Face to Face1959

[latter-day introduction]

Joan Bakewell:
Carl Gustav Jung was 84 years old when he was interviewed for the BBC series, "Face to Face", in October 1959. At the time, he was world's greatest living psychologist, founder of analytical psychology and originator of the concept of the collective unconscious. So his agreeing to be interviewed was an historic coup. Indeed, he was arguably John Freeman's most famous guest ever to appear in the series. The program itself didn't follow the usual studio format. A film team flew to Jung's Z?rich home. And as well as seeing the old man walking by the lakeside, viewers were also given a glimpse of the usually shadowy, somewhat enigmatic, John Freeman himself, whose face, despite the program's title, rarely appeared on the screen. And another difference: of all the 35 "Face to Face" guests, Jung was the only one to refuse to have his portrait drawn by Feliks Topolski for the program's opening sequence. Wonder what an analyst would make of that. At the time of the interview, Jung was still working. His mind was still sharp, his concentration focused. It was a timely interview. Eighteen months later, Jung was dead. But Freeman's shrewdly balanced questions about the life and about the work create a rounded portrait of one of the greatest men of his day. Of them all, this "Face to Face" is a part of history.