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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
On the eve of World War I, psychologist Carl Jung found that his relationship with longtime friend and mentor Sigmund Freud was disintegrating due to their diverging opinions on psychoanalysis and Jung's interest in spiritualism and the occult.
Deeply affected by losing Freud, Jung feared mental breakdown. Trying to avert madness, Jung decided to confront it head on by recording his sessions of "active imagination" - a kind of meditative trance state in which he induced visions. These records became his "Black Books". Jung edited and recorded the contents of the Black Books in beautiful calligraphy, adding full-color drawings throughout. This became the Red Book, never published during his lifetime except for a brief except titled "The Seven Sermons to the Dead".
This book is hard to describe, much less review. The entire thing is deeply personal. Parts of it are very frustrating. Jung contradicts himself regularly, espousing reason in one part of the book and disavowing it in another. At times he is self-loathing and at other times he is grandiose and prideful.
In his later career, Jung described the process of "individuation" - integrating different parts of the unconscious in order to become a fully actualized human being. For the most part, the Red Book describes Jung undergoing this process himself. In his visions, he encounters parts of himself, visualized as other people, and is taught a lesson by them.
This is the kind of book that sticks with you for the rest of your life. At times it was very difficult to read, but effort brings reward. Anyone interested in reading it should familiarize themselves with Jung's life and thought before beginning. His biography Memories, Dreams, Reflections and his book Man and His Symbols are essential pre-reading. Be prepared to spend a while with this book. I had to read it in short bursts, and only when truly motivated.
Deeply affected by losing Freud, Jung feared mental breakdown. Trying to avert madness, Jung decided to confront it head on by recording his sessions of "active imagination" - a kind of meditative trance state in which he induced visions. These records became his "Black Books". Jung edited and recorded the contents of the Black Books in beautiful calligraphy, adding full-color drawings throughout. This became the Red Book, never published during his lifetime except for a brief except titled "The Seven Sermons to the Dead".
This book is hard to describe, much less review. The entire thing is deeply personal. Parts of it are very frustrating. Jung contradicts himself regularly, espousing reason in one part of the book and disavowing it in another. At times he is self-loathing and at other times he is grandiose and prideful.
In his later career, Jung described the process of "individuation" - integrating different parts of the unconscious in order to become a fully actualized human being. For the most part, the Red Book describes Jung undergoing this process himself. In his visions, he encounters parts of himself, visualized as other people, and is taught a lesson by them.
This is the kind of book that sticks with you for the rest of your life. At times it was very difficult to read, but effort brings reward. Anyone interested in reading it should familiarize themselves with Jung's life and thought before beginning. His biography Memories, Dreams, Reflections and his book Man and His Symbols are essential pre-reading. Be prepared to spend a while with this book. I had to read it in short bursts, and only when truly motivated.
slow-paced
Jung was just on another level in the exploration of the unconscious and it's an remarkable journey to follow along with him through his words & artwork. As he says in the epilogue, "To the superficial observer, it will appear like madness."
“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
challenging
dark
informative
It would feel odd to provide a start rating and review to what is essentially an unpublished collection of edited journals and stray thoughts. This is a dense book, at times difficult to parse. It's worthwhile for anyone interested in the soil from which Jung's theories rose, but for most, you'll be better suited reading the more refined publications of his theories and beliefs.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Tidigare har jag tänkt att Röda Boken får förbli Jungs privata anteckningar, att jag inte behövde ta del av dem. Men nu ligger den ändå här, överst i Junghögen, som en pièce de résistance.
Den avgörande faktorn för mig var återigen besöket i hans hus i Küsnacht, där ett enormt exemplar av röda boken, kopia av originalet tror jag, ligger öppen mitt i hans konsultationsrum, på en hög pulpet i trä, nästan som ett altare.
Den avgörande faktorn för mig var återigen besöket i hans hus i Küsnacht, där ett enormt exemplar av röda boken, kopia av originalet tror jag, ligger öppen mitt i hans konsultationsrum, på en hög pulpet i trä, nästan som ett altare.
This is so gay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! best book this year so far
I read this massive book from eclipse to equinox, and in that time dove into the dead and the animal; devils and gods; the lowest muck and something sort of like salvation.
Jung's handy misogyny and Hegelian ethnocentrism distract me, but at the base of it I love this book. I love the adventures into inner worlds, I love his calligraphy and bizarre and beautiful paintings. It has altered my relationship to my dreams and my meditations, and leaves me feeling abuzz with creativity. Also: it gives me loose ends to peel at to decipher my own soul and shadow-side.
Random smatterings from the 17 pages of quotes I wrote down from this tome:
Jung's handy misogyny and Hegelian ethnocentrism distract me, but at the base of it I love this book. I love the adventures into inner worlds, I love his calligraphy and bizarre and beautiful paintings. It has altered my relationship to my dreams and my meditations, and leaves me feeling abuzz with creativity. Also: it gives me loose ends to peel at to decipher my own soul and shadow-side.
Random smatterings from the 17 pages of quotes I wrote down from this tome:
"Did you ever think of the evil in you? Oh, you spoke of it, you mentioned it, and you confessed it smilingly, as a generally human vice, or a recurring misunderstanding. But did you know what evil is, and that it stands precisely right behind your virtues, that it is also your virtues themselves, as their inevitable substance? You locked Satan in the abyss for a millennium, and when the millennium had passed, you laughed at him, since he had become a children’s fairy tale. But if the dreadful great one raises his head, the world winces."
"If ever you have the rare opportunity to speak with the devil, then do not forget to confront him in all seriousness. He is your devil after all. The devil as the adversary is your own other standpoint; he tempts you and sets a stone in your path where you least want it."
"Thoughts grow in me like a forest, populated by many different animals. But man is domineering in his thinking, and therefore he kills the pleasure of the forest and that of the wild animals."