On Evil

More than most other intellectual giants of this century, Jung confronted
the problem of evil in his daily work as a practicing psychiatrist and in his
many published writings. He wrote a great deal about evil, even if not
systematically or especially consistently. The theme of evil is heavily larded
throughout the entire body of his works, and particularly so in the major
pieces of his later years. A constant preoccupation that would not leave him
alone, the subject of evil intrudes again and again into his writings, formal
and informal. [...]

While Jung wrote a great deal about evil, it would be deceptive to try to
make him look more systematic and consistent on this than he actually was.
His published writings, which include nineteen volumes of the *Collected
Works* [...], the three volumes of letters, the four
volumes of seminars, the autobiography *Memories, Dreams, Reflections*, and
the collection of interviews and casual writings in *C. G. Jung Speaking*, reveal
a rich complexity of reflections on the subject of evil. To straighten these
thoughts out and try to make a tight theory out of them would be not only
deceptive but foolhardy and contrary to the spirit of Jung's work as a whole.
It does seem appropriate, however, to introduce this selection of writings
from Jung's oeuvre by posing some questions whose answers will indicate at
least the main outlines of Jung's thought about the problem of evil. I hope,
too, that this approach will prepare the reader to enter more deeply into the
texts that follow and to watch Jung as he struggles with the problem of evil,
also to engage personally the issue of evil, and finally to grapple with Jung
critically. [excerpted and adaptep from the Introduction].