Synopsis
Carl Gustav Jung will likely be remembered as the 20th century's second most famous psychiatrist, but while many of the ideas of his more celebrated colleague Sigmund Freud have since been called into question, Jung's cerebral innovations, such as the collective unconscious and the psychology of archetypes, seem to gain relevance with time. Around 1913, Jung began to see figures and hear voices which he believed were generated within his subconscious. Unlike most people who experience similar psychotic episodes, Jung immediately understood what was happening to him and he was able to harness these "active imaginations," as he called them, and record them into a personal journal, which he compiled over a 15-year period. But this was no ordinary diary--Jung filled its pages with glorious full-color paintings and drawings, and methodically rendered his communications with his own subconscious in handsome calligraphy. For more than fifty years after his death, the Jung family not only withheld publication of this legendary journal, but zealously guarded it from the eyes of scholars, so that only a handful of people were ever fortunate enough to examine it. Finally, in 2007, Carl Jung's grandson authorized publication of THE RED BOOK, named for its red leather binding, and he initiated a two-year digital scanning process which precisely preserves the artwork and calligraphy. Filled with Jung's astonishing illustrations and illuminations of his own mental landscape, including more than 50 pages of art without text, this gorgeous, landmark publication is a visual and linguistic representation of an intense exploration of the nature of consciousness by one of the most extraordinary minds of history.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2009-10-19 | | Editor: | Sonu Shamdasani |
| Size | | Length: | 371 pages | | Height: | 15.8 in | | Width: | 12.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.8 in | | Weight: | 141.1 oz |
Publisher's Note
A complete facsimile and translation of a previously unpublished influential collection of writings created by the pioneering psychotherapist between 1914 and 1930 is comprised of his principle theories about archetypes, the collective unconscious, and the process of individuation.
Industry Reviews
"[THE RED BOOK] is 16 years of the psychoanalyst's dive into the unconscious mind, a challenge to what he considered Sigmund Freud's...isolated world view. Far from a simple narrative, THE RED BOOK is Jung's voyage of discovery into his deepest self."
(11/11/2009)
"[A] remarkable visionary text....To the modern reader, the result recalls an allegorical-mythological amalgam of Nietzsche's ALSO SPRACH ZARTHUSTRA, Blake's illuminated poems, Renaissance Neoplatonic dialogue, Eastern scripture, Dante's INFERNO, Yeats's A VISION and even the biblical book of Revelation....With a rich crimson dust jacket, thick cream-colored paper and calligraphied pages, this huge tome is the size of a lectern Bible and looks like the kind of spell book a wizard might consult."
(11/12/2009)
"The creation of one of modern history's true visionaries, THE RED BOOK is a singular work, outside of categorization. As an inquiry into what it means to be human, it transcends the history of psychoanalysis and underscores Jung's place among revolutionary thinkers like Marx, Orwell and, of course, Freud. the dedication--the love--with which it was assembled makes THE REED BOOK as beautiful and otherworldly as a medieval book of hours."
(12/06/2009)
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