On August 20, 2015, I had the profound honor of spending the entire day at Inner City Books in Toronto, Canada. Late that afternoon, I sat down with Daryl Sharp to record the first episode of the podcast.
Daryl Leonard Merle Sharp - writer, Jungian analyst, publisher and bon vivant - was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1936. He lives in Toronto, Canada and has two sons and two daughters.
He earned two bachelor’s degrees - one in mathematics and physics, the other in journalism - at Carleton University in Canada, and a master’s degree in literature and philosophy from the University of Sussex in England. Sharp entered training at the C.G. Jung Institute Zürich in 1974 along with other members of the so-called “Canadian mafia,” which included Fraser Boa, Marion Woodman and John Dourley.
Upon graduating in 1978, Sharp returned to Canada to begin an analytic practice and tour North America on the Jungian lecture circuit. Together with Marion Woodman and Fraser Boa, Sharp co-founded the Ontario Association of Jungian Analysts in Toronto in 1982 (followed by a training program for analysts in 2000).
In 1980, Sharp also began his major labour of love: Inner City Books, still the world’s only publishing house dealing exclusively with the work of Jungian analysts. Sharp’s first publication was his diploma thesis, The Secret Raven: Conflict & Transformation in the Life of Franz Kafka. Many others followed, including multiple publications by analysts such as Marion Woodman, Edward F. Edinger, James Hollis and J. Gary Sparks, and especially Marie-Louise von Franz, who graciously agreed to act as honorary patron of Inner City Books.
Today, in 2015, Sharp’s enterprise has enjoyed significant success, selling millions of books with translations into approximately a dozen languages.
Sharp himself is the author of more than 30 titles, mainly designed to introduce and explain Jungian concepts to lay audiences. Perhaps his best known books are Personality Types: Jung’s Model of Typology {1987}, The Survival Papers: Anatomy of a Midlife Crisis {1988}, and Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey {2001}.
Here is the interview, which is also available on iTunes and on Stitcher. It’s just over 55 minutes long and around 50MB:
BOOKS MENTIONED DURING THE INTERVIEW
Jungian Psychology Unplugged: My Life As an Elephant by Daryl Sharp
The Problem of the Puer Aeternus by Marie-Louise von Franz
The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz
The Feminine in Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz
Shadow & Evil in Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz
Individuation in Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz
The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology by Edward C. Whitmont
The Herder Dictionary of Symbols
The Secret Raven: Conflict & Transformation in the Life of Franz Kafka by Daryl Sharp
Diaries, 1910-1923 by Franz Kafka
The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa & the Repressed Feminine by Marion Woodman
Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride by Marion Woodman
The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation by Marion Woodman
Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women by Sylvia Brinton Perera
Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz
C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time by Marie-Louise von Franz
The Cat: A Tale of Feminine Redemption by Marie-Louise von Franz
The Love Drama of C.G. Jung: As Revealed In His Life & In His Red Book by Maria Helena Mandacarú Guerra
The Red Book: Liber Novus by C.G. Jung
LINKS
Speaking of Jung Blog: The Elephant Photo and short video of the elephant
Daryl Sharp’s Alchemical Snake Ring A 3-minute video that we recorded after this interview
Speaking of Jung Blog: Who is Daryl Sharp? Written by the man himself
Speaking of Jung: Episode 5 Daryl Sharp on Personality Types: Jung’s Model of Typology
In Memoriam: Marie-Louise von Franz, 1915-1998 A Personal Reminiscence by Daryl Sharp