Aniela Jaffé

Aniela Jeffé, collaborator and friend of pioneering Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung, explores the subjective world of inner experience, following Jung's path. Jaffé 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.

The Swiss psychologist shares the visions, inner experiences, and dreams that have shaped his work and thought. In the spring of 1957 when he was 81 years old, Jung undertook the telling of his life story. At regular intervals he had conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé, and collaborated with her in the preparation of the text based on these talks. On occasion he was moved to write entire chapters of the book in his own handwriting,...

Beginning with Jung's earliest correspondence to associates of the psychoanalytic period and ending shortly before his death, the 935 letters selected for these two volumes offer a running commentary on his creativity. The recipients of the letters include Mircea Eliade, Sigmund Freud, Esther Harding, James Joyce, Karl Kernyi, Erich Neumann, Maud Oakes, Herbert Read, Upton Sinclair, and Father Victor White.