Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Carl Jung, Wounded Healer of the Soul is a new biography of the ground-breaking psychologist who introduced the world to the concepts of individuation, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. The words of Jung himself and those who shared his work and private life are intertwined and connected by Claire Dunne's lively, accessible commentary and by an evocative array of illustrations - photos of Jung, of his associates and surroundings, and engaging art images both ancient and contemporary that reflect Jung's teachings."--BOOK JACKET.

SYNOPSIS

This new biography of Carl Jung, the groundbreaking psychologist who introduced the world to the concepts of individuation, archetypes, and the collective unconscious, is less an outward chronicle of the events in his life than it is a look into the mind and heart of a 20th-century genius. Chronicling Jung's life from a childhood filled with terrifying visions to his early adulthood in which he pursued outer, material goals and, finally, to his midlife return to the realm of inner transformation, this book portrays Jung's down-to-earth, human side, with all the strengths and frailties that accompany the human condition. What emerges is a cohesive portrait of a healer whose skills arose from having first attended to the wounds in his own soul.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In today's marketplace, books on or about spiritual therapies of all kinds are getting to be as common and, to many, as irresistible as potato chips. This succinct, gorgeously illustrated portrait of Carl Jung stands out, however, as a reminder of the profundity and singularity of Jung's achievement. Irish-born, Australian transplant Dunne (People Under the Skin, etc.) captures Jung's immense personal power and intuition, attributing it (as Jung did) to his "archaic nature," his rootedness to the earth and to the primal layers of the unconscious. Deftly interweaving letters and commentary with an extraordinary array of 150 ancient and contemporary images, including three of Jung's paintings from his private journal, the unpublished "Red Book," Dunne helps readers grasp Jung's insight that the divine contains both light and dark, and that--as a 79-year-old Jung wrote--"A `complete' life does not consist in a theoretical completeness, but in the fact that one accepts, without reservation, the particular fatal tissue in which one finds oneself embedded." In her introduction, psychologist Jean Houston affirms that this great modern explorer of inner life uncovered "the mythic foundations" of our individual lives and showed how the archetypal code of myth is meant to help humans "advance along an evolutionary path that carries us nearer to the spiritual source." This clear, luminous volume shows that Jung himself evolved. By the end of his life, he was not just a psychologist nor even a visionary artist but an alchemist who understood that what is highest and what is deepest in us are inextricably tethered. 50 color and 100 b&w illustrations. Author tour. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Dunne (a multicultural educator, biographer and broadcaster) writes a sympathetic account of psychologist Carl Jung. Emphasis is placed on the role of his childhood experiences in his personality development; his spiritual, emotional, and intellectual life; his existential struggles; and his relationship with peers, family, patients, and fans. The book includes nice b&w portraits, as well as a lot of attractive religious art, accompanied by the author's somewhat New Age interpretive commentary. There are also 50 color plates including three paintings from Jung's rarely seen Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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