There are different ways of looking at the achievements of outstanding personalities. Each can be studied in the light of his individual development, of the historical influences that played upon him, or of the more intangible collective influences expressed by the word Zeitgeist. Jung’s attention was directed mainly to the great cultural movements—alchemy in particular—which compensated the Zeitgeist or arose from it, and to the creative spirit that introduced pioneering interpretations into realms as diverse as those of medicine, psychoanalysis, Oriental studies, the visual arts, and literature. The essays on Paracelsus, Freud, the sinologist Richard Wilhelm, Picasso, and Joyce’s Ulysses have been brought together in illustration of this central theme; two others consider literary products independently of personality structure and the psychology of the individual artist. The source of scientific and artistic creativity in archetypal structures, and particularly in the dynamics of the “spirit archetype,” forms an essential counterpoint to the theme underlying this collection of essays.
*
Grateful acknowledgment is made to those who helped in various ways to document and annotate the contents of this volume, particularly the essay on Ulysses: Leonard Albert, Daniel Brody, Ed. Bucher, Joseph Campbell, Stanley Dell, Richard Ellmann, Carola Giedion-Welcker, Stuart Gilbert, Jolande Jacobi, Aniela Jaffé, and Lilly Jung. For permission to quote from Joyce’s Ulysses the publishers acknowledge to Random House, Inc., New York, and The Bodley Head Ltd., London.