003 - PSY102 Chapter 3 Carl Jung

Early in 1909 Carljung,then a colleague and close friend of Freud's, expressed a keen interest in precognition and parapsychology.To jung's dismay andirritation,Freud strongly denouncedsuch beliefs as nonsensical.The rejection made jung feel as though his diaphragm were made of red-hot iron,whereupon a strange loud noise issued from a nearby bookcase. "There;'jungargued, "that is an example of a so-called catalytic exteriorization phenomenon:' "Bosh;' retorted Freud. "It is not;'Jung replied. "And to prove my point I now predict that in a moment there will beanother such loud report!"No sooner had these words been spoken than asecond inexplicable detonation went off in thebookcase. "To this day I do not know what gave methis certainty;'jung was to reflect years later,"but I knew beyond all doubt that the report wouldcome again.Freud only stared aghast at me.... " (Jung,1961/1965,pp.155-156.)

I

jung's quest for information about the human psyche led him to sources that many would regardas farfetched-the occult,studies of extrasensoryperception, alchemy,the myth of flying saucers. Yet jung regarded himself as an empirical researcher,possessed a fine mind,read voraciously andacquired an immense store of knowledge,traveledwidely in order to study various races and classes,and was an esteemed psychotherapist;and some of his ideas have become part of the everydaylanguage of psychology and life.

IFreud latertook a more positive approach to the occult.See for example Freud,1933/1965b, pp. 31-56; Roazen, 1975/1976b, pp. 232-241.

• To devise

a

theory

of

personality that greatly improves on Freud'sideas while continuing

to

emphasize the importance

of

theunconscious.• To correct Freud's extreme pessimism about human nature byshowing that

we

have both healthy and malignant instincts, and that one

of

our healthy instincts

is

individuation (the forerunner

of

the humanistic concept

o f

self-actualization).• To show that every personality includes

a

collective unconsciousthat contains archetypes, or inherited predispositions

to

perceivethe world in certain ways,

as

well

as a

personal unconscious that contains repressed or forgotten material.• To show that introversion-extraversion and the four ways in which

we

perceive the world (sensation, thinking, feeling, and intuition)are important aspects

o f

every personality.• To correct Freud ' s belief that mental illness usually has sexualcauses by showing that every personality consists

o f

variousopposites, and that becoming too one-sided and ignoring thecorresponding opposite aspect

of

personality is the major cause

of

psychopathology.• To devise improved methods

o f

dream interpretation and psychotherapy.• To relate areas that most would regard

as

beyond the realm

of

personality theory ,including the occult, extrasensory perception , and alchemy ,

to

the study

of

personality.

Carl Gustav Jung was born on July 26,1875, in Kesswil,a small village in Switzerland.His father was a Protestant country minister who was tormented by a lack of faith,and was unableto answer Jung's penetrating questions about religion and life. Jung's skepticism about the Oedipus complex may have been due in part to a mother who was a"kindly,fat old woman" troubled by marital difficulties (lung, 1961/1965,p.48), an influence quite different from that of Freud's beautiful,young doting mother.Like Freud,Jung rose from austere middle-class origins to the heights of world fame.Jung was an introverted and lonely child,deeply preoccupied with his inner psychic world.From an early age he experienced visions of the supernatural, such as a faintly luminous fig-ure with a detached head that appeared to emanate from his mother's bedroom.He soon came to regard himself as"a solitary,because I know things and must hint at thingswhich other people do not know,and usually do not even want to know....Loneliness doesnot come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the thingsthatseem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others findinadmissible"(Jung, 1961/1965,pp.42, 356;see also pp. 18-19). Jung became attracted to the fledgling field of psychiatryduring hismedical studiesat the University of Basel, where he received his degree in 1900. Some of hisprofessorswere amazed and disappointed by his choice,but Jung was convinced that he had found his true

calling. He became absorbed with the occult, participated in experiments with mediums, anddevoured books on parapsychology. In addition to his visions, various experiences appeared toconfirm the existence of the supernatural: A solid table and a steel knife in his parents' homeinexplicably shattered into pieces by themselves. He made up a supposedly imaginary story toentertain a group, only to find that he was clairvoyantly revealing true and intimate secretsabout a man he did not know. And the morning after being awakened by a sharp headache, hediscovered that one of his patients had that night shot himself in the back of the skull (lung,1961/1965,pp. 51,105-106,109,137,206).Jung first worked at the famed Burgholzli Psychiatric Hospital in Zurich under the direc-tion of Eugen Bleuler, who coined the term

schizophrenia

and was well known for his work on this disorder.There he developed the word association test and remained until 1909, whenhe departed to concentrate on his growing private practice. In 1903 he married EmmaRauschenbach,who also became his collaborator and leamed to apply his psychotherapeuticmethods. The marriage was basically successful, with the Jungs having four daughters and ason. But no one woman could make up for the emotional deprivations of Carl's childhood.During middle age he entered into a lengthy affair with a young, attractive, and well-educatedformer patient, Toni Wolff. He even drew Toni into his family life, making her a regular guestfor Sunday dinner. Emma ultimately decided to accept this situation, and Carl kept both hismistress and his family. (See Stem, 1976/1977.)Jung read

The Interpretation of Dreams

upon its publication in 1900, and he began whatproved to be a lengthy correspondence with Freud in 1906. The two men met a year later, andwere so captivated with each other that they talked continuously for 13 hours. Unfortunately,the union of the two giants was based on a fundamental misconception that eventuallydestroyed the relationship. Freud was seeking disciples who would carry forth the psychoan-alytic banner and he saw Jung as his crown prince and successor. Jung,on the other hand,regarded his association with Freud as a collaboration that left both sides free to pursue theirown ideas.It was inevitable that Jung would view Freud's insistence on the universality of theOedipus complex and the sexual nature of libido as dogmatism, whereas Freud would seeJung's attempts to develop his own theory as a betrayal.For some years, Jung did follow in Freud's footsteps.Jung defended Freud's ideas,accom- panied him to the United States as an invited lecturer at Clark University in 1909, became apsychoanalyst and taught this subject at the University of Zurich, and served as the first pres-ident of the International Psychoanalytic Association. But Jung had to be his own man. Hisanalysis of the delusions and hallucinations of psychotic patients at the Burgholzli hadpersuaded him of the frequent occurrence of universal archetypes, and he came to view thehuman personality quite differently from Freud. When Jung continued to argue for his ownconstructs, the breach with Freud became irreparable-a trying experience that occasionedtwo fainting spells on Freud's part, and more than a little anguish on Jung's. The formal part-ing came in 1913,with Jung also resigning from the International Psychoanalytic Associationin 1914.Jung now turned to the solitude of his home, a large and beautiful edifice of his owndesign in Ktisnacht (a suburb of Zurich), where he was to live for the rest of his life. Here hespent the years from 1913 to 1919 in relative isolation, probing the depths of his own uncon-scious. He conversed with voices from within his psyche, including a female that he inter-preted as his anima and a group of ghosts that he believed to be souls returning from the dead(Jung, 1961/1965, pp. 170-199). He observed many archetypes emerging into his conscious-ness, and felt that he was going through the process of individuation and discovering his self.He also suffered symptoms of emotional disturbance, suggesting that this experience wassimilar to the "creative illness" undergone by Freud (Ellenberger, 1970, p. 672). To avoid