Jung on how Americans received him in his time.

From the book, Reflections on the life and dreams of C. G. Jung, p. 58-60.

In 1937, I was invited to speak at the Terry Lectures at Yale University in America. My lectures were a huge success. The event was open to the public, and at first I was worried about the size of the enormous auditorium where the lectures were to be held - it is very unpleasant to speak in a room that is barely a quarter full. Moreover, I had been warned that the audience numbers were likely to decrease after the first lecture. So I was very annoyed. For the first lecture the auditorium was maybe a tenth full, with around three hundred people. The next evening six hundred were there, and on the third occasion it was so full that the police had to close the hall. I was really amazed. That auditorium could hold around three thousand people.

At the time I put it down to the Americans having a sort of subterranean connection with me. They have a faculty for intuition that is not to be underestimated. It means they can follow my thoughts without understanding the individual components on an intellectual level. The American academics, however, rarely comprehend me because most of them only understand things in terms of statistics. But I have always been enormously popular among the general public in the USA. The other professors could not explain my success, precisely because they were not able to grasp what I was actually talking about.

While there, the following amusing incident occurred: after the third lecture, I returned to our guest accommodation on the university campus. It was still quite early, so we were invited to tea with one of the deans, Professor Dudley French. Our hostess was his wife, an elderly, very formal lady. For example, she put on a hat to serve the tea - so absurd!

When I entered the sitting room, I found her crying behind her mountain of silverware and teacups. Of course I tried to leave discreetly, but she said: "No, no, stay, come on in. I'm just crying, don't worry about it." I asked her what had moved her so. She answered: "I was at your lecture. It was so beautiful! I hardly understood any of it, but it was so wonderful!" She could not express it, but something had struck her deeply which I had also sensed in other audience members. I did feel that I had reached people. But many had a reaction like hers: they could not really get to grips with it. I did not meet anyone with whom I could have a halfway intelligent conversation about it. But the listeners were moved. Something in my words had affected them.

That was something extraordinary about my visit to Yale. The success really surprised me. I had the feeling of making contact there - this did not happen to me often in life. In fact most of the time I felt like my words were going straight out the window.

Something similar to what happened at Yale had also occurred during a previous lecture at Harvard University. There the lecture was only for selected guests; the audience was made up of specialists, around two hundred and fifty people. My subject was: "Factors Determining Human Behavior." It was primarily about the unconscious.

When my lecture was over, I made my way out of the building. Two young audience members were so close in front of me going down the stairs that I was able to overhear their conversation. One asked the other: "Did you understand that lecture?" The answer has stayed with me: "Well, I couldn't follow it, but that fellow knows what he is talking about!"

From the book, Reflections on the life and dreams of C. G. Jung, p. 58-60.

In 1937, I was invited to speak at the Terry Lectures at Yale University in America. My lectures were a huge success. The event was open to the public, and at first I was worried about the size of the enormous auditorium where the lectures were to be held - it is very unpleasant to speak in a room that is barely a quarter full. Moreover, I had been warned that the audience numbers were likely to decrease after the first lecture. So I was very annoyed. For the first lecture the auditorium was maybe a tenth full, with around three hundred people. The next evening six hundred were there, and on the third occasion it was so full that the police had to close the hall. I was really amazed. That auditorium could hold around three thousand people.

At the time I put it down to the Americans having a sort of subterranean connection with me. They have a faculty for intuition that is not to be underestimated. It means they can follow my thoughts without understanding the individual components on an intellectual level. The American academics, however, rarely comprehend me because most of them only understand things in terms of statistics. But I have always been enormously popular among the general public in the USA. The other professors could not explain my success, precisely because they were not able to grasp what I was actually talking about.

While there, the following amusing incident occurred: after the third lecture, I returned to our guest accommodation on the university campus. It was still quite early, so we were invited to tea with one of the deans, Professor Dudley French. Our hostess was his wife, an elderly, very formal lady. For example, she put on a hat to serve the tea - so absurd!

When I entered the sitting room, I found her crying behind her mountain of silverware and teacups. Of course I tried to leave discreetly, but she said: "No, no, stay, come on in. I'm just crying, don't worry about it." I asked her what had moved her so. She answered: "I was at your lecture. It was so beautiful! I hardly understood any of it, but it was so wonderful!" She could not express it, but something had struck her deeply which I had also sensed in other audience members. I did feel that I had reached people. But many had a reaction like hers: they could not really get to grips with it. I did not meet anyone with whom I could have a halfway intelligent conversation about it. But the listeners were moved. Something in my words had affected them.

That was something extraordinary about my visit to Yale. The success really surprised me. I had the feeling of making contact there - this did not happen to me often in life. In fact most of the time I felt like my words were going straight out the window.

Something similar to what happened at Yale had also occurred during a previous lecture at Harvard University. There the lecture was only for selected guests; the audience was made up of specialists, around two hundred and fifty people. My subject was: "Factors Determining Human Behavior." It was primarily about the unconscious.

When my lecture was over, I made my way out of the building. Two young audience members were so close in front of me going down the stairs that I was able to overhear their conversation. One asked the other: "Did you understand that lecture?" The answer has stayed with me: "Well, I couldn't follow it, but that fellow knows what he is talking about!"