Jung and the Red Book

Well, better late than never. Any blog about self-exploration that is worth its weight in pixels should have a post on the publication of Jung's Red Book.

Although I must have read about Jung in college (actually, I think I minored in Psych) I really didn't understand what he was about. It wasn't until decades later and I read Eating the 'I' by William Patrick Patterson that I got an inkling of how art can be used as an exploration of archetypes. The inside covers are an art gallery of his paintings. He writes, "The images appeared in dreams, in meditation, or would suddenly appear on the canvas. What did they have to say? What did they mean? All I knew was I wanted to pain them as fearlessly as I could. I say 'fearlessly' because through the medium of painting I felt I had taken a deep dive into the subconscious and I didn't want to spoil the connection by 'civilizing' them. I found myself, what I took to be myself, taken up into the mystery of painting, the experiencing of 'being painted through,' rather than the 'me' who was painting. To give these inner images the freedom to surface, that which took itself as 'the painter' had to step aside, become passively active. Painting in this way consciousness transcends the physical plane and, stepping out of psychological time, 'enters' the painting. In this merger the only content in consciousness is the process of painting itself. The ensuing silence allowed subconscious images to manifest. The connection strong enough, the images spoke, not in words but in their manifesting form and presence. They were not always pretty. Self-sincerity was demanded. Otherwise, the channel might close."

I have some of Patterson's images in my Art Gallery (see the panel on the left). I've also added some paintings from my friend Bruce Freedman that show some of his inner journey.

The Red Book will be on exhibit at the Rubin Museum of Art until January 25.

Here's the New York Times article with the history of the book.