Marie-Louise von Franz facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marie-Louise von Franz
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Marie-Louise von Franz
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| Born | 4 January 1915 |
| Died | 17 February 1998 (aged 83) Küsnacht, Switzerland
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| Nationality | Swiss |
| Known for | psychological interpretation of fairy tales and of alchemy |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychology |
| Influenced | Jean Dalby Clift |
Marie-Louise von Franz (born January 4, 1915 – died February 17, 1998) was a smart Swiss psychologist. She was famous for understanding fairy tales and old science writings (called alchemy) in a special way. She worked closely with a very famous psychologist named Carl Jung.
Contents
Early Life and School
Marie-Louise von Franz was born in Munich, Germany. Her father was an army officer.
After World War I, her family moved to Switzerland in 1919. They lived near St. Gallen. Later, in 1928, she and her older sister moved to Zurich. They went to a high school there that focused on languages and books. Three years later, her parents also moved to Zurich.
Meeting Carl Jung
In 1933, when Marie-Louise was 18, she met the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung. She was about to finish high school in Zurich. Jung invited her and some friends to his special house called Bollingen Tower.
This meeting was very important for Marie-Louise. She felt it changed her life. Jung and the students talked about psychology. Jung explained that there are two kinds of reality. The inner world of dreams and myths is as real as the outside world. This idea really interested Marie-Louise.
University Studies and Work
In 1933, Marie-Louise started studying at the University of Zurich. She focused on ancient languages like Latin and Greek. She also studied literature and old history.
Her father lost a lot of money in the 1930s. So, Marie-Louise had to pay for her own schooling. She did this by teaching Latin and Greek to other students. Even after finishing her studies, she kept tutoring to support herself. This allowed her to work on her ideas about fairy tales.
Marie-Louise also studied Jungian psychology. She went to Jung's lectures at the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School. In 1934, she began to train with Jung himself.
Working with Carl Jung
To pay for her training with Jung, Marie-Louise translated old texts for him. She translated important writings about alchemy from Greek and Latin. These included Aurora Consurgens and Musaeum Hermeticum. Because some parts were from Arabic, she even learned Arabic at university.
This was the start of a long partnership with Carl Jung. They worked together until he passed away in 1961. They worked very closely on alchemy. She not only translated texts but also explained their meaning. She helped Jung understand the idea of the "collective unconscious". This is a part of the mind that acts on its own, separate from our conscious thoughts.
Career and Ideas
Marie-Louise von Franz worked as an analyst from 1942 until her death. She mainly worked in Küsnacht, Switzerland. By 1987, she said she had helped people understand over 65,000 dreams.
She wrote more than 20 books about analytical psychology. Many of her books were about fairy tales. She showed how fairy tales connect to deep parts of our minds. She also wrote about good and evil and how ideas about women have changed.
Another big interest for her was alchemy. She looked at alchemy from Jung's psychological view. She translated and wrote about Aurora Consurgens. In her later years, she wrote about an Arabic alchemy text. She believed that alchemists used a special kind of imagination. This was similar to Jung's idea of "active imagination". This is like conscious dreaming.
A third area she studied was synchronicity. This is the idea that the mind and the physical world are connected. Jung thought they were different parts of the same thing. He asked Marie-Louise to continue this research. Her books Number and Time and Psyche and Matter explore these ideas.
In 1968, Marie-Louise was the first to suggest that DNA's structure is like the I Ching. She wrote about this in her book Psyche and Matter. She also explored how old stories and alchemy balance out one-sided views from Christianity.
Films and Lectures
In 1987, Marie-Louise von Franz made a film series called The Way of the Dream. She was also interviewed for a TV series in 1989 called The Wisdom of the Dream.
She gave many lectures at the Psychological Club in Zurich. Her first lecture in 1941 was about the visions of Perpetua. This later became her first book, The Visions of Perpetua. Many of her books came from these lectures.
She helped start the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich in 1948. In 1974, she and her students started a foundation for Jungian psychology. This group helps research and share Jung's ideas.
Personal Life
Carl Jung encouraged Marie-Louise to live with another Jungian analyst, Barbara Hannah. Jung wanted Marie-Louise to see that not all women were like her mother. He also said that analysts should not live alone. The two women became friends for life.
Marie-Louise von Franz exchanged many letters with Wolfgang Pauli, a Nobel Prize winner in physics. Pauli's wife later destroyed the letters Marie-Louise sent to him. But the letters Pauli sent to Marie-Louise were saved and later published.
Bollingen Tower
Marie-Louise loved nature and gardening. In 1958, she bought land near a forest above Bollingen. She built a square tower there, like Carl Jung's tower. It was a quiet place with no electricity or running water. She used wood from the forest for heat and cooking. There was also a pond with frogs and toads, which she loved.
This tower helped her escape modern life and find peace in nature. She felt connected to nature there. She wrote many of her books in this special place.
Later Years and Death
Between the 1950s and 1970s, Marie-Louise traveled a lot. She visited many countries in Europe, America, Egypt, and Asia to give lectures.
After 1986, she lived a quieter life at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland. She would often go to her Bollingen tower for several months a year. She focused on her writing, especially about alchemy. She also continued to meet with friends and patients from all over the world.
In her last years, Marie-Louise had Parkinson's disease. She chose to take very little medicine. This meant her body was more affected by the illness, but her mind stayed clear.
Marie-Louise von Franz passed away in Küsnacht, Switzerland, on February 17, 1998. She was 83 years old.
Selected Works
Most of these titles are translations from German. Some were first published in English.
- Alchemical Active Imagination ISBN: 0-87773-589-1
- Alchemy: An Introduction To The Symbolism And The Psychology ISBN: 0-919123-04-X
- Animus and Anima in Fairy Tales ISBN: 1-894574-01-X
- Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche ISBN: 1-57062-426-7
- Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales ISBN: 0-919123-77-5
- Aurora Consurgens: A Document Attributed to Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Opposites in Alchemy. Inner City Books, Toronto, 2000. ISBN: 0-919123-90-2
- C. G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time ISBN: 0-919123-78-3
- Creation Myths ISBN: 0-87773-528-X
- Dreams. Shambhala, Boston, 1991. ISBN: 0-87773-901-3
- Feminine in Fairy Tales ISBN: 1-57062-609-X
- Individuation in Fairy Tales ISBN: 1-57062-613-8
- Interpretation of Fairytales. Spring Publications, Dallas, 8th Printing, 1987. ISBN: 0-88214-101-5
- Light from the Darkness: The Paintings of Peter Birkhäuser ISBN: 3-7643-1190-8 (1980)
- Number and Time ISBN: 0-8101-0532-2 (1974)
- On Divination and Synchronicity: ... ISBN: 0-919123-02-3
- On Dreams & Death: A Jungian Interpretation ISBN: 0-8126-9367-1
- Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology: Reflections of the Soul ISBN: 0-87548-417-4
- Psyche and Matter, Shambhala, Boston (1992) ISBN: 0-87773-902-1
- Psychological Meaning of Redemption Motif in Fairytales ISBN: 0-919123-01-5
- Puer Aeternus: A Psychological Study of the Adult Struggle With the Paradise of Childhood ISBN: 0-938434-01-2
- The Cat: A Tale of Feminine Redemption ISBN: 0-919123-84-8
- The Golden Ass of Apuleius: The Liberation of the Feminine in Man ISBN: 1-57062-611-1
- The Interpretation of Fairy Tales ISBN: 0-87773-526-3
- The Passion of Perpetua: A Psychological Interpretation of Her Visions. Inner City Books, Toronto, 2004. ISBN: 1-894574-11-7
- The Problem of the Puer Aeternus ISBN: 0-919123-88-0
- The Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales ISBN: 0-87773-974-9
- The Way of the Dream, ISBN: 1-57062-036-9
- The Way of the Dream DVD
- Time Rhythm and Repose ISBN: 0-500-81016-8
The Fountain of the Love of Wisdom: An Homage to Marie-Louise von Franz is a book with tributes and essays from many people she influenced. It also lists her English books.
- Arthur I. Miller: Deciphering the Cosmic Number (137): Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of Scientific Obsession, W. W. Norton & Co. (2009) ISBN: 0-393-06532-4 talks about the work between Pauli, Jung, and von Franz.
The Collected Works of Marie-Louise von Franz
On January 4, 2021, a new English translation of her 28 books began to be published. It is expected to take 10 years to finish all the books.
See also
In Spanish: Marie-Louise von Franz para niños
