Rapunzel's Tower

I have towers on my mind and am naturally drawn to the story of Rapunzel. In this Grimm’s fairy tale, Rapunzel “when she was twelve years old, the sorceress locked her in a tower that was in a forest. It had neither door nor stairs, only a little window high above…”

This “Tower” is a psychological space. To say of someone, she is in the tower is to say she is currently inhabiting a certain psychological space, living a certain kind of human experience. What is this experience like?

The experience is one of solitude, and of being alone with oneself. This reminds me of Carl Jung’s tower, Bollingen, which I visited a few years ago. Jung built his tower himself on the shores of the upper lake of Zurich. This was a place that Jung often retreated to and where he spent much time in solitude, working and resting. Jung says: “Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.”

Jung’s tower, however, is different to Rapunzel’s “Tower” experience. Jung also occasionally accepted visitors at his Tower, and then he had his other home in Kusnacht where he lived with his family, saw patients, and other friends and visitors. He could come and go into his tower, while Rapunzel’s tower has “neither doors nor stairs.” It is an experience of imprisonment, there is no coming and going freely, one is trapped. This is the experience of encapsulation where one cannot interact and is only free to look out the “little window” at the world going by…