Talk To Me: Charlie Kaufman Bares His Unconscious

Talk to Me | Nov 24, 2009

Filmmaker Charlie Kaufman and Jungian analyst John Beebe plumbed the depths of the writer's famously complex mind during a Jungian chat last month at the Rubin Museum.

Kaufman and Beebe's conversation was part of the museum's Red Book Dialogues, which pairs analysts and artists in conversation about the godfather of the unconscious, Carl Jung.

Kaufman interpreted an image of a person-shaped figure (pictured to the left), arched in pain or ecstasy, and outlined by a sea of blue wavy figures. Kaufman spent a lot of time arguing against imposing borders on life in general. The "notion of being protected from the outside world," Kaufman said, is "false and ego driven."

They also explored Kaufman’s fear of running over someone while driving. "If I killed a bug, I could go on. If I [accidentally] killed a person, I don’t know how I could go on," Kaufman said.

 

WNYC’s “Talk to Me” series is featuring notable dialogues from the Red Book Dialogues.

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