In Memoriam: John Giannani
With the death of John Giannini, we have lost a bridge figure who was important for his work in the Jungian community and the typology community. He particularly tried to bridge the communities both in his active work in bringing the two together, and his important major opus, Compass of the Soul. John believed passionately in whatever he felt
called to do, but he was particularly passionate about the work of integration of these two traditions. He valued the tools and the active participation in the larger world of the typology community, but he felt that it was important to maintain the original theoretical nexus to give depth and integrity to this work.
John’s life was a life of integration, and a life of service to the people he impacted in his family and the larger world. He was born into an Italian immigrant family and culture, and had to find his way into the world of the dominant culture. He followed his own path wherever it led, and it led him to many facets of outer life. He served in the Navy as a young man, which led him to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he quarterbacked a wartime collegiate team. It led him to a life as a Benedictine Monk, and although it was a rich life for him, the conflict between his natural passion for life and the restrictions of the monastery led him to a breakdown. He found his way to breakthrough as a result of his
analytic work and spiritual mentoring with Father Victor White, who is known for his correspondence with Jung on the nature of evil.
This work led him to personal integration, and to a return to the world outside of the Benedictine monastery. He worked as a corporate consultant and a teacher. He was then led to take up further Jungian work, and entered training in Chicago in 1972. During his early years of training, he also worked very effectively with ex-offenders under the auspices of the Safer Foundation, where he was very effective in helping them transcend their past and integrate into life.
After certification as an analyst, he became an important member of the Chicago analytic community, as well as a contributor to the larger Jungian and typology communities. His passion for integration and the healing of a divided world led him to spend many years on his book Compass of the Soul. This seminal work is such a rich feast of his many years of integration of Jungian and typological work. It is so encompassing that it us not easy to digest, but those who have taken the time have been nourished by the depth and breadth of his integrative work. He saw the depth of this work within Jung’s analytic theory, and saw the breadth of the possibilities of the practical use of typology in integrating this theory as
an effective tool for integration and communication in the larger world.
John will be missed, but the effects of his presence in the world will continue to live after him.
– Harvey Honig
