Jungiana: A Meeting with Jung Author(s): Arnold R.

Lewis Source: The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1 (May 2001), pp. 69-72 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of The C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jung.1.2001.20.1.69 . Accessed: 07/01/2014 20:12
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Jungiana
A Meeting with

Jung.

By Arnold R. Lewis
On April 5, 1956, I picked up the phonc in my Zurich, Switzcrland, hotel r00111 and called the office/honlc of the renowned psychiatrist Carl G. Jung in suburban Kusnacht. This ,vas an exceedingly bold step on n1Y part, and I'll confess having had serious doubts about the odds for success in 111)' Inission. I was in the middle of touring Europe, the Holy Land and Egypt, enroute frolll Brazil to the U.S., and thought it Inight be worth the ga111blc to see whether Dr. Tung would let Inc interview hinl. In Brazil, I had rccently cOlnpleted five years as an educational missionary, having taught philosophy, English and religion, and been the chaplain at a Methodist collcge in Pass a Fundo, Rio Grande do SuI. Dr. Tung's secretary answered the phone, and \vhen I told her ,,,,ho I ,vas and what I wanted, she said, "I shall ask him." I waited for what was probably two minutes, though it seelned like two years. Upon returning, she announced, "Yes, Dr. Jung will see yOll at his oHlce tOlnorrow morning at ten." Those words became some of the happiest ones I've ever heard, and you need not wonder about my showing lip at ten o'clock. But earlier, at the book store downtown by the train station, I purchased one of his books, Ps)'chologie und Reli...lJion, in the hope that he would autograph it. Arriving at the entrance of his house, I noticed the Latin motto posted there in the form of a plaque for which he was b111011S. It read: (eVocatus atque non pocatus Deus aderit. )) Invited or not invited, God will be present. '['his aphorism today may be found on the shelves of my Jung library in Iny Cali-

The Sail Francisco lung Illstitute Library jOllmal, Vol. 20, No.1, 2001

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fornia h0l11C. It is alongside a picture of Dr. Jung thc way I fondly renleillber hilll. Upon being ushered into his oUlce, I 111Ct a dignitled, yet snliling and genial gentlenlan who i111nlediatcly put 111C at easc, which I needed. 50011 began my first question: "Dr. Jung, \vhy am I hcre, that is, you are a \vodd tIgure whereas rill a very ordinary person; how conle you lct mc in?" His reply came quickly: "Because you are a missionary, and I never before have met a missionary." I asked Dr. Jung if he ,,,,auld autograph his book. He very ,villingl)' did so, inscribing it to 111e with the date. I wanted this in order to prove forever to any doubters that this 111eeting had taken place. This book reposes in a bank safe deposit box. My host inquired why I had bought it in Gernlan and not English. I assured him that it was in order to have it exactly in the fornl he had written it, and not to need to rely upon S0111eone else's translation or interpretation. This apparently satistled him. We conversed in English, the sinlple reason being that his comnland of English was far superior to my German. As \ve continued, I reported that fronl reading l11any of his works I knew that he was a man of religious faith. So I asked him to assunle with 111e that there is another life beyond this one. I thcn posed this question to him: "If you were given a choice initially, to talk. with anyone from all history, with whom would you prcfer to spend, let's say, thc tIrst thousand years, tinlC not being a factor of any kind?" He paused a l1l0ment before responding, "I'd probably select the old Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle." Thcn he added, "I would have several questions also tt)f Immanuel Kant. "'VVe both knew that Kant ,;vas and is acclaimed by l11any thinkers as the outstanding philosopher of the past 200 years. At this point, Dr. Jung intcrruptcd hinlsdf by admitting, "1'111 sorry. I should have said that, before looking up any of them, I'd first want to see my dear wife again and talk a lot with her!" At this precise 1110nlent I telt that my primary objective had been accomplished. vVhy? Because that question which I had posed is a searching one, and Jung's response told me some things about hilll that I could not have hoped to learn in any other way. It gave nle an insight as to his own real self, and provided a wealth of infor111ation as to his decpest intcr-

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Arnold R. Lewis rcc.llls

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Jung to

ests, priontles, and even system of values. I discovered Dr. be a warnl hunlan being with adlnirable emotions, and nl0re than simply a philosopher, historian, or world fanl0us psychiatrist. At one point he inquired about Iny work in Brazil. This occupied only a few minutes of our hour because I was deternlined to learn about him and not squander the precious time talking about Arnold Lewis! One of the high points in our entire dialogue ,vas the moment when he shared his definition of religion. I cannot say what led up to it, but he stated it very simply and succinctly in only seven words: "Religion is following the hints froin God." I did not recall having read that, as such, in his writings, though it itself is hinted at in various places. Regardless, I have used his conlment countless times through the years and have found it helpful. Finally, we spent several minutes on his evaluation of drean1s, for I've always been fascinated by thein and kne"v from his books that he had dealt extensively with that subject. So I asked, "Just how important to you are dreams?" He responded that dreams can be very indicative of our subconscious wishes, fears, probleIlls and the like. However, we must avoid attaching too much signifIcance to thenl. These were his very approximate words, even though he had made wide use of dreams in order to facilitate understanding hiinself and his patients. Dr. Jung reconlnlended caution for two primary reasons: (1) Ainong all phenonlena in the realnl of the psychic, dreanls are probably the least rational, and (2) we simply do not possess enough adequate tools to be truly scientific in our attenlpts at interpretations. Still, he was quick to add that we "should not discount them out of hand, but rather, relate them to other factors \vhich are conscious and enlployed by us daily in our counseling." So this is nlY unvarnished account of what occurred between 10 and 11 o'clock that morning. It's an unretouched photograph of a distinguished scholar, and the thoughts we exchanged are presented as they caIne up, without enlbellishnlent. There was no mention of Freud, Adler, nor how Jung hinlself canle to "coin" or popularize the terIllS introvert, extravert, the collective unconscious, complexes as applied to psychiatry, word association tests, etc. A more in-depth session \\fill have to wait. Looking far ahead into the Beyond, I shall

A Meeting with Jung

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not ask for 1,000 years to talk with him again. Rather, I'd settle for 1,000 hours, instead of the one he granted Ine in Zurich. Being a 111issionary is extremely re\varding in itself, but it became an unforeseen and precious perk when it allowed me to lneet an eminent person nlainly because he'd never before encountered anyone else from n1Y profession. I could have remained longer with him, and would have enjoyed doing so, but did not wish to take advantage of his wonderful hospitality. He in1pressed 111e deeply as one of the most personable and gracious individuals I've ever had the honor of meeting anywhere. Dr. Jung lived exactly five years and two months after our intervie\\" of April 6, 1956. He died at the age of nearly 86, still "convinced that exploration of the psyche is the science of the future." (Violet Staub de Laszlo, cd. The Basic Writings DIG. G. fung. New York, Modern Library, 1993, page 453ff)

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Arnold R. Lewis recalls A Meeting with lung

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