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Carl Jung autograph letter signed, composed a week after the passing of his wife of 52 years. Jung writes to his mentee, the psychoanalyst Dr. Rivkah Scharf Kluger, clearly still absorbing the shock of his wife's death, who had been diagnosed only two weeks prior. Composed in black fountain pen on Jung's personal embossed stationery, letter translated from German reads in full,
''Dear Doctor! / After the recent weeks, so full of anxiety, and after the shock of the rapid end, I am finally able to write you and thank you for your letters. I was very interested in finding out how you were faring within your new status and your new country. I could well imagine that the new environment and the US atmosphere had a variety of surprises in store for you. I am glad to know that both of you are actively engaging with your new life, and I hope that you will not be discouraged by any of the difficulties, which, after all, are unavoidable.
My wife's physical presence simply disappeared, and it left a quasi audibly empty stillness. Internally, her presence is constant and she is palpably, so to speak, close. So far, one week after her passing, I dreamed of her only once. At first, my children lovingly attended to me and my solitude. At present, Miss Ruth Bailey, with whom I have been friends for 30 years (since my Africa trip), is staying with me.
Strangely, during the incubation of this death, i.e., since last spring, my libido has turned away from science, in spite of my subjective longing for academic work, and has turned to 'creative' or so-called 'artistic' interests. These became ignited in particular by a gingko tree that students of my Institute had given to me for my birthday and that was planted in my garden in October. Therefore, I am chiseling about on a stone that I will dedicate to the spirit of the tree, which in the East grows in temple gardens.
In addition, I am correcting the proofs of the second volume of the Mysterium Coniunctionis, a labor I find stressful. It is as though a bomb had detonated inside me, and I am barely or not at all able to concentrate. Between the fatal diagnosis and death, there were just barely five days, during which a marriage of 52 years was brought to a close. I am grateful to God for the merciful end that overcame her without pain. The direct cause of death was uremia resulting from a blockage of the kidneys by metastases. The shock, however, is hard to bear.
I wish you all the best, and please relate my best greetings to your husband and thank him for the cable! / Your faithful C. G. Jung''.
Two page letter on a single sheet measures 8.125'' x 11.5''. Folds, else near fine. Accompanied by original envelope with Jung's stamp on flap; addressed in another hand to Scharf in Los Angeles, envelope is postmarked 16 December 1955.