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Humans

Jung's Red Book: The art of psychology

By Sonu Shamdasani

28 October 2009

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Published at last: Jung’s Red Book documents his “confrontation with the unconscious”

Gallery: Soul pictures

JUST before the first world war, the 38-year-old Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung was troubled by awful dreams and visions. Analytical to the core, he embarked on what he later described as his “confrontation with the unconscious”, and documented the lot.

The material went through various drafts before Jung recopied it all, using an ornate gothic script, into the single big, red, leather journal which gives the previously “lost” Red Book its popular name. Jung went on to add historiated (enlarged) initials, ornamental borders…

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