A Life of Jung

by Ronald Hayman

This "Meticulously Researched" (The Times London) biography explores the complex character of one of the world's most influential psychoanalysts. Having gained access to a substantial amount of previously unpublished material, Ronald Hayman offers a rare insight into how Jung's revolutionary ideas grew out of his own extraordinary experiences. With notable objectivity, Hayman investigates the most crucial questions surrounding this enigmatic figure. What actually went on during Jung's sessions with patients? Was his mother insane? Was he a borderline case? What were the consequences of a homosexual episode in his boyhood? Was he pro-Nazi or anti-Semitic? Why did he fail to sustain any of his friendships with men? Did he sometimes mean "God" when he said the "Unconscious"? Why was he so secretive?

Genres: Biography, Psychology, Science, Nonfiction, History

522 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

Ronald Hayman is a critic, dramatist, director and writer best known for his biographies.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other than reading his book on flying saucers as a child, my interest in C.G. Jung began during the sophomore year in college and resulted in my reading his collected works, corresponding with his eldest son and his personal secretary and writing a book-length thesis on the philosophical bases of his thinking. In addition, I joined the local Jung society and read hosts of other works by and about analytical psychology, including, naturally, many biographies of the great man himself.

Consequent to all of this I became rather disenchanted. Having mastered most of the arcana which interested him and had so impressed me, I was left with meagre respect for his work as a "scientist" as there was little of such concern in his work and found I had lost most of my respect for him as a person. Still, over the years, I have picked up such books about Jung as have come my way in order to keep my hand in, this unexceptional biography being one of them.

[Brian Eyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is both a journey of the mind and test of wit. It’s a test of wit because Hayman has written a biography of Jung so meticulously detailed and at times disjointedly organized that the reader will want to give up on the mission of finishing the book many times. It’s also a test of wit because like all humans - Jung is human - and he often acted on his temptations and followed through with them that a reader will often ask oneself, how could this man inspire a global movement? But Jung did, and Hayman tells us why Jung is a revelatory sage to and the hero we needed in the 20th century to deliver us into a new psychology and help us graduated from the limits of Freudian thought. After reading this book, I feel I got to know Jung quite well and know his life much better than I understand his works. This knowledge will be critical when informing an interpretation of his works and understanding why his philosophy and interpretations changed throughout his life. Profound!

[MariMel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've tried reading this a few times and I think it's just not a good enough book to finish. I got through the first section this time (about 80 pages). Although it was written in the 1990s, it seemed very outdated and didn't give me much insight into Jung. However, it was well-researched.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hayman's Jung emerges as a besmirched genius, certainly the Hero of his own life, a cult leader that pretended to be a scientist (when it suited him), a prophet with feet of clay or something even more fetid. I read this biography as I was reading some essays in The Portable Jung for a reading group, essays that astonished me with their ersatz profundity and vast confabulations. Hayman's biography anchored the running riot of reservations from my reading in the rich Swiss soil of Jung's life. A blurb on the back of the bio sums up my impression as well: "this charismatic guru... who dedicated his life to healing humanity, had a horror of intimacy that made him incapable of sustaining friendship or love in his private life."

I've been fascinated by Jungian ideas for the last 30 years, a body of thought I've received second-hand from brilliant "archetypal" interpreters like James Hillmann and Patricia Berry. I find their work far more illuminating and psyche-stirring than Jung's faux-academic sludge or fantastical autobiography.

That said, there's still something deeply appealing (in an almost sociopathic sense) of this middle-aged professor building a tower by a lake in solitude, with his bare hands, painting his visions and transcribing conversations with his daimons, entertaining his mistresses and acolytes, that indeed persuaded me that he was larger than life. And, inevitably, the whole time I was reading it, my dreams became more deeply Jungian. Worse things can happen...

[Jack Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Startling introduction to one of the foremost psychoanalysts of our time.
Well written and researched. Bizarre life of a very strange person but engaging nontheless.
library copy

[Destinee Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very detailed, and showed a more indepth aspect of Carl Jungs life that he tried to keep secret. I was entertained at times, and bored out of my mind at others.

[Richard Naimish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ouch!