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This engaging script outlines the life of a woman who, throughout her long life, remained passionate about her inner world. Her memoir first appeared in German and it is thanks to Wendy Swan that we now have access to it in English. As well as sensitively written information about her own personal life struggles, the author also gives us insights into the work and personality of Jung as she experienced him. These insights fill gaps in our understanding of the man beyond those given in the recently published Red Book.
was born into a German-speaking Swiss family whose strict Victorian philosophy meant doing, and appearing to do, the right things. This created many fears in Keller-Jenny as she felt separated from her own nature. Her mother is described as beautiful and rich, and while her mother emphasized that she was happy, her daughter had half-conscious doubts about that being true. God was a huge part in their lives, as were cleanliness and orderliness. It was from this background of rigidity that the author emerged as a free-spirited, deeply intuitive, creative intellectual.
Intuitively attracted to Jung and his work, she began analysis with him in 1912. He introduced her to symbolic thought, dream analysis and spontaneous writing and encouraged her belief in religious experience and active imagination, which she often expressed in painting. She was in a prime position to observe and experience the beginnings of the development of psychoanalysis. It is a fascinating insight into the differences between analysis in the early 20th century and now.
Keller-Jenny was courageous in being open to new ways of working and not limited by established thinking. She describes her family of origin and clearly worked hard, reflecting on her inner world, and with an independence of thought brought partly from her background of being a physician. She was also married with five children. Using her intuition, she brought all this experience into her writing, which has an honesty and