Nine essays written between 1922 and 1941 directed mainly at the qualities of personality that enabled the creative spirit to introduce radical innovations into realms as diverse as medicine, psychoanalysis, Oriental studies, the visual arts, and literature. Essays on Paraclesus, Freud, this sinologist Richard Wilhelm, Picasso, and Joyce's Ulysses are supplemented by two others that consider artistic creativity generally and explore its source in archetypal structures.