The Correspondence of Victoria Ocampo, Count Keyserling, and C. G. Jung: Unveiling the Power Dynamics of Influential Figures

By Craig Stephenson

This remarkable book, The Correspondence of Victoria Ocampo, Count Keyserling, and C. G. Jung, revolves around two pivotal meetings that took place in 1929 and 1934, respectively. The first encounter was between Victoria Ocampo, a pioneering Argentine intellectual, and Hermann von Keyserling, a Baltic German philosopher, while the second meeting brought together Ocampo and Carl Gustav Jung, the Swiss founder of analytical psychology.

A Glimpse into the Lives of Influential Figures

The initial section of the book chronicles these encounters, which had far-reaching repercussions, both private and public, in the lives of the participants. The subsequent sections comprise the correspondence and other writings that preceded and followed these meetings, expertly translated from French, German, and Spanish, much of it for the first time.

Jung aptly framed Keyserling’s account of the encounter with Ocampo as “one of the most beautiful animus-anima stories I have ever heard.” This captivating narrative can be read in multiple contexts, including early-twentieth-century feminism, gender and sexual politics, the colonizing European gaze on the Americas, Argentina’s cultural complexities, typological impasses, and the transformative power of Eros and words.

Unraveling the Fraught Relationships and Power Dynamics

The complex relationships and power struggles among these three influential figures will undoubtedly interest analytical psychologists, historians of psychological disciplines, and those specializing in South American history. General readers will also find themselves drawn to this fascinating exploration of human connections.

Book Details:

Publisher: Routledge; 1st edition (December 6, 2022)

Language: English

Format: Hardcover, 262 pages

ISBN-10: 1032209550

ISBN-13: 978-1032209555