The Red Book and other searchers for the soul: The case of Klages and Jung

Bishop, P. (2022) The Red Book and other searchers for the soul: The case of Klages and Jung. In: Stein, M. (ed.) Jung's Red Book For Our Time: Searching for Soul in the Twenty-First Century. Series: An Eranos symposium (Vol. 5). Chiron: Asheville, NC, pp. 235-272. ISBN 9781685031183

Abstract

On one level, the Red Book emerges from Jung’s unconscious or, indeed, the collective unconscious; on another level, it emerges within a particular historico-cultural context, and understanding its position within this context ought, I hope, to lead to a greater appreciation of what Jung achieved in the Red Book — whatever, of course, one decides that achievement may have been. So in this paper I wish to argue that, while Jung’s Red Book is clearly a very strange work, it is in some respects not that strange. If the Red Book is an expression of Jung’s search for the soul, he had some fellow searchers for it — and in the space available I shall examine one of these. My aims is thus to explore, not so much a source of Jung’s Red Book as one of its contemporary parallels — not with a view to suggesting that Jung is lacking in originality, but rather in order to suggest that Jung is, despite what his critics (and there are many of them) say, perhaps less unusual than he is often regarded as being. For what makes Jung a spokesman for modernity (or postmodernity) is precisely the radical, uncompromising nature of the Red Book, which nevertheless finds parallels elsewhere — including Ludwig Klages’s visions in Rhythmen und Runen (a work published in 1944, but containing material that dates back as far as 1889-1890).

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bishop, Professor Paul
• Authors: Bishop, P.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > German
• Publisher: Chiron
• ISBN: 9781685031183

Related URLs

• Publisher