Carl Jung

Lore & Background

Among the central concepts of analytical psychology is individuation—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, archetypal phenomena, the collective unconscious, the psychological complex, and extraversion and introversion. Jung's treatment of American businessman and politician Rowland Hazard in 1926 with his conviction that alcoholics 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. Jung was an artist, craftsman, builder, and prolific writer. Many of his works were not published until after his death, and some remain unpublished.

Reader's Guide

Jung initially aspired to be a Christian minister, but after studying philosophy in his teens, he rejected the path of religious traditionalism and decided to pursue psychiatry and medicine. In 1895, Jung began to study medicine at the University of Basel on a grant. Barely a year later, his father Paul died and left the family nearly destitute. The family was helped by relatives, who also contributed to Jung's studies.

During his student days, Jung entertained his contemporaries with the family legend that his paternal grandfather was the illegitimate son of Goethe and his German great-grandmother, Sophie Ziegler. In later life, he pulled back from this tale. Jung worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital in Zurich under Eugen Bleuler. He established himself as an influential mind, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud and conducting a lengthy correspondence regarding their joint vision of human psychology.

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 legitimise his own work. Freud secured Jung's appointment as president of Freud's newly founded International Psychoanalytical Association. Jung's research and personal vision, however, made it difficult to follow his older colleague's doctrine, and they parted ways.

Did You Know?

• At age 12, Jung was pushed to the ground by another boy and hit his head, leading to fainting spells that he later overcame by confronting his family's poverty and returning to his Latin grammar.
• Jung's mother Emilie was an eccentric and depressed woman who said spirits visited her at night; Jung recalled seeing a faintly luminous figure with a head detached from the neck coming from her room.