From Elemental to Alchemical: An Introduction to the Visual Imagery in Jung’s Red Book

The session will explore Jung’s creative process though his visual images for The Red Book (1915-1929), and their pedagogical aims in illustrating his new concept of analytical psychology as it emerged between 1915 and 1930.

Learning Objectives
This course is intended to help you:

1. Become familiar with Jung’s visual imagery in The Red Book
2. Experience the impact of these images on the viewer
3. Relate the visual imagery to the narrative in Liber Primus and Liber Secundus of The Red Book
4. Understand the emerging symbolic language employed by Jung for his visual imagery in the Red Book
5. Trace the development of Jung’s ideas and psychological concepts between 1915-1930

Required Reading (Click to Download)

• Zervas, D. F. 2019. ‘Philemon, Ka, and Creative Fantasy: The Formation of the Reconciling Symbol in Jung’s Visual Work, 1919-1923’, Phanês, 2, 59-103.
• Zervas, D.R. 2020. ‘From the Instinctual to the Cosmic: Jung’s Exploration of Colour in The Red Book, 1915-1929/30’, Phanês, 3, 25-76.

Suggested Reading

• Zervas, D.F. 2019. ‘Intimations of the Self: Jung’s Mandala Sketches for The Red Book, in The Art of C.G. Jung, Eds. The Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung. U. Hoerni, T. Fischer, B. Kaufmann (New York, London: W.W. `Norton & Company).
• The Art of C.G. Jung, 2019. Eds. The Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung. U. Hoerni, T. Fischer, B. Kaufmann (New York, London: W.W. `Norton & Company).
• Mellick, J. 2018. The Red Book Hours. Discovering C.G. Jung’s Art Mediums and Creative Process (Zurich: Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess AG).
• Jung, C.G. 2009. The Red Book Liber Novus. Ed. S. Shamdasani. Preface by U. Hoerni. Trans. M. Kyburz, J. Peck, and S. Shamdasani (New York London: W.W. Norton & Company).

Instructor
Diane Zervas Hirst, PhD, publishes under the name of Diane Finiello Zervas. She 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, Soul-Making: Interweaving Art and Analysis (Routledge 2009). Her interest in Jung’s Red Book and visual works led to ‘Intimations of the Self’: Jung’s Mandala Sketches, 1917’ for The Art of C.G. Jung (W.W. Norton & Company  2019). Together with George Bright and Katerina Sarafidou she is a co-founder of the Circle of Analytical Psychology, which offers a two-year reading seminar on Liber Novus and The Red Book. A contributor to Phanës. Journal for Jung History since 2019, her forthcoming book, ‘Enchanting the Unconscious’: Jung’s Reception in Great Britain, The Red Book and his English Seminars, 1919 & 1920, will be published by Routledge Press in 2025.