Jung on evil

More than most other intellectual giants of this century, Jung confronted the problem of evil in his daily work as a practicing psychiatrist and in his many published writings. He wrote a great deal about evil, even if not systematically or especially consistently. The theme of evil is heavily larded throughout the entire body of his works, and particularly so in the major pieces of his later years. A constant preoccupation that would not leave him alone, the subject of evil intrudes again and again into his writings, formal and informal. [...]

While Jung wrote a great deal about evil, it would be deceptive to try to make him look more systematic and consistent on this than he actually was. His published writings, which include nineteen volumes of the Collected Works [...], the three volumes of letters, the four volumes of seminars, the autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections, and the collection of interviews and casual writings in C. G. Jung Speaking, reveal a rich complexity of reflections on the subject of evil. To straighten these thoughts out and try to make a tight theory out of them would be not only deceptive but foolhardy and contrary to the spirit of Jung's work as a whole. It does seem appropriate, however, to introduce this selection of writings from Jung's oeuvre by posing some questions whose answers will indicate at least the main outlines of Jung's thought about the problem of evil. I hope, too, that this approach will prepare the reader to enter more deeply into the texts that follow and to watch Jung as he struggles with the problem of evil, also to engage personally the issue of evil, and finally to grapple with Jung critically. [excerpted and adaptep from the Introduction].