Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung spent sixteen years secretly writing and illustrating a massive leather-bound manuscript called the Red Book during what he described as a profound confrontation with his own unconscious.

A closer look

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung spent sixteen years secretly writing and illustrating a massive leather-bound manuscript called the Red Book during what he described as a profound confrontation with his own unconscious. Jung intentionally induced terrifying hallucinatory states to converse with mystical inner figures, including an old wise man named Philemon who had the horns of a bull and the wings of a kingfisher. Fearing that the medical community would dismiss him as entirely schizophrenic, Jung locked the heavily guarded book away, and his family refused to let anyone view the bizarre paintings and cryptic texts until 2009. It turns out the pioneer of analytical psychology based a significant portion of his groundbreaking theories on a beautifully illustrated diary documenting his own deliberate descent into absolute madness