Carl Gustav Jung

In the novel The Pilgrim by Timothy Findley a doctor named Carl Jung takes on the case of the mysterious man named Pilgrim. This case becomes an obsession of Jung’s and he finds himself facing his own struggle for sanity. After doing research however, I found that Carl Gustav Jung was not a fictional character and was in fact a real doctor at the Burghölzli Psychiatric Clinic in Sweden. Carl Jung was born on July 26, 1875 in Kesswil, Thurgau, Switzerland and died June 6, 1961 at the age of 85 in Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is often considered the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is "by nature religious" and to explore it in depth. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he has become perhaps one of the most well known pioneers in the field of dream analysis.

I find it incredibly intriguing that Timothy Findley was able to mix such a great blend of Fiction and Reality in this Novel. From the very clinic Pilgrim was admitted in, to the very psychiatrist treating him Timothy Findley used accurate and historical facts. I also enjoy how while Carl Jung is reading Pilgrims’ journals that they are not entirely made up but instead contain real historic events that had  a tremendous effect on the world.  

The Clinic

From the very beginning of the novel the reader is told that Pilgrim is taken to Burghölzli Psychiatric clinic in Sweden. In order to gain a better understanding of the setting in this novel I had to go onto the internet and do some research into what the Burghölzli Psychiatric clinic was like. First off, I learned that ‘Burghölzli’ was the name given to the psychiatric hospital located inside of the University of Zürich, Switzerland, and that ‘Burghölzli’ is a wooded hill in the district of Riesbach of southeastern Zürich. The clinic was created in the 1860s for the humane treatment of the mentally ill. From 1870 until 1879, the hospital had three directors, Bernhard von Gudden, Gustav Huguenin and Eduard Hitzig. All three men practiced medicine from a biological basis, with brain pathology and physiology being the general focus of their research. It wasn’t until the fourth director Auguste-Henri Forel took charge that the hospital gained a reputation in the medical world. 

Pilgrim in the spotlight

      Not much is given to the reader when describing what Pilgrim looks like; Timothy Findley probably did this intentionally to build up the mystery around Pilgrim. The reader is left to create, for the most part, their own in vision of Pilgrim and what this mysterious man may look like. However, in the details that are given about Pilgrim, he is described to be an angel like figure.  “He stood in the vestibule staring blankly, still maintaining his angle like image – six foot-six of drooping shoulders, lifeless arms and wings that at last had folded.” (Findley 7) As the story unfolds the reader learns more and more about Pilgrim. He proclaims that no one will believe him when he says that he can not die, due to a curse placed on him in mythological times, and this looks very true because after several suicide attempts he has not died. Pilgrim is a well educated man full of anger, particularly towards the arts. To me, it is unclear why he gets so angry towards art, but i believe it has something to do with what happened to him all those years ago.   

Is it really true!?!?!

      “And yet, to date Jung’s observation of Pilgrim, nothing had indicated he was possessed, as folklore would have it. Nothing had indicated he was a medium – a seer – a “speaker.” He had seemed to be entirely himself, however remote and damaged.” (Findley 113) This quote shows the despite all of Jung’s research into Pilgrim and his past he can not find any evidence of insanity or even find fault in what little Pilgrim has told him. As difficult as it is to believe that someone can not die, it would appear the Jung may have no other option then to accept that maybe, just maybe Pilgrim is not insane and that he really did experience and live through all the things that he and the journals say he did.

A Confusing layout

      The Pilgrim is becoming slightly confusing for me to read because the story is constantly bouncing back and forth between Pilgrim’s time at the mental hospital and Jung reading Pilgrims journals. After a while this becomes very confusing and sometimes you don’t know what is going on. However, this is the writing style Timothy Findley is known for. All his work is very far fetched and, in a sense, wild. In the same way this book is confusing to me I also find it very interesting, I love the writing style and the way the book is laid out. To understand it the reader must follow along very carefully or they will lose track of what is happening. Although this book is confusing and has many different smaller stories in it, it is a very gripping novel, and the premise is very interesting to me. 

The Journals... Is he SANE??

The journals are definitely are symbol of Pilgrims Sanity. These journals date back to ancient times, as far back as Leonardo Davinci and explore his alleged homosexuality, they explore Greek mythology, and even Teresa de Cepeda Y Ahumada, the medium of miracles in the ancient world; consequently explaining some of the most renowned art work ever created. Jung has no proof other then the journals that Pilgrim is not insane, and for many those journals would simply be dismissed but Jung continues to do research and becomes obsessed with Pilgrim and his prior life experiences.

Conflict...

The main conflict in this book is between the Psychiatrist Jung and Pilgrim. Everyone is convinced that Pilgrim is delusional and insane because he thinks that he has lived through the ages. Several tests are done to Pilgrim and no hard evidence of his insanity can be found. In a further attempt to understand Pilgrim, Jung gets a hold of his journals and begins to read. He is baffled by what is written in the journals and how the dates go all the way back to ancient times. This becomes Jung’s obsession and takes over his life. After some time of trying to figure Pilgrim out, Jung starts to go insane himself. So far no one has been able to find a reasonable explanation for Pilgrims’ journals and claims of life, but one thing is for certain, Pilgrim IS NOT insane.

Critical Article Summaries

Article

Hartigan, Rosemary. "Pilgrim." The Antioch Review Summer 2000: 377. General OneFile.

Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A63914428&source=gale&userGroupName=ko_k12hs_d21&version=1.0

Summary

            In Pilgrims’ autobiography, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, there are several precarious situations which draw Jung’s attention. He continues to take copious notes on what he believes to be on of the more interesting psychological cases. This extraordinary novel was nominated for the Giller prize. One of Canada's most highly acclaimed authors, Timothy Findley, weaves a compelling dialectic of fantasy and historical fact to create just such a confrontation between Dr. Jung and a mysterious gentleman named Pilgrim, who, after numerous attempts at suicide, is brought to the Burgholzi Clinic in Zurich. The time is 1912, World War I is brewing and tension is growing. Pilgrim, a renowned art historian, claims to have lived many lives over the past four thousand years, and his journals contain vivid accounts of relationships with Leonardo DaVinci, Teresa of Avila, and Oscar Wilde.

Article

Elgaard, Elin. "Pilgrim." World Literature Today 74.3 (2000): 595. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA68364379&v=2.1&u=st16083&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Summary

            What it is to be a Pilgrim goes well beyond the serenely hymnal: a "captive to the human condition," this case history has traveled through centuries and sexes, from the siege of Troy to being with pre-sainted Teresa of Avila, tyrannous Leonardo da Vinci, giant Oscar Wilde "in the moment of his fall," and, latest manifestation, an art historian, with Henry James invoking the literary done. Throughout, this same traveler has courted "eternal rest" in repeated suicide attempts, thwarted perhaps by his own butterfly tattoo. This article tries to explain how Pilgrim has lived through the ages from and analytical point of view. It explains how connect Jung becomes to this case and how it becomes a huge deal to not only him but everyone else in his life because it effects all of them.

Article

Gottlieb, Stacey. "Pilgrim." The Review of Contemporary Fiction 20.3 (2000): 154. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA68679042&v=2.1&u=st16083&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Summary

          Canadian author Timothy Findley, in his new novel ‘Pilgrim’ has kept with a similar format as all his other novels. The novel takes place in Western European culture. A good job is done in taking a completely fictional character and adding him in to completely real and historically accurate events. Things become quite complicated when the journals of Pilgrim reveal vivid imagination pr exploits of a world class time traveler, along with several other ethical issues.

SURVEY OF AUTHORS & SECONDARY SOURCES

SURVEY OF AUTHORS & SECONDARY SOURCES

Author: Timothy Findley

Title: The Pilgrim

            What made me particularly interested in this author wasn’t necessarily what I read about him in reviews and his biography, but more because of the shear number of people that told me he was one of the favorite authors. It was not only Ms. Breivik that told me this, it was also; the librarian, my grandmother, and also several people that I talked to when I went to chapters to purchase this book. This is not to say however that what I read about him didn’t intrigue me as well. The fact that he was born in Toronto, so close to where I was born and raised made me want to read his book because knowing someone who grew up in basically the same area that you did gave a certain sense of pride knowing people from this area can go on to be very famous and successful. Also in reading about him I found that he tends to write a lot about mental illness and his characters also having very dark secrets which really drew my attention because I love to be in suspense when I read. All these reasons and more are why I was very interested in reading a book by Timothy Findley.

            Timothy Findley, Born; October 30, 1930, and Died; June 20, 2002. He was a Canadian novelist and playwright, who was one of Canada's most famous writers. He was born in Toronto, Ontario; Findley was raised in the upper class Rosedale district of the city. He pursued a career in the arts, studying dance and acting, and had significant success as an actor before turning to writing. His first two novels, The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969), were rejected by Canadian publishers and were eventually published in Britain. Published to great critical acclaim, Findley's third novel The Wars went on to win the Governor General's Award for fiction and was adapted for film in 1981. He resided in rural Ontario and the south of France with his partner, William Whitehead. He was honored by the French Government.

Timothy Findley went on to publish several novels all of which had relatively the same general themes of mental illness and gender/sexuality. Some other works by Timothy Findley are:

The Last of the Crazy People (1967)
The Butterfly Plague (1969)
The Wars (1977), translated into French as Guerres
Famous Last Words (1981), translated into French as Le Grand Elysium Hôtel
Dinner Along the Amazon (1984, short fiction)
Not Wanted on the Voyage (1986)
The Telling of Lies (1986), winner of the prestigious Edgar Award for mystery writing.
Stones (1988, short fiction)
Inside Memory (1990, memoir)
Headhunter (1993)
The Piano Man's Daughter (1995), his bestselling novel
You Went Away (1996, novella)
Dust to Dust (1997, short fiction)
From Stone Orchard (1998, memoir)
Pilgrim (1999)
Spadework (2001) 

            Raised in Toronto Timothy Findley obviously would have been exposed to the crime, and violence of the streets in the city when he was a child. The time he was alive was much like today; drugs, crime, violence, everything that is bad today he too experienced. He was very interested in psychological pieces of writing; things to do with mental illness and deep dark secrets that created dramatic twists to his stories. He also had a slight drinking problem so that also made his novels all the more interesting.

            His writing, typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic genre, was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology, and mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. His characters often carried dark personal secrets, and were often conflicted, sometimes to the point of psychosis by these burdens.

            I was unable to find any other authors that Timothy Findley was compared too, he is a very unique author and although his work may be similar to that of other authors he is completely incomparable to them.

3 Secondary Sources

Title:Pilgrim.(Review)(Brief Article)

The Antioch Review 

Rosemary Hartigan. 58.3 (Summer 2000): p.377. (322 words) From General OneFile. 

Full Text:COPYRIGHT 2000 Antioch Review, Inc. 

Pilgrim by Timothy Findley. Harper-Collins, 486 pp., $25.00. In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, Jung notes that psychotherapy is a "dialectical confrontation of two opposing psychic realities." In this extraordinary novel, which was nominated for the Giller prize, one of Canada's most highly acclaimed authors weaves a compelling dialectic of fantasy and historical fact to create just such a confrontation between Dr. Jung and a mysterious gentleman named Pilgrim, who, after numerous attempts at suicide, is brought to the Burgholzi Clinic in Zurich. The time is 1912, when World War I and the schism between Freud and Jung are brewing. Pilgrim, a renowned art historian, claims to have lived many lives over the past four thousand years, and his journals contain vivid accounts of relationships with Leonardo DaVinci, Teresa of Avila, and Oscar Wilde. Surely he is mad. Or is he? Pilgrim yearns for release from his role as witness to a human race that "has steadfastly turned away from the gravity of its own warnings, the integrity of its own enlightenment and the beauty of its own worth." Jung's immersion in Pilgrim's suffering is the catalyst for his discovery of the collective unconscious and his own descent into madness. Pilgrim invites comparison to Ir vin Yalom's masterful When Nietzsche Wept, the story of another famous psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, who is profoundly affected and inspired by the suicidal patient, Frederick Nietzsche. In both novels Freud and Jung struggle with their own pathologies and libidos. While much of the charm of Yalom's novel lies in his obvious affection and deep regard for the somber, tortured young Freud, however, Findley, relying in part on Frank McLynn's biography of Jung, portrays Jung as a charming, yet devious and pathologically self-centered scoundrel. The most sympathetic character in Pilgrim is the strong but gentle Emma Jung, who endures Jung's philandering with dignity and has keener insight into the truth about Pilgrim than does her genius husband.

Named Works: Pilgrim (Book) Book reviews

Source Citation

Hartigan, Rosemary. "Pilgrim." The Antioch Review Summer 2000: 377. General OneFile. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A63914428&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=ko_k12hs_d21&version=1.0

Gale Document Number:A63914428

Work Cited:

Hartigan, Rosemary. "Pilgrim." The Antioch Review Summer 2000: 377. General OneFile.

Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A63914428&source=gale&userGroupName=ko_k12hs_d21&version=1.0

Second Source

Title:Pilgrim

Author(s):Elin Elgaard

Source:World Literature Today. 74.3 (Summer 2000): p595. From Literature Resource Center.

Document Type:Book review

Timothy Findley, Pilgrim. New York. HarperCollins. 2000 (c1999). 486 pages. $25. ISBN 0-06-019197-X.

He arrives in 1912 at the Swiss Burgholzli Clinic on "the day the angels fell," drifting, with April snow and a female twin significantly named Sybil, into the confines of psychiatry headed by doctors Furtwangler, Menken and Jung. He stays some three months, silent at first, then -- literally -- speaking volumes through the journals entrusted to Sybil and, when she is "recalled," handed over to Jung, testifying to lives here on earth, his lives.

  

What it is to be a Pilgrim goes well beyond the serenely hymnal: a "captive to the human condition," this case history has traveled through centuries and sexes, from the siege of Troy to being with pre-sainted Teresa of Avila, tyrannous Leonardo da Vinci, giant Oscar Wilde "in the moment of his fall," and, latest manifestation, an art historian, with Henry James invoking the literary donnee. Throughout, this same traveler has courted "eternal rest" in repeated suicide attempts, thwarted perhaps by his own butterfly tattoo?

Wings are as thematic here as any death wish. The way Jung's advent in Furtwangler's stronghold of curbed "madness" is perceived as an "impressive draught." The central plea is to believe, "at least briefly," in the impossible, a fairy-tale credo as imperative as Jung's "inquisitor" (inner whispers) when reading the journals, to TURN THE PAGE. Indeed, between doctor and intransigent patient a war is on. Ironically, in resisting Pilgrim's many lives, his dreams of memory and prophecy (the coming of World War I), Jung denies his own advocacy of the collective unconscious. And though he fights dogma -- the insidious Furtwanglerian counterwhispers denying patients their selves -- he does privately live it, with "closed doors" between himself and wife Emma, his "intellectual priapism" as against her compassionate instinct to wait and wonder.

Loyalties -- that quiet Findley "hello" -- are what matter. Prompting Jung finally to toast the moon, commemorating Blevinskaya, dancer turned patient turned dead, who, "eternally innocent," believed herself a lunar citizen. Prompting Pilgrim's valet to set a rescue in motion, involving carrier pigeons and a flight over clinic walls. Prompting Pilgrim himself to wreak havoc on cultural treasures like the Mona Lisa and Chartres Cathedral, "to confront the lower order we have become."

Upshot? Well, one lifetime ended and an epitaph of sorts as, separately, the Jungs feed Pilgrim's beloved pigeons: "Madness knows itself through and through -- and we who are not mad know nothing -- We guess, we stumble towards truths -- disguise our uncertainty with apologies and silences."

Though magic, it seems, "must" die (an echo of Not Wanted on the Voyage), there is a point at which Dr. Jung senses the world "filled with the unbelievable," as he carries the butterfly Pilgrim has declared sitting his thumb to the window and freedom. There is a fluttering of wings.

Elin Elgaard Sackville, N.B., Canada

Source Citation

Elgaard, Elin. "Pilgrim." World Literature Today 74.3 (2000): 595. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA68364379&v=2.1&u=st16083&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A68364379

Work Cited:

Elgaard, Elin. "Pilgrim." World Literature Today 74.3 (2000): 595. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA68364379&v=2.1&u=st16083&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Third Source

Title:Pilgrim

Author(s):Stacey Gottlieb

Source:The Review of Contemporary Fiction. 20.3 (Fall 2000): p154. From Literature Resource Center.

Document Type:Book review, Brief article

Timothy Findley. Pilgrim. HarperCollins, 1999. 486 pp. $25.00.

Fans of Canadian writer Timothy Findley's work will find in his newest novel, Pilgrim, some familiar terrain. For starters, Pilgrim takes place in the high Western European culture of the nineteen-teens, an era Findley has rendered before, and one executed here with a similarly masterful eye for period detail. Additionally, Findley revisits themes of mental illness and psychiatry in this book, with Pilgrim set largely inside a psychiatric clinic. Finally, Pilgrim's sweeping cast--as with some of the author's prior works--includes characters who are entirely made up (that is, "fictional"), as well as characters lifted from the "real" world--like Carl Gustav Jung, one of the novel's central figures.

There's a good deal of mystery and intrigue in Pilgrim, about 70 percent of which is truly suspenseful, so in an effort not to ruin the fun for anyone else, I offer only this teaser: Pilgrim, a well-to-do British art historian is brought to the famous Burgholzli Clinic in Zurich because he has made successive attempts on his own life. Jung takes charge of the case, and through both their consultations and with the aid of his patient's journals, Herr Doktor tries to reestablish his patient's will to live. Things get complicated when the journals reveal either a vivid imagination or the exploits of a world-class time traveler, and issues of sanity, morality, reality, God, and death ensue. While at times Findley's prose is overly romantic and/or haunting, for the most part Pilgrim is a lively, evocative read.

Source Citation

Gottlieb, Stacey. "Pilgrim." The Review of Contemporary Fiction 20.3 (2000): 154. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA68679042&v=2.1&u=st16083&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Gale Document Number: GALE|A68679042

Work Cited:

Gottlieb, Stacey. "Pilgrim." The Review of Contemporary Fiction 20.3 (2000): 154. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA68679042&v=2.1&u=st16083&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Quotation

Earlier in the week while reading my book I came across several interesting quotes and lines that appeared while Sybil Quatermaine was reading through a box of Pilgrims’ journals which were given to him. This quote was found on a page in Pilgrims’ journal dates ‘2:00 a.m. Sunday, 1^st December, 1901’. The quote says “Pilgrim – even though you may think you know them by heart. Everyone is a liar – one way or another – to one degree or another. No one can tell the truth about themselves. It is quite impossible. Some things must always be justified. Always, something must be justified.” There are several reasons why I find this quote interesting. One is the date, at the top of the page in his journal it is dated in ‘1901’ and it is almost impossible that Pilgrim as alive at that time, let alone a full grown man. The second reason why I find this quote so interesting is because everyone can relate to it one way or another throughout life experiences. There is not a single person that at some point in their life has not lied, whether it is for a good reason or a bad one everyone has still lied. Also, another thing the quote says that is very true is talking about justification. We always feel the need to explain/justify ourselves in everything we do. This quote is so interesting to me because it is, in every way, completely true. 

Book Choice Submission

Title: The Pilgrim
Author: Timothy Findley
Publication Date: Harper Flamingo in Canada 1999
Number of Pages: 534
 
 
            I chose this book because both Ms. Breivik and the librarian told me that I would enjoy this book, after reading a few reviews on it I as well thought it would be something I would enjoy reading. I was also drawn towards this book because the idea of someone being unable to die fascinates me. Several people have read it so I would be able to get help from them if I don’t understand it at certain parts. 
 
            So far I have enjoyed the book, I have only read the first 25 pages but in those pages a lot of interesting literary techniques have been used. I love the metaphors and similes that create such a vivid imagery. I also like how the book is so far easy to follow and I find the idea of the story very interesting.
 
            So far in this novel we have met many interesting characters such as; Pilgrim, Forster – Pilgrims personal butler, Dora Henkel – Nurse, Kessler – Orderly, Doctor Greene, Doctor Furtwangler, Lady Quartermaine along with several others. The book starts off with Lady Quartermaine and Pilgrim arriving at the Burgholzli Psychiatric Clinic in Zurich. Then there is a sudden flash back to Cheyne Walk at 8:45 a.m. This is the place where Pilgrim attempted suicide. All his vital signs were gone; he wasn’t breathing and had no heart beat. However after several hours of supposed ‘death’ Pilgrim suddenly starts to show signs of life and then regains consciousness. This was not the first time this has happened to Pilgrim, by all outward appearances, he was unable to die. The mood so far in this book is very dark and mysterious. We are left wondering if Pilgrim can truly not die, “as if there were a force in side him that refused to die, no matter what opportunities Pilgrim offered.” Doctor Greene Page 10.

            I have noticed the theme of Peril. All the patients including Pilgrim are locked in a psychiatric ward. They are all being put into the mind set that there is something wrong with them and that they need help. This creates the theme of peril because in some cases it only brings them further down rather then helping them. I also noticed the theme of sympathy. I noticed this in Lady Quartermaine more then others because she is incredibly sympathetic towards Pilgrim and all the other Patients at the Clinic. The reason she is so sympathetic and feels so responsible for Pilgrim is because she had a brother just like him. He too committed suicide and in light of Mister Pilgrim’s attempt she feels responsible. “He committed suicide and now, with Mister Pilgrim’s attempt, it seems that Symes had come back to haunt me.” Lady Quartermaine Page 16. 

I have found 4 secondary sources so far. They are criticism reviews and book reviews. These are in a sense all very straight forward but when you start to compare them to each other they can become very confusing because even though it is the same book there are completely different reviews on it. The fact that Secondary Sources can be completely different form one another shows that they are based on the persons opinion and that everyone can have their own view on the book.

            One line in this book that captured my interest is “Dead, as he said to Greene, as any man can be. Having said so, he added his signature to the death certificate. One half-hour later, Pilgrim’s heart began to beat – and shortly thereafter, he started to breathe again.” Page 11.  The reason this line caught my interest is because it goes against everything we know. If a man goes without oxygen for as long as Pilgrim did his brain would die, and there would be no possible way of survival. It speaks to me because if it is possible for Pilgrim to survive through something like that then why couldn’t we? Why can others die so easily and he can not? What makes him so special? I am baffled that someone who has tried to kill himself so many times and can not die can be categorized as ‘insane’ just because people refuse to believe that it’s possible. Miracles occur all around us every day, and maybe Pilgrim is just another miracle.