Landscapes of the Soul

Switzerland has been home to a number of soul searchers over the years, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche and Carl Gustav Jung. Developments in psychiatry and psychoanalysis have a close association with Switzerland, which is still in evidence today, for example the pioneering Rorschach test, Ludwig Binswanger’s Daseinsanalysis or Jung’s analytical psychology. To mark the 150th birthday of C. G. Jung, the National Museum Zurich is presenting its first comprehensive exhibition covering the history of the exploration of the human psyche in Switzerland. The main exhibit is the legendary ‘Red Book’ in which C. G. Jung made his notes during an intense spell of self-reflection. Art also helps open doors to the mind with visionary works by Johann Heinrich Füssli, Emma Kunz, Rudolf Steiner, Meret Oppenheim or Thomas Hirschhorn and, last but not least, Heidi Bucher, whose work ‘The Parlour Office of Doctor Binswanger’ sets an important accent. This provides a psychological panorama covering every region in Switzerland, in which the connection between mind and landscape is presented in impressive fashion.