Carl Jung’s Red Book documentary tells the remarkable story of world-famous psychiatrist Carl Jung during a period of personal and professional crisis, when he fears that he is teetering on the brink of madness. Overcome by terrifying visions that rock his foundation, Jung is compelled to understand the source of his psychosis and reconnect with his lost soul. He embarks on an epic journey that will force him to unlearn the myths he lived by and forge a new understanding of the human psyche.

 

In the depths of his own psyche, Jung confronts forbidding landscapes, battles demons, meets mythological figures, and cowers before Gods. He abandons entire systems of meaning, often times prompted by pain. He cultivates a new relationship to his soul, and a new myth to live by- one with magic, love, and compassion at the core. He learns to rely on his imagination and innate being, all the while suspecting this experience was not unique to him, that something universal was at play. 

 

Jung underwent a profound personal, spiritual and intellectual transformation during this period and he recorded it all in his journals. Over a decade later he finally transcribed it into his magnum opus - an illuminated manuscript of 205 pages, bound in thick red leather, referred to simply as the Red Book. 

 

Nearly 50 years after his death, Jung’s Red Book was finally made public and published, to great acclaim. Already renowned for his pioneering work on the nature of the human psyche, the book inspired international exhibits, celebrity dialogues, music, art, and a new level of engagement with his work, the book, and its mysterious contents.

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“Our myths are anemic right now.

We need to scavenge” - Terry Gibson

 

 

 

Told in a hybrid style, Carl Jung’s Red Book documentary explores the fantasies and force of imagination and the universal search for meaning. For the first time ever, intimate details of Jung’s unconscious realms are brought to life. He pushed against the impoverished and limited systems of meaning that he had found himself in. In the process, he discovers an new system of understanding his inner world and creative forces. He interpreted this new perspective as vital to humanity’s survival, an existence that we had perhaps once known but lost the vocabulary for, one that could be reclaimed by each of us. 

 

Carl Jung’s Red Book documentary invites viewers to enter the most fascinating journey of all, the journey within. Jung’s message is timeless-  to cultivate a relationship with one's own soul- a source of magic and healing. In this era where individuals can feel powerless in the face of global crises. Jung contended that the soul is not a static thing, it is magical, fluid, and nuanced, limitless in its boundaries of understanding. Therein lies the divine, waiting for you to find and share with the world.