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Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Publisher under Pressure
I
was disturbed to read that the Swiss heirs of C.G. Jung, world-renowned psychologist and cultural icon, have managed to persuade the German subsidiary of Random House to include the family's objections to Deirdre Bair's biography of Jung within the German edition of the book.
C
ontemporary Western standards of free expression certainly entitle the Jungs - or anyone else - to protest whatever they please, but I see no grounds for inserting such objections into someone else's book.
T
o make their objections known, the family members could have issued a news release, informed the world community of Jung scholars, even filed a lawsuit against the author or Little, Brown & Company, the American publisher of the original English language version in 2003. The German publisher's willingness to do the Jung family's bidding sullies Bair's book.
T
he decision also sets a terrible precedent. What will happen the next time someone objects to the content of a book by Knaus Verlag, the German publishing company? It would not be unreasonable for cranks to expect to be given the same opportunity it has given the Jung family. And what will other publishers be asked to do now that the Jungs have prevailed?
Posted by fm on August 09, 2005 at 10:19 AM