Face to Face with Carl Jung: ‘Man Can’t Stand a Meaningless Life’ (1959)

Carl Gus­tav Jung, founding father of ana­lyt­ic psy­chol­o­gy and explor­er of the col­lec­tive uncon­scious, was born on July 26, 1875 within the vil­lage of Kess­wil, within the Thur­gau can­ton of Switzer­land. Above, we current a fas­ci­nat­ing 39-minute inter­view of Jung by John Free­man for the BBC professional­gram Face to Face. It was filmed at Jung’s dwelling at Küs­nacht, on the shore of Lake Zürich, and broad­solid on Octo­ber 22, 1959, when Jung was 84 years outdated. He speaks on a variety of sub­jects, from his youngster­hood and edu­ca­tion to his asso­ci­a­tion with Sig­mund Freud and his views on loss of life, reli­gion and the way forward for the human race. At one level Free­man asks Jung whether or not he believes in God, and Jung appears to hes­i­tate. “It’s dif­fi­cult to reply,” he says. “I do know. I don’t have to consider. I do know.”

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