Aniela Jaffé

Aniela Jaffe was given permission to quote from Jung's highly personal 'Red Book', and she does so in her essay on Jung's creative phases. Shortly before her death, the author also updated and expanded her long-famous article addressing the National Socialism accusations levelled against Jung. Sir Laurens van der Post provides a sharp echo in his Epilogue, written especially for this edition.

C G Jung, the father of analytical psychology, explored the realms of thought and intuition. He devoted many years to an in-depth study of alchemy and closely observed the range of the occult; he was interested in anthropology and in nuclear physics. He liked to consider himself a scientist.

The complete interviews that served as the basis for Jung’s bestselling memoir Memories, Dreams, ReflectionsFeatures a significant amount of material withheld from the original bookNewly translated and thoroughly annotated by world-renowned Jung expert Sonu ShamdasaniIn 1957, at the age of eighty-one, C. G. Jung began a collaboration with his student and secretary Aniela Jaffé and the legendary publisher Kurt Wolff on a book about his life. Memories, Dreams, Reflections would become a bestseller, yet it draws from less than half of Jaffé’s original interviews with Jung. Much of the material from these candid, wide-ranging conversations was left on the cutting-room floor. Jung’s Life and Work presents these interviews in their entirety for the first time. Marking the 150th anniversary of Jung’s birth, this new English translation captures the cadence and subtlety of the brilliant psychologist in his own words, giving voice to a thinker and teacher who is by turns witty and intellectually daring but also vulnerable and humbled by the world’s great mysteries. It restores numerous passages that were originally omitted or heavily edited and toned down for publication, “auntified” as Jung himself put it. Taken together, these talks reveal Jung actively discovering meaningful new connections in his life’s work. He shares his impressions of notable figures he encountered throughout his life—such as Sigmund Freud, William James, Albert Einstein, and H. G. Wells—and describes his striking visions, religious and paranormal experiences, and pioneering self-experimentation. Aided by Jaffé’s skillful questioning, Jung reflects on subjects ranging from Christianity and Buddhism and the fate of the West to the experiences that led to the formulation of his signature concepts of the collective unconscious, archetypes, anima and animus, and the shadow as well as on karma, the afterlife, and much more. With an introduction and extensive annotations by acclaimed Jung scholar Sonu Shamdasani that provide invaluable historical perspective, Jung’s Life and Work includes previously unpublished extracts from Jung’s letters and a completely reorganized text.

Aniela Jaff presents thoughts and ruminations that Jung shared with her as they prepared Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung. These never-before-published revelations present a kaleidoscope of episodic, philosophical, humorous and enigmatic material, uniquely complementing and expanding on the widely acclaimed MDR. "Jung allowed his thoughts to flow freely during our conversations, according to the situation and his interests of the moment. When speaking with me he was not hindered by intellectual considerations of possible criticism. It didn't concern him that his words and insights might require further thoughtful reflection before they could be deemed coherent or valid. If I managed to touch upon a point of interest, Jung did not just answer my question, but followed his train of thought further." - Aniela Jaff , from the Introduction The historical commentary by Elena Fischli illuminates the biographical work with C. G. Jung on the basis of source material. How did the conversations and the notes of Aniela Jaff come about? What was the nature of the relationship and collaboration between her and Jung? How did others deal with their work? And finally, who was this woman who was so candidly given such a glimpse into Jung's inner life?

A collection of death dreams and ghost stories were gathered and presented to C G Jung and the author, who approaches this fascinating material from the depths of her analytic experience.

Aniela Jaffe explores the subjective world of inner experience. In so doing, she follows the path of the pioneering Swiss psychologist C G Jung, whose collaborator and friend she was through the final decades of his life. Jaffe shows that any search of meaning ultimately leads to the inner 'mythical' realm and must be understood as a limited subjective attempt to answer the unanswerable. Any conclusion drawn from such a quest is one's very own -- its formulation is one's own myth.