The Red Book Through New Eyes

ABSTRACT

Jill Mellick, artist, Jungian psychologist, author, and researcher, explores the effect of creative experiences on psychological development, considering Jung’s Red Book from the unique perspective of the creative process itself. Through Mellick’s pioneering work and research supported by the Jung family, she discovers the mediums Jung used. With her trained and imaginative eye, she plunges into The Red Book pages, revealing a whole new world to the reader. She describes how the methods Jung chose to work in are inducive of a contemplative and meditative state of mind. The book is beautifully designed and contains hundreds of images, a reflection of the main theme of the book: form and content are inseparable.

KEY WORDS:

• art
• art media, C. G. Jung
• contemplation
• creativity
• illumination
• image
• painting technique
• The Red Book

Note

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).

Notes

1. All references to The Red Book Hours are indicated by page number only.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lucia Azevedo

LUCIA AZEVEDO is a psychologist and Jungian analyst working in private practice in São Paulo, Brazil. She is a member of the Brazilian Society for Analytical Psychology (SbrPA) and the Brazilian Institute for Sandplay Therapy (IBTSandplay), and she teaches and provides supervision in the training programs for both institutions. She is interested in the relationships between image, myth, psychological transformation, and healing. Among other works, she contributed the chapter “Dialogue with the Unconscious: Image, Expressive Techniques and Sandplay” to Jung and Reich: Articulating Concepts and Practices (2009). Correspondence: [email protected].