''The Freud/Jung Letters: The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung'' is a book, edited by William McGuire and first published by
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...
in 1974, that compiles the 360 letters that
psychoanalysts
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
and
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
wrote to each other from 1906 until their break in 1914.
Lionel Trilling
Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...
wrote in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', "In no way does it disappoint the large expectation it has naturally aroused," and (apart from minor reservations about some of the translations) the quality of the edition is widely recognised.
Thematics
Besides providing a wealth of material about both the theoretical and the institutional developments of early
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...
, the correspondence also charts the intense relationship between Freud and Jung during the period in question. Where Jung wrote of his "unconditional veneration" for Freud, the latter in turn claimed that "Your person has filled with confidence in the future." What has been seen as a mixture of
narcissistic
Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others.
Narcissism exists on a co ...
idealisation and
grandiosity
In the field of psychology, the term grandiosity refers to an unrealistic sense of superiority, characterized by a sustained view of one's self as better than others, which is expressed by disdainfully criticising them (contempt), overinflating ...
on the part of both men, combined with the persisting theoretical differences of substance over the
Libido
Libido (; colloquial: sex drive) is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity. Libido is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. Biologically, the sex hormones and associated neurotransmitters that act u ...
theory in particular, led ultimately to the break-up of the relationship - giving the shape of the correspondence something of the appearance of a classic tragedy.
[S. and J. Stein, ''Psychotherapy in Practice'' (2000) p. 268]
See also
References
External links
Princeton University Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freud Jung Letters
Sigmund Freud
Carl Jung