Carl Jung’s secret manuscript, Liber Novus, was a voluntary confrontation with his own unconscious.
In short: For decades, Carl Jung’s most personal work remained locked in a Zurich bank vault. Known as The Red Book, this illuminated manuscript records a period of intense visionary exploration that Jung considered the foundation of his entire career. It is a record of a mind deliberately turning inward to map itself.
Between 1913 and 1916, following a fractious break with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung embarked on what he called his most difficult experiment. He began to systematically evoke fantasies in a waking state, entering them like a drama to observe what occurred when he switched off his conscious mind. He recorded these visions in a series of journals known as the Black Books, later transcribing and commenting on them in a large, red leather-bound folio he titled Liber Novus, or New Book.
While some critics, such as Anthony Storr, retrospectively labeled this period a psychotic episode, others like Sonu Shamdasani argue such assessments are superficial. Throughout these years, Jung maintained a busy professional practice, served as a Swiss army officer, and continued his research. He viewed the process as a form of mythopoetic imagination, a voluntary engagement with the unconscious that he believed contained the seeds of everything he would later elaborate scientifically.
Jung worked on the manuscript for sixteen years, using calligraphic pens, multicoloured inks, and gouache. Despite his efforts, he never finished the task; by 1930, he had transcribed only about two-thirds of his material into the folio. The book remained a private legacy until his estate finally authorized its publication in 2009. Today, it is recognized not merely as a personal diary, but as the origin of Jung's main oeuvre, offering a unique window into the genesis of his psychological theories.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: The Red Book (Jung)
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