Jung, Carl Gustav

Carl Jung Handwritten Letter, Signed [ ALS ]

1942. Item #17333

Group of three items: An ALS from Jung to his mentee, psychoanalyst Dr. Rivkah Scharf; an ALS from Dr. Sharf to Jung responding to the aforementioned letter; and one envelope with Jung hand-writting the address of Dr. Sharf. The two were working on Jung's "Psychology and Alchemy" at the time of the present correspondence. Jung lettter includes wonderful clinical and relational content; while perhaps under the influence of the book material, Jung refers with vigor to the activity of Scharf's "daemon" and it's influence on their collaborative process, providing perhaps an informal definition, stated with directness and ultimately empathy: "...expressing this wish, which in itself necessarily must go beyond the conventional limits, will awawken the daemon. The daemon is the absolute wanting-to-have-it-this-way and hideous suffering from the impossibility of fulfillment. Hence, since one would like to spare you this suffering, one feels under constant pressure to grant your wishes. However, the daemon is endless and it is never satisfied. You alone with have to voluntarily throw yourself to him every time. Nothing will satisfy him. He must see that by destroying you he will destroy himself. And you will have to make this plain to him...knowing you are suffering so much is difficult for me, but I cannot help it. Besides, I know that this amount of suffering is necessary to make you as hard as you need to be in your life."

Scharf in her reply is thankful for Jung's empathy and also refers to the initial state of emotional reception: "deeply injured and initially almost broken by the inexorable truth contained in your letter...."

Jung letter measures 8 3/4"h x 7"w, 2pp, expected folds and toning to paper, two small, unobtrusive stains to letter. Letter is addressed from Bollingen, 1942.

Letter accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity.

Price: $5,800.00