Jung was a highly complex man - of the opposites, he would say, and any attempt by others to simplify his experience will inevitably deliver the interpolating agency into the hands of his own opposites. We will see this film and observe the persona of a young and ambitious physician in the process of becoming world famous, but it is only half the story. There are two Jungs and it is inevitable that any contemporary exposition about the number one Jung, for the sake of completeness, will have to incorporate, albeit unconsciously in most cases, the number two Jung, the evolution of which, really did not blossom until he had withdrawn his Old Wise Man archetypal projection from Freud.
To begin to understand this second Jung, we must first look at The Red Book. It is effectively, the exposition of Jung's myth, (at least up until his embolism in 1944, when, according to his account, his soul entered the repository anew). This book is a mystical confession of the unconscious that is so obscure in its mythological origins that Jung felt compelled to suppress its publication completely, (for fear it would undermine his credibility as a physician). Jung's unprecedented confrontation with the unconscious, as is detailed by the Red Book, prescribes a completely different aspect of the man from his public persona. It details his work with the psychical objects, not only of his own personal Shadow Complex, but also with The Objective Shadow Complex and therefore The Anima and Old Wise Man archetypes.
Contemporaries talked about Jung’s charisma. Jung would have used the term: manna personality. This manna is the numinous effect of Jung's plunge into the depths of the unconscious and it would be wise for us to bear this in mind when we observe the portrayal of Jung in the film. Any relations that Jung undertook, before his assimilation of the (psychical) objects of The Red Book, would inevitably have been laden with these latent contents. Despite Jung’s professionalism, the intensity of his relations with an inspiring female patient, could easily be understood in terms of a highly dynamic Anima transference. No less, his relation with Freud, where Jung's Old Wise Man archetypal complex would have been involved in the dynamic transference that inevitably arose between these two giants of psychology. That these complexes coincided in his personal relations with both Freud (Old Wise Man) and Mrs Spielrein (Anima), in a highly charged emotional triangle, was no more than was predicted, by the symbolic figures of Philemon, Salome (and the snake). We must remember that these undoubtedly pagan figures, (in Salomes case, of highly doubtful morality), arose from Jung's unconscious and were the symbols he came to live by. The breadth these figures encompass - aged pagan wisdom and erotic sensuality, give a view of Jung's inner life that was at complete odds with the respectability of his formative persona. This persona was to be blown apart by the impending experience of a latent psychosis - The Red Book phase, which would change the landscape of Jung's life and bring him face to face with his inner Daemon. We should therefore bear in mind, when we think about Jung, that it was not only his undoubted therapeutic skill that effected so many of his cures, but it was also his shaman like, numinous capacity as a healer.
With this timely film, we must rely on the power of the unconscious to guide and control the intuition of Croneberg and his actors to deliver a viable record, despite their own complexes. The one thing that is certain, and Jung knew this more than anyone before him, is that the Mercurius Duplex archetype will have its way with any artist or film maker, just as it does with all human lives. Jung's number two personality foresaw our current disasters, just as it had anticipated the sea of blood that engulfed Europe during the 1914-18 World War. If we look at the turmoil that has surrounded human experience on our planet since 9/11 - where, war, famine and disaster strike almost every month, it is clear that Jung's latter-day invocation - Aquarius sets aflame Lucifer's harsh forces, cannot be disregarded as a program for human life, now and into the future, or at least, while mankind is in its transition to a more conscious and spiritual state, which is something, Jung wished and eternally strove for all his life.
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