Illuminating the Visionary: Jung’s Initial Red Book Images of Individuation (1915-1917)

After Jung finished writing Liber Novus in June 1915, which included the majority of the active imaginations he had between November 1913 and April 1914, together with his commentaries on them, he decided to make a calligraphic version of it. Modelled on medieval manuscripts, Jung used Gothic script, historiated initials, and paintings to illustrate significant episodes in the text. By the early autumn of 1915 he had transcribed Liber Primus onto seven parchment sheets. For symbolic or practical reasons, Jung then decided to put Liber Secundus into a large book bound in red leather – The Red Book – which he had begun by the late autumn of 1915. He continued to transcribe Liber Secondus until 1928 but never finished it. The historiated initials and paintings in The Red Book follow the text through the chapters on Izdubar episode and the Opening of The Egg, which took Jung until February 1917 to finish. Taken together, the parchment paintings for Liber Primus and the first part of Liber Secundus in The Red Book provide us with his initial attempts to illuminate the visionary, the first series of visual images in his ongoing process of individuation.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the series, attendees will be able to:

1. Observe Jung’s initial engagement with creating visual imagery in The Red Book to depict complex psychological states and mythological ideas;
2. Summarise Jung’s development of technique and symbolism for the visual imagery in The Red Book between 1915 and 1917;
3. Compare Jung’s development of the visual imagery in The Red Book between 1915 and 1917 with his developing concepts of analytical psychology in his professional papers between 1914 and 1917;
4. Recognise Jung’s basic principles underlying the creation of visual imagery and apply them to clinical examples related to the individuation process.

Recommended Reading

These readings will be emailed with the Zoom link to attend.

• Jung, C.G. ‘On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry’ (1922/1931), CW 15, pp. 65-83.
• Jung, C.G. ‘Psychology and Literature’ (1930/1950, CW 15, pp. 84-105.

Speaker

Diane Finiello Zervas is an art historian and a senior member and supervisor at the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists, London, with a special interest in the interface between creativity and psychology. She has published two books and numerous articles on Florentine medieval and renaissance art, served as a guest editor and author for Harvest, and edited Francesco Donfrancesco’s Soul-Making: Interweaving Art and Analysis (Routledge 2009).  She is a co-founder with George Bright and Katerina Sarafidou of the Circle of Analytical Psychology, which offers a two-year reading seminar on Liber Novus and The Red Book. Diane’s initial interest in Jung’s Red Book led to ‘Intimations of the Self’: Jung’s Mandala Sketches, 1917’ for The Art of C.G. Jung (W.W. Norton & Company 2019). A contributor to Phanës. Journal for Jung History since 2019, her most recent book is ‘Enchanting the Unconscious’: Jung’s Reception in Great Britain, The Red Book and his English Seminars, 1919 & 1920′ (Routledge 2025). She is currently completing a book on Jung’s visual imagery in The Red Book.