What do you think?
Rate this book
Jung: His Life and Work
This full-scale study of Jung's life and work is written by a close student, friend, and associate of more than thirty years. It is a lucid, penetrating account of his career, stressing the essential wholeness of the man and tracing the difficult path that led to that wholeness. From his earliest years to his death, through the crowded inner and outer events of his long lifetime, Hannah presents a view of the real Jung, not the creature of legend and cult. She treats his theoretical apparatus as well as such personal matters as his relationship with Toni Wolff and his supposed flirtation with Nazism. Here we see Jung's humanity and his genius as a "navigator of the unconscious."
Barbara Hannah (1891–1986) was born in England. She went to Zurich in 1929 to study with Carl Jung and lived in Switzerland the rest of her life. A close associate of Jung until his death, she was a practicing psychotherapist and lecturer at the C.G. Jung Institute. Her books available from Chiron include The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals; Encounters with the Soul; Jung, His Life and Work: A Biographical Memoir; and Striving Toward Wholeness.
Barbara Hannah (1891–1986) was born in England. She went to Zurich in 1929 to study with Carl Jung and lived in Switzerland the rest of her life. A close associate of Jung until his death, she was a practicing psychotherapist and lecturer at the C.G. Jung Institute. Her books available from Chiron include The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals; Encounters with the Soul; Jung, His Life and Work: A Biographical Memoir; and Striving Toward Wholeness.
499 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1976
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 9, 2022
Barbara Hannah was in a unique position to write this book. She was a student and a friend of Carl Jung’s for better than thirty years. In another book of Hannah’s, Encounters with the Soul, she had a tendency to idolize Jung, with lots and lots of “Jung said this” and “Jung said that”. I was concerned that might make this book, which she calls a ‘biographical memoir’, really unbalanced; however, for the most part, Hannah does an outstanding job of interweaving Jung’s own words, from conversations and from his published writings, with the events of his life. I came away with a deeper appreciation of this towering genius of depth psychology. And speaking of ‘towering’, I’d always assumed from photos that Jung was a short man. He was actually 6’2.
February 16, 2011
I read this book in 1996. These are notes I made in my journal:
Ego is the center of consciousness; however, consciousness represents only a fraction of the whole psyche. Self and Ego are two separate persons who are present in every "normal" human being.
Self is usually "unseen" (although it sees) ;"unheard"(although it hears); "unperceived"(although it perceives); "unknown" (although it knows); by the limited conscious ego.
Anima: the feminine figure in men.
Animus: the male figure in women.
I am really interested in the works of Carl Jung as compared to Sigmund Freud. His theories speak to me on a higher level than those of Freud.
Ego is the center of consciousness; however, consciousness represents only a fraction of the whole psyche. Self and Ego are two separate persons who are present in every "normal" human being.
Self is usually "unseen" (although it sees) ;"unheard"(although it hears); "unperceived"(although it perceives); "unknown" (although it knows); by the limited conscious ego.
Anima: the feminine figure in men.
Animus: the male figure in women.
I am really interested in the works of Carl Jung as compared to Sigmund Freud. His theories speak to me on a higher level than those of Freud.
May 29, 2026
There was a daimon in me, and in the end its presence proved decisive. It overpowered me, and if I was at times ruthless it was because I was in the grip of this daimon. I could never stop at anything once attained. I had to hasten on to catch up with my vision.... I had to obey an inner law which was imposed on me and left me no freedom of choice.
Toward the end of his life, Jung realized that this dream was initiating him into the secrets of the earth. It foretold a kind of burial in the earth, in the realm of darkness, where he had to pass many years in order that the greatest possible amount of light should be brought into the darkness. He even said that this dream was the beginning of his intellectual life. But already at the time, when he was barely four years old, he knew that he had dreamed of a subterranean God and always thought of it involuntarily whenever he heard Jesus praised too emphatically. He realized very soon that this subterranean God was somehow connected with Jesus, was even his counterpart. This probably happened because a certain doubt of Jesus had already been sown by his daily life in the Vicarage.
Once again he saw the same scene in the sky above the cathedral, but this time he let the thought continue and saw an enormous turd fall from beneath the throne, shattering the sparkling new roof and breaking the walls of the cathedral asunder. Instead of the expected damnation, however, he felt an “indescribable relief” and “an unutterable feeling of bliss” such as he had never known before. This highly blasphemous thought, from the traditional point of view, gave him his first experience of “the miracle of grace which heals all and makes all comprehensible.” He realized at once that this was the result of his obedience to the inexorable demand of God, who evidently refused to abide by any tradition, no matter how sacred it might be; he realized also that the only thing in life which really matters is fulfilling God's will.
This shattering experience had a double effect on the boy. On the one hand, many things that had been puzzling him for years were at last explained. Above all he understood for the first time the depression and irritability of his father. Evidently his father did not know the immediate living God who stands, omnipotent and free, above His Bible and His Church. In other words: had the father been in the same situation as the son, he would have kept to the traditional idea of right and wrong at all costs, because he believed (or tried to believe) in “God as the Bible prescribed and as his forefathers had taught him” and this for the "best reasons and out of the deepest faith." Nevertheless, he thus saw only one side, and in consequence cut himself off from the living God and from the miracle of grace. The boy realized this completely, and felt compassion for his father as he never had before. On the other hand, the traditional standpoint—as Jung used so often to point out in later years—is not just a matter of personal education but is, as it were, written in the blood of us all.
This side in the boy was deeply shocked by this thought from the deepest unconscious, for which there was not only no direct line of tradition but also, as far as I know, no parallels. In later years he found a so-called context—other ideas of the same kind in different times and places—for almost all his childhood experiences (the phallic dream, the manikin, the stone, and so on), but never, as far as I know, for this idea of God destroying His cathedral in such a way. He was forced to the conclusion that God could be terrible and terrifying, and that he himself must be "infinitely depraved," a devil or a swine, to have seen such a thing belonging to God's dark side. On the one hand, because of his experience of the miracle of grace, he was sure he knew much more about the living God than his father or the many clergymen in his environment. He felt this "as a kind of distinction," and yet actually it was at the same time "a shaming experience," because of the enormity and blasphemy of the thought, seen from his own traditional side. He thus painfully learned to know the opposites—which were later to play such a leading role in his psychology—in actual daily experience and as part of himself.
The day was marked by a new black suit and hat, more grown-up than ever before, which in themselves gave him a feeling of being "'accepted into the society of men." Jung mentioned only old men at the service. An old wheelwright, whom he liked and had often observed admiringly at his work, was his sponsor, and he watched the faces of all these men in suspense for signs of "the vast despair, the overpowering elation and outpouring of grace which constituted the essence of God" for him. But there was nothing of the kind to be seen or felt, only the impression that, as usual in church, everything was being conscientiously performed in the "traditionally correct manner." He hardly knew how he felt on the day itself, but slowly he came to understand that this communion had been a fatal experience. It had proved hollow, more than that, it had proved to be a total loss," and he knew he could never participate in this ceremony again. For him God was in no way present in His Church, which seemed to him to be a place of death, not of life. He must keep as far away from it as he could in future.
My sense of union with the Church and with the human world, so far as I knew it, was shattered. I had, so it seemed to me, suffered the greatest defeat of my life. The religious outlook which I imagined constituted my sole meaningful relation with the universe had disintegrated; I could no longer participate in the general faith, but found myself involved in something inexpressible, in my secret, which I began to ponder: What must one think of God? I had not invented that thought about God and the cathedral, still less the dream that had i began to ponder: What must one think of God? I had not invented that thought about God and the cathedral, still less the dream thathad befallen me at the age of three. A stronger will than mine had imposed both on me. Had nature been responsible? But nature was nothing other than the will of the Creator. Nor did it help to accuse the devil, for he too was a creature of God. God alone was real—an annihilating fire and an indescribable grace.
What about the failure of Communion to affect me? Was that my own failure? I had prepared for it in all earnestness, and hoped for an experience of grace and illumination, and nothing had happened. God had been absent. For God's sake I now found myself cut off from the Church and from my father's and everybody else's faith. Insofar as they all represented the Christian religion, I was an outsider. This knowledge filled me with a sadness which was to overshadow all the years until the time I entered the university.
When he saw how imprisoned his father was in the traditional teaching of the Church, and how those walls cut him off from experiencing the living God, he understood better than ever before why in his vision God had destroyed the walls of his own cathedral.
He dreamed that he was walking slowly in the pitch dark against a strong wind, sheltering a tiny light with his hands. Everything depended on his keeping this light alive against almost impossible odds. At the same time he was terrified to realize that a "gigantic black figure" was following him.
Toward the end of his life, Jung realized that this dream was initiating him into the secrets of the earth. It foretold a kind of burial in the earth, in the realm of darkness, where he had to pass many years in order that the greatest possible amount of light should be brought into the darkness. He even said that this dream was the beginning of his intellectual life. But already at the time, when he was barely four years old, he knew that he had dreamed of a subterranean God and always thought of it involuntarily whenever he heard Jesus praised too emphatically. He realized very soon that this subterranean God was somehow connected with Jesus, was even his counterpart. This probably happened because a certain doubt of Jesus had already been sown by his daily life in the Vicarage.
Once again he saw the same scene in the sky above the cathedral, but this time he let the thought continue and saw an enormous turd fall from beneath the throne, shattering the sparkling new roof and breaking the walls of the cathedral asunder. Instead of the expected damnation, however, he felt an “indescribable relief” and “an unutterable feeling of bliss” such as he had never known before. This highly blasphemous thought, from the traditional point of view, gave him his first experience of “the miracle of grace which heals all and makes all comprehensible.” He realized at once that this was the result of his obedience to the inexorable demand of God, who evidently refused to abide by any tradition, no matter how sacred it might be; he realized also that the only thing in life which really matters is fulfilling God's will.
This shattering experience had a double effect on the boy. On the one hand, many things that had been puzzling him for years were at last explained. Above all he understood for the first time the depression and irritability of his father. Evidently his father did not know the immediate living God who stands, omnipotent and free, above His Bible and His Church. In other words: had the father been in the same situation as the son, he would have kept to the traditional idea of right and wrong at all costs, because he believed (or tried to believe) in “God as the Bible prescribed and as his forefathers had taught him” and this for the "best reasons and out of the deepest faith." Nevertheless, he thus saw only one side, and in consequence cut himself off from the living God and from the miracle of grace. The boy realized this completely, and felt compassion for his father as he never had before. On the other hand, the traditional standpoint—as Jung used so often to point out in later years—is not just a matter of personal education but is, as it were, written in the blood of us all.
This side in the boy was deeply shocked by this thought from the deepest unconscious, for which there was not only no direct line of tradition but also, as far as I know, no parallels. In later years he found a so-called context—other ideas of the same kind in different times and places—for almost all his childhood experiences (the phallic dream, the manikin, the stone, and so on), but never, as far as I know, for this idea of God destroying His cathedral in such a way. He was forced to the conclusion that God could be terrible and terrifying, and that he himself must be "infinitely depraved," a devil or a swine, to have seen such a thing belonging to God's dark side. On the one hand, because of his experience of the miracle of grace, he was sure he knew much more about the living God than his father or the many clergymen in his environment. He felt this "as a kind of distinction," and yet actually it was at the same time "a shaming experience," because of the enormity and blasphemy of the thought, seen from his own traditional side. He thus painfully learned to know the opposites—which were later to play such a leading role in his psychology—in actual daily experience and as part of himself.
The day was marked by a new black suit and hat, more grown-up than ever before, which in themselves gave him a feeling of being "'accepted into the society of men." Jung mentioned only old men at the service. An old wheelwright, whom he liked and had often observed admiringly at his work, was his sponsor, and he watched the faces of all these men in suspense for signs of "the vast despair, the overpowering elation and outpouring of grace which constituted the essence of God" for him. But there was nothing of the kind to be seen or felt, only the impression that, as usual in church, everything was being conscientiously performed in the "traditionally correct manner." He hardly knew how he felt on the day itself, but slowly he came to understand that this communion had been a fatal experience. It had proved hollow, more than that, it had proved to be a total loss," and he knew he could never participate in this ceremony again. For him God was in no way present in His Church, which seemed to him to be a place of death, not of life. He must keep as far away from it as he could in future.
My sense of union with the Church and with the human world, so far as I knew it, was shattered. I had, so it seemed to me, suffered the greatest defeat of my life. The religious outlook which I imagined constituted my sole meaningful relation with the universe had disintegrated; I could no longer participate in the general faith, but found myself involved in something inexpressible, in my secret, which I began to ponder: What must one think of God? I had not invented that thought about God and the cathedral, still less the dream that had i began to ponder: What must one think of God? I had not invented that thought about God and the cathedral, still less the dream thathad befallen me at the age of three. A stronger will than mine had imposed both on me. Had nature been responsible? But nature was nothing other than the will of the Creator. Nor did it help to accuse the devil, for he too was a creature of God. God alone was real—an annihilating fire and an indescribable grace.
What about the failure of Communion to affect me? Was that my own failure? I had prepared for it in all earnestness, and hoped for an experience of grace and illumination, and nothing had happened. God had been absent. For God's sake I now found myself cut off from the Church and from my father's and everybody else's faith. Insofar as they all represented the Christian religion, I was an outsider. This knowledge filled me with a sadness which was to overshadow all the years until the time I entered the university.
When he saw how imprisoned his father was in the traditional teaching of the Church, and how those walls cut him off from experiencing the living God, he understood better than ever before why in his vision God had destroyed the walls of his own cathedral.
He dreamed that he was walking slowly in the pitch dark against a strong wind, sheltering a tiny light with his hands. Everything depended on his keeping this light alive against almost impossible odds. At the same time he was terrified to realize that a "gigantic black figure" was following him.
April 11, 2025
Very thorough and interesting biography of Carl Jung, written by a devoted pupil and Jungian analyst in her own right. Hannah does a great job with the details, going chronologically through Jung’s entire life, and providing details on all of his important works and how they came to be, including some lesser-known ones. Sometimes the writing was a bit biased in its obvious servitude to Jung; I don’t think she said a critical thing about him at any point. You definitely got the impression that Jung could do no wrong and was even a bit of a Godly figure in her eyes. Despite this, if you want an informative and thorough biography of the man, this is it. She also referenced his own autobiography often and in context of what was being discussed, always referring to Jung’s perspective on any particular point, and being open to the fact that her POV was her own.
September 20, 2024
As I continue on my strange yet satisfying attempt to read most written by and about Jung, whose insights have had such an impact on my life in psychotherapy, I found this biography very interesting and gave me many new perspectives on the lived existence of CGJ. I do think it’s important to understand how his life relates to his schemas and paradigms.
January 5, 2020
A brilliant take on a brilliant man.
June 2, 2020
Some good information but a lot of extraneous stuff about peripheral people. Best seen as a companion to Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
September 25, 2021
An excellent biography of Jung. The author was a Jungian analyst who spent a lot of time with Jung and weaves in many insights Jung shared with her.
August 31, 2025
Enjoyed it. Cringed a few times. Enjoyed her personal stories of Jung and the stuff about ww2 the most.
December 25, 2012
This is one of many sympathetic biographies of C.G. Jung written by a female disciple which may also serve as an introduction to his thought. I read it in conjuction with a Jung course taught at Loyola Unversity Chicago's Institute of Pastoral Studies during the first semester of 1982-83.
December 23, 2008
I found the book to be engaging and informative about the man and how he came to be who he was...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews