EDITORIAL NOTE

In the mid-1950s, the Bollingen Foundation was approached by two New York publishers, each offering the idea of an anthology of C. G. Jung’s writings. General interest in Jung’s work was growing, and no selection was then available which presented his entire thought, and particularly that of his later years. The Foundation enlisted a distinguished analytical psychologist and scholar of Jung, Dr. Violet de Laszlo, who undertook to organize two separate collections, each representing the Jungian corpus in a different way and of value to the general reader as well as the student. At the time, only a half-dozen volumes of the Collected Works had been published, and Dr. de Laszlo drew translations from other sources or from R.F.C. Hull’s translations in preparation. For the present edition, the text of the Collected Works has been substituted. Dr. de Laszlo’s introduction has been retained.

Psyche and Symbol was published in 1958, one of the earliest volumes in the pioneering Doubleday Anchor paperback series. The editor’s intention was to select writings “which would illustrate in convincing fashion the objects of [Jung’s] symbol research and the manner of his approach, as well as a synopsis of the conclusions to which he was led.” Professor Jung, who followed Dr. de Laszlo’s projects with close interest, contributed a preface, written in August 1957. The Basic Writings of C. G.Jung was published in 1959 in the Modern Library (Random House). The editor aimed “to present as fully as possible some of the most important areas of Jung’s conception of the nature and functioning of the human psyche.”*

Violet Staub de Laszlo was born in Zurich in 1900 and completed her medical studies at the University of Zurich. She was a pupil of Jung’s while beginning her practice in Switzerland, and during the 1930s she lived in London, playing a central role in the first organization of analytical psychologists in England. In 1940 she settled in the United States, practicing, teaching, and writing during a twenty-five year residence. Violet de Laszlo was recognized as one of the leading exponents of the Jungian school. In 1965 she returned to Zurich, continuing an active life until her death in 1988. For the paperback edition the paragraph and footnote numbers of the Collected Works have been retained to facilitate reference, as well as the original figure numbers for the illustrations in “Introduction to the Religious and Psychological Problems of Alchemy.”

In her introduction, written for publication in 1959, Dr. de Laszlo explains the principles that governed her selection and the occasional abridgments that she made. (In the present edition, it has been possible to restore some of the abridged passages.)

W. McG./D.T.

* Psyche and Symbol is also published as a Princeton/Bollingen paperback.