Biography

Early years

Carl Gustaf Jung was born on July 26, 1875, at Kesswil in Switzerland. Jung's father, Johannes Paul Jung, was a pastor in the Swiss Reformed Church and a scholar with an interest in the Greek and Roman classics and Oriental languages. Paul Jung had originally hoped to become a professor of classical languages, but he settled for theology, on the grounds that the ministry offered a better chance of employment than university teaching. In addition, several other men in the extended family served as clergy. Jung's mother, Emilie Preiswerk, was a warmhearted woman with an unpredictable side that Jung found rather frightening. In spite of this aspect of her personality, however, Jung felt closer to her than he did to his father.

Jung was an only child for the first nine years of his life, which may partly account...