C. G. Jung: The Critical Edition, Volume 1 (1896–1900)

An authoritative new translation of Jung’s writings from his student years
Featuring extensive original commentary as well as diary excerpts and other rare materials published here for the first time

As a medical student at the University of Basel, C. G. Jung was a member of the Zofingia Society, a student fraternity, becoming president of the Basel section in the winter semester 1897–1898. Between 1896 and 1899, he delivered four lectures there, addressing empirical psychology, natural science, philosophy, spiritualism, metaphysics, and religion—topics that anticipate and illuminate his later work. In these early writings, Jung wrestles with the tension between scientific materialism and his religious-metaphysical interests, criticizing reductionist views in the sciences while still insisting on scientific method. He argues for a life principle irreducible to matter that would enable the possibility of the postmortem existence of the soul.

This volume presents Jung’s lectures together with the discussions that followed. It also includes transcripts of several of his sittings with his cousin Helene Preiswerk, material he later used for his medical dissertation. Beginning in 1898, Jung kept a personal diary; the volume offers excerpts in which he continues to reflect on philosophical, literary, and religious issues—including the aesthetics of music—together with an unpublished piece on Tolstoy’s Resurrection. Also included are philosophical notes he began compiling around 1897, portions of which continued in his diary, as well as a reading list with comments prepared for his Zofingia lectures. Two papers he wrote for his medical curriculum—on wound infection and pellagra—are likewise reproduced.

The Critical Edition of the Works of C. G. Jung is a monumental, multiyear publishing initiative that introduces Jung’s writings to a new generation of readers in a vibrant new English translation. Each volume features an in-depth historical introduction, informative annotations that draw on Jung’s unpublished correspondence, a detailed chronology, and variorum presentations of works that went through multiple editions.