Marie-Louise von Franz rare lecture series (part 1) - Jung said: “So don’t be shy. Your task is to hand on what you have learned.”
Part 1 of this Series exploring Marie-Louise von Franz’s rare lecture at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles in 1976 which was later published in 2016 in the ‘Psychological Perspectives’ academic journal.
Topics covered in Part 1:
A summary: of the lecture content covered by Marie-Louise von Franz, including the four stages of active imagination and even her belief that Homer’s Odyssey provides the best modern example of how “the first impact of the unconscious is demonic”.
An important Jung statement made in private: to von Franz and some trainee Jungian Analysts.
Individuation, meaning, purpose and engaging with the collective: ideas and concepts which arise from what Jung said to von Franz and the trainee Jungian Analysts.
Carl Jung with Marie-Louise von Franz. Source: Copyright © 2016 Kairos Film Foundation
“Now, remember that by being close around me and hearing so much, you know more than these people. So don’t be shy. Your task is to hand on what the people who can’t come to Zurich want to learn about, what you have learned to hand on.”
- Carl Jung.
This was said in private to Marie -Louise von Franz and some Jungian Analyst trainees, at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles in the 1950’s.
The above quote forms the inspiration for Part 1 of our exploration of this important and rare lecture given by Marie-Louise von Franz at the C.G. Jung Insititute of Los Angeles.
Tape recordings of the lecture which Marie-Louise von Franz (“von Franz”) had given at the institute existed for decades but the transcript of the lecture was not officially published until 2016. This publication occured in Psychological Perspectives, a Jungian depth psychology journal. The formal citation of that article and its link for purchase are provided here: Confrontation with the Collective Unconscious, Psychological Perspectives, A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought, Volume 59, 2016, Issue 3, pages 295-318.
Why is this rare Marie-Louise von Franz lecture and journal article important?
The 2016 journal article is a previously unpublished presentation given by Marie-Louise von Franz at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles in 1976.
Marie-Louise von Franz discusses the shifting attitudes held for the concept of the collective unconscious which were changing towards an attitude of the experience of the collective unconscious as a “tremendous psychic reality” in both positive and negative forms.
Von Franz identified four stages of Jung’s active imagination in great detail.
She distinguished active imagination from other methodologies such as meditation.
Von Franz used books by Carlos Castaneda to demonstrate these shifting attitudes. By way of background, Carlos Castaneda was a Peruvian born American writer who from 1968 started publishing a series of books that describe his training in shamanism. He was considered by many to be a father of the New Age movement. In this lecture, Von Franz doesn’t seem to be a big fan of his.
Von Franz discusses Homer’s Odyssey and how it provides one of the best examples of active imagination in modern times.
Von Franz said:
“[W]e must keep in mind ... that the first impact of the unconscious is demonic.There is a beautiful place in Homer's Odyssey that illustrates this point better than any modern example of active imagination.”
Note: In the above quote, Von Franz is referring to the passage in Homer’s Odyssey when the son of Ulysses goes to Menelaus to ask him for advice. In this scene, Ulysses wants to know how Menelaus got information from the sea god Proteus because now Menelaus, as the son of Ulysses, wants to know if his father is dead or alive, or will return. Ultimately, Menelaus tells the son how to get the information from Proteus.
Historically speaking, this presentation is important because it is the first time “ever” that von Franz mentions the apocalyptic visions Carl Jung had shortly before he died. She elaborated on these visions at a later date when was interviewed for the documentary Remembering Jung.
In part 1 of this article series, we will focus on a direct quote from Carl Jung which came from when he was at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles over two decades prior to von Franz’s return to the institute for this lecture in the 1970’s. Jung said these words in the presence of von Franz and some training Jungian Psychoanalysts.
This quote will act as a spring board to explore individuation and the importance of sharing wisdom and engaging with the collective in the hero’s journey a person takes to live a life of meaning and purpose.
Mary-Louise von Franz with Carl Jung.
Jung’s statement to von Franz and Jungian Analyst trainees
The following depth psychology themes can be amplified from this quote: individuation, contribution to the collective, creating purpose and a meaningful existence, mother complexes, parental complexes, and the hero’s journey.
Von Franz begins her lecture by saying that 23 years ago, the last time she was at the Los Angeles Institute, the circumstances and the setting were very different. At that time, Jung was in attendance and there was only herself and a small group of Jungian Analyst trainees around Jung.
Marie-Louise von Franz in discussion with Carl Jung
Carl Jung told von Franz and the trainees:
“Now, remember that by being close around me and hearing so much, you know more than these people. So don’t be shy. Your task is to hand on what the people who can’t come to Zurich want to learn about, what you have learned to hand on.”
Von Franz remarked that Jung’s statement:
“gave one a feeling of a function, that one had something to give”.
Jung’s statement and von Franz’s response demonstrate the importance of meaning and purpose in the process of individuation. It is not an isolating, self-serving, process. It involves the collective. It involves sharing and connection. It requires getting out in the world, fostering and building relationships not only with people but with your external environment. It raises once again the existence of opposites and the uniting of those opposites in the middle. Wholeness. It involves going deep inside on a personal individual level, entering the depths of your own unconscious, an almost unreal, ethereal world of such a depth that it can feel removed from external matter and the material world. Yet from this place of introspection and depth, having entered the deepest part of an individual’s soul, that same individual has to bring that knowledge to the external, outer world. He or she must share this knowledge and wisdom of the depths with the collective. But this is no easy task.
Rather than isolate intellectually or get lost in the unconscious; to individuate, a person must actually connect with his or her fellow man and woman. On the one hand, Carl Jung’s teachings are deeply individual and require going within. Even the trainees are placed in this position of opposites. Although Jung acknowledges that the rare teachings are better learned directly from him, the source in Zurich, or from persons lucky enough to have learned from him directly, the trainees must take this knowledge taken from a rare place (from Jung himself or training in Zurich), and then distill it, take the wisdom, take the uncommon and then make it relatable and common. This is true wisdom (Sophia) because isolated intellectuality is not ‘wise’, it is an abstraction. It is not whole, it is isolating and unrelatable. It is not communal, it is one sided, inflated, impractical, uncommon. Yet Jung told these trainees to take an uncommon opportunity, an uncommon knowlege, and to make it common. Anyone who has seriously undergone the individuation process can relate to this conondrum. This enantiodromia, where one opposite turns to the other.
enantiodromia - a term Jung uses which roughly means: ‘the tendency of things to change into their opposites, especially as a supposed governing principle of natural cycles and of psychological development’. This term comes from the two Ancient Greek words: enantios (“opposite”) and dramein (“to run;” dromas, “running”). Accordingly, it means generally “running to the opposite,” or “a running counter to” something.
Note: in Modern Greek the word ενάντιο means ‘conflicting’ or ‘to go against’ something and the word dromos means ‘road’ or ‘way’. So in Modern Greek it would mean either ‘opposing ways’, ‘opposing roads’ or ‘conflicting ways’, ‘conflicting roads’.
This entire process of ups, downs, meandering, twists and turns… the world of opposites; this is individuation. It is also reminiscent of the hero’s journey described throughout ‘Symbols of Transformation’ (Carl Jung, Collected Works 5). In particular, the process of overcoming the Devouring mother or Terrible mother but also the process of individuation and accepting matters in our unconscious or shadow (in recent times, more commonly described as “shadow work”).
Conclusion
The key take aways are:
I summarised the key points that von Franz’s lecture covers.
I explained a private statement made by Carl Jung to von Franz and some Jungian Analyst trainees. This quote provided the foundation for the key individuation related discussions in this article.
Individuation: expanding upon what Jung said, you must share what you learn, you need to engage with the collective and larger society, not hide behind uncommon knowledge. You must unite the opposites, make the uncommon common, turn abstract knowledge and experience into commonly understood wisdom, we must engage and ‘get out’ into life, be practical, overcome fear and move forward towards meaning and purpose (which always on some level involves the collective, the community, and fellow man and woman).
Writing this article and all of these conflicts of opposites reminded me of Symbols of Transformation (Collected Work 5) and the hero’s journey to overcome the “Devouring” or “Terrible” Mother. Accordingly, my next blog post will deviate from von Fran’z rare lecture and cover the heavy and important topic of the “Devouring” or “Terrible” Mother made popular in recent times by Jordan Peterson. After I cover the “Devouring” or “Terrible” Mother, I will continue my series about von Franz’s rare lecture.
Until next time, stay strong, get out there, engage with the collective and share your wisdom to enhance the meaning and purpose of what you do in every day life.
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