Aniela Jaffe, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C.G. Jung
Introduction
C.G. Jung was 81 years old in 1956 when we began the series of conversations during which I made notes that would after much work become the book, Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung. 1
Our conversations took place at varying intervals over the course of more than four years.
By writing some valuable contributions of his own, Jung also added to the project that had been allocated to me.
In addition, he entrusted me to complement certain aspects based on other
documents and letters that he made available.
For various reasons, some of the notes I recorded during our talks and used as starting material for writing the book were not included in the published work.
In the meantime, more than three decades have passed.
Looking today at the unpublished notes with a renewed perspective, one views
them as precious fragments.
Many of these spontaneous remarks and comments reveal so much about the personality, development and thought-world of Jung that I concluded it would be worthwhile to make them available to interested readers.
The present book, Reflections on the Life and Dreams of C. G. Jung, has been collated from edited extracts of the notes I made at the time of our conversations.
Despite their fragmented nature, they provide valuable insights into the world of C.G. Jung’s thoughts and experiences.
Prior knowledge of Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung is not necessary, but would be helpful in terms of understanding the overall context. 2
Memories recounted more as anecdotal asides or in a chain of associations, and observations on specific topics, at times did not fit in with the flow of the previous book.
Some other reflections were deemed too intuitive, perhaps even audacious or hypothetical – for example, Jung’s reflections on life after death, reincarnation, karma, etc., as well as certain religious questions.
Their ‘unscientific’ character needs to be seen in relation to the situation in which these observations were made: they were spontaneous spoken thoughts that arose within an explicit context – sometimes related to writing and scientific papers that Jung was working on or reading at the time, or to personal encounters, letters or
book publications or new editions.
In most cases, the remarks related to inner images and current preoccupations.
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.
Jung allowed his thoughts to flow freely during our conversations, according to the situation and his interests of the moment.
When speaking with me he was not hindered by intellectual considerations of possible criticism from his contemporaries.
It didn’t concern him that his words and insights might require further thoughtful reflection before they could be deemed coherent or valid.
Perhaps he could speak so freely because he trusted my knowledge of his scientific work and my style of editing and writing. Sometimes it seemed as if he were facing in my direction and talking to himself. 3
In the time since our conversations took place, attitudes toward spontaneous thoughts like these have changed.
There is now growing interest and understanding of the embryonic and emergent stages, of associations and processes leading to a later coherent result.
Thus, certain notes have been included which are valuable for a broader understanding of Jung’s scientific works: they are thoughts in statu nascendi
– attempts to get closer to the meaning of challenging problems by circling around them.
Much of it is of a personal subjective nature.
In our conversations, Jung almost always used the word ‘God’ in accordance with
3 Jung was a great storyteller.
When I managed-which wasn’t always the case- to interest him 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.
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. 4
A final – at the time, decisive – reason for holding back a portion of these notes was their personal nature.
It seemed too early for publication of some of our conversations, in particular those relating to Jung’s colleague and companion Toni Wolff (1889-1953), with whom he was very close for many years. Since the publication of Memories, Dreams,
Reflections by C. G. Jung, much has been reported, true and false, about this relationship in books, films and the press.
Now would perhaps be the time to report what Jung himself said about their relationship in our conversations.
As was his wont, he did not refer to external events, but rather the psychological background.
He 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, Introduction, Page 6-8
