“The system was created by a little old lady in a hat in the 1930s — she didn't know diddly about filing, but she knew what Jung would've loved,” says librarian Nancy at the Max and Lore Zeller Library at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, who assures me that I don't have to be a Jungian analyst-in-training to visit this highly specialized collection of more than 6,500 volumes on analytical psychology, mythology, religion, symbolism, anthropology, art, sociology and magic. “Freud had everything organized in terms of sex. Jung looked for what made us work from the inside.” Casual visitors are encouraged to cut out their own slice of the collective unconscious — “We encourage that poking around” — but chances are it won't be long before you elect to become a member of this ostensibly private library, with a modest half-year fee of only $25. Membership includes checkout privileges, bookstore discounts and untold brushes with printed synchronicity. 10349 Pico Blvd., Century City. (310) 556-1193, junginla.org.

—Skylaire Alfvegren

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