1. “Books of Visions”: Jung, Dante, and the Making of the Red Book
What astonishing dimensions may lie, yet unseen, within your mind? What labyrinths of woe and wonder await your discovery?
The inaugural talk of Fey’s Shadow Salon investigates this question by comparing two texts, as monumental as mystifying: the Divine Comedy and the Red Book. Pack your bags and buckle up – we’re going to hell!
Dante’s Commedia, one of the defining works of European literature, recounts the protagonist’s visionary journey into hell and back in order to meet again his beloved Beatrice. Seven centuries later, the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology C.G. Jung underwent his own “season in hell”, a period of wide inner explorations which he later referred to as the years of his “confrontation with the unconscious”. Jung took record of these experiences in a series of personal notebooks that formed the Red Book, which he regarded as the most difficult and important experiment of his life. During this period, Dante’s poem served as a source of guidance and inspiration. For Jung, the Commedia was less a literary masterpiece than a first-hand account of a profound existential transformation: a “meditation book” enriched with archetypal symbolism. As Jung’s inner journey unfolded, the story of the Commedia began to intersect with his own explorations, at historical, psychological, and symbolical levels. This talk traces this encounter and suggests a new way to explore the relations between depth psychology and what Jung termed “visionary works”, i.e., artistic or literary creations based on life-transforming experiences of extraordinary states of consciousness.
Bio:
Dr Tommaso Priviero is an academic and analytical psychologist based in London. He received his PhD from University College London (UCL) and currently holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). His work focuses on the history of psychology and psychoanalysis, featuring in journals such as The International Journal of Jungian Studies, The European Yearbook of the History of Psychology, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Education, The Journal for the History of the Behavioural Sciences, among others. His most recent monograph, Of Fire and Form: Jung, Dante, and the Making of the Red Book (Routledge, 2023; with a preface by Sonu Shamdasani) is the recipient of the prestigious 2025 “Eugenio Montale Fuori di Casa” award. He is a registered member of the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP), the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) and the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP).
Hosted and Curated by:
Fey, a mediator between the otherworldly and the mundane. Outside of the salon, a researcher with interest in philosophy of mind, psychedelic experience and the extraordinary https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ada_Kaluzna2 Past scientific officer at the Beckley Foundation. Community-builder and traveler.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Fey’s Shadow Salon – a lecture series where we explore the elusive, chart the intangible, and investigate the invisible. Come around as we initiate the first season of the Salon, the Study of the Unseen, on the eclipse of 3rd March and stay for the ride through labyrinths of the human psyche, from the seven circles of the Jungian unconscious, to the psychedelic fountains of creativity, to the tall peaks of imagination where the ancient Spirits dwell.
1. “Books of Visions”: Jung, Dante, and the Making of the Red Book – 3 Mar 2026
2. The Reality of the Invisible – 2 April 2026
3. Psychedelics as Catalysts of Creativity – 30 April 2026
