This excellent addition to the Critical Lives series is, says Paul Bishop, "a biography of Jung in books". In particular, Bishop locates Jung in a philosophical and literary context, demonstrating "how deeply and profoundly Jung belongs to a broader stream of thought in German culture". For Jung, his library was his laboratory and so this approach is especially valuable in revealing the significance of analytical psychology as a cultural project.

1. Carl Jung (Critical Lives)

2. by

   Paul Bishop

3. 
   

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The illegitimate great-grandson of Goethe, Jung described Germany's most famous author as a "prophet" and, as Bishop shows, his Faust was an enduring inspiration. From his childhood fantasies of a giant phallus in the cellar of the family home, through the extraordinary father/son relationship with Freud, to the remarkable Red Book, in which Jung transformed his visions into "a cathedral for his soul" and which was only published in 2009, Bishop offers a wonderfully rich intellectual biography of "one of the most important and influential figures of the 20th century". Sadly, in common with the rest of the series, it lacks an index.

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