Have We Ever Really Read Jung? Sonu Shamdasani on the Collected Works Crisis

What It Covers

Sonu Shamdasani discusses the critical edition of Jung's Collected Works, revealing how translator RFC Hull altered Jung's original texts and explaining the 26-volume chronological retranslation project launching in 2026.

Key Questions Answered

• •Translation Errors: RFC Hull translated Jung's works like novels, adding and deleting clauses without scholarly oversight. James Hillman observed readers have been reading Hull, not Jung. Hull failed to consistently translate key concepts like "the self," sometimes rendering it as "oneself," obscuring Jung's theoretical framework across texts.
• •Chronological Organization: The new critical edition arranges Jung's 26 volumes chronologically instead of thematically, allowing readers to track conceptual development. Current Collected Works split single presentations across multiple volumes—Jung's Darmstadt lecture appears in volumes eight and ten, obscuring the original unified argument and historical progression of ideas.
• •Editorial Apparatus: Each volume includes verified translations of every author Jung cited, contextual footnotes explaining forgotten psychiatric figures, chronologies of Jung's activities, and newly discovered published reviews. Translator Caitlin Stevens works with a weekly team reviewing individual word choices, requiring research across multiple fields Jung traversed in his writing.
• •Unpublished Materials: The critical edition adds 35% more content through apparatus and incorporates newly accessible materials including Jung's Burghölzli case files (released under 120-year confidentiality rules), forensic reports, and identified subjects from association experiments. Volume one covers 1896-1900, Jung's medical school period including psychical research explorations.
• •Religious Tone Shifts: Hull's atheist rationalist perspective led him to systematically tone down Jung's affirmations of religion throughout translations. The critical edition restores Jung's original emphasis on religious experience, correcting Hull's literary improvements that altered Jung's scholarly intent and conceptual precision across approximately 3.3 million words.