Jung: A Biography

Review.

For some years, the only biographies of C.G. Jung’s were either insufficiency exhaustive or too partisan (written by allies and opponents, both). Deirdre Bair has filled the gap, providing this extensive look at Jung’s life — his experiences, controversies, theories, relationships, and much more.

Where Memories, Dreams, Reflections offers a poetic, mythic portrait of Jung’s life, Bair’s Jung: A Biography is serves as a factual biography, rigorously researched and offered in clear, linear prose. Those interested in the life of Jung, including the cultural and historical contexts surrounding him, will certainly be satisfied with Bair’s excellent account.

Left to himself so much of the time in the house and lacking playmates outside, the little boy depended upon his imagination for entertainment, frequently using both dreams and daydreams to create secret games and rituals that only he could play.

— Jung: A Biography p. 22