of 1936/37, a fellow Jewish woman who would become a friend for life, Rivkah Scharf took Jaffe as a guest auditor to C.G. Jung’s seminars on children’s dreams at the ETH Zurich. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 237

By arrangement with Cornelia Brunner, 62 Jaffe then began to study privately in the library of the Psychology Club, devoting every free morning or afternoon she had to reading C.G. Jung’s seminar notes and published books. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 237

Feeling in need of psychological support due to the personal, financial and political difficulties she was facing, Jaffe began an analysis with Liliane Frey-Rohn, 63 with whom she later also formed a lifelong friendship. Then in the late fall of 1937, she started a personal analysis with C.G.Jung, shortly before his trip to India. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 237

Following William Stern’s death in spring 1938, with Hitler’s ever more aggressive actions after the annexation of Austria, it became clear to Jaffe that, given her Swiss passport, the relatively secure best option for her future was to stay in Switzerland. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 237

For many years, Jews in Switzerland experienced hostility and ostracism: despite the extremely low proportion of Jewish citizens (only 0.5 percent of the population) and foreign nationals (only around 5.5 percent), at the end of the thirties fears of “foreign infiltration and over-Jewification” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 238

Since 1933, there had been a steady increase in regulations aimed at excluding Jews. Beginning in 1934, foreign Jews could only transit Switzerland if they held a visa for another destination country. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 238

Even within the circle around C.G. Jung, Jaffe, while tolerated, was nevertheless one of the “undesirables.” [Jewish Heritage] ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 238

The support she [Aniela] found through her contact with Jung was crucial to helping her deal with the anxiety and insecurity caused by the political situation. He soon waived the fee for her analysis and when she refrained from accepting the offer, he responded that he had no doubt that she would make a significant contribution to analytical psychology. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 238

During the war years when finding work became ever more difficult, Jung helped her [Aniela] to survive financially by assigning her research tasks, large and small. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 240

After the capitulation of France in early summer 1940, when it was feared that Switzerland would be the target of bombing raids by the Germans, Aniela Jaffe was included in a small group that joined the Jung family at a privately organized refuge in a remote village in the Valais region. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 240

“I [Aniela] began my analysis with him during the worst Nazi period, and at the beginning the Jewish problem was in the foreground. If I, so highly sensitive as I was in this regard, had sensed even the slightest whiff of such a tendency, I would have run out of there immediately. But in fact, those conversations gradually healed my Jewish complex or feelings of inferiority.” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 240-241

Seven years later, Jaffe would herself become a board member. The anti-Semitic restrictive clause that had been secretly introduced in December 1944 was not removed until an intervention by Siegmund Hurwitz in 1950. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 241

A collection of some eighty letters written by C.G. Jung to Aniela Jaffe over a period of twenty years give a valuable insight into their relationship. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 242

At the same time, she [Aniela] wrote a comprehensive interpretation of Honore de Balzac’s gender-diverse literary figure Seraphita, followed soon after (with Jung’s encouragement) by a book about the English physician Anna Kingsford, a woman who could not resist the “terrible reality of evil” and fell victim to it. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 244

Jaffe also had a longstanding friendship with physicist Wolfgang Pauli, documented in a large collection of letters between the two with frequent exchanges on depth-psychological and personal matters. Pauli often visited Jaffe and sometimes also asked her to do historical research or secretarial tasks for him. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 244

In the winter of 1952, Jung gave her [Aniela] the Freud letters to evaluate – a further sign that he trusted her judgment. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 246

Jung’s demanding nature and occasional flares of temper soon displayed themselves. To combat the bouts of irritable grumbling – not seldom as a result of the heavy mailbag – Jaffe learned “to turn the tables and use the weapon which never failed” getting Jung to laugh. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 247

Well aware of the privileged nature of the position of private secretary, Jaffe was unwilling to accept this new position unless Emma Jung was agreeable to her being so present in the house. Only after Jung assured her that his wife had been the one to suggest her for the role did Jaffe agree. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 247

While Jaffe years later spoke of Toni Wolff with reserved respect, she was much less restrained regarding Emma: she adored her. Emma Jung was evidently also taken by Jaffe’ sway of being and her competence. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 247

The use of the first-person narration [in Memories]  led to an assumption by a majority of readers that it was actually an” autobiography” in the usual sense – a misconception which has persisted to this day – and caused unclarity about its authorship.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 250

I have been exposed to so many misunderstandings that I am rather scared to tell the truth about my biography, as I see it. I should therefore prefer you [Jaffe] should first try to find your way through the jungle of my memories. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 251

Jung is a great storyteller by nature, continually transforming the stream of inner images into words. I refrain from interrupting him, even if he digresses – which happens often – because these detours are full of surprises. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 252

Children’s dreams can be a preview of a whole human life, setting out a basic pattern of a life. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 254

In 1954, she [Aniela] wrote an extended essay on Hermann Broch’s novel The Death of Virgil, which was published in Jung’s eightieth birthday Festschrift. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 244

Jung also provided Jaffe with other autobiographical material, including private correspondence, as well as the 1925 seminar in which he discussed his relationship and conflict with Freud. In October 1957, he additionally entrusted her with six volumes of the Black Books.  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 254

Of course Jung also talked to me about Toni Wolff. But before we began work on the book he had written to me that he did not want to have anything personal about his private relationships in it. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 257

I hereby authorize you [Aniela] to use your records of conversations with me at your discretion; I permit you to complement and complete these records with extracts and selections from autobiographical writings of my own which I do not wish to publish in my Collected Works, as they are not of a scholarly nature. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 260-261

In the same document, Jung further explicitly transferred to Jaffe not only the copyright to her records of conversations, but also to any extracts from the aforementioned autobiographical texts used as additional or complementary material. However, in view of the fact that he was contributing valuable material to the project, he requested a fifty percent share of Jaffe’ s author royalties for the published book. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 261

While Jung’s letter of authorization and transfer of copyright to Jaffe is clear and unambiguous, the wording and royalty arrangements in the publisher’s contract are unusual: Aniela Jaffe is listed as the sole author, but one who is also acting “in the name of Jung.”  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 261-262

The contract grants Jung half of Jaffe’s author fee on account of his providing significant material for use in a biographical project with a large print-run.  Jung, however, expressly does not wish to appear as the author of the said book, which at this stage is referred to as a “so-called autobiography.” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 262

Jaffe again expressly asserted that she granted Pantheon the publication rights solely for the volume she had been asked to produce, not for the records and notes used for such purpose or other source materials in toto. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 262

The extent to which he [Kurt Wolff] disrespected Jaffe’s role as author and editor and passed over her explicit requests for restraint, while continuing to be dishonest about the work being done on her material, is documented in a letter he wrote to her during this period: ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 266

She [Aniela] repeated her request that Wolff show respectful restraint, not just for her own sake, but also for the sake of Jung: “With a creative spirit like his, one may know to a certain extent where and when to start, but one has no idea – him least of all – where it will lead.” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 266

Because it had long been clear to Jaffe that this would not be a biography or even a memoir in the usual sense, she proposed to Jung a title that would reflect the project’s very particular nature: Erinnerungen, Traume, Gedanken [Memories, Dreams, Reflections]. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 266

In two subsequent ingratiating letters, Wolff extolled the personal contact and cooperation with Jaffe as the best and most wonderful gift of 1957, but failed to acknowledge the boundaries she had set and also ignored Jaffe’s “deepest wish” that he return her protocols. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 267

Jung, while clearly acknowledging that the conversations with Jaffe had prepared the ground for him to write about the beginnings of his life, described the task as an inner command: “an order from within to write up my earliest recollections.” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 269

He [Jung] withdrew for several weeks to his tower at Bollingen to write, with the proviso that what he was working on would not be published until after his death: “Such a promise seemed essential to me in order to assure for myself the necessary detachment and calm.”  ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 269

When I began working on this project, emotions ran high from the very start. A lot of people were envious and jealous of me. I also realized early on that there would be certain reservations on the part of Jung’s family about the publication of a biography. So, at that point, I would have been more than willing to stop. But Jung insisted that he wanted to continue the work with me. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 271

Jaffe had “urged him [Jung] to write as much and for as long as possible. He knows that I would be most delighted if he were to write about the whole of his life, even if there were then hardly any use for the protocols.” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 271

During her visits to Bollingen, Jung allowed Jaffe to read his handwritten text as it progressed. He was writing almost without interruption, and she described him as “absorbed, fulfilled and satisfied” by the work, but also beset by doubts about its worth. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 271

Later Jung would say that this process of looking back was connected with looking ahead to death, as in a movement of drawing back in order to get a better start before a jump: “I am trying to see the thread that has led me into my life, into the world, and will lead me out again.” ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 272

She [Jaffe] feared, however, that the project could encounter opposition from the family, as Jung’s children saw their father primarily as a private individual and not as a figure of public interest. Her fears were not entirely unfounded. However, the resistance came less from his daughters, as feared by Jaffe, but rather from his son and daughter-in-law. Jung was understandably “somewhat disturbed” by this, but continued to hold fast to the project. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 272

It was my most serious intention to describe and express as far as possible the deeper basic truth that, as far as I was able to recognize it, had presided over my life. But if such is not possible without allowing reminiscence and thus imagination to have an influence, so that one always ends up utilizing a certain poetry, then it is clear that what is assembled and highlighted are the results of how we think of the past now, rather than relating the individual details as they happened at the time.” ~Goethe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 253

True connection with other people, with the world, with the cosmos, is impossible unless we know what is going on inside ourselves. It was only my understanding of what is common to all people, the unconscious with its collective contents, the archetypal, that enabled me to relate to others. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 15

Because of this intense desire to understand the soul, as a young doctor I even wished that I could experience schizophrenia myself, or at least have a love affair with a schizophrenic woman, so that I could find out what went on in these people.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 15

I became lonely, not on account of my desire for insight, but because of what this led me to – the acquisition of insight. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, 16

True community comes through shared knowledge and insight. There is little point in finding community through shared banalities. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 16

Some special exclusive insight that can be shared with a few others is what binds people together. For primitive people, therefore, community is always linked with secrecy. Community is a kind of mystery cult.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 16

For Jung the terms “primitive” and “Negro” – which from the 18th century onward were broadly used in everyday speech as well as literary and academic language – did not have the negative connotations they have today. ~Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 16

Jung’s use of these words here and in later chapters about his experiences in Africa has Collected Works has been kept by Aniela Jaffe, just as they were kept in the original in Jung’s [Ed. note]  For Jung the terms “primitive” and “Negro” – which from the 18th century onward were broadly used in everyday speech as well as literary and academic language – did not have the negative connotations they have today. ~Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 16, fn 2

Her [Aniela] greatest regret and concern during these final years was that significant portions of what C.G. Jung had shared with her in conversation, as recorded in her notes made while preparing her biography of Jung in the late fifties, had been lying dormant ever since, unpublished and practically inaccessible.  ~Robert Hinshaw, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 2

A substantial portion of her [Aniela] compilations from these intense sessions had not found place in MDR, with its page-count limited by the publishers, among other reasons. ~Robert Hinshaw, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 2

Aniela Jaffe was repeatedly challenged by incredible adversity, particularly during the period of Nazi domination and persecution in Europe. Even while later living in Zurich, she had faced near-poverty and also prejudice from critics and occasionally some of her analyst colleagues, not to mention the intrigues that played out during the time of her collaboration with Jung and preparation of MDR.  ~Robert Hinshaw, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 5

It should be remembered that these conversations took place during the last years of Jung’s life; his wife Emma Jung and his companion of many years Toni Wolff had died not long before, and he himself was at the threshold of death.  ~Robert Hinshaw, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 7

In our conversations, Jung almost always used the word ‘God’ in accordance with the common parlance of the time, whereas in his letters and essays he emphasized that human words or ideas referring to God always express an image of God in the human soul. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 7-8

However, even in his academic writing, Jung did not completely rule out the objective validity of certain religious assertions – he thought it was not possible to say whether such religious expressions, by referring to something inherently unknowable and mysterious, related to an actual God or exclusively to human ideas of God. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 8

He [Jung] told of dreams that persuaded him to initiate the relationship, and of others after Toni Wolff’s death which seemed to indicate a postmortem development. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 8

Not much time remains for me at my present age. I wish to thank all those who have encouraged and supported me in producing this book and share my belief in the value of publishing these notes, in particular Sir Laurens van der Post of London, as well as Robert Hinshaw and Elena Fischli, publishers at Daimon Verlag, Einsiedeln, who are editing the text according to my instructions in preparation for a future publication. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 10

When they resolve to spare themselves the pain and suffering they owe to their nature. In so doing, they refuse to pay life’s dues and for this very reason, life then often leads them astray. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 13

If I have to suffer, then let it be from my reality. A neurosis is a much greater curse! In general, a neurosis is a replacement for an evasion, an unconscious desire to cheat life, to avoid something. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 13

One cannot do more than live what one really is. And we are all made up of opposites and conflicting tendencies. After much reflection, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to live what one really is and accept the difficulties that arise as a result – because avoidance is much worse. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 13

Today I can say: I have been true to myself I have done what I could to the best of my knowledge and conscience. Whether it was right or not, I cannot say. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 13

A decisive factor for me in choosing this path was the knowledge that if l did not respond fully to my life’s purpose and challenges, then they would be inherited by my children, who would have to bear the burden of my unlived life in addition to their own difficulties. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 13-14

Being “smart” and behaving reasonably are not enough to get you through life. You may well spare yourself some trouble, but you cut yourself off from your own life in the process. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 14

I have seen the fate of those who have not lived their own lives, and it is simply horrible. People who live out their destiny and fulfill it to the best of their knowledge and abilities have no reason for regret.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 14

In a way, Voltaire was right when he said one only has to regret “surtout ce que l’on na pas fait.” It is of immense importance that we as humans accept the debts incumbent on us. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 14

In old age it is not the wonderful things that we perhaps missed out on seeing or experiencing that we will regret, but rather the moments when we let life pass us by. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 14

You’d think I had no friends and no relationships. Not true!  have very individual relationships with each of my children, children-in-law and grandchildren. But the decisive encounters in my life were those with quite ordinary people – or people we do the disservice of calling “patients.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 18

The significance of these “insignificant people” is that they are human beings who gave of their essence in the encounter. It was revealed or became obvious without them wanting it to; I encountered their true selves. You only find this when people fully experience their life and events. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 18

My true encounters are so profound that it is hardly possible to speak of them. Others would not be able to understand why certain people were important to me, what they meant to me and why they were so significant. There are stones with gold hidden inside – nobody knows about it because they look like quite ordinary stones, apparently of no use to anyone. But with the right methods it is possible to extract the gold. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 18-19

Encounters were most important to me when they illuminated the hidden depths of the soul. I could also put it like this: when I can access what is in the background, I can relate to others – if not, they do not really interest me. I was and am able to find access to people where one would least expect it, to unusual and wondrous people. That was the case with Babette for example. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 19

I can be in an intense relationship with the most unlikely people, an inner relationship. I know people who interest me greatly because they are seized by these background processes or because these dynamics and influences shine through them. This enables me to relate to them. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 19

Then nothing about a person can be trivial or ugly or repulsive enough to frighten me off. I can develop the patience of a saint because I am able to sense the background. You cannot explain it if you have not experienced it yourself. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 19

In January 1958) a few months after this description of his mother’s twofold personality) C.G. Jung wrote) in “From the Earliest Experiences of My Life) “about his own twofold personality) calling the two aspects number 1 and number 2.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 20

My mother rarely spoke in this tone – but when she did, she would intuitively and unexpectedly say something of great significance. At those times she often hit exactly on an unacknowledged or unconscious feeling of mine. And sometimes what she said sounded something like an ambiguous oracle. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 21

When I was in high school, I often visited the Basel art collection. I already admired Holbein and Bocklin, even then, and I loved the old Dutch masters. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 23

Later I started my own collection of old etchings, including some pieces by Boucher and some early German color woodcuts. An etching and a woodcut by Durer are among them. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 23

In Paris I attended lectures by Janet at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, but I did not know him personally. Charcot was already dead by then. I did meet Binet in person, but nobody else apart from him. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 24

I went to the Louvre almost every day and gazed innumerable times at La Gioconda and paintings by the Italian renaissance artists. I enjoyed chatting to the copyists there and had a copy of a Frans Hals done. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 24

I also commissioned a copy of Ghirlandaio’s painting Vieillesse et Jeunesse as a birthday gift for my fiancée. It is the portrait of an old man looking at a child of around four years old. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 24-25

I had the copy of Fra Filippo Lippi’s The Adoration in the Forest done later, in Florence. The Egyptian art that I saw in the Louvre also left an indelible impression on me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 25

In Paris, two phenomena touched me deeply: one was the beautiful art and the other was la misere qui a froid) la misere noire. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 25

Paris was either wonderfully beautiful, tasteful and elegant – or it was a pit of squalor. I found it very difficult to bear. I lived on one franc a day, even though I was already a doctor. Delavigne. I would not wish to have missed this time of poverty. It taught me to appreciate the simple things. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 25-26

I also painted my own pictures at that time. Landscapes of northern France, small watercolors. And once a large picture of clouds. Also a few smaller sketches, not that many. One night I stayed up until four in the morning painting – a landscape painted from memory. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 26

Often I wandered alone around Paris and the surrounding area – Fontainebleau, Versailles, Trianon, and so on. I had to think of Napoleon.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 26

When asked which works of literature most influenced his development, G. Jung had the following recollections: Two books are among my earliest memories. The first story to leave a deep and lasting impression on me was the Grail legend. It was my favorite book as a child, I thought it was really wonderful. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 27

The Grail figures have accompanied me ever since, I found them mysteriously fascinating. However, I seldom mentioned them in my writings, as my wife had begun quite early on to write about the Grail legend. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 27

The second work of literature to affect me deeply was Goethe’s Faust. But I was fifteen or sixteen by then. It was my mother who told me: “Now you really must read Faust.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 27

When I was a student, I discovered Holderlin and got to know his poem “Patmos.” At the time I held it to be a high point of German lyric poetry.

” … But high in the light

Blossoms the silver snow,

And, witness to life everlasting

On attainless walls

The immemorial ivy grows … ” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 28

A lot of Holderlin’s other work is stylized or has a somewhat exaggerated emotionality, but for me “Patmos” is unsurpassable. And then I came across Morike’s “Orplid” – an exquisite poem! ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 28

Schopenhauer’s vision of the world, his pessimistic world view, was something I sometimes shared and other times rejected. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 29

After that I became interested in Nietzsche. Above all Zarathustra – that moved me deeply. This book brought a troubling problem for me: what happened to Nietzsche with Zarathustra? ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 29

Other works by Nietzsche moved me intellectually, but Zarathustra touched me personally. Faust and Zarathustra, in a way both are on the same level – both provided a connection to something within me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 29

I had more of a connection to Schiller with his ethical pathos. I felt a particularly genuine and positive connection with his prose writing.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 29

I loved the world of the Odyssey. Also parts of Virgil’s Aeneid and his Eclogues, especially the fourth, and some poems of Horace. Later on, Apuleius was very significant for me. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 30

The Greek dramas, meanwhile, held little attraction; even Plato did not really interest me, did not really speak to me. Of the Greek philosophers Heraclitus was my favorite. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 30

In cases of idealistic transference of a man toward me, there was the danger that he would try to extend himself beyond the limits of his own being. He would lose all sense of proportion and follow his projection enthusiastically and often blindly, functioning from then on as a kind of follower or “henchman,” with me as the “general.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 36-37

How “glorious” it was when Hitler came! Until then one always had to take care of oneself and take personal responsibility. But then along comes a man who says to everybody: “I will bear the responsibility!” And they followed the devil as far as Moscow! Are we now “the land of poets and thinkers”? ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 39

It was diabolical when Hitler said: I will bear the responsibility! That is exactly what a follower is waiting for. But it does not work – no one can take on another person’s responsibility. People who want to be or become wholly themselves must bear their own responsibility and be accountable for their own lives and actions.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 40

During that summer I found behind the wall here, at the back by the small water hole, a meter-long snake. It was draped motionless over a branch and had its head in the water. Then I noticed that it had a fish in its jaws and thought: “Good God, how can that be, there are no fish in this pool!”  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 92

And now just think: the fish, the symbol of Christian love, perishes because it is eaten by the chthonic black snake. But the snake also perishes as a result of catching the fish. Both perish at the hands of the other, because one is the complete opposite of the other. There is no link between them. That is why they both have to die.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 93

The black snake is a symbol of Mercurius, it is the philosophical animal in alchemy. As a symbol, it is often seen as something adverse, something evil. It is a dark spirit. The fish as a symbol is something that is “only good.” It is a symbol of Christ and connected to the love feast.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 93

I sat there a while longer and then I suddenly felt something on my cheek: the goat was nuzzling her head very gently against mine! Naturally, all of my melancholy vanished. f interest here is that in symbolic imagery and mythology, witches often appear as goats. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 112

Many years later in the Grisons valley of Calanca near the Pizzo delle Streghe – the witch’s summit – a man was pointed out to me. This man was said to have encountered a strega, a witch, many years before, and had not spoken a single word since.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 112

One morning recently, after some stomach trouble, I was playing patience. The sun was shining and suddenly my cards were saturated in wonderful colors. The pictures seemed to have a three-dimensional quality which I have never experienced before. Wonderful – like a mescalin experiment! ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 160

When I thought about it, I realized that Luxor is on the left bank of the Nile and not like Vevey, which is on the right shore of Lake Geneva if you follow the direction of the Rhone. On the right bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor, is the City of the Dead! After H.’s death, it seemed to me that the dream had a precognitive aspect. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 160

Epistemologically I take my stand on Kant, which means that an assertion doesn’t posit its object. So when I say ‘God’ I am speaking exclusively of assertions that don’t posit their object. All such assertions refer to the psychology of the God-image. Their validity is therefore never metaphysical but only psychological.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 176

[Kurt]Wolff now emphasized to Jung the value of the “revelations that you entrusted to Aniela Jaffe.””Nothing you have written in books or said in lectures goes so directly to the heart, to the innermost center” as these conversation records, and they could not be “more purely or lucidly expressed.” ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 273

Jung told Jaffe that the accusations would not be silenced despite many attempts to set the record straight and said he was no longer willing to go into it again. His daughter Marianne Niehus-Jung was also of the opinion that the topic should not be taken up again. On 16.5.1958, Jaffe wrote to Kurt Wolff on the subject: Jung never saw Nazism as anything other than diabolical.”  ~Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 281, fn 53

I stood in for old Jung, or at least tried to do so, after he had shown such trust in me – for him a very rare thing – by putting this manuscript in my hands.( … ) My aim was to preserve Jung’s character – which I admit is at times idiosyncratic – in the text as far as possible. Here two worlds collided and it became a power struggle. ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 285

( … ) All my warnings, my objections, my pleas ( … ) were thrown to the wind, with the result that I finally despaired, resigned, and could no longer muster up the spirit to prevent you [Kurt Wolff] taking concrete measures whose dire consequences I foresaw.” ~Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 285-286

Jaffe, claimed [Kurt] Wolff, considered Jung “a great thinker and great writer” and thus defended his every word, whereas for Wolff, Jung was a great mind, but no writer: “Jl n’est pas du metier.” He thus wanted “to take on, as the most modest of servants, the delicate task of editing” to improve “jumbled formulations” and “balance the unbalanced.” ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 286-287

 

Aniela Jaffe to Helene Wolff, 14.10.1958:

What bothers him [Jung] is the fact that I have taken his comments about a particular topic from a variety of protocols of different dates and fused them together into a complete chapter.

He is disturbed by it because in this ‘welding work’ I had to add quite some words of my own in the first person.

And also some of the things he said himself had to be rearranged to make the whole thing fit together. He says that he no longer fully recognizes

himself in it, that it contains a feminine influence. ~ Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 288, fn 80

By this time, Erich Neumann had also read several of Jaffe’s chapters as well as Jung’s autobiographical text with her editorial additions. On October 26, 1958, he visited Jung at Bollingen and expressed enthusiasm about the project in general. His feedback regarding the drafts and Jaffe’s style was very positive. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 289

During their conversation, Jung suggested that Neumann and Jaffe might jointly write a commentary to expand on what he had said about Freud. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 289

This book, she wrote to [Kurt] Wolff, was the work of Jung’s daimon. As a woman, she conceded, it was perhaps easier for her to adapt to the vagaries of this daimon, whereas Wolff’s masculine ambition and desire to take the lead meant he reacted with bitterness when his plans were thwarted and had to be subordinated. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 291-292

I have therefore encouraged A.J. to contribute as much material as possible in order that the text remains her book. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 203

According to Jung, human existence could be seen as having one eminent purpose: to recognize the existence of the world. Only when its existence is acknowledged does the world become “the phenomenal world, for without conscious reflection it would not be. If the Creator were conscious of Himself He would not need conscious creatures.” ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 294

In this view, humans, thanks to their ability to perceive the world, could become not just “second creators,” but also preservers of the Creation. ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 294

Jaffe ultimately incorporated Jung’s new contribution into the book as part I of the chapter “Late Thoughts.” She thought the text was “so brilliantly” formulated that “one ceases to breathe while reading it.” With Jung’s permission, she sent a copy of the text and of the chapter “On Life After Death” to Neumann. He too – aside from a few content-related objections – found the text deeply moving. “For me it is the most beautiful thing you have written,” he told Jung. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 294

Aniela Jaffe to Kurt Wolff, 16.1.1959, YBL. Jung was unable to overcome this “shyness” until a year and a half later, only nine months before his death. After Jolande Jacobi had read and given her reaction to the German manuscript of Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung, he answered that he was “pleased to hear that my autobiographical sketches have conveyed to you something of what my outer side has hitherto kept hidden.

It had to remain hidden because it could not have survived the brutalities of the outside world. But now I am grown so old that I can let go my grip on he world, and its raucous cries fade in the distance,” ~Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 295, fn 9

Jung considered sending the edited chapters, including the text about his childhood, youth and student years, to Cary Baynes for a second opinion. Jaffe understood this as an expression of the insecurity he still was harboring about the value of the text – he continued to doubt if it should be published – and of a lingering “shyness about exposing himself to the world.” ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 295

The chapter about Jung’s meetings with contemporaries was ultimately omitted from the book Memories) Dreams) Reflections by C. G. Jung. Jaffe later decided that some of Jung’s comments on these relationships were worthy of publication, and now these can be found in the present book. ~Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 296

Upon completing his contribution about Africa and following an ensuing period of illness, Jung returned to his inner conversations with Philemon, Salome and the snake which had also become a bird. He told Jaffe that it was his last conversation with these figures. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 303

While Helene Wolff continued to call the book an “autobiography,” Jung deliberately avoided the term in his response, which he openly showed to Jaffe, describing it as the “biography” he had never wanted to write. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 304

Thus, at the end of 1959, with Jung’s approval, she [Aniela] agreed to change the main body of the text to render her authorship and editorial role so discreet that the book could largely be read as a direct testimony of the main protagonist. Only the foreword would refer to her part and to Jung’s actual role in the book’s creation. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 305

I therefore again revised the entire manuscript, in accordance with Wolff’s wishes, to present solely Jung’s side of the conversations. That may be how the legend arose that Jung ‘dictated’ it all to me!” ~ Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 306

By repeatedly referring to the project as Jaffe’s undertaking, Jung also resolutely rejected any suggestion that he was the autobiographer. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 309

In summer 1960, during Erich Neumann’s last visit to Switzerland, Jaffe was able to show him the revised third version of the German manuscript, which would now serve as the basis for the English translation. He was greatly impressed by it, as he had been with the earlier version. ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 314

Pantheon. In this handwritten document, he spoke of the “joint creation” (in line with the wording used by the lawyer Peyer), and declared that no further delays to the publication would be tolerated: “I hereby confirm my wish that the book produced as a joint creation ‘Erinnerungen) Traume) Gedanken’ should now finally be published. I see no reason why it should be further delayed in going to press.” ~ Elena Fischli, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 314

In case of my incapacity, I entrusted her [Aniela Jaffe] with the responsibility for the final version of the whole manuscript.  ~Carl Jung, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 316

“It is incredibly important to Jung that the situation is clear to the reader. For this reason he asks you [ … ] to use my postscript as a foreword, as I will use it to orient the reader about the book’s genesis. He also asks you (I also raised this question myself as I was always, as you know, unsure about it) to keep the concluding section of his ‘From the Earliest Experiences .. .’, including his signature.

This caesura in the middle of the book is important to him as it indicates the true situation.He is skeptical about the prologue. He finds the style too feminine, the whole thing too aesthetic.” Jung was referring to a draft of a prologue written by Kurt Wolff. Aniela Jaffe to Kurt Wolff, 19.10.1958, YBL.

~ Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung, Page 288-289, fn 82

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