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Any specific reasons for Jung and his colleagues to write this book in English? The majority of his writings seem to be in German and most of his colleagues seem German speaking as well.

I'm not sure this is the correct place to ask this but didn't find a better one. The questions seems out of topic for the Psychology and Neuroscience Stack Exchange as well.

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  • Since Jung's work is not what I would call "literature", this question may have a hard time here. Psychology and Neuroscience already has several questions about Jung. Since you are already a member on that site, would you like the question to be migrated there? (That would be cleaner than reposting it there and deleting it here.)
    – Tsundoku ♦
    Oct 23, 2018 at 16:31
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    @ChristopheStrobbe I opened an account there to ask this but then changed my mind, because people there will say "the language in which books are written isn't related with psychology and neuroscience" which is a legitimate argument as well...
    – User
    Oct 25, 2018 at 7:41
  • But I can give it a try later today.
    – User
    Oct 25, 2018 at 7:42
  • If that was their argument against posting your question there, then I wouldn't do it. Cross-posting is frowned upon in the Stack Exchange network.
    – Tsundoku ♦
    Oct 25, 2018 at 12:12

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The question why Jung and his colleagues wrote "Man and his Symbols" in English is pretty much explained in the introduction of the book by John Freeman, who oversaw the production of the book.

The idea for the book came after a documentary on Jung was broadcast by the BBC and proved to be relatively popular. After its success Freeman approached Jung to write a book about his theory for popular consumption (as opposed to his usual rather difficult writings), and after some back and forth Jung agreed.

Since the book was always intended for publication in the UK, it's not surprising that it was written in English. Jung and his colleagues (like most German speaking intellectuals) were fluent in English, so writing the book in English posed to be no problem for them.

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    Welcome to the site! Please could you edit to add an actual quote from the John Freeman introduction? Citing a primary source as you've done is already good, but having words from the horse's mouth is even better, if possible.
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Aug 19 at 10:01

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