Carl Jung (1875-1961) - photo 1

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Lot 295
15.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1109095
Lot 295 | Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Estimate value
£ 8 000 – 12 000
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Typed letter signed (‘C.G. Jung’) to Stephen Abrams, [Küsnacht], 21 October 1957
In English. 2 pages, 295 x 209mm, headed letter-paper, a few ink corrections. Provenance: Stephen I. Abrams (1938-2012) – Sotheby's, 29 & 30 April 1980, lot 287.

The immutable archetype: an important letter setting forth his concept of the anima mundi – ‘the key to innumerable mythologies’ – in relation to the theory of relativity and discussing synchronicity. Jung has received a reply to his letter of 20 June [see previous lot]: ‘Your letter leads into the center of a very complicated problem. Being a scientist, I am rather shy of philosophical operations, particularly of conclusions reaching beyond the limits of experience. F[or] i[nstance] I would not go as far as saying that the categories of space and time are definitely non-objective. I would rather ask, on which level or in which world are space and time not valid?’, going on to define his understanding of the status of this experienced objectivity, concluding that within the limits of human experience, it is the psyche which is able to make relative the apparent objectivity of time and space and that we have no known reasons to assume that it is the action of time and space that, for example, enables the psyche to commit an act of precognition. ‘They are in our experience, apart from parapsychology, unchangeable. Although Einstein's relativity-theory shows that they are not necessarily identical with our idea of them, for instance that space may be curved and that time necessarily depends upon the standpoint and the speed of the observer. Such considerations support the idea of their relative validity. Parapsychological experience definitely shows their uncertain behaviour under psychical influence. We conclude therefore that we have to expect a factor in the psyche that does not undergo the laws of time and space, as it is on the contrary capable to suppress them to a certain extent. This factor, which must be independent of space and time, or exhibiting ‘eternity’ and ubiquity’, is what he defines as the archetype: ‘It is a structural element of the pysche, we find everywhere and at all times; and it is that, in which all individual psyches are identical with each other, and where they function as if they were the one undivided Psyche, the ancients called “anima mundi” or the “psyche tou kosmou”. This is no metaphysical speculation, but an observable fact, and therefore the key to innumerable mythologies, that is to the manifestations of unconscious phantasy’. Psychology must necessarily fall short in the study of this realm, which is where parapsychology takes over: in the second half of the letter Jung explores the difference between the collective and individual psyche and offers some of his observations on the co-occurrence of archetypes and parapsychological phenomena, before turning to synchronicity – ‘I think you are correct in assuming synchronicity, though prectically [sic] a relatively rare phenomenon, is an all-pervading factor or principle in the universe, i.e. in the Unus Mundus, where there is no incommensurablity between socalled Matter and socalled Psyche’ – and the enigma of the ‘natural number’. Jung closes by accepting an honorary membership of the Parapsychology Club at Chicago University and observes that it is ‘none too early, that somebody in the West takes notice of synchronicity. As I have been informed, the Russians have already caught hold of my paper’.

An important statement of concepts central to Jung's work and of his position in the history of ideas. The editors of his selected correspondence, where this and the following two letters are printed, point out that towards the end of his life Jung used letters (of ‘unique literary and pyschological value’) to express or work out ideas which he felt unwilling or unable to communicate in publications: ‘In this way many of his letters contained new creative ideas and a running commentary on his work’. Stephen Abrams was at the time attending the Parapsychological Laboratory at Duke University under Professor J. B. Rhine and planned to work on the experimental confirmation of Jung's theory of synchronicity. He moved to Britain in 1960 to work on an extra-sensory perception at Oxford and head its parapsychology laboratory.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
10.12.2023 12:00 – 17:00
11.12.2023 09:00 – 20:00
12.12.2023 09:00 – 17:00
13.12.2023 09:00 – 17:00
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

More from Creator

Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£1 500
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£1 200
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£2 000
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£1 500
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£3 000
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£100
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£100
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
£100

Related terms

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.
?>