• 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 peo-
ple 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 im-
portant 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
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