The mark of one who has seen chaos

The Red Book is analyzed as a process in which Jung’s narcissistic fusion with the self is eventually transformed into an ego-self relation. The process is extremely arduous and dangerous. At times madness engulfs him. But when he manages to experience this disorder as part of a sequence, alternating with order, the disorder becomes transformative, eventually leading him to confront his narcissism. The Red Book represents the importance of disorder in ways absent from the Collected Works, where disorder has a minimal, operational significance. The Red Book is also seen in its relation to the Collected Works.