The Red Book ─ Reflections on C.G. Jung's Liber Novus

In 2009, WW Norton published ‘The Red Book’, a book written by Jung in 1913-1914 but not previously published. Snippets of information about the likely contents of the Red Book had been in circulation for years, and there was much debate and eager anticipation of its publication within the Jungian field and the larger reading public. In 2010, a conference was held at the San Francisco Jungian Institute which brought together an international group of distinguished scholars in analytical psychology to explore and address critical contextual aspects of ‘The Red Book’ and to debate its importance for current and future Jungian theory and practice. The Red Book: Reflections on C.G. Jung’s Liber Novus is based on that conference, the individual papers have been thoroughly revised and updated for this book and address some of the important questions and issues that were raised at that conference in response to the presentation of these papers.

As yet there has been very little published about ‘The Red Book’. The Red Book: Reflections on C.G. Jung’s Liber Novus will contribute to setting the agenda for further research, both scholarly and clinical, in response to Jung’s account of his experiences between 1913-1914, when arguably, the future course of his entire project was set in motion. This book will be essential reading for any Jungian interested in the importance of The Red Book, analytical psychologists, trainee analysts, those with an interest in the history of ideas and historians.

Thomas Kirsch was President of the International Association of Analytical Psychology from 1989 to 1995, and President of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco from 1976 to 1978. He was a lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical School. He currently works in private practice in California.

George Hogenson is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Chicago. He was President of the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago from 2007 to 2009 and is on the Executive Committee of the International Association for Analytical Psychology.