A Historical Study of Carl G. Jung’s Psychological Understanding of Dante

Abstract

The paper outlines Jung’s encounter with Dante through a diachronic study stretching from Jung’s earliest writings to the late 50s. The work aims to delineate the key lines of Jung’s confrontation with Dante, having to postpone a detailed discussion of the topics discussed to future contributions. The study takes into account the full spectrum of Jung’s material, by including published works as well as forthcoming and unreleased papers. As for the unpublished sources, I am grateful to Ernst Falzeder, Martin Liebscher, and Sonu Shamdasani. Without their help, the completion of this paper would have been implausible. I am also particularly grateful to Thomas Fischer, Bettina Kaufmann, and Andreas Jung, for their valuable help and the possibility to consult Jung’s personal material in Küsnacht, Zürich.