Notebooks of Transformation: Introducing Jung’s Black Books

Presented by Sonu Shamdasani, Ph.D.

The recently published Black Books, a series of personal journals written between 1913-1932, represent Jung’s explorations of the visionary imagination through writing and painting and include both reflections on his own psychological development, as well as the evolution of his theory of analytical psychology. The material from 1916 to 1932 highlights some of the insights he gained from analyzing his own life, such as the triangular relationship between himself and Emma Jung and Toni Wolff.  In this presentation, we will examine how Jung used his personal observations as well as his encounters with the unconscious as a means of understanding and relating to his patients from a depth perspective.

Learning objectives:

• Describe The Black Books and their relevance to the development of analytical psychology from a theoretical and clinical perspective.
• Describe how Jung utilized his own experience with triangulation and applied this concept to his work with patients.

Sonu Shamdasani is Professor in Jung History in the School of European Languages, Culture and Society (German) at University College London, and Vice-Dean (International) of the Arts and Humanities Faculty. He is the co-director of the UCL Health Humanities Centre. He is the General Editor of the Philemon Foundation. He is the author and editor of a dozen books that have been translated into many languages. Most recently, he co-edited Medical Humanity and Inhumanity in the German-Speaking World (UCL Press, 2020, open access) and Exploring Transcultural Histories of Psychotherapies (Routledge, 2019).

https://philemonfoundation.org/published-works/black-books/

Order your copy of The Black Books through the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles Bookstore!