Readers of The Quotable Jung might be interested in knowing in more detail how I selected the quotations for this volume.
This work is actually a case study in how to make best use of the enormous potential of the modern-day computer as an incredible storage and filing system, far removed in the speed and the range of access to stored data from the little file cards so familiar to many of us hitherto accustomed to the typewriter.
About twenty-three years ago when I began my training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Küsnacht, Switzerland, I found myself drawn to the idea of assembling my own personal collection of quotations from Jung. At the same time I immediately set about figuring out how to store all the information in a simple yet useful way. Since that time I have continued to organize my “collection” of quotable material into many digital folders stored in the computer, each of which comprises even more files under various categories, such as The Unconscious, Dreams, Shadow, Active Imagination, and many others. It didn’t seem to be long before I had amassed more than four hundred categories, the contents of which were often cross-referenced with each other. In effect I had already compiled a large concordance long before the idea for this book arose.
By the time I decided to take on this work, I had formulated a diagram that reveals a thread running from beginning to end, which comprises the theory and ideas of analytical psychology as conceived and developed by C. G. Jung. In other words, I have endeavored to provide the reader with a map, which he or she can use in several different ways, depending on the particular context at a given time and place.
I am sure that if a reader wants to know what Jung has to say about love, for example, he or she need only consult the index. A second stage might involve reading a particular chapter on a subject such as religion straight through from beginning to end. Other readers might choose to read the book from beginning to end following the map that I have laid out.
On the other hand, it could be tempting for the reader simply to open the book at random and read whatever appears on the page. This might be surprisingly beneficial, especially if one were grappling with some significant and vexing question.
Please note that the English translations are all copyright R.F.C. Hull, with the exception of Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Richard and Clara Winston), Liber Novus: The Red Book (Mark Kyburz, John Peck, and Sonu Shamdasani), The Question of Psychological Types (Ernst Falzeder with the collaboration of Tony Woolfson), and Children’s Dreams (Ernst Falzeder with the collaboration of Tony Woolfson).
May the readers of this volume derive as much joy as I have in the study of the life and work of Carl Gustav Jung.