When Jung visited the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico, they asked him what clan he belonged to. He explained that the Swiss people do not belong to clans and did not have totem animals.
Jung’s native hosts listened politely. Later, they watched him descend a ladder from the roof where the conversation had been taking place. They noticed that, while the Pueblo go down ladders face forward, as people go down stairs, the Swiss psychologist descended the ladder with his face to the wall.
When Jung reached the ground, a Pueblo elder pointed to the bear of Bern on the pocket of his blazer and observed, “The bear is the only animal that goes down a tree – or a ladder – with its face to the trunk.”
Jung makes a brief reference to this incident in Modern Man in Search of a Soul, without mentioning the blazer. I found that bit in André Malraux’s Antimémoires.
In a sketch of his visit to New Mexico published in Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung recalls a talk with Ochwiay Biano. The Pueblo elder said of white people, “We think they are mad.” When Jung asked why, the elder responded “They say that they think with their heads.”
Puzzled, the psychologist asked, “What do you think with?”
“We think here,” the native elder responded, placing his hand on his heart.
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