Description
“When Jung was first approached about this book (Man and His Symbols), it was from a man in London who wanted him to do this. Jung said “No, I don’t’ want to do it.” The man came back later and said “Now will you do it?” Jung said, “Oh, I see. You must be the man that was in my dream. I dreamed that I had to do something for the marketplace.” – Joseph Henderson, M.D.
Dr. Joseph Henderson, a noted Jungian analyst, author, and one of the founders of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, shows a mandala painting he produced as a young man. The images contained in it emerged in a period of Active Imagination during a visit to Zurich in the early 1930’s. He was pondering whether to enter medical school with the ultimate goal of becoming a Jungian analyst. This inner work helped to confirm his plan. He then considers the meaning of an archetypal dream Jung had six months prior to his death. Henderson relates this dream to the archetype of the totem feast in which an animal totem is sacrificed and eaten. He links Jung’s associations around this dream to the changes in the collective unconscious as the Age of Pisces passes to the Age of Aquarius. He recalls the writing of Man and His Symbols with Jung, von Franz and others. At his last meeting with Jung, they talked after lunch about one of Jung’s strong interests, the sighting of flying saucers. With affection, he tells of the closeness which had grown between Jung and him over the years as their relationship evolved into a friendship between colleagues.
This conversation with Suzanne Wagner, Ph.D. A Jungian Analyst practicing in Sausalito, California, was filmed at the home of Dr. Henderson M.D. in Ross, California in December 2003 shortly after his 100th birthday.
Producer: George Wagner – Director: Suzanne Wagner, Ph.D. – Editor/Line Producer: Tee Bosustow – Music: John Adams.
