![]() Of note is the fact that the impulse to conduct this experiment comes at a time when his own reputation is secure as a prominent scientist, a rising star with no small amount of credibility in his field. The very beginning of “Liber Primus,” however, is a treatise on Jung’s ambivalence about this journey and its need in particular, his terror of exposing himself as “different” or “outside” the mainstream of contemporary thought. But to reach it, Jung must first walk a certain, dangerous path between sanity and madness. It is this striving for an original mind that makes one a good artist, but also a praiseworthy scientist, a gifted thinker, even a revolutionary. And he attempts to transcend the parts of the mind that adhere to conformist beliefs, and to learn that which was previously unknown. Jung himself embodies this split as seeker, artist, philosopher, thinker, scientist, even seer. This attempt to break through the confines of rational (and irrational) conditioned thought-through words, images, dreams and trance-states-puts The Red Book on the curious cusp between psychological text, dream diary, journal, theological text, philosophy and artistic expression. His visions unfold a number of heresies which help him to better comprehend his own beliefs he’s compelled to see past what the “spirit of the time” has labeled evil. He also fears being seen as an outcast-or worse, a fool or a madman. Therefore, when Jung does battle with his belief system, he fears for his soul. Illustration on page 53 of Carl Jung’s Red Book, via The Art Blog Those elements, steeped in conformity, fear, and a particular historical moment, include a strong need to feel a part of the social group, and society at large. He calls his ultimate goal individuation a psychiatric term for what others might have referred to as “enlightenment,” “self-realization,” “attainment,” or any number of words used to try and capture a state of mind that operates independently of the confines of social, and perhaps biological, inherited elements of consciousness. To tackle Christianity is, for him, to tackle the backbone of his cultural beliefs, and those shared by the majority who make up his peers and neighbors. The lens of Christianity also provides a focal point for much of Jung’s ambivalence around his own potential status as Outsider. He uses Christianity both to understand and to destroy fears of his own heresy, and these themes appear throughout the course of the book. His conflict with the dominant religion of European culture surfaces from the outset. In doing so, he inevitably takes up the battle both for and against Christianity as it exists in his time. In “Liber Novus,” Jung takes it upon himself to split himself into sage and pupil and rip apart his own limiting preconceptions and social conditioning through the power of induced trance and nighttime dreams. One of the more interesting aspects of this deconstruction is that Jung purports to do it to himself, as a deliberate act of will much in the way a yogi would treat a student in an Indian ashram, or as seekers in various traditions have done for millennia through spiritual teachers, elders, priests, drugs, dreamwalks, pilgrimages and fasting. The battle mostly occurs against the trappings of what Jung calls “the spirit of the time” in which his mind lives. The beginnings of this process for Jung, and all of its requisite fear, ranting and expounding, both for and against the project, are documented in detail in “Liber Primus”. The spirit of the depth demands this.”Įach section of The Red Book-the paintings, calligraphy, “Liber Segundus,” “Scrutinies,” and the Introduction itself, which is extremely well-written and provides an outstanding summary of Jung’s works and theories in a historical context-is a work in its own right, and deserves separate treatment.īased on my own reflections, “Liber Primus,” and really The Red Book as a whole, is the deconstruction of a mind. ![]() Jung admonishes the reader as such, for, as he sees it, “One should not turn people into sheep, but sheep into people. –Carl JungĪfter reading the first part of The Red Book, by Carl Jung, I have come to the conclusion that it can only be read by completely embracing one’s subjective experience of it. A sad demise in dignity is better than an undignified healing. But do not run after men, so that you do not soil the dignity of humanity–it is a rare good. Speak and write for those who want to listen and read. Detail of an illustration of a solar barge on page 55 of Carl Jung’s Red Book, via NPR
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