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Les Livres noirs 1913-1932. Carnets de Transformation

05
Les Livres noirs 1913-1932. Carnets de
Transformation
Nov

 Par Stephen Farah (https://appliedjung.com/author/lebman/)  Non classé (https://appliedjung.com/category/uncategorized/)

 0 commentaire (https://appliedjung.com/the-black-books-1913-1932-notebooks-of-transformation/#respond)

Un résumé et un examen par Shane Eynon, PhD

Auteur : Carl Gustav Jung

Titre original : The Black Books 1913-1932. Carnets de Transformation

Traducteur : Martin Liebscher, John Peck, Sonu Shamdasani

Éditeur : Philemon Foundation et WW Norton & Co.

Date de parution : 2020

Pages 1648

ISBN 9780393088649


Les Black Books (Jung, 2020) ont été promus principalement comme source du Red Book (Jung, 2009) dans le matériel utilisé par
l'éditeur (Philemon Foundation, 2020). 

Le texte du Livre rouge s'inspire du matériel des Livres noirs entre 1913 et 1916. Environ cinquante pour cent du texte du Livre
rouge dérive directement des Livres noirs, avec une édition et un remaniement très légers. Les Black Books ne sont pas des
journaux intimes mais les enregistrements de l'auto-expérimentation unique que Jung a appelée sa «confrontation avec
l'inconscient». Il n'a pas enregistré les événements quotidiens ou les événements extérieurs, mais ses imaginations actives et
les représentations de ses états mentaux ainsi que ses réflexions sur ceux-ci. Le matériel que Jung n'a pas inclus dans The Red
Book est d'un intérêt égal au matériel qu'il a inclus. Les Livres noirs mettent en lumière la « confrontation avec l'inconscient » de
Jung, dont ils sont la principale documentation, ainsi que la genèse du Livre rouge, l'élaboration plus poussée de la cosmologie
personnelle de Jung et la création de la psychologie analytique.

(Fondation Philémon, 2020)

Cependant, comme nous pouvons le voir dans le résumé ci-dessus, les Black Books de Jung sont un peu plus que de simples sources.
Ce sont les expériences réelles et en temps réel de la tentative de Jung de documenter son propre inconscient. Ces cahiers sont un
matériau brut pour le lecteur. Le sujet est brut et pur par rapport au Livre rouge. Dans ces cahiers, aucun des pièges ésotériques et
élaborés du Livre rouge ne peut mystifier et confondre le lecteur sans connaître le système autoréférentiel de cosmologie personnelle
de Jung et toutes leurs associations profondément personnelles. Avec les Black Books, nous scrutons le cœur de Jung sans mystère et
voyons un homme confus et déconcerté par un paysage étrange et inconnu de son monde intérieur. On retrouve ici, peut-être pour la
première fois, CG Jung sans surveillance et sans masque.

ARRIÈRE-PLAN

Le 12 novembre 1913, CG Jung a commencé à documenter son récit contemporain de ses luttes sérieuses avec son inconscient. Le
contexte de cette période de la vie de Jung est un facteur essentiel pour comprendre ce qu'il écrit dans ces journaux. Sigmund Freud
avait précédemment détrôné CG Jung en tant que «prince héritier» de la psychanalyse pour avoir publié un livre qui s'écartait des
principes fondamentaux de la théorie psychanalytique (c'est-à-dire, Symbols of transformation. Jung, C., Collected Works of CG Jung,
Vol. 5. 2e année, Princeton University Press, 1967). Ce travail, associé à la complicité compliquée de Jung avec sa patiente,
collaboratrice non reconnue et étudiante, Sabina Spiellrein (voir Sabina Spielrein: The Woman and the Myth Hardcover - 1er août
2017, par Angela M. Sells), a cimenté la rupture complète entre Jung , Freud et le mouvement psychanalytique plus large.
 Jung apparaît dans The Black Books comme un homme, un homme remarquable, oui, mais un homme aux prises avec son plus grand
problème de patient, lui-même . C'est Jung qui parle clairement et exprime sa lutte dans un format qui le rend complètement
relatable. Ce n'est pas un Merlin mystique, mais un homme et un scientifique travaillant avec une équipe pour utiliser sa souffrance
comme une expérience qui deviendra plus tard la psychologie analytique. Au cours de cette expérience, détaillée comme le fait tout
scientifique dans sa documentation d'expériences, il nous reste les Livres Noirs. Ces expériences allaient former à la fois la propre
branche de psychothérapie de Jung, mais aussi être utilisées comme pierres brutes non ciselées utilisées plus tard pour jeter les
bases de sa cathédrale personnelle dédiée à son voyage intérieur, The Red Book .. Tout comme le château de Bollingen était une
expression extérieure de ses découvertes psychologiques personnelles, le Livre rouge a servi de témoignage de son propre voyage
intérieur et de ce qu'il a découvert en lui-même.

La question à laquelle nous sommes confrontés au cours de cette étude de huit mois sur les Black Books est de savoir comment ces
rencontres avec l'inconscient de Jung sont devenues le fondement de la psychologie analytique de Jung. Comment Jung a-t-il utilisé
cette expérience primaire pour façonner un domaine de la psychothérapie et toute une école de psychologie qui se tient si loin des
autres écoles ? La transformation et la contextualisation de ces expériences est le pivot de ce que Jung ferait du reste de sa vie. Il n'y a
littéralement pas plus loin pour comprendre Jung. C'est la base et nous ne pouvons pas aller plus loin. Avec Memories, Dreams,
Reflections (1963), The Red Book (2003) et the Black Books (2020) nous avons maintenant toutes les clés nécessaires pour percer le
mystère qu'est CG Jung. Et ce que nous trouvons lorsque nous tournons les clés et ouvrons le mystère, c'est un homme dont nous
pouvons suivre les pas, si nous osons.

Le travail de transformation

Les Black Books sont séparés en une série de 7 livres distincts qui correspondent à peu près aux journaux expérientiels réels que
Jung a conservés et qui capturent ses expériences de l'inconscient en temps réel. Jung nous dit dans de nombreuses sources qu'il
avait développé une technique appelée "Active Imagination" qui lui permettait d'accéder à l'inconscient tout en étant éveillé et
conscient. Il ne s'agit pas exactement de «rêve lucide», mais plutôt d'une technique où le matériel du rêve ou d'autres stimuli est
utilisé comme point d'ancrage pendant qu'un individu s'autorise à sombrer dans un état de relaxation et de fantasme hypnagogique.
L'ego et l'inconscient sont capables de se rencontrer et de construire un fantasme qui implique généralement une intrigue, des
conversations et un récit.

Puisque l'individu est conscient, ces fantasmes peuvent être écrits et mémorisés. Ce n'est pas un processus si complexe que cela, car
c'est ce que des écrivains tels que Stephen King ou JRR Tolkien ont décrit comme leur propre processus d'écriture de fiction. Dans le
cas de Jung, il se concentre sur une conversation imaginaire avec sa propre âme et d'autres personnages personnifiés dans son
 inconscient (c'est-à-dire dans ses rêves). Le secret du processus est de ne pas modifier ou de laisser l'embarras s'infiltrer pour
défendre et bloquer le fantasme qui se déroule. L'ego, typiquement, n'apprécie pas cette activité parce qu'il perd le contrôle, devient
un peu moins défendu, et un bon morceau de matériel effrayant ou inconfortable peut entrer.

What is most intriguing to contemplate is how exactly Jung takes this material that comes from his unconscious and begins the
deliberative and rational process of formulating a map of the dynamics of the psyche from this experience. The Black Books give us a
great deal of insight into how Jung started to formulate this process in a methodical and deliberate method that obviously came later.
The early characters that present themselves to Jung are actually surprising and ordinary in some regards. For example, early on his
‘soul’, for whom he calls out to meet, turns out to be a little girl. What Jung discovers, using his scientific and scholarly training, is a
developmental process at play in the actual manifestations of these unconscious personalities as he interacts with them. And this
may be his greatest insight in terms of a psychotherapeutic (soul-healing) endeavor; by interacting with the contents of the
unconscious, they change and shape-shift developmentally along with the attitudes of the ego. And from this dynamic process, a
collaborative and symbiotic relationship develops between the ego and unconscious. This is the great “mystery” that Jung would later
find had parallels in Alchemy and other ancient traditions. From the raw material that is documented in the Black Books, we can easily
see for the first time, Jung deliberately sought out parallel, analogous, and dynamic processes in historical, mythological, and
anthropological research available to him in his era. This in turn, fuels his prolific writings of the Collected Works and the Red Book.
Moreover, he applied these insights to the clinic and the patient’s he treated.

However, it must be stressed, that Jung was never alone in this research, nor in his confrontation with his soul. No, he was being
emotionally and intellectually supported day and night by Toni Wolf and Emma Jung throughout the entire ordeal. For it was an ordeal
for Jung. He describes it as tortuous and believed at certain times he was going insane (psychotic). So vivid and persistent these
characters became for Jung terrified him and broke through into his daily wakeful conscious work. It is fairly obvious that Jung was, at
this point in his life, acutely stressed, depressed, and having panic attacks. In other words, Jung was psychologically at his most fragile
while writing the Black Books. He cannot be said to be psychotic per se, because he is able, with Emma and Toni’s help, to maintain a
foothold in the waking world and not be swallowed whole by the unconscious. In this, what led to his fall and ‘crack-up’ became his
greatest strength and shield. In other words, Jung’s intellect and his eros (i.e, the love of the women in his life) saved him from
madness.

SUMMARY

For now, with the publication of the Black Books, we finally have all of the keys to unlock Jung’s work and fully understand the mystery
of his insights. And what a mystery it has been for almost a century. From the moment Jung started to have inklings that the
unconscious was far more than sexual and aggressive impulses and drives, as stressed by Freud, a small seed of an idea bore forth a
great tree which would eventually bear for us fruit. From this fruit an orchard was planted in the world. It is a small and mysterious
 orchard that few in the field of psychology decide to enter into and partake. We can see these first seedlings growing in his love affair
with Sabina Speilrein and their shared fantasy of the Seigfried myth bringing forth a child that melded the ancient Jewish traditions
with the Germanic myths. This is indeed the first seed for it was gotten from misdirected, but nonetheless pure eros. From their
collaboration was born the ideas of phylogenetic Archetypes residing in the Psyche as a blood memory. This irrational fantasy
between them for a ‘child’ was the equivalent of a psychological birth that foreshadowed Jung’s rebellion, breakdown, and
transformation. Dr. Speilrien’s mistreatment at the hands of Jung and her discovery of the death drive would likewise foreshadow her
own doom and ostracization at the hand of ‘Aryan’ men in a few decades that followed her time in Switzerland and Austria.

Next, we have Jung’s rebellion, with his book and lectures on the Symbols of Transformation (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.5). We
may never know for certain if this project was wholly consciously undertaken with the intention of invoking Freud’s rage and rejection,
but nonetheless, the work laid down the gauntlet to intellectually (and emotionally) challenge Freud’s dominion over Psychoanalysis.
There are many perspectives to take from this episode, but as a middle-aged man myself, I see it through the lens of Jung’s need for
self-destruction and unnecessarily aggressive attitude. The content of Symbols of Transformation is also noteworthy because it
concerns the fantasies (active imaginations) of a Miss Miller. Jung’s psychoanalytic interpretation of these fantasies have direct
bearing on the Black Book and how they develop Jung’s own later ‘confrontation with his soul’.

The concept of ontogenetic recapitulation of phylogenetic psychology is explained by showing the relation between man’s
unconscious, or nondirected thought, and mythology or legend. Two types of human thought are described: a directed thinking,
of which the highest form is science and which is based on speech’ and a nonverbal, undirected, associative thinking, commonly
called dreaming. These two modes of thought deal with two activities of man: adapting to outer reality, and reflecting on
subjective concerns. Undirected thought is seen as characteristic of ancient cultures, of primitive man, and of children. The
parallels that are drawn between the mythological thinking of the ancients and that of children and primitives, or that found in
dreams, lead to the supposition that there is a correspondence between ontogenesis or individual development, and
phylogenesis, or the racial development of man’ in psychology. An examination of certain fairy tales and myths illustrates the
concept that what is in modern man an unexpressed fantasy was once an accepted custom or belief: the source of fantasy in
the individual is described as an attempt at compensation, exemplified by the adolescent who dreams of belonging to wealthy,
important parents, a fantasy found in myths and legends such as Romulus and Remus, or in the story of Moses. Through the
fantasies, directed thinking comes into contact with the product of the unconscious, although not with its motivation.”


Two kinds of thinking. In: Jung, C., Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 5. 2nd ea., Princeton University Press, 1967. 557 p. (p. 7-
33).

I believe it is beyond question that Jung got what he wanted one way or another in his rebellion from Freud. If driven by unconscious
designs or conscious intentions, he definitely got more than he bargained for in his rebellion. While he may have broken from the
psychoanalytic movement, to which he had hitched his rise to fame and international prominence, when he was given his complete
intellectual freedom, he became lost and unmoored emotionally. In my opinion, Jung was not fully aware, at this time, that his
unconscious designed this very scenario to play out as it did for him. His rebellion as a willfully neurotic, impulsive, and emotional act
could be disputed, but that would be a rather hard argument to make given what followed and coupled with the observations of Jung
by his contemporaries at this time. Jung went mad, they said of him. Others, including Freud, condemned him for his behavior. Jung
himself, for a time, even said he was ‘menaced by a psychosis’ or ‘doing schizophrenia’. This is the price Jung paid for and I believe it
was self-punishment, because really, Jung did not have to fear financial ruin or threats to his survival. The only thing really at stake
was his reputation. And there we have the crux of the matter. And we see this freely admitted to and discussed in the Black Books. We
may never know why exactly Jung needed to push things to such an extreme. We can guess, but in his darkest hour, at least Jung had
the courage to be honest with himself, even if he was being melodramatic, in my opinion. But this is Jung’s story, not mine. I also
believe that the women around Jung, and again I am stressing this point to drive it home to you, would not allow him to get away with
his self-destruction and melodrama for long. It was they that turned him off the path of melancholy and guided him gently onto a
path of self-discovery though love and stern support. After all, to women especially of Jung’s time, reputation would have likely
seemed a silly thing to lose one’s mind over, but they understood men better than they understood themselves, for they were Jung’s
intellectual equals if nothing else, and just as skilled by all accounts.

So, the Jungfrau saved Jung and got him to turn his brilliant and piercing mind on itself to turn this madness into an ultimate
experiment of discovery. This in the end is what the Black Books are; Jung’s cure for his own madness. He transforms his experience
of mental illness into a grand adventure of discovery for himself and for others. He goes into rather uncharted territory for Western
Europeans and returns with the rough cartographic outlines of a universal picture of a churning and ever transforming psyche. What
follows from this period, captured in the Black Books, is a project that will take decades to complete.

The final mystery to ponder, now that we have all the keys and can open the treasure chest, is how exactly Jung takes these
experiences and constructs a coherent psychology that can be accepted and digested by the hyper-rational western audience he
needs to convince. We can, over the next 8 months, begin to piece that together. We will also get to see Jung ‘unmasked’ from his
carefully crafted and well-maintained persona that has seemed impossible to penetrate. Lastly, we will see what exactly these Black
Books would unleash into the collective Psyche of the world and how that impact ripples down to this very moment. It is a bit
hyperbolic to say, but Jung did reclaim the Soul for western humanity and there is not turning back, for she will be heard. We simply
can continue to turn a willfully blinded eye, or look on her squarely and with an open heart.
 Bibliography

Jung, C. G. (2009). The Red Book: Liber Novus. Philemon Foundation and W. W. Norton & Co.

Jung, C. G. (2020). The Black Books 1913-1932. Notebooks of Transformation. Philemon Foundation and W. W. Norton & Co.

Philemon Foundation. (2020, October). The Black Books 1913-1932: Notebooks of Transformation. Philemon Foundation. Retrieved
October 30, 2020, from https://philemonfoundation.org/published-works/black-books/  (https://philemonfoundation.org/published-
works/black-books/)

The Jungian Book Club is currently reading The Black Books

To join The Jungian Book Club click on this link. (https://appliedjung.com/the-black-books/)

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