Aniela Jaffé

The Myth of Meaning

186 pages, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-85630-500-9 / 978-3-85630-500-0

What gives a life its meaning? In this significant volume, one of C.G. Jung’s closest associates explores the world of subjective experience in dreams, fantasies and inner images in an illuminating examination of the phenomenon of meaning.
In so doing, she provides further insights into the significance of Jung’s work. Aniela Jaffé maintains that any search for meaning ultimately leads into this inner “mythical” realm and must be understood as a limited subjective attempt to answer the unanswerable. Any answer must be one’s own, and its formulation one’s own myth.

One of the most distinguished interpreters of C.G. Jung’s ideas, Aniela Jaffé was born in Berlin and studied psychology at the University of Hamburg. With the outbreak of World War II, she emigrated to Switzerland and soon began to train with the psychiatrist C.G. Jung. Frau Jaffé’s reputation as a lucid and authoritative writer was established through her collaboration with Jung on his autobiographical »Memories, Dreams, Reflections«, her editing of his collected »Letters«, and numerous independent works, including »The Myth of Meaning«. She practiced as an analyst in Zurich until her death in 1991.