Introduction

1875–1961

SWISS PHYSICIAN, PSYCHIATRIST

UNIVERSITY OF BASEL, M.D., 1900

Carl Gustaf Jung (1875–1961) is considered to be, together with Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, one of the three outstanding figures in the first generation of the psychoanalytic movement. Jung was the son of a Swiss Reformed pastor and spent all of his childhood and adolescence in Switzerland. He was trained as a medical doctor at the University of Basel. Originally intending to become a surgeon or internist, Jung decided to specialize in psychiatry within a year of the publication of Freud's groundbreaking book, The Interpretation of Dreams. Jung quickly put Freud's theories to work during his residency at the Burghölzli, a mental hospital for schizophrenics in the city of Zurich. Jung's early defense of Freud's findings led to a friendship that ended with Jung's publication of Symbols of Transformation, a work that indicated how far Jung's thinking had departed from Freud's.

Jung's break with Freud was one of the most critical events in the history of psychology in the early twentieth century. In 1913 Jung began a period of intense self-analysis and withdrawal from outside activities. After 1917, he emerged from his personal encounter with the unconscious with new theories about the existence of archetypes, the collective unconscious, the structures of the human psyche, the different types of human personality, and the individuation process. He combined these theories with an interest in comparative mythology and dream interpretation to construct an approach to therapy that he

called analytical psychology. The keynotes of analytical psychology are its emphasis on the human psyche's drive toward balance and wholeness, on the importance of bringing material from the unconscious into consciousness, and on the patient's significance as the best guide to his or her own maturation and individuation.

Jung continued to refine and rework his theories throughout his mature career. His published works fill 20 volumes in the standard American edition. In addition to his private practice, he lectured throughout Europe and supervised the next generation of analytical trainees. Although Jung was reluctant at first to set up a training institute devoted solely to analytical psychology, he helped to establish and direct the first Jung Institute in Zurich in 1948. As of 2001, there were Jung Institutes and study groups located throughout the world, and at least a dozen scholarly periodicals existed in the field of Jungian theory and practice. Jungian theories have had an extensive influence outside the fields of psychology and psychotherapy; they are widely used in literary and film criticism, religious studies, comparative literature, and cultural commentary. In recent years they have also been applied in political science and sociology.