The APT-Birmingham Public Lecture

Saturday 11th November 2023
IN THE STREAM: REFLECTIONS ON TRANSLATING THE ORIGINAL PROTOCOLS FOR MEMORIES, DREAMS AND REFLECTIONS
(Philemon Foundation/Princeton, Edited by Sonu Shamdasani Translated by Heather McCartney and John Peck)

Heather McCartney

From the Philemon Foundation: In 1963, Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffé was published and swiftly became a bestseller. Since then, it has been regarded as the primary source of
information concerning C. G. Jung’s life and work, with sales nearing a million in English alone. In short, it is the work by which Jung has come to be known by the public at large.

The protocols of Aniela Jaffé’s original conversations with Jung reveal that significant material was withheld in the published version, and that much had been edited. While the published version of Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung was cast in the form of a more or less chronological life narrative, the protocols show Jung ranging across an array of subjects in an associative manner in a single conversation, and discovering meaningful connections that he had hitherto not realized,
aided by Aniela Jaffé’s sensitive questioning and Kurt Wolff’s prompting.

The protocols present not only recollections of times past, but a critical chapter in Jung’s evolving selfunderstanding and the elaboration of his work, and a window into his own personal cosmology, as elaborated in his Red Book and Black Books, and only hinted at in his published writings. They function as a bridge that links Jung’s life and personal relations with his work and professional collaborations. For a contemporary reader, they provide a vivid impression of being in Jung’s presence and hearing him speak openly about his life in a manner that is in turn questing, profound, witty and melancholic.”*

The world was entering the archetypally loaded epoch of plague as I undertook work in earnest on the
translation of this text. As nature itself seemed to pause and the curious sun-filled days of early lockdown began to be metabolised, I was immersed in deep engagement with this archetypally quasi-hyperlinked text.
Online exercise classes, sourdough baking and banana bread punctuating the sombre calculations of R numbers and death counts passed me by completely. Here was this profound immersion in a stream of synchronicity-rich material which was at times striking. In this paper, I will explore this remarkable confluence of external world events with engagement in depth with Jung’s profound wisdom about the reality of the psyche and how this interpenetration illustrates that “there are things in the psyche which I do not produce but which produce themselves and have their own life.”

*From the Philemon Foundation Introduction

Heather McCartney is a Jungian Analytical Psychotherapist in practice in Cheltenham. She has served as Chair of the APTC training in Birmingham. She is the translator of Analytical Psychology in Exile: The Correspondence of C. G. Jung and Erich Neumann (Philemon Foundation Series): 10 On Theology and Psychology: The Correspondence of C. G. Jung and Adolf Keller: 1 (Philemon Foundation Series, 1) Psychology of Yoga and Meditation: Lectures Delivered at ETH Zurich, Volume 6: 1938–1940: 22 (Philemon Foundation Series, 22)

APPLICATION DETAILS

This Lecture will take place at St Paul’s Convent, 94 Selly Park Road, Selly Park, Birmingham B29 7LL and via Zoom between 10.15am and 3pm
The fees for this lecture are: In-Person – £95.00 and £70.00 (for full time students)
Zoom – £85.00 and £60.00 (for full time students)

Bookings should be made/confirmed as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Please refer to the separate Booking Form.

PAYMENT DETAILS

Please make BACS payments as follows:

Bank: Barclays, Sort Code: 20-08-44, Account No: 03737950
Account Name: The Training in Jungian Analytical Psychotherapy
(Please use your name as a reference)

For further details and queries contact:

Sue Harford, Administrator to the Training Committee,
telephone: 07789 545908, email: aptc@wmip.org

Download APTC Public Lecture A5 Booklet (pdf) >>