MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS

C.G. Jung (1875-1961)

[This is a revised and updated post from 2018.]

During the spring of 2018, the C. G. Jung Society of St. Louis offered a study group, seminar format, during which two dozen of us read and discussed Jung's MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS in two small groups over eight weeks.

It was a pleasure reading through MDR at a leisurely pace with the benefit of others’ reflections and impressions.  Many memories of my own early life came flooding back as I read the first chapters.  Many of those memories I’ve revisited before in my journals, in conversations with my siblings and friends, in discussion groups like this one, and in many analytic sessions.  This time with our text, from an even more distant perspective, yielded new insights and depth of understanding of my own journey.  I came away with a firmer understanding of the role of my mother in my life and the impact of the death of my father when I was three years old, two areas of intense inner focus now for decades.

Jung’s discussion of his No. 1 and No. 2 personalities was particularly helpful.  I know I, too, suffered a similar split early on.  I, too, left behind my No. 1 to take up the tasks of adaptation—over-adaptation in my case—as a young adult.  Only with the complete failure of my No. 2 to deal with tragedy was I thrown back on myself in a way I came to see as essential, having purpose, and fraught with meaning.  But, oh, was it ever painful!

At age 30 I had a numinous experience in which my No. 1 personality broke through though I didn’t recognize what was happening.  I only registered something foreign but vaguely familiar from very early experiences.  I went to the Louvre and, turning a corner, I saw the Venus de Milo down a long corridor before me.  Suddenly I knew something new, and understood why all the emphasis on and study of art.  I didn’t know the word numinous then, but it was a numinous experience.  Later I learned language that gave this encounter meaning.  It was a moment of in-breaking.  Something from the collective unconscious penetrated my conscious reality.  

In my early 40’s, in the middle of a life crisis, I happened to go with a friend to a week-long program about dreams led by a Jungian Analyst.  The week left me extremely interested in dreams, but mostly I saw something in the analyst, undefinable to be sure, that I wanted for myself.  That week I began a pursuit that is still on-going.  I am somewhat clearer about what it was I glimpsed in that person and can now say that it is a way of being in process—a way of being and becoming that is life giving.  It is a process where the goal paradoxically is death.  It is an arduous path that leads to an understanding that each of us is called to develop ourselves ever further.  To do so is a sacred responsibility, and the reward is an intoxicating wonder in a world of wonder--release from a life of drudgery and inanity, and purposelessness. 

There are many, many ideas and specific sentences in the MDR that grabbed me, particularly the paragraph on p. 325 where Jung talks about embodying the essential “or life is wasted.”  A harsh judgement! 

Jung’s discussion about stumbling onto alchemy and its contributions to his psychological theories was enriching.  I liked, once again, reading about his discovery of a myth that gave meaning to his existence.  The search for meaning may be every bit as critical to one's existence as the discovery of that meaning.  Meaning has provided me dignity and purpose and has made all the difference in my life.

My main takeaway from these weeks of reading and discussion is the vital importance Jung assigned to his inner life.  His emphasis on the interior process put me, more than ever, in touch with my own.  Reading about his experiences, his insights, his reflections made me more keenly appreciative of my own. 

Somewhere Jung argues that one must fall in love with one’s own life.  How does one do that in a world increasingly fraught with anxiety and woe?  I like to remember that Jung found a way in spite of living through two horrific world wars.  His lasting legacy is his roadmap for that way.

July 12, 2025