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Biography of Carl Gustav Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of the school of analytical psychology. He proposed and developed the concepts of the extroverted and introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. The issues that he dealt with arose from his personal experiences. For many years Jung felt as if he had two separate personalities. One introverted and other extroverted. This interplay resulted in his study of integration and wholeness. His work has been influential not only in psychology, but in religion and literature as well.
Jung was born on July 26, 1875 in Kesswil, Switzerland, the only son of a Protestant clergyman. At the age of four his family moved to Basel. His childhood was a lonely one. Jung observed his parents and teachers and tried to understand their behavior, especially that of his father. The elder Jung had a failing belief in religion. Jung could never understand why. There were numerous relatives on either side of his family that were clergymen. It was expected of Jung to continue in the family tradition. Jung did not decide to follow, choosing instead to attend the University of Basel from 1895-1900. Before deciding to pursue medicine Jung studied biology, zoology, paleontology, and archaeology. His explorations did not stop with that, he looked at philosophy, mythology, early Christian literature as well as religion. His interest in religion could be attributed to his heritage as well as watching the demise of his father.
After leaving Basel, Jung became an assistant physician at Burgholzli Psychiatric clinic under Eugen Bleuler. In 1902 he obtained his M.D. from the University of Zurich. His dissertation was entitled "On the Psychology and Pathology of So -Called Occult Phenomena". Through this work one of his basic concepts is outlined, the underlying wholeness of the psyche. Jung's first research was conducted in 1904. He studied word association in patients. He found groups of repressed psychic content for which he invented the now famous word "complex." This study brought him close to the work of Sigmund Freud. Jung's work confirmed many of Freud's ideas. Between 1907 and 1912 he and Freud worked very close. Many believed that Jung would continue Freud's psychoanalysis, but this did not occur. Over temperamental and differences concerning the significance of sexuality in human life, the two split. Jung contested Freud's analytic principles, which he claimed were one-sided, overly-concrete, and personalistic. Their relationship was finished forever when Jung published "Psychology and the Unconscious" which argued against some of Freud's ideas . In 1912 "Symbols and Transformations of the Libido" was published. Jung wanted to understand the symbolic meaning of the contents of the unconscious. In order to distinguish between individual psychology and psychoanalysis Jung gave his discipline the name "analytical psychology."
After a break with the start of WWI, Jung wrote the book "Psychological Types". It set the differences between his position and that of Freud. Jung became more interested in the study of mythological and religious symbolism. His studies took him across the globe where he observed many different cultures. He was interested in tracing the analogies between the contents of the unconscious in Western man and the myths, cults, and rituals of primitive peoples. Jungian therapy deals with dreams and fantasies. A discussion is set up between the conscious and the contents of the unconscious. When the therapy works the patient enters an individuation process. This consists of psychological transformations ending in the opposite tendencies working together to achieve personal wholeness. Jung's total amount of work is very large. It is estimated that he authored 200 papers. An edition of his Collected Works in English was completed in 1972 by the Bollingen Foundation in New York and Routledge and Kegan Paul in London.
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One of the early influences that Jung refers to in his writings was the onset of a new abstract artistic style called expressionism that emerged from the collective unconscious especially in the Germanic side of the artistic community. They could now "express" their "selves".
This painting is an example of this genre which is called "The Scream" by the "father" of expressionism, Edvard Munch done in 1893. This depiction foreshadowed the agony caused by the coming World Wars of the 20th century and possibly the new archetype of an "E.T.".
In 1905, the German born genius, Albert Einstein, published his work on the special theory of relativity as respresented in the following formula: E = mēcē +pēcē. This theory eventually led to the atomic bomb and the quantum theory. Jung often referred to these developments in his writings as the advent of "science" into man's psyche. Also, he saw that modern man had to "quantumize" matter where are ancestors did not.
In his works on synchronocity, Jung often referred to the studies of ESP by Rhine. These tests showed that the testee was able to predict the results at a higher rate than chance. Also, the prediction rate was not reduced by distance or time, but only after the test was done too many times and the interest in the test ebbed.
In the book "Answer to Job" Jung writes that he felt the time for "Yah-weh" (or Quetzalcoatl as the Mayans refer to their god) to descend into his creation is approaching. This time he won't be sending his only begotten son (to die for us), but will incarnate as him (or her) self. Perhaps the creation of the Internet is a precursor to the appearance as it raises some of our collective unconcious into a collective consiousness.
Time Line of Jung's Life
- 1875 Born in Kesswil, Switzerland
- 1879 Moved to Basel
- 1895 Student at University of Basel
- 1900 Graduated from Basel
- 1900 Assistant physician under Eugen Bleuler
- 1902 Obtained M.D. from University of Zurich
- 1902 Went to Paris and heard Pierre Janet
- 1902 Went to London
- 1903 Married Emma Rauschenbach
- 1904 Research in Word Association
- 1905 Started lecturing at Zurich
- 1907 First meeting with Sigmund Freud
- 1909 Gave up work at Burgholzi
- 1911 Lectured in the United States with Freud
- 1911 Elected president of the "International Psychoanalytic Society"
- 1912 Publication of "Psychology of the Unconscious"
- 1912 Split with Freud
- 1913 Gave up lectureship at Zurich
- 1914 Resigned from the "International Psychoanalytic Society"
- 1920 Went to Tunis and Algiers
- 1921 Publication of "Psychological Types"
- 1924 Studied Pueblo Indians
- 1926 Studied the inhabitants of Mount Elgon in Kenya
- 1933 Professor of Psychology at the Federal Polytechnical University of Zurich
- 1933 Edited the "Central Journal for Psychotherapy and Related Fields"
- 1935 President of the Swiss Society for Practical Psychology
- 1937 Visited India
- 1939 Finished editing the "Central Journal for Psychotherapy and Related Fields"
- 1941 Retired from The Federal Polytechnical University of Zurich
- 1943 Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of Basel
- 1961 Died in Kusnacht, on Lake Zurich
Bibliography
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