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CAN JUNG’S HOME WITHSTAND REPURPOSING?

Apr 1, 2023

Image Credit: Rich Poling

It seems that an intrepid consortium of impact investors, real estate developers, and the Swiss Tourism, Farming and Dairy Oversight Authority [STFDOA] have created a juggernaut heading for Jung’s home in Kusnacht and his famous tower in Bollingen. The enterprise called Große Böse Wölfe Hinein Unterwäsche has announced its plans to finalize the acquisition of Jung’s estate and transform it.

The modernization of revered sites is familiar across the world. Saddled with mounting maintenance costs and increasing government regulation, British Estates have been repurposed as luxury hotels and sacred temples into coffee houses. Ineligible for inclusion as a UNESCO world heritage site, the Jung properties were placed in a precarious position and seemed to be headed for a similar fate. The consortium has leaked plans to position the properties within a large compound inspired by the successful Disney Adventureland highlighting fairytale motifs.

While Jung himself might have delighted in bringing the archetypal themes in the Grimm’s tales to life, it is hard to imagine he would have tolerated the intrusion into his sanctuary, Bollingen. Analytical Psychology has long understood the role of liminal spaces that straddle two states of consciousness. One could argue that the developer’s plans will likewise provide a transitional space between the quaint blend of medieval and Heimatstil Architektur of the original buildings and innovative technology and luxury hospitality.

Like Jung himself, this venture suggests a battle between the Voice of the Times and the Voice of the Depths. To capture the interest of the modern collective, focused on boutique experiences, the creative team is including a luxury hotel compound, a spa centered on historic Swiss folk remedies, children’s camps inspired by Jung’s boyhood experiences, and an immersive virtual reality-enhanced tour based on Emilie Preiswerk’s spiritualist practices.

Perhaps to mollify the expected outrage, the consortium plans to support the analytic community by digitalizing the Jung library and reproducing artifacts from the homes for sale abroad. Finally, as a bow to the Voice of the Deep, there are plans to organize a nonprofit extension of the new corporation that will fund quantitative research into the efficacy of Analytical Psychology—a long-awaited tool to protect the integrity of Jungian analysis.

Holding the tension of the opposites, modernization vs. heritage, may help our community envision the transformation of the Jung properties as a kind of symbol that blends both values without diminishing either. Or we may find our memories, dreams, and reflections trampled by monetization and exploitation. Only time will tell.

~ Joseph R. Lee

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15 Comments

  1. Ken

    Excellent April fools. Well played

    Reply
    • Angela Ledington-Fischer

      Omg!!! Now I’m disappointed!! That would be one of my bucket list trips to Switzerland!! Really it was an April fools joke? There really are no plans?

      Reply
    • Toni

      Really not funny. This is spreading as if it is true.

      Reply
  2. Arif

    Are they going to include an exhibition of Jung’s tattoos? That had me quite entranced last year…

    Reply
  3. jul

    Please let this be a Aprilscherz

    Reply
  4. Diana

    I think they are also planning on an attraction that will only be opened one day a year, on April 1st. Each year with a different theme.

    Reply
  5. Charlotte

    You got me! I was so outraged I could not listen to the end, and spent most of my day writing an essay in response. I have to say, I am very pleased with my essay though, so thanks for that. (laughing)

    Reply
  6. Mary

    Wow, you captured my imagination and my mind was whirling trying to understand all of the moving parts.
    Masterful. Well played. You three are a constant source for me—the well runs deep. But most of all you all make me smile so very much. With every bit of earnest in my heart—Thank you. ox

    Reply
  7. Kathrin Hartmann

    Brilliant! Hats off to Joe, Deb, and Lisa for such a clever and thought-provoking episode!

    Reply
  8. Sandy Hubbard

    This triggered me. It has taken me hours to realise I need to thank the 3 of you. Thank you, for helping me realise my own gullibility and unquestioning trust that led to my feelings of anger and humiliation.
    You have helped galvanise me to confront and withstand the discussions I am having in my intimate life, to see myself more clearly, to slice through the repetitive circles that constrain me.
    On a broader perspective, I wonder what a discussion with TJL and Peter Kingsley would look like? An exploration of Jungs ‘Verkunden’, his ‘Botschaft’ that drove him, the ‘Métis’ he embodied to communicate (Kingsley, Catafalque, p.316-318); The ‘Bekleidungsstoff’ (ibid, p.329) he worked the rest of his life on and the ‘mystical fool’ he understood himself to be (ibid, p.343).
    🧐🙂

    Reply
    • Mamie Allegretti

      Hello,
      I think Kingsley puts this masterfully in the pages you mention. I see Jung as a wonderful bridge from the past to the present and on into the future. He was a wonderful shapeshifter, trickster, paradox revealer, prophet. He walked between all the worlds – transcendent, scientific, everyday reality, the mundus imaginalis, the left and right hemisphere (I’m using left and right hemisphere as a kind of metaphor.) He cloaked his explanation of experience in the vocabulary of “science” because he saw the need to present it in a way that would be “acceptable” to society of the times. And it must be so hard to speak of the spirit or the transcendent , the unknowable, in a way that can be grasped by a society so immersed in the “left hemisphere” way of seeing. I think Jung’s life was a beautiful balance of the opposites here in the movement of time.

      Reply
  9. Amy Sommer

    Love this. Now, how about an episode circumnavigating what comes up in the listener before and after we realize it’s an April Fool’s episode!?!

    Reply
  10. Mamie Allegretti

    Hello Joseph, Lisa and Deb,
    I’m hoping this doesn’t give anyone any ideas!!!

    Reply
  11. Deborah

    Love you guys, you are natural comics! Jung’s AI head had me laughing out loud on my walk. Thank you for this, and of course for the growing body of more serious work you make available. Absolutely top class.

    Reply
  12. Darby Christopher

    This was epic. I am in awe of how you pulled this off, and a little angry. You were too good at it. I was very upset, hurt even. (I’ll be okay :)). And, I did finally come to your web site and just sign up for your newsletter, so there’s that. Jokes comes with a cost, don’t they? I’m sure you’ve covered this! Anyway, I do enjoy your show and am grateful for it. I’ll keep listening. And … (insert expletives)

    Reply

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