The Latest Updates from the Editorial Team
Why a New Edition?
Jung鈥檚 Collected Works, which formed the template for editions of Jung鈥檚 work in all languages, was a contemporary edition, rather than a scholarly edition. Its aim鈥攚hich it succeeded in鈥攚as to make Jung鈥檚 works available to the public as quickly as possible. This alone was a monumental undertaking, spanning from 1945 to 1979.
In 2024, PUP shared news of a major new initiative: the publication of The Critical Edition of the Works of C. G. Jung. 鈥�Critical edition鈥� is commonly used term to designate an edition of an author鈥檚 works that is a scholarly and carefully prepared version of the author鈥檚 writings, which aims to provide readers with a reliable and accurate representation of the original texts. The term 鈥渃ritical鈥� in this context doesn鈥檛 imply any negative judgment; rather, it indicates a thorough analysis and evaluation of the source material.
Critical editions generally comprise:
Textual Variants: The editors of a critical edition analyze different versions of the text, such as manuscripts, early printed editions, or later editions, to determine the most authentic and authoritative version, and, where texts have significant revisions, often present texts in variorum form, noting all the changes between editions. By carefully examining and comparing iterations different of the texts, editors aim to present authoritative and accurate versions that serve as a reliable basis for scholarly study and appreciation of the author鈥檚 work.
Annotations: Critical editions often include extensive footnotes or annotations that provide explanations, historical context, linguistic notes, and other relevant information to help readers better understand the text.
Introductions: Critical editions typically begin with an introduction that provides background information about the author, the historical context of the work and its reception, and details about the editorial decisions made during the preparation of the edition.
Appendixes: Where relevant, additional materials, such as related documents, letters, or fragments, are included in the form of appendixes to provide a broader context for the author鈥檚 works.
All these features will be present in this edition. The work done in any field of study is dependent upon the quality of the editions of its primary texts. The Critical Edition of the Works of C. G. Jung seeks to provide this for generations to come.
Why have variorum presentations of texts?
Through the course of his career, Jung frequently revised his works and published different versions of essays in different contexts. Except for a few instances, the editors of the Collected Works chose as a matter of policy to include what they took to be the final version of a particular work. However, what constituted a 鈥漟inal鈥� version was not always clear. The consequence has been that historically critical formulations and statements of Jung are simply not to be found in the Collected Works. One example is Jung鈥檚 pivotal 1917 book, The Psychology of the Unconscious Processes: The New Method and Theory of Analytical Psychology, which presented his first overview of the new conceptions and practice that he had developed through the period of his confrontation with the unconscious. A reader of Jung鈥檚 Symbols of Transformation is unable to ascertain whether a particular passage was written in 1912 or in 1952 when he had developed a radically different perspective to his earlier neopsychoanalytic reductionism. Consequently, with the Collected Works, one is frequently unable to ascertain when a particular passage was written, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to study the development of his work on the basis of the Collected Works. This has given rise to a 鈥渘onvintage鈥� mode of reading Jung, mixing together conflicting theoretical models from different epochs of his career, and obscuring the coherence of the unfolding of his work. Variorum presentations of texts enable scholars to follow the evolution of Jung鈥檚 thought, and to understand statements in their precise contexts.
What is the value of introductions and scholarly apparatuses?
Approximately 35 percent of each volume in the Critical Edition will comprise the introductions and scholarly apparatus, including a detailed chronology of Jung鈥檚 activities during the period in question, the background for his theoretical work, and the debates he was engaged in, together with introductory notes to each item. These will draw on extensive research in Jung鈥檚 archives, correspondences, case files (where available), annotations in the books in his library, and other holdings in public and private archives, which will present a wealth of hitherto unknown information.
At a distance ranging between three quarters and one and a quarter centuries, many of the figures mentioned by Jung are unknown or little known to contemporary readers. The footnotes will provide information about them, as well as contextualize debates that Jung was engaged in. Jung was a prolific writer, an avid reader, a creative artist, and a great conversationalist. He had the ability to engage with a written text or a work of art deeply and recurrently, on different levels, in different contexts, and to different audiences. This turns Jung鈥檚 experience of such texts or works into fluid and constantly evolving dialogues鈥攕uch as his understanding of Nietzsche鈥檚 Zarathustra, his frequent referring to H枚lderlin and Goethe鈥檚 poems, as well as his constant use of mythology, primitive art, eastern and western religions, and, at a later stage, alchemy. Direct citations from, or implicit references to, such texts or works permeate Jung鈥檚 published and unpublished writings. Moreover, the meanings of those citations or references are strictly dependent upon the context (personal annotations, seminars, talks, or published writings), and citations or references are often added, removed, expanded, or changed from one edition to the next. A critical edition facilitates scholarly reading in that it brings those citations and references to their original context, while revealing their evolution over the years and through different contexts.
The combined introductions and apparatus of the Critical Edition will effectively form a contextual intellectual biography of Jung. As such, it will form the basis of all subsequent scholarship on Jung.
Why were Jung鈥檚 Collected Works incomplete?
The prospectus for Jung鈥檚 Collected Works was established in 1945. It was only after Jung鈥檚 death in 1961 that his manuscript cupboard was looked through which revealed copious hitherto unknown works. In 1964, it was decided to leave the bulk of these works to one side, despite the protestations of the editors, Gerhard Adler and Michael Fordham. The Collected Works was completed in 1979, while a separate undertaking to edit Jung鈥檚 seminars commenced. It was only in 1993 that a comprehensive catalog of Jung鈥檚 manuscripts at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, was made. Subsequently, a number of additional items have come to light. The Critical Edition will contain all of this further material.
Will the Critical Edition contain all the material in the Collected Works?
While some material in the Collected Works might have been better placed in the C. G. Jung Letters volumes or in the Jung Seminar series, no material will be deselected, as all of it will benefit from being represented in a new form in the Critical Edition.
Why a new translation?
It is common practice for literary and philosophical works, if they are long-lived, to be retranslated multiple times. If one considers the works of a figure such as Nietzsche, the translations in English are now in their third generation. With Freud, new English translations have been released in recent years, and the Standard Edition is being revised. Translations are widely acknowledged to age more quickly than original works, and each new translation represents an opportunity for a new aspect of the work to be revealed.
The decision to translate Jung鈥檚 works anew in full rather than merely revise them has been undertaken in part due to certain shortcomings in the English translations of the Collected Works. These shortcomings have been acknowledged by several scholars over the decades since their publication, including Marie-Louise von Franz, Paul Bishop, and Sonu Shamdasani. It goes without saying that R.F.C. Hull, the translator of the majority of the Collected Works, reached a monumental achievement. Hull was an atheist, rationalist, and poet鈥攏ot epithets that one would associate with Jung. His translations in the Collected Works are fluent and readable. However, his work has been found to contain inaccuracies, semantic misunderstandings, inconsistencies of terminology, and mistranslations. In addition, Hull apparently felt it was his task to improve the source text, and, moreover, deliberately attempted to rationalize Jung鈥檚 texts. Marie-Louise von Franz noted the multimodal nature of Jung鈥檚 writings through his use of metaphors, allusions, associations, and etymological references, and claimed that this double aspect was not preserved in Hull鈥檚 translations.
Hull and other translators were in the position to consult Jung on occasion in case of questions or uncertainties, though Jung took a 鈥渉ands off鈥� approach to translations of his work. On the other hand, greater distance from the source texts can open the way for greater clarity and impartiality. In addition, the translator of today has the benefit of modern research tools and resources not available to translators of earlier generations, as well as developments in translation practice. The primary intention of the new translation is to be as authentic as possible to what Jung wrote, producing semantically accurate texts at the same time as capturing the above mentioned multiple layers of Jung鈥檚 writings. A new translation will make Jung鈥檚 writings more understandable and accessible to a contemporary audience.
Walter Benjamin wrote that translation proceeds from the 鈥渁fterlife鈥� or 鈥渟urvival鈥� of the original, and that the translation which is later than the original indicates that the work has reached the stage of its 鈥渃ontinuing life.鈥� Interest in Jung has grown considerably in recent years, especially among the younger generation in the United States and elsewhere. The availability of fresh new translations will help to keep Jung鈥檚 ideas alive and relevant for years to come, ultimately breathing new life into the texts for future generations of readers and ensuring the works鈥� continuing life.