Article archive / December 2021
Originally published: . Volume 12, No. 12. Source pages: 13.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung
Deldon McNeely, PhD Jungian Psychoanalyst Covington, La.
I was fortunate during my psychology graduate program to have psychoanalysis with a wonderful Freudian psychoanalyst; later in Zurich I had the opportunity to begin Jungian analysis. Having experienced both psychoanalytic worlds it pleases me to recommend this autobiography as a gift to anyone who can recognize the value of depth psychotherapy.
Jung read Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and resonated with its genius. The two men with their remarkable talent for tracking their inner lives began their intense association with a mutual appreciation for the unconscious. They parted in disagreement over how to conceptualize that unconscious. To see the value of both schools, a pleasant way to begin is with Jung’s end-of-life autobiography. True to its title, the book omits much external drama, and instead shows Jung persistently, honestly, following his curiosity into memories, incredible dreams, and reflections. While Jung can be windy and rambling, his devotion to disclosure can also be folksy and intimate as he reveals a refusal to censor or judge the inner life, even when its contents seem unreasonable or unpopular. Jung was occupied with what he considered to be the myth of western civilization, Christianity, that he found amplified by symbols intuited by medieval alchemists. The end of his life brought disappointment at his imagined failure to communicate his hypotheses about such subjects. Still, he opened avenues into myth and transformation that we who are dedicated to exploring psyche’s meaning for our world – continue to explore.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.