The First Reference to Jung

 

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Readers of this blog will know that there are various references to the work and thought of Carl Jung in it. I am an admirer of his, but a critical one. The above photo shows the famous Swiss psychiatrist late in life, and I think it is a good one because a lot of photos of the elder Jung are rather staged, depicting him as either sage or genial old buffer. Here you see his geniality and his intelligence, but also the dominating quality that he had.

I always thought that the first reference to Jung I ever came across was in a book that belonged to my Mum. It was a Penguin book called 'The Tarot: The Origins, Meaning and Uses of the Cards' by Alfred Douglas, first published in that edition in 1973, originally published in 1972. My Mum was not interested in the Tarot, except in a glancing way if even that. I however was and am very interested in the Tarot, I read the book with avidity and I remember distinctly encountering the name of C. G. Jung in it, and noting it mentally for further investigation. How old I was when the happened I don't know. My guess is about 9, but that is a guess.

Given this firmly lodged origin myth of my acquaintance with Jung, imagine my surprise therefore when I sat down to watch 'The Eagle Has Landed' not so long ago and encountered the following scene, which leapt out at me:

That film came out in 1976, so I would have seen it possibly in 1977, when I was 7. As to whether this has priority as my first encounter with the name Jung, I simply do not know. 

But the exact sequence of discovery does not matter. The point is, your source doesn't have to be single or esoteric, ideas and influences come at you from all directions, whether from popular culture or the most recondite reading.