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Von Franz is perhaps best known in English-speaking countries for her several studies of fairy tales, her substantial book on projection, her exploration of time and number, and, of course, her contribution on individuation in Man and his Symbols. The present volume, the fourth in the series of von Franz's selected papers, brings together essays and lectures dating from 1969 to 1985 on the theme of the archetypal dimensions of the soul. Three of the chapters appeared in English originally (‘Antichrist or Merlin’, ‘The transformed Berserker’, and ‘Individuation and social relationship’); a fourth is available in English translation (‘The process of individuation’). The remaining ten chapters were either delivered as lectures or published in German.
In the present collection, von Franz's fundamental concern with individuation and her strong sense of cultural history inform each of the chapters, and it is in this context that she poses perhaps her major question: ‘But does this process [of individuation] also play a role in human history? Or does it repeat itself again and again only in certain outstanding individuals of all eras?’ (p. 153). Three aspects emerge from her fundamental query. First, is the individuation of a modern person lesser than that of a doubtlessly individuated personality (e.g., a Lao-tse)? Second, if not, are there progressively more individuated people than in earlier times? And third, does the symbol of the Self change in developmentally linear form from which we can discern the evolution of humanity in the sense of change, if not progress?
In regard to the first question, von Franz answers with a ‘no’. Individuation is by definition individual, hence comparisons are not possible. In order to explore the second and third questions, which she believes must be considered together, von Franz focuses on a specific symbol of the Self, the ‘cosmic man’. Without attempting to précis her discussion, I will share her tentative conclusion: ‘Seen in histori