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Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss
psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
,
psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...
, and
psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
who founded the school of
analytical psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their ...
. A prolific author of over 20 books, illustrator, and correspondent, Jung was a complex and convoluted academic, best known for his concept of
archetypes The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...
. Alongside contemporaries
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 seen as originating from conflicts in t ...
and Adler, Jung became one of the most influential psychologists of the early 20th century and has fostered not only scholarship, but also popular interest. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of
psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...
,
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
,
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
,
literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
, and
religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...
. He worked as a research scientist at the
Burghölzli Burghölzli, named after the wooded hill in the district of Riesbach in southeastern Zürich where it is located, is the ''Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich'' ('Psychiatric University Hospital Zürich'), a psychiatric hospital in Switzerl ...
psychiatric hospital in
Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, under
Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler ( ; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and eugenicist most notable for his influence on modern concepts of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", " schizoid", "a ...
. Jung established himself as an influential mind, developing a friendship with
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 psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
, founder of
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
, conducting a lengthy correspondence paramount to their joint vision of human psychology. Jung is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists in history. Freud saw the younger Jung not only as the heir he had been seeking to take forward his "new science" of psychoanalysis but as a means to legitimize his own work: Freud and other contemporary psychoanalysts were Jews facing rising antisemitism in Europe, and Jung was raised as
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
, although he didn't strictly adhere to traditional Christian doctrine, he saw religion, including Christianity, as a powerful expression of the human psyche and its search for meaning. Freud secured Jung's appointment as president of Freud's newly founded
International Psychoanalytical Association The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud, from an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi. His ...
. Jung's research and personal vision, however, made it difficult to follow his older colleague's doctrine, and they parted ways. This division was painful for Jung and resulted in the establishment of Jung's analytical psychology, as a comprehensive system separate from psychoanalysis. Among the central concepts of analytical psychology is
individuation The principle of individuation, or ', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Simondo ...
—the lifelong psychological process of differentiation of the self out of each individual's conscious and unconscious elements. Jung considered it to be the main task of human development. He created some of the best-known psychological concepts, including
synchronicity Synchronicity () is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Jung held that this was a healthy fu ...
, archetypal phenomena, the
collective unconscious In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...
, the psychological complex, and
extraversion and introversion Extraversion and introversion are a central trait theory, trait dimension in human personality psychology, personality theory. The terms were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung, though both the popular understanding and current psychologic ...
. His treatment of American businessman and politician Rowland Hazard in 1926 with his conviction that
alcoholics Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...
may recover if they have a " vital spiritual (or religious) experience" played a crucial role in the chain of events that led to the formation of
Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led Mutual aid, mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anon ...
. Jung was an
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...
, craftsman, builder, and prolific writer. Many of his works were not published until after his death, and some remain unpublished.


Biography


Early life


Childhood

Carl Gustav Jung was born 26 July 1875 in
Kesswil Kesswil is a municipality in the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. The village was the birthplace of the influential psychiatrist Carl Jung. Professor Jung, one of the founders of analytical psychology, was born in Kes ...
, in the
Swiss canton The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the Federated state, member states of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important ...
of
Thurgau Thurgau (; ; ; ), anglicized as Thurgovia, and formally as the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts. Its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is part of Eastern Switzerland. I ...
, as the first surviving son of Paul Achilles Jung (1842–1896) and Emilie Preiswerk (1848–1923). His birth was preceded by two stillbirths and that of a son named Paul, born in 1873, who survived only a few days. Paul Jung, Carl's father, was the youngest son of a noted German-Swiss professor of medicine at
Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
,
Karl Gustav Jung Karl Gustav Jung (7 September 1795 in Mannheim – 12 June 1864 in Basel) was a German-Swiss medical doctor, political activist, professor of Medicine at the University of Basel, administrator and freemason. Life Karl Gustav Jung was the ...
(1794–1864). Paul's hopes of achieving a fortune never materialised, and he did not progress beyond the status of an impoverished rural pastor in the
Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Emilie Preiswerk, Carl's mother, had also grown up in a large family whose Swiss roots went back five centuries. Emilie was the youngest child of a distinguished Basel churchman and academic, Samuel Preiswerk (1799–1871), and his second wife. Samuel Preiswerk was an '' Antistes'', the title given to the head of the Reformed clergy in the city, as well as a
Hebraist A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...
, author, and editor, who taught Paul Jung as his professor of
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
at
Basel University The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...
. Jung's father was appointed to a more prosperous parish in Laufen when Jung was six months old. Tensions between father and mother had developed. Jung's mother was an eccentric and depressed woman; she spent considerable time in her bedroom, where she said spirits visited her at night. Though she was normal during the day, Jung recalled that at night his mother became strange and mysterious. He said that one night, he saw a faintly luminous and indefinite figure coming from her room, with a head detached from the neck and floating in the air in front of the body. Jung had a better relationship with his father. Jung's mother left Laufen for several months of hospitalization near Basel for an unknown physical ailment. His father took Carl to be cared for by Emilie Jung's unmarried sister in Basel, but he was later brought back to his father's residence. Emilie Jung's continuing bouts of absence and depression deeply troubled her son and caused him to associate women with "innate unreliability", whereas "father" meant for him reliability, but also powerlessness. In his memoir, Jung would remark that this parental influence was the "handicap I started off with". Later, these early impressions were revised: "I have trusted men friends and been disappointed by them, and I have mistrusted women and was not disappointed." After three years living in Laufen, Paul Jung requested a transfer. In 1879, he was called to Kleinhüningen, next to Basel, where his family lived in a church parsonage. The relocation brought Emilie Jung closer to contact with her family and lifted her melancholy. When he was 9, Jung's sister Johanna Gertrud (1884–1935) was born. Known in the family as "Trudi", she became a secretary to her brother.


Memories of childhood

Jung was a solitary and introverted child. From childhood, he believed that, like his mother, he had two personalities—a modern Swiss citizen and a personality more suited to the 18th century. "Personality Number 1", as he termed it, was a typical schoolboy living in the era of the time. "Personality Number 2" was a dignified, authoritative, and influential man from the past. Though Jung was close to both parents, he was disappointed by his father's academic approach to faith. Some childhood memories made lifelong impressions on him. As a boy, he carved a tiny
mannequin A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off dif ...
into the end of the wooden ruler from his pencil case and placed it inside it. He added a stone, which he had painted into upper and lower halves, and hid the case in the attic. Periodically, he would return to the mannequin, often bringing tiny sheets of paper with messages inscribed on them in his own secret language. He later reflected that this ceremonial act brought him a feeling of inner peace and security. Years later, he discovered similarities between his personal experience and the practices associated with
totem A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ...
s in
Indigenous cultures There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
, such as the collection of soul-stones near
Arlesheim Arlesheim is a town and a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. Its cathedral chapter seat, bishop's residence and cathedral (1681 / 1761) are listed as a heritage site of national significance ...
or the '' tjurungas'' of Australia. He concluded that his intuitive ceremonial act was an unconscious ritual, which he had practiced in a way that was strikingly similar to those in distant locations which he, as a young boy, knew nothing about. His observations about symbols,
archetypes The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...
, and the
collective unconscious In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...
were inspired, in part, by these early experiences combined with his later research. At the age of 12, shortly before the end of his first year at the ''Humanistisches Gymnasium'' in Basel, Jung was pushed to the ground by another boy so hard he momentarily lost consciousness. (Jung later recognized the incident was indirectly his fault.) A thought then came to him—"Now you won't have to go to school anymore". From then on, whenever he walked to school or began homework, he fainted. He remained home for six months until he overheard his father speaking hurriedly to a visitor about the boy's future ability to support himself. They suspected he had
epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...
. Confronted with his family's poverty, he realized the need for academic excellence. He entered his father's study and began poring over
Latin grammar Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, numbe ...
. He fainted three more times but eventually overcame the urge and did not faint again. This event, Jung later recalled, "was when I learned what a
neurosis Neurosis (: neuroses) is a term mainly used today by followers of Freudian thinking to describe mental disorders caused by past anxiety, often that has been repressed. In recent history, the term has been used to refer to anxiety-related con ...
is".


University studies and early career

Initially, Jung had aspirations of becoming a Christian minister. His household had a strong moral sense, and several of his family were clergy. Jung had wanted to study archaeology, but his family could not afford to send him further than the University of Basel, which did not teach it. After studying philosophy in his teens, Jung decided against the path of religious traditionalism and decided to pursue psychiatry and medicine. His interest was captured—it combined the biological and spiritual, exactly what he was searching for. In 1895 Jung began to study medicine at the University of Basel. Barely a year later, his father, Paul, died and left the family nearly destitute. They were helped by relatives who also contributed to Jung's studies. During his student days, he entertained his contemporaries with the family legend that his paternal grandfather was the illegitimate son of
Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
and his German great-grandmother,
Sophie Ziegler Sophie is a feminine given name, another version of Sophia, from the Greek word for "wisdom". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Soph ...
. In later life, he pulled back from this tale, saying only that Sophie was a friend of Goethe's niece. It was during this early period when Jung was an assistant at the Anatomical Institute at Basel University, that he took an interest in palaeoanthropology and the revolutionary discoveries of ''Homo erectus'' and Neanderthal fossils. These formative experiences contributed to his fascination with the evolutionary past of humanity and his belief that an ancient evolutionary layer in the psyche, represented by early fossil hominins, is still evident in the psychology of modern humans. In 1900, Jung moved to Zurich and began working at the
Burghölzli Burghölzli, named after the wooded hill in the district of Riesbach in southeastern Zürich where it is located, is the ''Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich'' ('Psychiatric University Hospital Zürich'), a psychiatric hospital in Switzerl ...
psychiatric hospital under
Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler ( ; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and eugenicist most notable for his influence on modern concepts of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", " schizoid", "a ...
. Bleuler was already in communication with the Austrian neurologist
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 psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
. Jung's dissertation, published in 1903, was titled ''On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena''. It was based on the analysis of the supposed
mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or ...
of Jung's cousin Hélène Preiswerk, under the influence of Freud's contemporary
Théodore Flournoy Théodore Flournoy (15 August 1854 – 5 November 1920) was a Swiss professor of psychology at the University of Geneva and author of books on parapsychology and spiritism. He studied a wide variety of subjects before he devoted his life to psyc ...
. Jung studied with
Pierre Janet Pierre Marie Félix Janet (; ; 30 May 1859 – 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French psychologist, physician, philosopher, and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory. He is ranked alongside William James ...
in Paris in 1902 and later equated his view of the
complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
with Janet's . In 1905, Jung was appointed as a permanent 'senior' doctor at the hospital and became a lecturer ''
Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...
'' in the medical faculty of Zurich University. In 1904, he published with
Franz Riklin Franz Beda Riklin (; 22 April 1878, St. Gallen – 4 December 1938, Küsnacht) was a Swiss psychiatrist. Early in his career, Franz Riklin worked at the Burghölzli Hospital in Zurich under Eugen Bleuler (1857–1939), and studied experimen ...
their ''Diagnostic Association Studies'', of which Freud obtained a copy. In 1909, Jung left the psychiatric hospital and began a private practice in his home in
Küsnacht Küsnacht () is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland. History Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as ''de Cussenacho''. Earliest findings of settlement date back to the Stone Age. There are also findi ...
. Eventually, a close friendship and strong professional association developed between the elder Freud and Jung, which left a sizeable correspondence. In late summer 1909, the two sailed for the U.S., where Freud was the featured lecturer at the twentieth-anniversary celebration of the founding of
Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research uni ...
in
Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
, the Vicennial Conference on Psychology and Pedagogy, September 7–11. Jung spoke as well and received an honorary degree. It was during this trip that Jung first began separating psychologically from Freud, his mentor, which occurred after intense communications around their individual dreams. It was during this visit that Jung was introduced to the elder philosopher and psychologist
William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...
, known as the "Father of American psychology," whose ideas Jung would incorporate into his own work. Jung connected with James around their mutual interests in
mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...
,
spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...
and psychical
phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...
. James wrote to a friend after the conference stating Jung "left a favorable impression," while "his views of Freud were mixed." James died about eleven months later. The ideas of both Jung and James, on topics including hopelessness, self-surrender, and spiritual experiences, were influential in the development and founding of the international altruistic, self-help movement
Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led Mutual aid, mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anon ...
on June 10, 1935, in
Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...
, a quarter of a century after James' death and in Jung's sixtieth year. For six years, Jung and Freud cooperated in their work. In 1912, however, Jung published '' Psychology of the Unconscious'', which manifested the developing theoretical divergence between the two. Consequently, their personal and professional relationship fractured—each stating the other could not admit he could be wrong. After the culminating break in 1913, Jung went through a difficult and pivotal psychological transformation, exacerbated by the outbreak of the First World War.
Henri Ellenberger Henri Frédéric Ellenberger (6 November 1905 – 1 May 1993) was a Canadian psychiatrist, medical historian, and criminologist, sometimes considered the founding historiographer of psychiatry. Ellenberger is chiefly remembered for '' The Discov ...
called Jung's intense experience a "creative illness" and compared it favorably to Freud's own period of what he called
neurasthenia Neurasthenia ( and () 'weak') is a term that was first used as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves. It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist Georg ...
and
hysteria Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the bas ...
.


Marriage

In 1903, Jung married Emma Rauschenbach (1882–1955), seven years his junior and the elder daughter of a wealthy industrialist in eastern Switzerland, Johannes Rauschenbach-Schenck. Rauschenbach was the owner, among other concerns, of IWC Schaffhausen—the International Watch Company, manufacturer of luxury time-pieces. Upon his death in 1905, his two daughters and their husbands became owners of the business. Jung's brother-in-law— Ernst Homberger—became the principal proprietor, but the Jungs remained shareholders in a thriving business that ensured the family's financial security for decades. Emma Jung, whose education had been limited, showed considerable ability and interest in her husband's research and threw herself into studies and acted as his assistant at Burghölzli. She eventually became a noted psychoanalyst in her own right. The marriage lasted until Emma died in 1955. They had five children: * Agathe Niehus, born on December 28, 1904 * Gret Baumann, born on February 8, 1906 * Franz Jung-Merker, born on November 28, 1908 * Marianne Niehus, born on September 20, 1910 * Helene Hoerni, born on March 18, 1914 None of the children continued their father's career. The daughters, Agathe and Marianne, assisted in publishing work. During his marriage, Jung engaged in at least one extramarital relationship: his affair with his patient and, later, fellow psychoanalyst
Sabina Spielrein Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein ( rus, Сабина Николаевна Шпильрейн, p=sɐˈbʲinə nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvnə ʂpʲɪlʲˈrɛjn; 7 November 25 October 1885 OS – 11 August 1942) was a Russian physician and one of the first femal ...
. A continuing affair with
Toni Wolff Toni Anna Wolff (18 September 1888 – 21 March 1953) was a Swiss Jungian analyst and a close collaborator of Carl Jung. During her analytic career Wolff published relatively little under her own name, but she helped Jung identify, define, and ...
is also alleged.


Relationship with Freud


Meeting and collaboration

Jung and Freud influenced each other during the intellectually formative years of Jung's life. Jung became interested in psychiatry as a student by reading ''
Psychopathia Sexualis '': '' (''Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study'', also known as '', with Especial Reference to the Antipathetic Sexual Instinct: A Medico-forensic Study'') is an 1886 book by and one of the first texts about sexual pathology. The boo ...
'' by
Richard von Krafft-Ebing Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 – 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work '' Psychopath ...
. In 1900, Jung completed his degree and started work as an intern (voluntary doctor) under the psychiatrist
Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler ( ; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and eugenicist most notable for his influence on modern concepts of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", " schizoid", "a ...
at Burghölzli Hospital. It was Bleuler who introduced him to the writings of Freud by asking him to write a review of ''
The Interpretation of Dreams ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' () is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what would later become the t ...
'' (1899). In the early 1900s
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
as a science was still in its early stages, but Jung became a qualified proponent of Freud's new "psycho-analysis". Freud needed collaborators and pupils to validate and spread his ideas. Burghölzli was a renowned psychiatric clinic in Zurich, and Jung's research had already gained him international recognition. Jung sent Freud a copy of his ''Studies in Word Association'' in 1906. The same year, he published ''Diagnostic Association Studies'', a copy of which he later sent to Freud, who had already purchased a copy. Preceded by a lively correspondence, Jung met Freud for the first time in Vienna on 3 March 1907. Jung recalled the discussion between himself and Freud as interminable and unceasing for 13 hours. Six months later, the then 50-year-old Freud sent a collection of his latest published essays to Jung in Zurich. This began an intense correspondence and collaboration that lasted six years. In 1908, Jung became an editor of the newly founded ''Yearbook for Psychoanalytical and Psychopathological Research''. In 1909, Jung traveled with Freud and Hungarian psychoanalyst
Sándor Ferenczi Sándor Ferenczi (; 7 July 1873 – 22 May 1933) was a Hungarian Psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, a key theorist of the psychoanalytic school and a close associate of Sigmund Freud. Biography Born Sándor Fraenkel to Baruch Fränkel and Rosa ...
to the United States; in September, they took part in a conference at
Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research uni ...
in
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...
, Massachusetts. The conference at Clark University was planned by the psychologist
G. Stanley Hall Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1844 – April 24, 1924) was an American psychologist and educator who earned the first doctorate in psychology awarded in the United States of America at Harvard University in the nineteenth century. His ...
and included 27 distinguished psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists. It represented a watershed in the acceptance of psychoanalysis in North America. This forged welcome links between Jung and influential Americans. Jung returned to the United States the next year for a brief visit. In 1910, Freud proposed Jung, "his adopted eldest son, his crown prince, and successor," for the position of lifetime President of the newly formed
International Psychoanalytical Association The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud, from an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi. His ...
. However, after forceful objections from his Viennese colleagues, it was agreed Jung would be elected to serve a two-year term of office.


Divergence and break

While Jung worked on his ''Psychology of the Unconscious: a study of the transformations and symbolisms of the libido'', tensions manifested between him and Freud because of various disagreements, including those concerning the nature of
libido In psychology, libido (; ) is psychic drive or energy, usually conceived of as sexual in nature, but sometimes conceived of as including other forms of desire. The term ''libido'' was originally developed by Sigmund Freud, the pioneering origin ...
. Jung the importance of sexual development and focused on the collective unconscious: the part of the unconscious that contains memories and ideas that Jung believed were inherited from ancestors. While he did think that the libido was an important source of personal growth, unlike Freud, Jung did not think that the libido alone was responsible for the formation of the core personality. In 1912, these tensions came to a peak because Jung felt severely slighted after Freud visited his colleague
Ludwig Binswanger Ludwig Binswanger (; ; 13 April 1881 – 5 February 1966) was a Swiss people, Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology. His parents were Robert Johann Binswanger (1850–1910) and Bertha Hasenclever (1847–1896). ...
in
Kreuzlingen Kreuzlingen () is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second-largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of about 22 ...
without paying him a visit in nearby Zurich, an incident Jung referred to as "the Kreuzlingen gesture". Shortly thereafter, Jung again traveled to the US and gave the
Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
lectures, a six-week series, which were published later in the year as ''Psychology of the Unconscious'', subsequently republished as ''
Symbols of Transformation A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise different concept ...
''. While they contain remarks on Jung's dissenting view on the libido, they represent largely a "psychoanalytical Jung" and not the theory of analytical psychology, for which he became famous in the following decades. Nonetheless, it was their publication which, Jung declared, "cost me my friendship with Freud". Another disagreement with Freud stemmed from their differing concepts of the unconscious. Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as incomplete, unnecessarily negative, and inelastic. According to Jung, Freud conceived the unconscious solely as a repository of repressed emotions and desires. Jung's observations overlap to an extent with Freud's model of the unconscious, what Jung called the "
personal unconscious In analytical psychology, the personal unconscious is a Jungian term referring to the part of the unconscious that can be brought to the conscious mind. It is Carl Jung's equivalent to the Freudian unconscious, in contrast to the Jungian concept of ...
", but his hypothesis is more about a process than a static model, and he also proposed the existence of a second, overarching form of the unconscious beyond the personal, that he named the psychoid—a term borrowed from neo-vitalist philosopher and embryologist
Hans Driesch Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (28 October 1867 – 17 April 1941) was a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for his neo-vitalist philosophy of entelechy. He has also ...
(1867–1941)—but with a somewhat altered meaning. The
collective unconscious In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...
is not so much a 'geographical location', but a deduction from the alleged ubiquity of
archetypes The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...
over space and time. In November 1912, Jung and Freud met in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
for a meeting among prominent colleagues to discuss psychoanalytical journals.Jones, Ernest, ed.
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, ...
and Steven Marcus. ''The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud'', New York: Anchor Books, 1963.
At a talk about a new psychoanalytic essay on
Amenhotep IV Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the f ...
, Jung expressed his views on how it related to actual conflicts in the psychoanalytic movement. While Jung spoke, Freud suddenly fainted, and Jung carried him to a couch. Jung and Freud personally met for the last time in September 1913 at the Fourth International Psychoanalytical Congress in Munich. Jung gave a talk on psychological types, the
introvert Extraversion and introversion are a central trait dimension in human personality theory. The terms were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung, though both the popular understanding and current psychological usage are not the same as Jung's o ...
and extraverted types, in
analytical psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their ...
.


Midlife isolation

It was the publication of Jung's book ''The Psychology of the Unconscious'' in 1912 that led to the final break with Freud. The letters they exchanged show Freud's refusal to consider Jung's ideas. This rejection caused what Jung described in his posthumously published autobiography, ''Memories, Dreams, Reflections'' (1962) as a "resounding censure". Everyone he knew dropped away from him except two of his colleagues. After the Munich congress, he was on the verge of a suicidal psychosis that precipitated his writing of his ''Red Book,'' his seven-volume personal diaries that were only published partially and posthumously in 2009. Eleven years later, in 2020, they were published as his ''Black Books.'' Jung described his 1912 book as "an attempt, only partially successful, to create a wider setting for medical psychology and to bring the whole of the psychic phenomena within its purview". The book was later revised and retitled ''Symbols of Transformation'' in 1952.


London 1913–1914

Jung spoke at meetings of the Psycho-Medical Society in London in 1913 and 1914. His travels were soon interrupted by the war, but his ideas continued to receive attention in England primarily through the efforts of
Constance Long Constance may refer to: Places *Constance, Kentucky, United States, an unincorporated community * Constance, Minnesota, United States, an unincorporated community *Mount Constance, Washington State, United States *Lake Constance (disambiguation ...
, who translated and published the first English volume of his collected writings.


''The Black Books and The Red Book''

In 1913, at the age of 38, Jung experienced a horrible "confrontation with the unconscious". He saw visions and heard voices. He worried at times that he was "menaced by a psychosis" or was "doing a schizophrenia". He decided that it was a valuable experience and, in private, he induced hallucinations or, in his words, a process of "
active imagination Active imagination refers to a process or technique of engaging with the ideas or imaginings of one's mind. It is used as a mental strategy to communicate with the subconscious mind. In Jungian psychology, it is a method for bridging the conscio ...
". He recorded everything he experienced in small journals, which Jung referred to in the singular as his '' Black Book'', considering it a "single integral whole", even though some of these original journals have a brown cover. The material Jung wrote was subjected to several edits, hand-written and typed, including another, "second layer" of text, his continual psychological interpretations during the process of editing. Around 1915, Jung commissioned a large red leather-bound book, and began to transcribe his notes and paint, working intermittently for sixteen years. Jung left no posthumous instructions about the final disposition of what he called the ''Liber Novus'' or ''Red Book''. Sonu Shamdasani, a historian of psychology from London, tried for three years to persuade Jung's resistant heirs to have it published. Ulrich Hoerni, Jung's grandson who manages the Jung archives, decided to publish it when the necessary additional funds were raised through the Philemon Foundation. Up to September 2008, fewer than about two dozen people had ever seen it. In 2007, two technicians for DigitalFusion, working with New York City publishers W. W. Norton & Company, scanned the manuscript with a 10,200-pixel scanner. It was published on 7 October 2009 in German, with a "separate English translation along with Shamdasani's introduction and footnotes" at the back of the book. According to Sara Corbett, reviewing the text for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', "The book is bombastic, baroque and like so much else about Carl Jung, a willful oddity, synched with an
antediluvian The antediluvian (alternatively pre-diluvian or pre-flood) period is the time period chronicled in the Bible between the fall of man and the Genesis flood narrative in biblical cosmology. The term was coined by Thomas Browne (1605–1682). The n ...
and mystical reality." The
Rubin Museum of Art The Rubin Museum of Art, also known as the Rubin Museum, is dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art and cultures of the Himalayas, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and other regions within Eurasia, with a permanent ...
in New York City displayed Jung's ''Red Book'' leather folio, as well as some of his original "Black Book" journals, from 7 October 2009 to 15 February 2010. According to them, "During the period in which he worked on this book Jung developed his principal theories of archetypes, collective unconscious, and the process of individuation." Two-thirds of the pages bear Jung's illuminations and illustrations to the text.


Wartime army service

During World War I, Jung was drafted as an army doctor and soon made commandant of an internment camp for British officers and soldiers. The Swiss were neutral and obliged to intern personnel from either side of the conflict, who crossed their frontier to evade capture. Jung worked to improve the conditions of soldiers stranded in Switzerland and encouraged them to attend university courses.


Travels

Jung emerged from his period of isolation in the late 1910s with the publication of several journal articles, followed in 1921 with ''
Psychological Types ''Psychological Types'' () is a book by Carl Jung that was originally published in German by Rascher Verlag in 1921, and translated into English in 1923, becoming volume 6 of '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung''. In the book, Jung proposes f ...
'', one of his most influential books. There followed a decade of active publication, interspersed with overseas travels.


England (1920, 1923, 1925, 1935, 1938, 1946)

Constance Long arranged for Jung to deliver a seminar in
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
in 1920. Another seminar was held in 1923, this one organized by Jung's British protégé Helton Godwin Baynes (known as "Peter") (1882–1943), and another in 1925. In 1935, at the invitation of his close British friends and colleagues, H. G. Baynes, E. A. Bennet and Hugh Crichton-Miller, Jung gave a series of lectures at the
Tavistock Clinic The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health trust based in north London. The Trust specialises in talking therapies. The education and training department caters for 2,000 students a year from the United Kin ...
in London, later published as part of the ''Collected Works''. In 1938, Jung was awarded an honorary degree by the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
. At the tenth International Medical Congress for Psychotherapy held at Oxford from 29 July to 2 August 1938, Jung gave the presidential address, followed by a visit to
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
to stay with the Bailey family at Lawton Mere. In 1946, Jung agreed to become the first Honorary President of the newly formed
Society of Analytical Psychology The Society of Analytical Psychology, known also as the SAP, incorporated in London, England, in 1945 is the oldest training organisation for Jungian analysts in the United Kingdom. Its first Honorary President in 1946 was Carl Jung. The societ ...
in London, having previously approved its training programme devised by
Michael Fordham Michael Scott Montague Fordham (4 August 1905 – 14 April 1995) was an English child psychiatrist and Jungian analyst. He was a co-editor of the English translation of C.G. Jung's '' Collected Works''. His clinical and theoretical collabora ...
.


United States 1909–1912, 1924–1925, & 1936–1937

During the period of Jung's collaboration with Freud, both visited the US in 1909 to lecture at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, where both were awarded honorary degrees. In 1912, Jung gave a series of lectures at Fordham University, New York, which were published later in the year as '' Psychology of the Unconscious''. Jung made a more extensive trip westward in the winter of 1924–5, financed and organized by Fowler McCormick and George Porter. Of particular value to Jung was a visit with Chief Mountain Lake of the
Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos language, Taos-speaking (Tiwa languages, Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan peoples, Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. T ...
near
Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...
. Jung made another trip to America in 1936, receiving an honorary degree at Harvard and giving lectures in New York and New England for his growing group of American followers. He returned in 1937 to deliver the
Terry Lectures The Dwight H. Terry Lectureship, also known as the Terry Lectures, was established at Yale University in 1905 by a gift from Dwight H. Terry of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Its purpose is to engage both scholars and the public in a consideration of r ...
at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, later published as ''Psychology and Religion''.


East Africa

In October 1925, Jung embarked on his most ambitious expedition, the "Bugishu Psychological Expedition" to East Africa. He was accompanied by his English friend, "Peter" Baynes, and an American associate, George Beckwith. On the voyage to Africa, they became acquainted with an English woman named Ruth Bailey, who joined their safari a few weeks later. The group traveled through Kenya and Uganda to the slopes of
Mount Elgon Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda.
, where Jung hoped to increase his understanding of "primitive psychology" through conversations with the culturally isolated residents of that area. Later, he concluded that the major insights he had gleaned had to do with himself and the European psychology in which he had been raised. One of Jung's most famous proposed constructs is kinship libido. Jung defined this as an instinctive feeling of belonging to a particular group or family and believed it was vital to the human experience and used this as an endogamous aspect of the libido and what lies amongst the family. This is similar to a Bantu term called
Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...
that emphasizes humanity and almost the same meaning as kinship libido, which is, "I am because you are."


India

In December 1937, Jung left Zurich again for an extensive tour of India with Fowler McCormick. In India, he felt himself "under the direct influence of a foreign culture" for the first time. In Africa, his conversations had been strictly limited by the language barrier, but he could converse extensively in India.
Hindu philosophy Hindu philosophy or Vedic philosophy is the set of philosophical systems that developed in tandem with the first Hinduism, Hindu religious traditions during the Iron Age in India, iron and Classical India, classical ages of India. In Indian ...
became an important element in his understanding of the role of symbolism and the life of the unconscious, though he avoided a meeting with
Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi (; ; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu Sage (philosophy), sage and ''jivanmukta'' (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He was b ...
. He described Ramana as being absorbed in "the self". During these travels, he visited the Vedagiriswarar Temple, where he had a conversation with a local expert about the symbols and sculptures on the
gopuram A ''gopuram'' or ''gopura'' ( Tamil: கோபுரம், Telugu: గోపురం, Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of th ...
of this temple. He later wrote about this conversation in his book Aion. Jung became seriously ill on this trip and endured two weeks of
delirium Delirium (formerly acute confusional state, an ambiguous term that is now discouraged) is a specific state of acute confusion attributable to the direct physiological consequence of a medical condition, effects of a psychoactive substance, or ...
in a Calcutta hospital. After 1938, his travels were confined to Europe.


Later life and death

Jung became a full professor of medical psychology at the University of Basel in 1943 but resigned after a heart attack the next year to lead a more private life. In 1945, he began corresponding with an English
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
priest, Father Victor White, who became a close friend, regularly visiting the Jungs at the Bollingen estate. Jung became ill again in 1952. Jung continued to publish books until the end of his life, including ''Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies'' (1959), which analyzed the archetypal meaning and possible psychological significance of the reported observations of
UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...
s. In 1961, he wrote his last work, a contribution to '' Man and His Symbols'' entitled "Approaching the Unconscious" (published posthumously in 1964). Jung died on 6 June 1961 at Küsnacht after a short illness. He had been beset by circulatory diseases.


Awards

Among his principal distinctions are
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
s from: *
Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research uni ...
1909 *
Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
1912 *
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
1936 *
University of Allahabad The University of Allahabad is a Central university (India), Central University located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 23 September 1887 by an act of Parliament and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance (INI). ...
1937 * University of Benares 1937 *
University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...
1938 *
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
1938 *
University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...
1945 *
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...
1955 on his 80th birthday In addition, he was: * given a Literature prize from the city of Zurich, 1932 * made Titular Professor of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich,
ETH Eth ( , uppercase: ⟨Ð⟩, lowercase: ⟨ð⟩; also spelled edh or eð), known as in Old English, is a letter used in Old English, Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called ), and Elfdalian. It was also used in Sca ...
1935 * appointed Honorary Member of the
Royal Society of Medicine The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society based at 1 Wimpole Street, London, UK. It is a registered charity, with admission through membership. Its Chief Executive is Michele Acton. History The Royal Society of Medicine (R ...
1939 * given a
Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
at
Eranos Eranos is an intellectual discussion group dedicated to humanistic and religious studies, as well as to the natural sciences which has met annually in Moscia (Lago Maggiore), the Collegio Papio and on the Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland sin ...
1945 * appointed President of the
Society of Analytical Psychology The Society of Analytical Psychology, known also as the SAP, incorporated in London, England, in 1945 is the oldest training organisation for Jungian analysts in the United Kingdom. Its first Honorary President in 1946 was Carl Jung. The societ ...
, London, 1946 * given a Festschrift by students and friends 1955 * named
Honorary citizen Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honor usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...
of Kűsnacht 1960, on his 85th birthday.


Thought

Jung's thought derived from the classical education he received at school and from early family influences, which on the maternal side were a combination of
Reformed Protestant Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...
academic theology with an interest in occult phenomena. On his father's side was a dedication to academic discipline emanating from his grandfather, the physician, scientist, and first Basel Professor of Medicine,
Karl Gustav Jung Karl Gustav Jung (7 September 1795 in Mannheim – 12 June 1864 in Basel) was a German-Swiss medical doctor, political activist, professor of Medicine at the University of Basel, administrator and freemason. Life Karl Gustav Jung was the ...
, a one-time student activist and convert from Catholicism to Swiss Reformed Protestantism. Family lore suggested there was at least a social connection to the German
polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
,
Johann Wolfgang Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on literary, political, and philosoph ...
, through the latter's niece, Lotte Kestner, known as "Lottchen" who was a frequent visitor in Jung senior's household. Carl Jung, the practicing clinician, writer, and founder of analytical psychology, had, through his marriage, the economic security to pursue interests in other intellectual topics of the moment. His early celebrity as a research scientist through the Word Association Test led to the start of prolific correspondence and worldwide travel. It opened academic as well as social avenues, supported by his explorations into
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
,
quantum physics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
,
vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...
,
Eastern Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...
and
Western philosophy Western philosophy refers to the Philosophy, philosophical thought, traditions and works of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the Pre ...
. He delved into
epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...
,
alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...
,
astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and spiritual subjects led many to label him a mystic, although he preferred to be seen as a man of science. Jung, unlike Freud, was deeply knowledgeable about philosophical concepts and sought links between epistemology and emergent theories of psychology.


Key concepts

Within the field of
analytical psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their ...
, a brief survey of major concepts developed by Jung include (alphabetical): *
Anima and animus The anima and animus are a pair of Dualism in cosmology, dualistic, Jungian archetypes which form a syzygy (disambiguation)#Philosophy, syzygy, or union of opposing forces. Carl Jung described the animus as the Unconscious mind, unconscious masc ...
—(archetype) the contrasexual aspect of a person's psyche. In a woman's psyche, her inner personal masculine is conceived as a complex and an archetypal image; in a man's psyche, his inner personal feminine is conceived both as a complex and an archetypal image. *
Archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...
—a concept "borrowed" from
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
to denote supposedly universal and recurring mental images or themes. Jung's descriptions of archetypes varied over time. * Archetypal images—universal symbols that mediate opposites in the psyche, often found in religious art, mythology, and fairy tales across cultures. *
Collective unconscious In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...
—aspects of unconsciousness experienced by all people in different cultures. *
Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
—the repressed organisation of images and experiences that governs perception and behaviour. *
Extraversion and introversion Extraversion and introversion are a central trait theory, trait dimension in human personality psychology, personality theory. The terms were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung, though both the popular understanding and current psychologic ...
—personality traits of degrees of openness or reserve contributing to
psychological type In psychology, personality type refers to the psychological classification of individuals. In contrast to personality traits, the existence of personality types remains extremely controversial. Types are sometimes said to involve ''qualitative'' d ...
. *
Individuation The principle of individuation, or ', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Simondo ...
—the process of fulfilment of each individual "which negates neither the conscious or unconscious position but does justice to them both". *
Interpersonal relationship In social psychology, an interpersonal relation (or interpersonal relationship) describes a social association, connection, or affiliation between two or more people. It overlaps significantly with the concept of social relations, which a ...
—the way people relate to others is a reflection of the way they relate to their own selves. This may also be extended to relations with the natural environment. *
Numinous Numinous () means "arousing spiritual or religious emotion; mysterious or awe-inspiring";Collins English Dictionary - 7th ed. - 2005 also "supernatural" or "appealing to the aesthetic sensibility." The term was given its present sense by the Ger ...
—a healing, transformative or destructive spiritual power. Also, an invisible power inherent in an object. Jung develops the concept from the work of
Rudolf Otto Rudolf Otto (25 September 1869 – 7 March 1937) was a German Lutheran theologian, philosopher, and comparative religionist. He is regarded as one of the most influential scholars of religion in the early twentieth century and is best known fo ...
, who based it on the Latin ''
numen Numen (plural numina) is a Latin term for "divinity", "divine presence", or "divine will". The Latin authors defined it as follows:For a more extensive account, refer to Cicero writes of a "divine mind" (), a god "whose numen everything obeys", ...
.'' *
Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
—element of the personality that arises "for reasons of adaptation or personal convenience"—the "masks" one puts on in various situations. *
Psychological types ''Psychological Types'' () is a book by Carl Jung that was originally published in German by Rascher Verlag in 1921, and translated into English in 1923, becoming volume 6 of '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung''. In the book, Jung proposes f ...
—a framework for consciously orienting psychotherapists to patients by raising particular modes of personality to consciousness and differentiation between analyst and patient. *
Shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...
—(archetype) the repressed, therefore unknown, aspects of the personality, including those often considered to be negative. *
Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...
—(archetype) the central overarching concept governing the individuation process, as symbolised by mandalas, the union of male and female, totality, and unity. Jung viewed it as the psyche's central archetype. *
Synchronicity Synchronicity () is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Jung held that this was a healthy fu ...
—an acausal principle as a basis for the apparently random concurrence of phenomena.


Collective unconscious

Since the establishment of
psychoanalytic theory Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of the innate structure of the human soul and the dynamics of personality development relating to the practice of psychoanalysis, a method of research and for treating of Mental disorder, mental disorders (psych ...
, the notion and meaning of individuals having a ''personal'' unconscious has gradually come to be commonly accepted. This was popularised by both Freud and Jung. Whereas an individual's personal unconscious is made up of thoughts and emotions that have, at some time, been experienced or held in mind but which have been repressed or forgotten, in contrast, the ''collective'' unconscious is neither acquired by activities within an individual's life nor a container of things that are thoughts, memories or ideas which are capable of being conscious during one's life. The contents of it were never naturally "known" through physical or cognitive experience and then forgotten. The collective unconscious consists of universal heritable elements common to all humans, distinct from other species. However, this does not necessarily imply a genetic cause. It encapsulates fields of evolutionary biology, history of civilization, ethnology, brain and nervous system development, and general psychological development. Considering its composition in practical physiological and psychological terms, "it consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents." Jung writes about causal factors in personal psychology as stemming from, influenced by an abstraction of the impersonal physical layer, the common and universal physiology among all humans. Jung considers that science would hardly deny the existence and basic nature of "instincts", existing as a whole set of motivating urges. The collective unconscious acts as the frame where science can distinguish individual motivating urges, thought to be universal across all individuals of the human species, while instincts are present in all species. Jung contends, "The hypothesis of the collective unconscious is, therefore, no more daring than to assume there are instincts."


Archetype

The archetype is a concept "borrowed" from
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
to denote a process of nature. Jung's definitions of archetypes varied over time and have been the subject of debate regarding their usefulness. Archetypal images, also referred to as
motifs in mythology Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...
, are universal symbols that can mediate opposites in the psyche, are often found in religious art, mythology and fairy tales across cultures. Jung saw archetypes as pre-configurations in nature that give rise to repeating, understandable, describable experiences. In addition, the concept considers the passage of time and patterns resulting from transformation. Archetypes are said to exist independently of any current event or its effect. They are said to exert influence both across all domains of experience and throughout the stages of each individual's unique development. Being in part based on heritable physiology, they are thought to have "existed" since humans became a differentiated species. They have been deduced through the development of storytelling over tens of thousands of years, indicating repeating patterns of individual and group experience, behaviors, and effects across the planet, apparently displaying common themes. The concept did not originate with Jung but with
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
, who first conceived of primordial patterns. Later contributions came from
Adolf Bastian Adolf Philipp Wilhelm Bastian (26 June 18262 February 1905) was a 19th-century polymath remembered best for his contributions to the development of ethnography and the development of anthropology as a discipline. His theory of the ''Elementargedan ...
and
Hermann Usener Hermann Karl Usener (23 October 1834 – 21 October 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion. Life Hermann Usener was born at Weilburg and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at Heidelberg ...
, among others. In the first half of the twentieth century, it proved impossible to objectively isolate and categorize the notion of an archetype within a materialist frame. According to Jung, there are "as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life", and he asserted that they have a dynamic mutual influence on one another. Their alleged presence could be extracted from thousand-year-old narratives, from comparative religion, and from mythology. Jung elaborated on many archetypes in "''The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious''" and in "''Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self''". Examples of archetypes might be the shadow, the hero, the self, anima, animus, mother, father, child, and trickster.


Shadow

The ''shadow'' exists as part of the unconscious mind and is composed of the traits individuals instinctively or consciously resist identifying as their own and would rather ignore, typically repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts, and shortcomings. Much of the shadow comes as a result of an individual's adaptation to cultural norms and expectations. Thus, this archetype not only consists of all the things deemed unacceptable by society but also those things that are not aligned with one's own personal morals and values. Jung argues that the ''shadow'' plays a distinctive role in balancing one's overall psyche, the counter-balancing to consciousness—"where there is light, there must also be shadow". Without a well-developed ''shadow'' (often "shadow work", "integrating one's shadow"), an individual can become shallow and extremely preoccupied with the opinions of others; that is, a walking ''persona''. Not wanting to look at their shadows directly, Jung argues, often results in
psychological projection Psychological projection is a defence mechanism of alterity concerning "inside" ''content'' mistaken to be coming from the "outside" Other. It forms the basis of empathy by the projection of personal experiences to understand someone else's su ...
. Individuals project imagined attitudes onto others without awareness. The qualities an individual may hate (or love) in another may manifest in those who do not see the external, material truth. In order to truly grow as an individual, Jung believed that both the ''persona'' and ''
shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...
'' should be balanced. The shadow can often appear as a dark, wild, exotic figure in dreams or visions.


Extraversion and introversion

Jung was one of the first people to define introversion and extraversion in a psychological context. In Jung's ''Psychological Types'', he theorizes that each person falls into one of two categories: the introvert or the extravert. Jung compares these two psychological types to ancient archetypes,
Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
and
Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...
. The introvert is likened to Apollo, who shines a light on understanding. The introvert is focused on the internal world of reflection, dreaming, and vision. Thoughtful and insightful, the introvert can sometimes be uninterested in joining the activities of others. The extravert is associated with Dionysus, interested in joining the activities of the world. The extravert is focused on the outside world of objects, sensory perception, and action. Energetic and lively, the extravert may lose their sense of self in the intoxication of Dionysian pursuits. Jungian introversion and extraversion is quite different from the modern idea of introversion and extraversion. Modern theories often stay true to behaviourist means of describing such a trait (sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, etc.), whereas Jungian introversion and extraversion are expressed as a perspective: introverts interpret the world ''subjectively'', whereas extraverts interpret the world ''objectively''.


Persona

In his psychological theory—which is not necessarily linked to a particular theory of
social structure In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally rel ...
—the ''persona'' appears as a consciously created personality or identity, fashioned out of part of the collective psyche through
socialization In sociology, socialization (also socialisation – see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is the process of Internalisation (sociology), internalizing the Norm (social), norm ...
,
acculturation Acculturation refers to the psychological, social, and cultural transformation that takes place through direct contact between two cultures, wherein one or both engage in adapting to dominant cultural influences without compromising their essent ...
and experience. Jung applied the term ''
persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
'' explicitly because, in Latin, it means both ''personality'' and the ''masks'' worn by Roman actors of the classical period, expressive of the individual roles played. The ''persona'', he argues, is a mask for the "collective psyche", a mask that 'pretends' individuality so that both self and others believe in that identity, even if it is really no more than a well-played ''role'' through which the collective psyche is expressed. Jung regarded the "persona-mask" as a complicated system that ''mediates'' between individual consciousness and the social community: it is "a compromise between the individual and society as to what a man should appear to be". But he also makes it quite explicit that it is, in substance, a ''character mask'' in the classical sense known to theatre, with its double function: both intended to make a certain impression on others and to hide (part of) the true nature of the individual. The therapist then aims to assist the
individuation The principle of individuation, or ', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Simondo ...
process through which the client (re)gains their "own self"—by liberating the self, both from the deceptive cover of the ''persona'' and from the power of unconscious impulses. Jung has influenced management theory because managers and executives create an appropriate "management persona" (a corporate mask) and a persuasive identity, and they have to evaluate ''what sort of people'' the workers are, to manage them (for example, using
personality test A personality test is a method of assessing human personality construct (psychology), constructs. Most personality assessment instruments (despite being loosely referred to as "personality tests") are in fact introspective (i.e., subjective) self ...
s and
peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...
s).


Evolutionary thought

Of his early years, Jung would write that "mentally my greatest adventure had been the study of Kant and Schopenhauer. The great news of the day was the work of Charles Darwin." While Jung’s conception of human psychology is grounded in Darwinian evolutionary theory it is important to note that his evolutionary thought had a distinctively German quality to it. This is because the idiosyncratic reception of Darwin in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany resulted in the integration of Darwin's ideas with German embryological and developmental traditions formulated by the Naturphilosophen and theorists such as
Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; ; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, natural history, naturalist, eugenics, eugenicist, Philosophy, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biology, marine biologist and artist ...
. It was these traditions that formed the intellectual background of Jung’s evolutionary thought. The result was that Jung's evolutionary conception of mind focused on embryology and development. From this perspective, the emergence of consciousness both in ontogeny (development) and phylogeny (evolution) was built upon much more archaic, affect-based subcortical brain systems. It was this developmental approach to evolution that underpinned his "archaeological" conception of the human psyche consisting of different evolutionary layers, from the deeply archaic to the more evolutionarily recent. Those more archaic structures in the brain Jung believed to be the basis of the “collective unconscious” - an aspect of human psychology shared by all members of the species ''Homo sapiens''. In commenting on humanity's evolution from an ancient primate ancestor, Jung wrote: 'We keep forgetting that we are primates and that we have to make allowances for these primitive layers in our psyche.' Jung also developed the notion of different evolutionary layers in the psyche in his discussion of fossil hominins such as ''Pithecanthropus'' (''Homo erectus''). As he writes: For just as a man has a body that is no different in principle from that of an animal, so also his psychology has a whole series of lower in which the spectres from humanity’s past epochs still dwell, then the animal souls from the age of Pithecanthropus and the hominids, then the “psyche” of the cold-blooded saurian. Jung’s notion of different evolutionary layers in the human mind has been compared with the work of neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, particularly as outlined in his book ''The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions''. Of these affinities it has been suggested that ‘Jung and Panksepp have, independently it seems, developed similar metaphors of an archeologically layered psyche in which jewels and treasures are discoverable in the deepest phylogenetically ancient regions of the brain – for Jung they are archetypal structures for Panksepp cross-species homologies.' Significantly, in a 2017 article entitled "The Affective Core of the Self: A Neuro-Archetypical Perspective on the Foundations of Human (and Animal) Subjectivity", when noting Jung’s belief that archetypes may be related to evolutionarily ancient subcortical brain systems, Panksepp and colleagues wrote that "such assertions by Jung were not only quite farsighted, but they actually open ways to connect his theory of the psyche with the most advanced scientific theories and discoveries of our day."


Spirituality

Jung's work on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose beyond material goals. The main task for people, he believed, is to discover and fulfill their deep, innate potential. Based on his study of
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
,
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
,
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
,
Gnosticism Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...
,
Taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...
, and other traditions, Jung believed this journey of transformation, which he called
individuation The principle of individuation, or ', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Simondo ...
, is at the mystical heart of all religions. It is a journey to meet the
self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...
and at the same time to meet the
Divine Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a singl ...
. Unlike Freud's
atheistic Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
worldview, Jung's
pantheism Pantheism can refer to a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arisesAnn Thomson; Bodies ...
may have led him to believe that spiritual experience was essential to well-being, as he specifically identifies individual human life with the universe as a whole. In 1959, Jung was asked by the host, John Freeman, on the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
interview program '' Face to Face'' whether he believed in God, to which Jung answered, "I do not need to believe. I ''know''." Jung's ideas on religion counterbalance Freudian skepticism. Jung's idea of religion as a practical road to individuation is still treated in modern textbooks on the
psychology of religion Psychology of religion consists of the application of psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to the diverse contents of religious traditions as well as to both religious and irreligious individuals. The various methods and frameworks ...
, though his ideas have been criticized. Jung recommended spirituality as a cure for
alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...
, and is considered to have had an indirect role in establishing
Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led Mutual aid, mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anon ...
. Jung treated an American patient named
Rowland Hazard III Rowland Hazard III (October 29, 1881 – December 20, 1945) was an American businessman. He is also known as the "Rowland H." who figured prominently in the events leading to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous. Family and early life Rowla ...
who had chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some time and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that, occasionally, such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics when all other options had failed. Hazard took Jung's advice seriously and sought a personal, spiritual experience. He returned to the United States and joined a Christian
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
movement known as the
Oxford Group The Oxford Group was a Christian organization founded by American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921, originally under the name First Century Christian Fellowship. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. ...
. He told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he brought into the Oxford Group was Ebby Thacher, a long-time friend and drinking buddy of
William Griffith Wilson William Griffith Wilson (November 26, 1895 – January 24, 1971), also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) with Bob Smith. AA is an international mutual aid fellowship with about two million member ...
, later co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Thacher told Wilson about the Oxford Group, and through them, Wilson became aware of Hazard's experience with Jung. The influence of Jung thus indirectly found its way into the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original
twelve-step program Twelve-step programs are international mutual aid programs supporting recovery from substance addictions, behavioral addictions and compulsions. Developed in the 1930s, the first twelve-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), founded by B ...
. The above claims are documented in the letters of Jung and Wilson. Although some historians dispute the detail, Jung discussed an Oxford Group member, who may have been the same person, in talks around 1940. The remarks were distributed privately in transcript form, from shorthand taken by an attender (Jung reportedly approved the transcript), and later recorded in his ''Collected Works'', "For instance, when a member of the Oxford Group comes to me in order to get treatment, I say, 'You are in the Oxford Group; so long as you are there, you settle your affair with the Oxford Group. I can't do it better than Jesus. Jung goes on to state he has seen similar cures among
Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
. The 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous has a psychological backdrop involving the human ego and the dichotomy between the conscious and unconscious mind.


Inquiries into the paranormal

Jung had an apparent interest in the paranormal and occult. For decades he attended seances and claimed to have witnessed "parapsychic phenomena". Initially, he attributed these to psychological causes, even delivering a 1919 lecture in England for the Society for Psychical Research on "The Psychological Foundations for the belief in spirits". However, he began to "doubt whether an exclusively psychological approach can do justice to the phenomena in question" and stated that "the spirit hypothesis yields better results". But he retained some skepticism toward his own postulation, as he could not find material evidence of the existence of spirits. Jung's ideas about the paranormal culminated in "
synchronicity Synchronicity () is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Jung held that this was a healthy fu ...
". This is the idea that certain coincidences manifest in the world, have exceptionally intense meaning to observers. Such coincidences have a great effect on the observer from multiple cumulative aspects: from the immediate personal relevance of the coincidence to the observer, from the peculiarities of (the nature of, the character, novelty, curiosity of) any such coincidence; from the sheer improbability of the coincidence, having no apparent causal link (hence Jung's essay subtitle "An Acausal Connecting Principle"). Despite his own experiments failing to confirm the phenomenon he held on to the idea as an explanation for apparent ESP. In addition, he proposed it as a functional explanation for how the
I-Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...
worked. However, he was never clear about how synchronicity worked.


Interpretation of quantum mechanics

Jung influenced one philosophical interpretation (not the science) of quantum physics with the concept of
synchronicity Synchronicity () is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Jung held that this was a healthy fu ...
regarding some events as non-causal. That idea influenced the physicist
Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli ( ; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the ...
(with whom, via a letter correspondence, Jung developed the notion of ''
unus mundus ''Unus mundus'' (Latin for "One world") is an underlying concept of Western philosophy, theology, and alchemy, of a primordial unified reality from which everything derives. The term can be traced back to medieval Scholasticism though the notion i ...
'' in connection with the idea of nonlocality) and some other
physicists A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
.


Alchemy

Jung's acquaintance with alchemy came between 1928 and 1930 when he was introduced to a manuscript of ''
The Secret of the Golden Flower ''The Secret of the Golden Flower'' () is a Chinese Taoist book on neidan (inner alchemy) meditation, which also mixes Buddhist teachings with some Confucian thoughts. It was written by means of the spirit-writing (fuji) technique, through two ...
'', translated by Richard Wilhelm. The work and writings of Jung from the 1930s onwards shifted to a focus on the psychological significance of alchemy. In 1944, Jung published ''
Psychology and Alchemy ''Psychology and Alchemy'', volume 12 in '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', is Carl Jung's study of the analogies between alchemy, Christian dogma, and psychological symbolism. Alchemy is central to Jung's hypothesis of the collective unco ...
'', in which he analyzed the alchemical symbols and came to the conclusion that there is a direct relationship between them and the psychoanalytical process. He argued that the alchemical process was the transformation of the impure soul (lead) to perfected soul (gold), and a metaphor for the individuation process. In 1963, ''
Mysterium Coniunctionis ''The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'' () is a book series containing the first collected edition, in English translation, of the major writings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. The twenty volumes, including a Bibliography and a General In ...
'' first appeared in English as part of '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung''. ''Mysterium Coniunctionis'' was Jung's last major book and focused on the "''Mysterium Coniunctionis''" archetype, known as the sacred marriage between the sun and moon. Jung argued that the stages of the alchemists, the blackening, the whitening, the reddening, and the yellowing, could be taken as symbolic of individuation—his chosen term for personal growth (75).


Art therapy

Jung proposed that art can be used to alleviate or contain feelings of trauma, fear, or anxiety and also to repair, restore, and heal. In his work with patients and his own personal explorations, Jung wrote that art expression and images found in dreams could help recover from trauma and emotional distress. At times of emotional distress, he often drew, painted, or made objects and constructions, which he recognized as more than recreational.


Dance/movement therapy

Dance and movement therapy, as a form of active imagination, was developed by Jung and
Toni Wolff Toni Anna Wolff (18 September 1888 – 21 March 1953) was a Swiss Jungian analyst and a close collaborator of Carl Jung. During her analytic career Wolff published relatively little under her own name, but she helped Jung identify, define, and ...
in 1916 and practiced by Tina Keller-Jenny and other analysts. It remained largely unknown until the 1950s when it was rediscovered by Marian Chace and therapist Mary Whitehouse. Whitehouse, after studying with
Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...
and
Mary Wigman Mary Wigman (born Karoline Sophie Marie Wiegmann; 13 November 1886 – 18 September 1973) was a German dancer and choreographer who pioneered expressionist dance, dance therapy, and movement training without pointe shoes. She is considered on ...
, became a dancer and teacher of modern dance, and, along with Swiss dancer Trudi Schoop, is considered one of the founders of dance/movement therapy in the U.S.


Political views


The state

Jung stressed the importance of
individual rights Individual rights, also known as natural rights, are rights held by individuals by virtue of being human. Some theists believe individual rights are bestowed by God. An individual right is a moral claim to freedom of action. Group rights, also k ...
in a person's relation to the state and society. He saw that the state was treated as "a quasi-animate personality from whom everything is expected" but that this personality was "only camouflage for those individuals who know how to manipulate it". He referred to the state as a form of slavery. He also thought that the state "swallowed up eople'sreligious forces", and therefore that the state had "taken the place of God"—making it comparable to a religion in which "state slavery is a form of worship". Jung observed that "stage acts of hestate" are comparable to religious displays: From Jung's perspective, this replacement of God with the state in a mass society leads to the dislocation of the religious drive and results in the same
fanaticism Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or an obsessive enthusiasm. The political theorist Zachary R. Goldsmith provides a "cluster account" of the concept of fanaticism, identifying ten main attributes that, in various com ...
of the church-states of the Dark Ages—wherein the more the state is 'worshipped', the more freedom and morality are suppressed; this ultimately leaves the individual psychically undeveloped with extreme feelings of marginalization.


Service to the Allies during World War II

Jung was in contact with
Allen Dulles Allen Welsh Dulles ( ; April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was an American lawyer who was the first civilian director of central intelligence (DCI), and its longest serving director. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the ea ...
of the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...
(predecessor of the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
) and provided valuable intelligence on the psychological condition of
Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. Dulles referred to Jung as "Agent 488" and offered the following description of his service: "Nobody will probably ever know how much Professor Jung contributed to the Allied Cause during the war, by seeing people who were connected somehow with the other side". Jung's service to the Allied cause through the OSS remained classified after the war.


Relationship to Nazism and antisemitism

In "The State of Psychotherapy Today", published in 1934 in the ''Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie'', Jung wrote: "The
Aryan ''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...
unconscious has a greater potential than the Jewish unconscious" and "The Jew, who is something of a nomad, has never yet created a cultural form of his own and as far as we can see never will". Andrew Samuels argues that his remarks on the "Aryan unconscious" and the "corrosive character" of Freud's "Jewish gospel" demonstrate a form of antisemitism "fundamental to the structure of Jung's thought" but also argues that there is a "pioneering nature of Jung's contributions" and that "his intuition of the importance of exploring difference remains intact." In 1933, after the Nazis gained power in Germany, Jung became the president of the new International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy (''Allgemeine Ärztliche Gesellschaft für Psychotherapie''), a professional body which aimed to have affiliated organizations in different countries. The German affiliated organization, the Deutsche Allgemeine Ärztliche Gesellschaft für Psychotherapie, led by
Matthias Göring Matthias Heinrich Göring (5 April 1879, Düsseldorf – 24/25 July 1945, Posen) was a German psychiatrist, born in Düsseldorf. He died in prison in Poznań. He was an active Nazi. Göring started his studies with a doctorate in law, and a doct ...
, an
Adlerian Individual psychology () is a psychological method and school of thought founded by the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler. The English edition of Adler's work on the subject, '' The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology'' (1924), is a coll ...
psychotherapist and a cousin of the prominent Nazi
Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
, excluded Jews. In 1933, the society's ''Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie'' journal published a statement endorsing Nazi positions and Hitler's book ''
Mein Kampf (; ) is a 1925 Autobiography, autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The book outlines many of Political views of Adolf Hitler, Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology and future plans for Nazi Germany, Ge ...
''. In 1934, Jung wrote in a Swiss publication, the ''
Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...
'', that he experienced "great surprise and disappointment" when the ''Zentralblatt'' associated his name with the pro-Nazi statement. He did not end his relationship with the ''Zentralblatt'' at this time, but he did arrange the appointment of a new managing editor, Carl Alfred Meier of Switzerland. For the next few years, the ''Zentralblatt'' under Jung and Meier maintained a position distinct from that of the Nazis in that it continued to acknowledge the contributions of Jewish doctors to psychotherapy.Jaffé, Aniela (1972); ''From the Life and Work of C. G. Jung''; Hodder and Stoughton, London. ; p. 83. In the face of energetic German attempts to Nazify the international body, Jung resigned from its presidency in 1939, the year the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
started. The International Society's constitution permitted individual doctors to join it directly rather than through one of the national affiliated societies, a provision to which Jung drew attention in a circular in 1934. This implied that German Jewish doctors could maintain their professional status as individual members of the international body, even though they were excluded from the German affiliate, as well as from other German medical societies operating under the Nazis. Jung went on to say, "The main point is to get a young and insecure science into a place of safety during an earthquake." Scholar
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (May 20, 1932 – December 8, 2009) was the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society at Columbia University, a position he held from 1980 to 2008. Early life and education Yerushalmi was bor ...
believed that Jung's antisemitism may have contributed to the schism between Freud and his circle of psychoanalysts, who were predominantly Jews. Jung's interest in
European mythology Mythologies by region Africa * Bantu mythology Central Africa * Baluba mythology * Bushongo mythology * Kongo mythology * Lugbara mythology * Mbuti mythology East Africa * Kalenjin folklore * Dinka mythology * Kalenjin mythology * Lotuko myt ...
and
folk psychology Folk psychology, commonsense psychology, or naïve psychology is the ordinary, intuitive, or non-expert understanding, explanation, and rationalization of people's behaviors and Cognitive psychology, mental states. In philosophy of mind and cognit ...
was shared by the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
. Richard Noll describes Jung's own reaction to this connection: Various statements made by Jung in the 1930s have been cited as evidence of both contempt for Nazism and sympathy for Nazism.Clark, R.W (1980) ''Freud: the Man and the Cause''. London: Cape, pp. 492–3 In the 1936 essay "Wotan", Jung described the influence of
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
on Germany as "one man who is obviously 'possessed' has infected a whole nation to such an extent that everything is set in motion and has started rolling on its course towards perdition." He would later say, during a lengthy interview with
H. R. Knickerbocker Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker (January 31, 1898 – July 12, 1949) was an American journalist and author; winner of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence for his series of articles on the practical operation of the Five Year Plan in the Sovie ...
in October 1938: In an interview in 1949, Carl Jung said, Jung is also known to have possessed an interest in the Jewish mystic tradition of Kabbalah.


Views on homosexuality

Jung addressed homosexuality in his published writings, in one comment specifying that homosexuality should not be a concern of legal authorities nor be considered a crime. He also stated that homosexuality does not reduce the value of a person as a member of society. Jung also said that homosexuality is a result of psychological immaturity ( "nurture"), but only if one's sexuality is not an aspect of their constitutional characteristics ( "nature").


Psychedelics

Jung's theories are considered to be a useful therapeutic framework for the analysis of unconscious phenomena that become manifest in the acute psychedelic state. This view is based on correspondence Jung had with researchers involved in psychedelic research in the 1950s, as well as more recent neuroimaging research where subjects who are administered psychedelic compounds seem to have archetypal religious experiences of "unity" and "ego dissolution" associated with reduced activity in the default mode network. This research has led to a re-evaluation of Jung's work, particularly the visions detailed in '' The Red Book'', in the context of contemporary psychedelic, evolutionary, and developmental
neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...
. For example, in a chapter entitled "Integrating the Archaic and the Modern: The Red Book, Visual Cognitive Modalities and the Neuroscience of Altered States of Consciousness", in the 2020 volume ''Jung's Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul Under Postmodern Conditions, Volume 4'', it is argued Jung was a pioneer who explored uncharted "cognitive domains" that are alien to Western modes of thought. While such domains of experience are not part of mainstream Western culture and thought, they are central to various Indigenous cultures that use psychedelics such as Iboga and
Ayahuasca AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' (Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' (Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' descen ...
during rituals to alter consciousness. The author writes: "Jung seems to have been dealing with modes of consciousness alien to mainstream Western thought, exploring the terrain of uncharted cognitive domains. I argue that science is beginning to catch up with Jung who was a pioneer whose insights contribute a great deal to our emerging understanding of human consciousness." In this analysis, Jung's paintings of his visions in '' The Red Book'' were compared to the paintings of Ayahuasca visions by the Peruvian shaman Pablo Amaringo. Commenting on research that was being undertaken during the 1950s, Jung wrote the following in a letter to Betty Eisner, a psychologist who was involved in LSD research at the University of California: "Experiments along the line of mescaline and related drugs are certainly most interesting since such drugs lay bare a level of the unconscious that is otherwise accessible only under peculiar psychic conditions. It is a fact that you get certain perceptions and experiences of things appearing either in mystical states or in the analysis of unconscious phenomena." An account of Jung and psychedelics, as well as the importance of Jungian psychology to psychedelic-assisted therapies, is outlined in Scott Hill's 2013 book ''Confrontation with the Unconscious: Jungian Depth Psychology and Psychedelic Experience''. A 2021 article discusses Jung's attitude towards psychedelics, as well as the applicability of his ideas to current research. As the author writes, Jung's "...legitimate reservations about the clinical use of psychedelics are no longer relevant as the field has progressed significantly, devising robust clinical and experimental protocols for psychedelic-assisted therapies. That said Jung's concept of individuation—that is the integration of the archaic unconscious with consciousness—seems extremely pertinent to modern psychedelic research." The author also uses work in evolutionary and psychedelic neuroscience, and specifically the latter's ability to make manifest ancient subcortical brain systems, to illuminate Jung's concept of an archaic collective unconscious that evolved before the ego complex and the uniquely human default mode network.


Legacy

The
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a self-report questionnaire that makes pseudoscientific claims to categorize individuals into 16 distinct "psychological types" or "personality types". The MBTI was constructed during World War II by ...
(MBTI), a psychometric instrument mostly popular with non-psychologists, as well as the concepts of
socionics In psychology and sociology, socionics is a pseudoscientific theory of information processing and personality types. It incorporates Carl Jung's work on ''Psychological Types'' with Antoni Kępiński's theory of information metabolism. In contr ...
, were developed from Jung's model of
psychological types ''Psychological Types'' () is a book by Carl Jung that was originally published in German by Rascher Verlag in 1921, and translated into English in 1923, becoming volume 6 of '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung''. In the book, Jung proposes f ...
. The MBTI is considered
pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
and is not widely accepted by researchers in the field of psychology. Jung is considered a "godparent" of the altruistic, mutual self-help movement,
Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led Mutual aid, mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anon ...
. Jung told Rhode Island businessman and politician Rowland Hazard III, who had come under his care for the first time in 1926, that the only chance he might have to recover was through a "spiritual or religious experience" or "genuine conversion," which Hazard later had, through the
Oxford Group The Oxford Group was a Christian organization founded by American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921, originally under the name First Century Christian Fellowship. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. ...
and the Emmanuel Movement, and, according to some sources, never drank again. Hazard, in turn, helped Ebby Thatcher, another alcoholic, get sober, with help from the Oxford Group. Thatcher brought Jung's ideas to a third alcoholic, Bill W., who consequently co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous with Dr. Bob. Years later, Bill W. corresponded with Jung, in 1961, thanking him for helping to inspire the organization. Of Hazard, the alcoholic who came under his care, Jung wrote: "His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God." Jung concludes his letter to Bill W.: "You see, "alcohol" in Latin is ''spiritus'', and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: ''spiritus contra spiritum''." Jung saw the human psyche as "by nature religious" and made this idea a principal focus of his explorations. Jung is one of the best-known contemporary contributors to dream analysis and symbolization. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion",
spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...
, and the
New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...
movement has been immense. A ''
Review of General Psychology ''Review of General Psychology'' is the quarterly scientific journal of the American Psychological Association Division 1: The Society for general psychology. The journal publishes cross-disciplinary psychological articles that are conceptual, theo ...
'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Jung as the 23rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century. The list however focused on U.S. journals and was made by the psychology department of
Arkansas State University Arkansas State University (A-State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System and the second-largest university in the st ...
. Although psychoanalysis is still studied in the humanities, a 2008 study in ''The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association'' found that psychology departments and textbooks treat it as "desiccated and dead". Similarly, Alan Stone noted, "As academic psychology becomes more 'scientific' and psychiatry more biological, psychoanalysis is being brushed aside." In a 2024 book-length reappraisal of Jung’s theories entitle
''Carl Jung and the Evolutionary Sciences: A New Vision for Analytical Psychology''
it has been suggested that Jung was far ahead of his time in his evolutionary conception of the human mind. This thesis asserts that recent work in developmental biology, as well as experimental and psychedelic neuroscience, have provided empirical evidence that supports some of Jung’s central claims about the nature and evolution of consciousness. More specifically, trance states or altered states of consciousness (what Jung often referred to as the ''numinous'') have become a central concern in contemporary neuroscientific investigation of the nature and origins of consciousness. In this sense, as an evolutionary theorist of the mind, Jung was far ahead of his own time. It was only during the first decades of the 21st Century, as scientists began investigating altered, trance, and psychedelic states, that Jung’s far-seeing and wide-ranging theories found increasing support from the empirically based mind sciences. In this sense, the authors suggest audiences can appreciate how revolutionary and prescient Jung’s evolutionary conception of human psychology really was.


In popular culture


Literature


Books in which Jung is a character in the narrative

*
Laurens van der Post Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, (13 December 1906 – 15 December 1996) was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in Jungi ...
was an
Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
author who claimed to have had a 16-year friendship with Jung, from which books and a film were created about Jung. The accuracy of van der Post's claims about his relationship to Jung has been questioned. * In his novel ''The World is Made of Glass'' (1983),
Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels ''The Devil's Advocate (West novel), The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel), The Shoes of the Fi ...
gives a fictional account of one of Jung's cases, placing the events in 1913. According to the author's note, the novel is "based upon a case recorded, very briefly, by Carl Gustav Jung in his autobiographical work ''Memories, Dreams, Reflections''". * ''
Pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
'', a supernatural novel in which Jung is a character. * ''
Possessing the Secret of Joy ''Possessing the Secret of Joy'' is a 1992 novel by Alice Walker. Plot summary It tells the story of Tashi, an African woman and a minor character in Walker's earlier novel '' The Color Purple''. Now in the US she comes from the Olinka, (Alic ...
'', a novel in which Jung is a therapist character. * '' The Interpretation of Murder'', a novel focused on Sigmund Freud in which he solves a murder in New York City.


Fiction which references Jung's theories

*
Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss poet and novelist, and the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophic ...
, author of works such as '' Siddhartha'' and '' Steppenwolf'', was treated by Joseph Lang, a student of Jung. For Hesse this began a long preoccupation with
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
, through which he came to know Jung personally. * The Canadian novelist
Robertson Davies William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...
made Jungian analysis a central part of his 1970 novel ''The Manticore''. He stated in a letter, "There have been other books which describe Freudian analyses, but I know of no other that describes a Jungian analysis" adding "I was deeply afraid that I would put my foot in it, for I have never undergone one of those barnacle-scraping experiences, and knew of it only through reading. So, I was greatly pleased when some of my Jungian friends in Zurich liked it very much." * The psychological novel ''E.E.'' written by
Olga Tokarczuk Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk (; born 29 January 1962) is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland. In 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Pri ...
draws from Jung's doctoral dissertation ''On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena''. Jung is not a character in this story, but Jung's views on the occult are extensively cited.


Art

* The visionary Swiss painter Peter Birkhäuser was treated by a student of Jung,
Marie-Louise von Franz Marie-Louise von Franz (4 January 1915 – 17 February 1998) was a Swiss Jungian psychologist and scholar, known for her psychological interpretations of fairy tales and of alchemical manuscripts. She worked and collaborated with Carl Jung from ...
, and corresponded with Jung about the translation of dream symbolism into works of art. * American
abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...
underwent Jungian psychotherapy in 1939 with Joseph Henderson. Henderson engaged Pollock through his art, having him make drawings, which led to the appearance of many Jungian concepts in his paintings. * Contrary to some sources, Jung did not visit
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
but recorded a dream in which he did, and of which he wrote, "Liverpool is the pool of life, it makes to live." A plaster statue of Jung was erected in
Mathew Street Mathew Street is a street in Liverpool, England, notable as the location of the new Cavern Club, the Beatles having played in the original club on numerous occasions in their early career. Mathew Street is visited by thousands of tourists a ye ...
in 1987 that was vandalised and replaced by a more durable version in 1993.


Music

* Musician
David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
described himself as Jungian in his relationship to dreams and the unconscious. Bowie sang of Jung on his album ''
Aladdin Sane ''Aladdin Sane'' is the sixth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released in the United Kingdom on 19April 1973 through RCA Records. The follow-up to his breakthrough '' The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from M ...
'' (a pun on "a lad insane") and attended the exhibition of ''The Red Book'' in New York with artist
Tony Oursler Tony Oursler (born 1957) is an American multimedia and installation artist married to Jacqueline Humphries. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, in 1979. His art covers a range of med ...
, who described Bowie as "reading and speaking of the psychoanalyst with passion". Bowie's 1967 song " Shadow Man" encapsulates a key Jungian concept, while in 1987 Bowie described the Glass Spiders of ''
Never Let Me Down ''Never Let Me Down'' is the seventeenth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 21 April 1987 through EMI America Records. Co-produced by Bowie and David Richards (record producer), David Richards and featuring guit ...
'' as Jungian mother figures around which he not only anchored a worldwide tour but also created an enormous onstage effigy. *British rock band
the Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Within a few months of their first gig, the line-up settled as Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar, primary songwriter), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussi ...
released an album titled ''
Synchronicity Synchronicity () is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Jung held that this was a healthy fu ...
'' in 1983. *The American rock band
Tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...
was influenced by Jungian concepts in its album ''
Ænima ''Ænima'' ( ) is the second studio album by the American rock band Tool. It was released in vinyl format on September 17, 1996, and in compact disc format on October 1, 1996, through Zoo Entertainment. The album was recorded and cut at Ocea ...
'', the title a play on the concepts of
anima and animus The anima and animus are a pair of Dualism in cosmology, dualistic, Jungian archetypes which form a syzygy (disambiguation)#Philosophy, syzygy, or union of opposing forces. Carl Jung described the animus as the Unconscious mind, unconscious masc ...
. In the song " Forty Six & 2", the singer seeks to become a more evolved self by exploring and overcoming his
Shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...
. * Argentinian musician
Luis Alberto Spinetta Luis Alberto Spinetta (23 January 1950 – 8 February 2012), nicknamed "El Flaco" (Spanish for "skinny"), was an Argentine singer, guitarist, composer, writer and poet. One of the most influential rock musicians of Argentina, he is widely reg ...
was influenced by Jung's texts in his 1975 conceptual album ''Durazno sangrando'', specifically the songs "Encadenado al ánima" and "En una lejana playa del ánimus", which deal with anima and animus. * Jung appeared on the front cover of
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
' ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (often referred to simply as ''Sgt. Pepper'') is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept ...
''. * He is referenced in
The Streets The Streets is an English musical project led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner (musician), Mike Skinner. The project was founded in the early 90s, while Skinner was still a teenager; however, no music would formally eventuat ...
song the "Irony of it All" from the album ''Original Pirate Material''. * The South Korean band
BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. The band consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, who co-write or co-produce much of their material. Originally a hip hop group, they ...
's 2019 album '' Map of the Soul: Persona'' is based on Jung's ''Map of the Soul'', which gives the basic principles of Jung's analytical psychology. It includes an intro song titled "
Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
" rapped by group leader RM, who asks, " who am I?", and is confronted with various versions of himself with the words "
persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
", "
shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...
", and " ego", referring to Jung's theories. On 21 February 2020, the band released '' Map of the Soul: 7'', which specifically focuses on Jung's "shadow" and "ego" theories. As part of the first phase of the band's comeback, "Interlude: Shadow", rapped by
Suga Min Yoon-gi (; born March 9, 1993), known professionally by his stage names Suga (; stylized in all caps) and Agust D, is a South Korean rapper, songwriter and record producer. He debuted as a member of the South Korean boy band BTS in June ...
and released on 10 January, addresses the shadows and the darkness that go hand-in-hand with the light and attention shone on celebrities. The next comeback trailer, "Outro: Ego", performed by
J-Hope Jung Ho-seok (; born February 18, 1994), known professionally as J-Hope (; stylized in lower case), is a South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, and record producer. He made his debut as a member of South Korean boy band BTS in 2013, ...
, ends with his declaration of self and ego as he appears within a colourful city "in which the artist's current image is projected". * In 2019, Italian rapper
Marracash Fabio Bartolo Rizzo (born 22 May 1979), known professionally as Marracash (), is an Italian rapper. Starting his career in the rap group Dogo Gang, he debuted as a solo artist rising in fame in the 2010s releasing six studio albums that reache ...
released the album ''
Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
'', which features many Jungian themes. * Jung appeared on the cover art of the 2008 single " Metanoia" by American psychedelic rock band
MGMT MGMT () is an American rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by singers and multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser, Ben Goldwasser. Originally signed to Cantora Records by the nascent ...
.


Theatre, film, television and radio


Films in which Jung is a character in the narrative

* 2002 saw the release of an Italian film about Jung and Spielrein '' The Soul Keeper'' (''Prendimi l'Anima'') directed by
Roberto Faenza Roberto Faenza (born 21 February 1943 in Turin) is an Italian film director. He received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Career Faenza made his directing debut in 1968 with the internat ...
. It used English dialogue and English actors, but was never formally released in the United States.
Emilia Fox Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox (born 31 July 1974) is an English actress and presenter whose career is primarily in British television. Her feature film debut was in Roman Polanski's film ''The Pianist (2002 film), The Pianist'' (2002). Her other m ...
played Sabina Spielrein and
Iain Glen Iain Alan Sutherland Glen (born 24 June 1961) is a Scottish actor. He has appeared as Dr. Alexander Isaacs/Tyrant in three films of the Resident Evil (film series), ''Resident Evil'' film series (2004–2016) and as Ser Jorah Mormont, Jorah Morm ...
was Carl Gustav Jung. * ''
A Dangerous Method ''A Dangerous Method'' is a 2011 historical drama film directed by David Cronenberg. The film stars Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Gadon, and Vincent Cassel. Its screenplay was adapted by writer Christopher Hampto ...
'', a 2011 film directed by
David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...
, is a fictional dramatisation of the lives of Freud, Jung, and
Sabina Spielrein Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein ( rus, Сабина Николаевна Шпильрейн, p=sɐˈbʲinə nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvnə ʂpʲɪlʲˈrɛjn; 7 November 25 October 1885 OS – 11 August 1942) was a Russian physician and one of the first femal ...
between 1904 and 1913. Spielrein is the Russian woman who became Jung's lover and student and, later, an analyst herself.
Michael Fassbender Michael Fassbender (; born 2 April 1977) is a German-Irish actor. His accolades include nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number nine on ''The Irish Ti ...
plays Carl Jung. The film is based on the stage play ''The Talking Cure'' by
Christopher Hampton Sir Christopher James Hampton (born 26 January 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter, translator and film director. He is best known for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses (play), ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' based on the Les Liaisons da ...
which was in turn based on the 1993 non-fiction book by John Kerr, ''A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein''. * In the online animated series, '' Super Science Friends'', Jung, voiced by Tom Park, is featured as one of the recurrent antagonists against Sigmund Freud. * ''
Soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...
'', a 2020
Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...
film written by
Pete Docter Peter Hans Docter (born October 9, 1968) is an American filmmaker and animator, who has served as chief creative officer (CCO) of Pixar since 2018. He has directed the company's animated films ''Monsters, Inc.'' (2001), ''Up (2009 film), Up'' ( ...
, Mike Jones and
Kemp Powers Kemp Powers is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for his play ''One Night in Miami'' and the 2020 film adaptation of the same name, as well as for co-directing the animated films ''Soul'' (2020) and '' Spider ...
, includes brief appearances of Jung as an ethereal cartoon character, "Soul Carl Jung". * Jeff Lillico portrays Jung in episode 13 of season 15 " Murdoch on the Couch" (January 10, 2022) of the
Canadian television Television in Canada officially began with the sign-on of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, ...
period detective series
Murdoch Mysteries ''Murdoch Mysteries'' is a Canadian television drama series that premiered on Citytv on January 20, 2008, and currently airs on CBC. The series is based on characters from the ''Detective Murdoch'' novels by Maureen Jennings and stars Yannick ...
.


Documentaries

* The
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
interviewed Jung for '' Face to Face'' with John Freeman at Jung's home in Zurich in 1959. * Stephen Segaller produced a documentary on Jung as part of his "World of Dreams", ''Wisdom of the Dream'' in 1985. It was re-issued in 2018. It was followed by a book of the same title. * ''Matter of Heart'' (1986) is a documentary about Jung featuring interviews with those who knew him and archival footage. *On 2 December 2004,
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
's ''In Our Time'' broadcast a program on "the mind and theories" of Jung.


Film, stage, and television influenced by Jung's ideas

*
Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...
brought to the screen exuberant imagery shaped by his encounter with Jung's ideas, especially Jungian
dream interpretation Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. In many ancient societies, such as those of Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be in ...
. Fellini preferred Jung to Freud because Jungian analysis defined the dream not as a symptom of a disease that required a cure but rather as a link to archetypal images shared by all of humanity. *
Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...
's 1987 film ''
Full Metal Jacket ''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay he co-wrote with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 autobiographical novel '' The Short-Timers''. It stars ...
'' has an underlying theme about the duality of man. In one scene, a colonel asks a soldier, "You write 'Born to Kill' on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?" The soldier replies, "I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir...the Jungian thing, sir." * In the 1994 ''Frasier'' episode, "Frasier Crane's Day Off", Niles fills in for his brother, declaring: "Although I feel perfectly qualified to fill Frasier's radio shoes, I should warn you that while Frasier is a Freudian, I am a Jungian. So there'll be no blaming Mother today." *
Robert Eggers Robert Houston Eggers (born July 7, 1983) is an American filmmaker who has written and directed '' The Witch'' (2015), '' The Lighthouse'' (2019), '' The Northman'' (2022), and ''Nosferatu'' (2024). His films blend elements of horror, folklore, ...
's 2019 psychological thriller '' The Lighthouse'' has elements strongly influenced by Jung's work, with Eggers hoping that "it's a movie where both Jung and Freud would be furiously eating their popcorn".


Video games

* The ''
Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
'' series of games is heavily based on Jung's theories, representing the
shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...
, the
persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...
, and
archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...
. * The ''
Nights into Dreams is a 1996 action game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. The story follows the teenagers Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair, who enter Nightopia, a Dream world (plot device), dream world where all dreams take pl ...
'' series of games is heavily based on Jung's theories. * Jungian concepts are present in the '' Xeno'' series, including ''
Xenogears ''Xenogears'' is a 1998 role-playing video game developed and published by Square (video game company), Square for the PlayStation (console), PlayStation video game console. It is the debut entry in the larger ''Xeno (series), Xeno'' franchise. ...
''; its reimagination as the ''
Xenosaga ''Xenosaga'' is a role-playing video game series developed by Monolith Soft and primarily published by Namco. Forming part of the wider ''Xeno (series), Xeno'' metaseries, ''Xenosaga'' is set in a science fiction universe and follows a group of ch ...
'' trilogy; and a graphic novel, ''
Perfect Works DigiCube Co., Ltd. (株式会社デジキューブ; ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dejikyūbu'') was a Japanese company established as a subsidiary of software developer Square on February 6, 1996 and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The primary purpose of Dig ...
'', published by the game's creator. *The game '' Control'' is heavily influenced by Carl Jung's ideas, particularly
synchronicity Synchronicity () is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Jung held that this was a healthy fu ...
and shadow selves. *''
Alan Wake ''Alan Wake'' is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was released in May 2010 for the Xbox 360, with a Windows version following in February 2012 and a remastered ve ...
'' takes inspiration from Carl Jung's ideas of
archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...
and
individuation The principle of individuation, or ', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Simondo ...
.


Bibliography


Books

* 1910 '' Conflicts in the Child's Soul'' * 1912 '' Psychology of the Unconscious'' * 1916 '' Seven Sermons to the Dead'' (a part of the '' Red Book'', published privately) * 1921 ''
Psychological Types ''Psychological Types'' () is a book by Carl Jung that was originally published in German by Rascher Verlag in 1921, and translated into English in 1923, becoming volume 6 of '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung''. In the book, Jung proposes f ...
'' * 1933 '' Modern Man in Search of a Soul'' (essays) * 1944 ''
Psychology and Alchemy ''Psychology and Alchemy'', volume 12 in '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', is Carl Jung's study of the analogies between alchemy, Christian dogma, and psychological symbolism. Alchemy is central to Jung's hypothesis of the collective unco ...
'' * 1951 '' Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self'' * 1952 ''
Symbols of Transformation A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise different concept ...
'' (revised edition of ''Psychology of the Unconscious'') * 1954 ''
Answer to Job ''Answer to Job'' () is a 1952 book by Carl Jung that addresses the significance of the Book of Job to the "divine drama" of Christianity. It argues that while he submitted to Yahweh's omnipotence, Job nevertheless proved to be more moral and con ...
'' * 1956 ''
Mysterium Coniunctionis ''The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'' () is a book series containing the first collected edition, in English translation, of the major writings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. The twenty volumes, including a Bibliography and a General In ...
: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy'' * 1959 ''Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies'' (Translated by R. F. C. Hull) * 1960 '' Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle'' * 1962 '' Memories, Dreams, Reflections'' (autobiography, co-written with
Aniela Jaffé Aniela Jaffé (February 20, 1903 – October 30, 1991) was a Swiss analyst who for many years was a co-worker of Carl Gustav Jung. She was the recorder and editor of Jung's semi-autobiographical book '' Memories, Dreams, Reflections''. Life Jaffé ...
) * 1964 '' Man and His Symbols'' (Jung contributed one part, his last writing before his death in 1961; the other four parts are by
Marie-Louise von Franz Marie-Louise von Franz (4 January 1915 – 17 February 1998) was a Swiss Jungian psychologist and scholar, known for her psychological interpretations of fairy tales and of alchemical manuscripts. She worked and collaborated with Carl Jung from ...
,
Joseph L. Henderson Joseph Lewis Henderson (August 31, 1903 – November 17, 2007) was an American physician and a Jungian psychologist. Called by some the “Dean of American analytical psychologists", he was a co-founder of the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisc ...
, Jaffé, and
Jolande Jacobi Jolande Jacobi (25 March 1890 – 1 April 1973) was a Swiss psychologist, best remembered for her work with Carl Jung, and for her writings on Jungian psychology. Life and career Born in Budapest, Hungary (then under Austria-Hungary) as Jolan ...
) * 2009 '' The Red Book: Liber Novus'' (manuscript produced ) * 2020 ''
Black Books ''Black Books'' is a British sitcom created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan, and written by Moran, Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Linehan and Arthur Mathews. It was broadcast on Channel 4, running for three series from 2000 to 2004. Starring Dyla ...
'' (private journals produced , on which the ''Red Book'' is based)


''Collected Works''

Editors:
Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...
,
Michael Fordham Michael Scott Montague Fordham (4 August 1905 – 14 April 1995) was an English child psychiatrist and Jungian analyst. He was a co-editor of the English translation of C.G. Jung's '' Collected Works''. His clinical and theoretical collabora ...
, Gerhard Adler. Executive ed.: W. McGuire. Trans.: R.F.C. Hull. London: Routledge Kegan Paul (1953–1980). :1. ''Psychiatric Studies'' (1902–1906) :2. ''Experimental Researches'' (1904–1910) (trans L. Stein and D. Riviere) :3. ''Psychogenesis of Mental Disease'' (1907–1914; 1919–1958) :4. ''Freud and Psychoanalysis'' (1906–1914; 1916–1930) :5. ''Symbols of Transformation'' (1911–12; 1952) :6. ''
Psychological Types ''Psychological Types'' () is a book by Carl Jung that was originally published in German by Rascher Verlag in 1921, and translated into English in 1923, becoming volume 6 of '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung''. In the book, Jung proposes f ...
'' (1921) :7. ''
Two Essays on Analytical Psychology ''Two Essays on Analytical Psychology'' is volume 7 of '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', presenting the core of Carl Jung's views about psychology. Known as one of the best introductions to Jung's work, the volumes includes the essays "The ...
'' (1912–1928) :8. ''Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche'' (1916–1952) :9.1 ''Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious'' (1934–1955) :9.2 ''Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self'' (1951) :10. ''Civilization in Transition'' (1918–1959) :11. ''Psychology and Religion: West and East'' (1932–1952) :12. ''
Psychology and Alchemy ''Psychology and Alchemy'', volume 12 in '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', is Carl Jung's study of the analogies between alchemy, Christian dogma, and psychological symbolism. Alchemy is central to Jung's hypothesis of the collective unco ...
'' (1936–1944) :13. ''
Alchemical Studies ''Alchemical Studies'' (German: ''Studien über alchemistische Vorstellungen''), volume 13 in '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', consists of five long essays by Carl Jung that trace his developing interest in alchemy from 1929 onward. Servin ...
'' (1919–1945): :14. ''Mysterium Coniunctionis'' (1955–56): :15. ''Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature'' (1929–1941) :16. ''The Practice of Psychotherapy'' (1921–1925) :17. ''The Development of Personality'' (1910; 1925–1943) :18. ''The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings'' :19. ''General Bibliography'' :20. ''General Index'' Supplementary volumes :A. ''The Zofingia Lectures'' :B. '' Psychology of the Unconscious'' (trans. Beatrice M. Hinckle) Seminars :''Analytical Psychology'' (1925) :'' Dream Analysis'' (1928–1930) :''Visions'' (1930-34) :''The Kundalini Yoga'' (1932) :''Nietzsche's Zarathustra'' (1934–1939) :''Children's Dreams'' (1936–1940)


See also

Houses and institutions *
C. G. Jung House Museum The C. G. Jung House Museum (German Museum Haus C. G. Jung) is a historic house museum. It was the residence of the Swiss psychiatrist, psychologist, and essayist Carl Jung as well as his wife, psychologist Emma Jung, Emma Jung-Rauschenbach. It is ...
*
Bollingen Tower The Bollingen Tower is a structure built by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. In appearance, it is a small castle with four towers. It is located in the village of Bollingen on the shore of the ''Obersee'' (upper lake) basin of Lake Zürich. Hi ...
* Psychology Club Zürich * C. G. Jung Institute, Zürich *
Society of Analytical Psychology The Society of Analytical Psychology, known also as the SAP, incorporated in London, England, in 1945 is the oldest training organisation for Jungian analysts in the United Kingdom. Its first Honorary President in 1946 was Carl Jung. The societ ...
Organizations *
International Association for Analytical Psychology The International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) is the international accrediting and regulatory body for all Jungian societies and groups of analytical psychology practitioners, trainees, and affiliates. Analytical psychology wa ...
*
International Association for Jungian Studies Formed in 2002, the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) is a learned society for Jungian scholars and clinicians. Background The IAJS differs in its focus from the international Jungian organisation, the International Association ...


Notes


References


Sources

*


Further reading

Introductory texts * Carl Gustav Jung, ''Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice (The Tavistock Lectures)'' (Ark Paperbacks), 1990, * * ''The Basic Writings of C. G. Jung'', edited by V. S. de Laszlo (The Modern Library, 1959), * Edward F Edinger, ''Ego and Archetype'', (Shambhala Publications), * Robert Hopcke, ''A Guided Tour of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', * Edward C. Whitmont, ''The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology'', Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1969, 1979, * * Texts in various areas of Jungian thought * Robert Aziz, ''C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity'' (1990), currently in its 10th printing, is a refereed publication of State University of New York Press. * Robert Aziz, ''Synchronicity and the Transformation of the Ethical in Jungian Psychology'' in Carl B. Becker, ed., ''Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics''. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. * Robert Aziz, ''The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung'' (2007), a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. * Robert Aziz, Foreword in Lance Storm, ed., ''Synchronicity: Multiple Perspectives on Meaningful Coincidence''. Pari, Italy: Pari Publishing, 2008. * Wallace Clift, ''Jung and Christianity: The Challenge of Reconciliation''. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1982. * Edward F. Edinger, ''The Mystery of The Coniunctio'', * Wolfgang Giegerich, ''The Soul's Logical Life'', * James A Hall M.D., ''Jungian Dream Interpretation'', * James Hillman, "Healing Fiction", * Stanton Marlan,
Jung's Alchemical Philosophy. Psyche and the Mercurial Play of Image and Idea
', Routledge, 2022, ISBN 9781032105444 * Montiel, Luis, "El rizoma oculto de la psicología profunda. Gustav Meyrink y Carl Gustav Jung", Frenia, 2012, * Catherine M Nutting, ''Concrete Insight: Art, the Unconscious, and Transformative Spontaneity'', UVic Thesis 2007 214 * Andrew Samuels, ''Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis'', * Vladimir Simosko. ''Jung, Music, and Music Therapy: Prepared for the Occasion of the C.G. "Jung and the Humanities" Colloquium, 1987''. Winnipeg, Man., The Author, 1987 * June Singer, ''Boundaries of the Soul'', . On psychotherapy * Anthony Storr, ''Jung'' (1973) * — ''The Essential Jung'' (1983) * — ''The Essential Jung: Selected Writings'' (1999) * John R. White, (2023) ''Adaptation and Psychotherapy. Langs and Analytical Psychology''. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. discusses Jung's two concepts of "adaptation" and relates these ideas to the work of psychoanalyst Robert Langs. * Marion Woodman, ''The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation'', Academic texts * Andrew Samuels, ''The Political Psyche'' (Routledge), * Lucy Huskinson, ''Nietzsche and Jung: The Whole Self in the Union of Opposites'' (Routledge), * Davydov, Andrey. ''From Carl Gustav Jung's Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious to Individual Archetypal Pattern''. HPA Press, 2014. * Remo, F. Roth: ''Return of the World Soul, Wolfgang Pauli, C.G. Jung and the Challenge of Psychophysical Reality [unus mundus], Part 1: The Battle of the Giants''. Pari Publishing, 2011, * Remo, F. Roth: ''Return of the World Soul, Wolfgang Pauli, C.G. Jung and the Challenge of Psychophysical Reality [unus mundus], Part 2: A Psychophysical Theory''. Pari Publishing, 2012, Journals
The Journal of Analytical PsychologyJAP at John Wiley & Sons

International Journal for Jungian StudiesIJJS at Brill
Jung-Freud relationship * Kerr, John. ''A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein''. Knopf, 1993. . * * Balakirsky Katz, Maya. ''Freud, Jung and Jonah: Religion and the Birth of the Psychoanalytic Periodical''. Cambridge University Press, 2023. Others recollections of Jung * van der Post, Laurens, ''Jung and the Story of Our Time'', New York: Pantheon Books, 1975. * Hannah, Barbara, ''Jung, his life and work: a biographical memoir'', New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1976. SBN: 399-50383-8 * David Bailey's biography of his Great Aunt, Ruth Bailey, 'The English Woman and C.G.Jung' drawing extensively on her diaries and correspondence, explores the deep and long-lasting friendship between Ruth, Jung, and Jung's wife and family. Critical scholarship * Maidenbaum, Aryeh (ed), ''Jung and the Shadow of Anti-Semitism'', Berwick ME: Nicolas-Hays Inc, 2002. * Dohe, Carrie B. ''Jung's Wandering Archetype: Race and Religion in Analytical Psychology. '' London: Routledge, 2016. * * * * Richard Noll, ''The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung'' (Random House, 1997) * * * *


External links

* * *
C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich

Museum House of C.G. Jung
Küsnacht, Zurich (Switzerland)
Carl Jung Resources

The Jung PagePhilemon Foundation




Full-text article from 1916. Originally Published in the ''Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology''.

Carl Gustav Jung
The Theory of Psychoanalysis
Full-text article from 1915. Originally published in ''The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease''
Jung's "Essay on Wotan"


From th
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress

The Journal of Analytical Psychology

International Journal for Jungian Studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jung, Carl Gustav Carl Jung, 1875 births 1961 deaths 20th-century Swiss psychologists 20th-century Swiss philosophers 20th-century Swiss writers Academic staff of ETH Zurich Dream researchers History of mental health History of psychiatry Jungian psychologists Members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society New Age predecessors Pantheists People associated with the University of Basel People associated with the University of Zurich People from Arbon District People from Küsnacht People from Rapperswil-Jona Psychodynamics Psychological astrology Psychologists of religion Psychology writers Schizophrenia researchers Swiss astrologers Swiss autobiographers Swiss people of German descent Swiss philosophers Swiss psychiatrists Swiss Protestants, Calvinists Swiss Calvinist and Reformed Christians Symbologists University of Basel alumni