OEDIPUS IN AN IRISH BOG OEDIPUS IN AN I RISH BOG: SEAMUS HEANEY, FREUD, AND JUNG SUSAN ROWLAND n 1909, Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung were on their way to America when they quarrelled. The spark flared from Jung’s mention to Freud of the surprisingly well-preserved bodies that were being discovered in northern European bogs. Jung recalls this episode in Memories, Dreams, Reflections (hereinafter “MDR” ) as an attempt on his part to make light conversation. 1 His attempt to amuse Freud goes disastrously wrong when the older man faints. Recovering, Freud banishes this topic of conversation with the accusation that Jung harbors a death wish towards him. In the iconography of MDR, the failed discussion about bodies in bogs picks up the theme of “mud” which had been introduced previously: Freud begs Jung to remain faithful to his [Freud’s]psychoanalysis lest it be overwhelmed by “a black tide of mud” of the occult, a dread Jung immediately describes as “mythological.” 2 Also, I would like to suggest that Jung’s report of his fascination with bog bodies reveals something prophetic about his own work. Jung says: I Susan Rowland, Ph.D., is Reader in English and Jungian Studies at the University of Greenwich, UK, and author of Jung as a Writer (Routledge, 2005). She was chair of the International Association of Jungian Studies, 2003-2006.