Book : The Red Book (philemon) - C. G. Jung

-Titulo Original : The Red Book (philemon)

-Fabricante :

W. W. Norton & Company

-Descripcion Original:

The most influential unpublished work in the history of psychology. When Carl Jung embarked on an extended self-exploration he called his “confrontation with the unconscious,” the heart of it was The Red Book, a large, illuminated volume he created between 1914 and 1930. Here he developed his principle theories-of the archetypes, the collective unconscious, and the process of individuation-that transformed psychotherapy from a practice concerned with treatment of the sick into a means for higher development of the personality. While Jung considered The Red Book to be his most important work, only a handful of people have ever seen it. Now, in a complete facsimile and translation, it is available to scholars and the general public. It is an astonishing example of calligraphy and art on a par with The Book of Kells and the illuminated manuscripts of William Blake. This publication of The Red Book is a watershed that will cast new light on the making of modern psychology. 212 color illustrations. Review This is a volume that will be treasured by the confirmed Jungian or by admirers of beautifully made books or by those with a taste for philosophical allegory. Michael Dirda, Washington Post About the Author Sonu Shamdasani, a preeminent Jung historian, is Reader in Jung History at Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. He lives in London, England. From The Washington Post From The Washington Posts Book World/washingtonpost Reviewed by by Michael Dirda Starting in 1912, Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), a specialist in the treatment of schizophrenia, began to experience strange dreams and frightening visions. Once when returning home on a train, the 38-year-old Swiss psychologist hallucinated that everywhere he looked he could see nothing but rivers of blood. In one enigmatic dream a bird-girl hauntingly announced, Only in the first hour of the night can I become human, while the male dove is busy with the twelve dead; in another he encountered a wise old man, with wings, holding four keys. After a while, Jung began to carry on conversations with the winged Philemon during his daytime walks. Was he going mad? After World War I broke out in 1914, Jung decided with relief that his disturbed imagination had actually been sensing the coming conflict. He also concluded that he had entered what we would now call a midlife crisis, a period in which he was being compelled to reexamine his life and explore his deepest self. To do this, he recorded some of his dreams and visions in what were later called his Black Books (which have been available for some while). But he also began a remarkable visionary text, illustrated with his own bizarre paintings: The Red Book or Liber Novus. This he composed during a state of active imagination -- that is, of reverie or waking dream. As he said, he wanted to see what would happen when he switched off consciousness. To the modern reader, the result recalls an allegorical-mythological amalgam of Nietzsches Also Sprach Zarathustra, Blakes illuminated poems, Renaissance Neoplatonic dialogue, Eastern scripture, Dantes Inferno, Yeatss A Vision and even the biblical book of Revelation. Jungs pictures sometimes resemble simplified versions of Georgia OKeeffes flower paintings and sometimes the symbol-laden images in treatises about alchemy (a subject that Jung was soon to study intently). Throughout, one finds illuminated capitals, interlaced roundels that call to mind stained-glass windows, stars, half moons, swords, crosses, dying animals. Jung also drew circular patterns that he later recognized as versions of the mystical shape called the mandala. The Red Book was never published during the psychologists lifetime, though a few friends and disciples were allowed to examine it. Apparently Jung felt it was not only too personal and quirky for publication, but also tha