Jung: 'Man and his Symbols'

  If you are tired of mythology, don’t despair. This is just a note about the book itself: It’s another example of the kind of book I wish my friends would write.

John Freeman, a journalist, interviewed Carl G. Jung for the BBC in 1959. Freeman urged Jung to write a book for laymen about his thought and work. Jung patiently listened and firmly said no.

But Jung had a dream. Instead of consulting with other psychiatrists, scholars and specialists as he did in life, the Jung of this dream was talking to ordinary people — and they understood him.

The byline says the book was “conceived and edited” by Jung. Jung wrote the introductory essay of about 85 pages. But he also wanted to include essays by colleagues who had developed and expanded his work.

Freeman said Jung worked on the book the last year of his life.

I have known people who spent a lot of time planning their funeral and burial. I wish that people would spend a little time writing about their own thought, the ideas that sometime took possession of a life.

I’d like a book, but an essay would be even better.

• Source: Carl G. Jung, Man and his Symbols; New York: Anchor Press, 1988. John Freeman tells the story of how the book came to be in the Forward.