Sunday, September 20, 2009

Closer to the Golden Dawn


“Will I understand it?” he said. “Probably not. Will it disappoint? Probably. Will it inspire? How could it not?” He paused a moment, seeming to think it through. “I want to be transformed by it,” he said finally. “That’s all there is.”
-Jungian Scholar, Stephen Martin.

W.W. Norton is planning to finally publish Carl Jung's personal account of the delusions he... basically explored during a psychic breakdown he suffered in 1913. Jung considered the book, which has never been published and very few people have even seen, to be the urtext to his entire life's work. Admittedly, Jung's prose can be a bit foggy, and Jungians can be insufferable; but his work is a lot more valuable than is generally recognized, I think. From the sound of it, this book will either be the psychoanalytic equivalent of Dante's Inferno or a bewildering puzzle, or both; probably both. If anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas...

No comments: