Jung’s Red Book Liber Novus: Where Did It Come From and Why Does it Matter?

Jung’s Red Book and Liber Novus corpus comprise some 100,000 words of dense and often puzzling text plus a substantial number of images worked in meticulous and complex detail. They present a serious challenge to the reader and in the fifteen years since publication, many potential readers seem to have fallen at the first hurdle. This work is made more accessible if it is set clearly in the context of Jung’s developing approach to the conundrums of the human condition which formed his life’s work. Once we have grasped where this work comes from we are better placed to engage with it. Drawing on the experience of having facilitated four series of two-year reading groups of Liber Novus I will suggest how an engagement with this text changes both the way in which we can now understand Jung’s contribution to psychology and also how it might inform the practice of psychotherapy.