The Red Book

An expert in the treatment of schizophrenia, iconic psychiatrist Carl Jung began to himself experience powerful visions of catastrophe and troubling, recurrent dreams in his late thirties. As a scientist, Jung chose to record and analyze these experiences - first, in volumes known as “Black Books” and, later, in “The Red Book”, also called “Liber Novus”. Jung claims to have produced The Red Book using his technique of Active Imagination - a meditative method by which one allows the content of one’s unconscious to unfold freely while maintaining a conscious point of view. In this way, the unconscious and conscious elements of the psyche are communicating, without one bearing influence on the other.

The Red Book could be considered as much a deeply personal journal as a seminal text from which many of Jung’s subsequent theories and publications were born. Although he began writing and illustrating this volume in 1914, it was not until 2009 that it was seen by anyone other than family and close friends. I was surprised to find imagery so moving and vivid that it could easily pass as the work of a trained artist. The mandala, a central theme in The Red Book, is depicted alongside the sun and stars, half moons, swords, crosses and mythical creatures. When researching the definition of mandala, I came across one which seems perfectly fitting to describe this work:

man·da·la (m n d -l ). n. 1. Any of various ritualistic geometric designs symbolic of the universe, used in Hinduism and Buddhism as an aid to meditation. 2. Such a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer’s search for completeness.

Thanks to our Guest Editor and Blogger Simone Brochard for this post!