Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[Nikkibar AT aol.com]

Walker was indeed familiar with Jung though in the split between Freud and Jung he would probably have been more inclined to the Freudian side of the battle(cf Mistake as Metaphor in comparison with Freud's three first Lectures in Principles of Psychoanalysis). Walker was an analysand of Harry Stack Sullivan who was fairly down the path with Freud. On the other hand Jung's mystical side was far more sympathetic to Walker's affinity for the numinous. Synchronicity was a concept with which he was quite familiar and we discussed many instances of it in our Book Group (not specifically devoted to Jung) although I think at one time we read some KJ (Memories Dreams and Reflections?) One of his bugbears was the tendency of some writers to get so in the groove with Freud that they would break into dream sequences as an integral part of the narrative. He hated it, having tried the device a few times and found it to be a quick road to failure. You will search the Percy Canon in vain for any example.

Nikki Barranger