The Red Book

First edition/Facsimile. Hardcover (Original Cloth). This book was opened more to list it on this site than in the rest of its existance. The Binding is such that the pages open as if in a new book. I purchased it in 2009 and it has been on my book shelf ever since. There is no evidence of any wear except that the dust jacket has some slight waves or creases.

"The years, of which I have spoken to you, when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. It began at that time, and the later details hardly matter anymore. My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, the scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything, was then." Carl Jung in 1957, referring to The Red Book.

Its existence was known for 80 years, but only published in 2009 in a full facsimile edition with a contextual essay and notes by Jung scholar Sonu Shamdasani and translated by Mark Kyburz, John Peck and Sonu Shamdasani.

It is now possible to study Jung's self-experimentation via primary documentation, and to experience the genesis of his later work.

This publication opens a new era in understanding Jung's work by providing a window his recovery of his soul that formed a psychology.

It may be the most influential work in the history of psychology. The Red Book reveals an extraordinary mind at work as well as the hand of a gifted artist and calligrapher. There are more than 250 illuminated pages with influences from Europe, the Middle East, Far East and native art of the new world. Its publication was a landmark.