Memories, Dreams, Reflections

This is not a normal autobiography, and of this Jung warns us at the very outset. The external facts of his long life are given scant attention, if any, and he instead recounts his physical and spiritual development, his internal journey. So forewarned, you will find this a fascinating book by a remarkable man. Only the last section, “Late Thoughts”, in which Jung describes some ideas he felt should be taken into account by any future biographers, proved too dense for me, but the problem lies at my doorstep, not Jung's.

I have to admit that I was disappointed to discover that Bollingen was just a small, stubby, vaguely tower-like house. I'd always imagined it like a great, soaring structure of stone in which Jung lived high above the earth, close to heaven and the mysteries of the universe, a holy man of science and the spirit. Well, Bollingen may have descended a little closer to the earth, but in no way has Carl Jung.