ABSTRACT
Indeed, the little evidence we have suggests that Jung experienced a lifelong ambivalence towards music – both as a therapeutic modality and as an artistic medium. He appeared to consider music both precious and dangerous, reacting to it as though it were a manifestation of his own inferior function or anima, as a treasure to be feared and protected. He once remarked to a journalist: ‘Bach talks to God. I am gripped by Bach. But I could slay a man who plays Bach in banal surroundings’ (Sands 1955: 249). Late in life, he told an American pianist and music therapist: ‘I know the whole literature – I have heard everything and all the great performers, but I never listen to music any more. It exhausts and irritates me . . . [b]ecause music is dealing with such deep archetypal material, and those who play don’t realize this’ (Tilly 1956: 274). His daughter Marianne observed: ‘I have always loved music, but he has never understood it, and this was a barrier between us’ (ibid.: 275).
