Memories, Dreams, Reflections

By: Carl Jung

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

'I can understand myself only in the light of inner happenings. It is these that make up the singularity of my life, and with these my autobiography deals' (Carl Gustav Jung)

In 1957, four years before his death, Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist, began writing his life story. But what started as an exercise in autobiography soon morphed into an altogether more profound undertaking. The result is an absorbing piece of self-analysis: a frank statement of faith, philosophy and principles from one of the great explorers of the human mind.

Covering everything from Sigmund Freud, analytical psychology and Jungian dream interpretation to a forthright discussion of world myths and religions, including Christianity, Buddhism and other religions, these final reflections on an extraordinary life are a fitting coda to the work of Carl Gustav Jung. It was Jung who observed and named key human characteristics such as the introvert, the extrovert, the animus, the anima, and other concepts such as archetypes (the wise old man, the mother), the collective unconscious, the complex and many more.

His studies took him into many fields - religion, anthropology, archeology and literature - which instructed his clinical work. This extraordinary breadth gave him a view of humanity and of culture that still resonates deeply.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections is a remarkable document showing a man of great depth, humility and perspicacity. Once read, it is never forgotten.

Aniela Jaffé's introduction is read by Elizabeth Proud.

©1963 Collins Routledge Kegan and Paul (P)2016 Ukemi Productions

Critic reviews

"Jung's single-minded humiity, his passion to unearth truth, is one of the loveliest impressions to emerge from this absorbing and many-sided book." ( The Times)

Dr. Jung's Life Would Make A Good Movie

An excellent autobiography from the psychiatrist who gave us the concept of synchronicity.

This book should be required reading/listening for anybody entering the field of Jungian psychology. It is also valuable for anybody who want to see how a self-actualized individual sees the world and participates in it. Most people never unify their inner worlds with their outer ones - there is always the "out there" and the "in here" - but Jung was aware of this unity. Without this unity, how would synchronicity be possible?

I was surprised to learn how Carl Jung’s ideas were extensions of his own life, not just concepts he pulled out of the air. His ongoing life and career were filled with synchronicities and moments of heightened consciousness. I was already familiar with the story of the patient who had a dream about an Egyptian scarab beetle. As she told Jung about the beetle dream, the Swiss equivalent to it flew to the window of his office. The book has many stories like that. For example, there was the spontaneous splitting of a wooden table in his house, and another time the spontaneous and noisy cracking of a kitchen knife. Neither had been touched. There was a similar incident when he met with Sigmund Freud.

It was fascinating to see how Carl Jung’s internal life of visions and dreams participated in his work to assist patients. When he wrote his memoir, people did not speak easily about dreams and visions…especially when some of these dreams were precognitive and about the deaths of people.

The story of his own medical crisis, which started with a broken foot that led to a heart attack and then deteriorated to the point of death, was eye-opening. I was not aware Jung had experienced a near death experience. I will not spoil the story except to say his dream about the doctor who saved his life is just another example of how naturally psychic Jung was.

The narration by James Cameron Stewart was excellent. He did not imitate Carl Jung, so there was no contrived Swiss accent, but there were a few times when I forgot the book was being narrated by somebody other than Dr. Jung. Ben Kingsley achieved the same effect when he narrated the autobiography of Swami Yogananda. The choice of Stewart as narrator was smart.

It will be easy to listen again to this memoir. There is still more to learn from the story of Jung’s life.

My favorite Audible production so far

Not only is Jung's life story unusually unique and compelling, but after hearing this book James Cameron Stewart is 100% my favorite narrator, and he REALLY captures Jung's thoughts and brings them to life in a highly original way; Stewart really goes above and beyond the standards that other narrators set for themselves. It's not just that he articulates and adds inflection in the right places, you really get the feeling that he read the book first and took notes in order to understand it and narrate it correctly.

Jung's story is unbelievably close to my own, in such a way that Stewart's narration makes it an even more hauntingly brilliant experience for me. Jung was misunderstood by so many people, and his intentions were not clearly read by others. The experiences that most influenced him were frequently negative in an arbitrary way, that is, it is as though he was picked out by others for unfair treatment (many great people are, it seems to me) but I am not great and it makes me that much more flattered that my own story has so much in common with Jung's.

This book is "Chicken soup for MY soul." If you listen to this book, I hope it is as rewarding for you as it has been for me.

Felt like I was listening to his inner voice

Beautifully narrated, this book is like listening to C.G. Jung's inner voice as he thinks about his life and focuses here and there on his childhood, his work, his travels, his family and relationships and especially his dreams and journeys into a world beyond the physical.

Gold mine

For novices and advanced students alike.
For me personally, it reminded me of the beauty of thought in itself and justified my own abundance of confusion about a million things and nothing in particular. Helped me begin to see that I don't have to go Good Will Hunting every moment and to expect that of myself is not only unreasonable but also off balance

Great narration of a magnificent man

10/10

My only complaint is that I was sad when it ended. Look up James Hillman if you want something similar to Jung.

Deep reflection from a brilliant man

I loved the first three quarters of the book, all based on life experience but honestly struggled at times toward the end, getting lost in Latin verbiage and extreme abstract thought, but such is the mystery of Jung.

Not a way to understand the work of Jung

Any additional comments?
Having not read Jung, I thought this might be a good way to get acquainted. This was not what I was looking for. The book is self-indulgent as we don't really care about his daydreams as an infant nor his flights of imagination on life after death. You might think these apparitions are treated to a Jungian analysis and deliver insight. They don't.To be frank it is largely drivel. We know that Jung values inner experience, what I did not understand was that Jung possibly struggles to separate reality from fantasy and preoccupies himself with his own hallucinations and dreams. His relationships do not interest him. His inner illusions he finds of extreme importance and he wrestled with them. His delusions and imaginings were not interesting to me.

NARRATIVE WAS SPOT ON!

I really enjoy this in depth look at a legend. These are his most personal thoughts and reflections. This is a journey inside a man who was wrestling with life's hardest questions. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?

False advertising

This is not read by James Cameron Stewart, only the prologue is. The rest is someone else’s unpleasant voice.

I couldn’t rate the story but had to put something.

loved it

profound book, many things came together, many new topics came up for further research. easy listen, wonderful narration.

'Two souls in his breast'

Jung's autobiography is no ordinary memoir, but then you wouldn't expect anything ordinary from a man with such an extraordinary mind. From a very young child he was aware of a splitting of himself and lived in a world of shadows and visions, some of them deeply troubling.

By the age of twelve he was convinced that he was both a boy and a powerful, wise old man living in the eighteenth century. (School was not an easy experience for Jung!) His mother, too, had two personalities and spoke in two voices. Fascinated by Goethe, he discovered a kindred spirit and identified with Faustus who had 'two souls in his breast.' Jung's intense and unceasing philosophical explorations - rejecting Hegel, embracing Schopenhauer for his inclusion of the consideration of suffering and evil in the world - lead him to reject the religious dogma of his father whom he suspects cannot bring himself to voice his own doubts. Jung values myth, accepting it as the divine manifestation in human beings of what they interpret as 'the word of God'.

A generous section of the autobiography is devoted to the curious cases of Jung's clinical patients whose unconscious and conscious psyches, neuroses he strives to heal. Jung refers to the 'untrodden and untreadable region' of neurotics. It is into these realms that he ventures, explaining and arguing his concepts with absolute clarity.

This is a specialist seminal work and the narration is appropriately respectful without being sycophantic, and also admirably clear and helpfully cadenced.

An intensely cerebral and insightful work.

I had no expectations of this book having never before read any of his work. I had heard of his influence on bands I love, so decided to explore. No regrets whatsoever. I will dip into this into the future too as it is almost too much to absorb in one go. I normally ramp up the speed on audio books to 1.6 to 1.8 x speed. Not this one. 1.4 x speed was as fast as my brain could digest it!

Fascinating

As a relative novice to the works of Jung I found this book intriguing, filled with resonance and mystery. A brilliant introduction. Well written. Well read. I'm sad it has ended - may well have to listen again and again as the content is very dense in places.

game changer

great insights from an interesting man. changed a few of my outlooks and made me more accepting of alternative ideas

Deep insight into the psyche

Lovely insight into Jung"s philosophy. It dips into his relationship with Fred and his discovery of the symbolism of dreams,. Fascinating.

It was a long 16 hours

I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are a fan of jungs other works, it ranges from fascinating insightful and wise to horrendously boring, I have definitely taken value from this book but it was a bit tedious listening to jung trying to make sense of what appears to be random dreams, someone with a more mature understanding of jung and his philosophy would benefit more from this.

interesting tho largely incomprehensible.

Not being a philosopher or theologian has some disadvantages when reading this book. however as a therapist reading the personal account of the writer existing in different states of consciousness, whether being part of the shared reality of the world or a symbolic dream like state that is commonly understood as psychosis, but interpreted by Jung as the large, usually unconscious state, however full of shared symbolism, is fascinating. it is a very unusually uninhibited way of perceiving altered states of consciousness.

good book

love it! a book that will help you understand yourself and others easier. highly recommend

This is an astounding book!

This book is no ordinary one. All I can say for now is—one must read this book if he wants to deepen his insights in the field of psyche. My full review could be found on Goodreads.

A wonderful insight into Jungs thoughts

A slow read as lots od thoughts to assimilate. Narrator very believable and easy. Great