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In the summer of 1979, in the course of moving my office, I came across some old correspondence in my files. To my puzzlement, I found a letter from C.G. Jung, dated October 20, 1955, which I did not recall having received. The letter was typed, was not signed nor addressed to me by name. Subsequently, Dr. Jung's son, Franz Jung, wrote me that he had proof that the letter was addressed to Dr. Hans Illing. Investigation has since established that this was indeed the case and that an article by Dr. Illing, entitled “Jung and the Jews,” containing most of the letter in translation, appeared in the Chicago Jewish Forum, Fall 1956.1
Unaware at the time, that most of Jung's letter had appeared in translation, I wrote F. Jung for permission to publish the letter in American Imago. The letter contained statements which Jung had made elsewhere, such as that the Jews, like other ethnic groups, had their special characteristic psychology. But my reason for thinking that the letter should be published was that it contained two new and striking observations: One was his characterization of National Socialism; the other coupled this observation to Jung's study Answer To Job.
To my astonishment, F. Jung refused permission. I quote from his letter of August 14, 1979:
I agree it is C.G.J, speaking with all probability. But I don't agree on behalf of the Jung-Heirs to publish now
* Read before the Philadelphia Association for Psychoanalysis, March 20, 1981.
How a copy of the original reached me still puzzles me—Possibly, Dr. Illing (whom I knew as a contributor to a journal I edited—The Guide to Psychiatric and Psychological Literature)—sent me a copy.—All this was some 25 years before.
Page 3such a letter to renew old controversies on the psychology of the Jews. What Jung wrote in 1934 must be seen in a whole new connection and not only be quoted sentence by sentence again 45 years later.
On August 26, 1979, I wrote F. Jung drawing attention to the fact that the letter was