Carl Jung: “Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living.”
To Gustav Schmaltz
30 May 1957
Dear Schmaltz:
I understand your wish very well, but I must tell you at once that it does not fit in my with my situation. I am not getting on at 82 and feel not only the weight of my years and the tiredness this brings, but even more strongly, the need to live in harmony with the inner demands of my old age. Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words. I have got my marching orders and only look back when there is nothing else to do. The journey is a great adventure in itself, but not one that can be talked about at great length. What you think of as a few days of spiritual communion would be unendurable for me with anyone, even my closest friends. The rest is silence! This realization comes clearer every day, as the need to communicate dwindles.
Naturally, I would be glad to see you for one afternoon for about two hours, preferably in Kusnacht, my door to the world. Around August 5 would suit me best, as I shall be home at then in any case. Meanwhile, with best greetings,
Yours ever,
Jung.
“To live in harmony with the inner demands” says it all whatever your age
A rather difficult task of course, not to mention balancing both inner and outer..
I’m assuming that Jung would have originally written this letter in German and not English. I’m looking for the original German text of this letter but have not been able to locate it despite a Google search in German. Can anyone help
I’m assuming that Jung would have originally written this letter in German and not English. I’m looking for the original German text of this letter but have not been able to locate it despite a Google search in German. Can anyone help?
Are you sure of the line, “I am not getting on at 82”? The version I’ve known is, “I am now getting on for 82”. What is the source of Jung’s original letter?
yes, this is a typo. When I work on the website this winter I will try to correct it.
This speaks volumes about the society in which he lived. “Western Culture is undergoing an epidemic of self-hatred and lonliness.” Buddhist Philosopher “I see more smiles (from/through the Heart) in those villages in one day — than I see during a whole year at the University of Colorado School of Engineering.” Founder of Engineers without Borders “American mothers could learn how to love their own children — by watching the Latinas and Philippinas who work with them here” (Southern California day care centers) Baba: “Pure-Love is only possible at moments of True-Peace” (the higher up the scale of from one to ten — the more Peace-full.).
52 and I agree.
All songs do come in the privacy of Consciousness and are communicated to fill the world with joy that we badly need to tolerate the sense of the tragedy of death in our own existence and all the physical matter sentenced to death–all renewal in nature, except we are no grass to grow back again.
We are keyed to live once let’s fill it up with the song and sing it to the world.
Death is final, song is its life.