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The writer Heman Hesse, author of Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Demain was in analysis with Jung during the time Jung was writing “On the Relationship of Poetry to Analytical Psychology.” We can speculate that during this time both men were actively thinking about the creative nature of poetry and the psyche.

Jung encouraged Hesse to draw and paint, in addition to exploring the writer's dreams and poetic images.

Jung was influential in Hesse's writing of Siddhartha, the fictional novel about the life of the Buddha. Siddhartha may have helped Hesse to compensate and heal the religious imagination and his experience as the child of Christian missionaries living in India.

In the class we will explore the relationship between Jung and Hesse further.

 

Without You

My Pillow gazes upon me at night
Empty as a gravestone;
I never thought it would be so bitter
To be alone,
Not to lie down asleep in your hair.

I lie alone in a silent house,
The hanging lamp darkened,
And gently stretch out my hands
To gather in yours,
And softly press my warm mouth
Toward you, and kiss myself, exhausted and weak-

Then suddenly I'm awake
And all around me the cold night grows still.
The star in the window shines clearly-
Where is your blond hair,
Where your sweet mouth?

Now I drink pain in every delight
And poison in every wine;
I never knew it would be so bitter
To be alone,
Alone, without you.