Jung’s Red Book for Our Time Searching for Soul Under Postmodern Conditions
The spiritual malaise regnant in today’s disenchanted world presents a picture of “a polar night of icy darkness,” as Max Weber wrote already a century ago. This collective dark night of the soul is driven by climate change-related disasters, rapid technological innovations, and opaque geostrategic realignments. In the wake of what policy analysts refer to as “Westlessness,” the postmodern age is characterized by incessant distractions, urgent calls to responsibility, and in-humanly short deadlines, which result in a general state of exhaustion and burnout. The hovering sense of living in a time frame that is post-histoire induces states of confusion on a personal level as well as in the realm of politics. Totally missing is a grand narrative to guide humanity’s vision in the midst of a world crisis. Thinkers, scholars, and Jungian analysts are increasingly looking to C.G. Jung’s monumental oeuvre, The Red Book, as a source for guidance to re-enchant the world and to find a new and deeper understanding of the homo religiosus. The essays in this series on Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions circle around this objective and offer countless points of entry into this inspiring work.