Marie-Louise von Franz
Marie-Louise von Franz (4 January 1915 – 17 February 1998) was a Swiss Jungian psychologist and scholar, known for her psychological interpretations of fairy tales and of alchemical manuscripts.
Marie-Louise von Franz
4 January 1915
17 February 1998 (aged 83)
psychological interpretation of fairy tales and of alchemy
Early life and education[edit]
Marie-Louise Ida Margareta von Franz was born in Munich, Germany, the daughter of a colonel in the Austrian army.[1]
After World War I, in 1919, her family moved to Switzerland, near St. Gallen. From 1928 on, she lived in Zürich, together with her elder sister, so that both could attend a high school (gymnasium) in Zürich, specializing in languages and literature. Three years later, her parents moved to Zürich as well.[2]: xxxvi
Meeting Carl Gustav Jung[edit]
In Zürich, at the age of 18, in 1933, when about to finish secondary school, von Franz met the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung when, together with a classmate and nephew of Jung's assistant Toni Wolff, she and seven boys she had befriended were invited by Jung to his Bollingen Tower near Zürich. For von Franz, this was a powerful and "decisive encounter of her life", as she told her sister later the same evening.[3]
: 135
At the meeting, Jung and the pupils discussed psychology. When Jung commented on a "mentally ill woman, who [actually, not to be taken symbolically] lived on the moon"[4]: 18 M.-L. von Franz understood, that there are two levels of reality. The psychological, inner world with its dreams and myths was as real as the outer world.[5]
Studies, lean times and private tutoring[edit]
In 1933, at the University of Zurich, von Franz started studies in Classical philology and Classical languages (Latin and Greek) as major subjects and in literature and ancient history as minor subjects.
Due to her father's major financial loss in the early 1930s, she had to self-finance her tuition,[3]: 135 by giving private lessons as a tutor in Latin and Greek for gymnasium and university students. In the years after finishing her studies, she continued this to support herself, working on fairy tale texts.[3]: 136
In addition to her university studies, von Franz occupied herself with Jungian psychology. She attended Jung's psychological lectures at the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School in Zürich (now the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich) and, in 1935 and thereafter, also attended his psychological seminars. In 1934 she started analytical training with Jung.[2]: xxxvii
Collaboration with C.G. Jung[edit]
In order to pay C.G. Jung for her training analysis, she translated works for him from Greek and Latin texts.[1] Among others, she translated two major alchemical manuscripts: Aurora Consurgens, which has been attributed to Thomas Aquinas, and Musaeum Hermeticum. As many of its passages were of Islamic and Persian origin, von Franz took up Arabic as study subject at university.[3]: 135
This was the beginning of a long-standing collaboration with C.G. Jung, which continued until his death in 1961. Their collaboration was especially close in the field of alchemy. Not only did she translate works, she also commented on the origin and psychological meaning of Aurora Consurgens. She offered support for the theory that the Christian-alchemical text might have been dictated by Thomas Aquinas himself.[6]
The experience that Jung termed "objective Psyche" or "collective unconscious" marked her life and work as well as her way of living. She worked to understand the reality of this autonomous psyche acting independently from consciousness.
Later years[edit]
Between the 1950s and 1970s, von Franz travelled widely, not only for holidays but also for lecturing. She visited European countries including Austria, England, Germany, Greece, Italy and Scotland, as well as America, Egypt and some Asian countries.
After 1986 she turned to a more introverted life at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland. Several times a year she took a retreat into her Bollingen tower, which in some years was up to a five months stay. She concentrated mainly on her creative work, especially alchemy and continued to meet friends and patients from all over the world.[2]: xxxvff.
Illness and death[edit]
During her last years, von Franz had Parkinson's disease. Barbara Davies stated that she took only a minimum of medicine, so that she was increasingly physically affected by her illness until death, but could keep a clear mind and consciousness.[28]
Von Franz died in Küsnacht, Switzerland on 17 February 1998. She was 83.
Most of these titles are a translation of the original German title. A few titles were originally published in English.
The Fountain of the Love of Wisdom: An Homage to Marie-Louise von Franz is a compilation of eulogies, essays, personal impressions, book reviews, and more from dozens of people who were influenced by von Franz. It also contains a list of von Franzens' English books.