While novelists such as James Joyce, H.D., Herman Hesse, Doris Lessing, Saul Bellow etc.
produced fiction influenced by C. G. Jung, today Jungians are writing novels. Why?
Is it because clinical Jungians can put into the novel what is hard to express in case
studies? Or might it be a desire to learn from the creative range of Jung’s Collected Works?
After all, texts such as Aion and Answer to Job, become nonfiction novels in explorations of
narrative symbolism.
Or are Jungians writing novels because of the process even more than the product? Might
the act of writing a novel in some way resemble a clinical session in the embrace of
spontaneous imagery, practices resembling Jung’s active imagination, respect for what
wants to come through and the capacity to embrace synchronicities?
We three Jungian novelists invite the audience to join our debate about Jungian novels, and
if desired, to open the discussion to other art forms. Although we will mention our books at
the end, this seminar will not be a series of presentations but rather an exploration
between us, our moderator, Ipek Burnett, and YOU.