Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (born July 26, 1875, Kesswil, Switzerland, died June 6, 1961, Küsnacht) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker, and one of the founding fathers of modern psychology. Jung is considered a pioneer of analytical psychology, which he developed as his own system of psychoanalysis. Jung's concept, the 'collective unconscious,' has had a deep influence on psychology as well as philosophy, the arts and the scientific research in the field of psychology.

Early career

Jung did his early schooling in Basel and he enrolled in his medical training at the University of Basel medical school, he received his degree in 1900. After graduation Jung worked as an assistant at the University of Zurich Psychiatric Clinic, under psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler (1857-1939), who was renowned for his work on schizophrenia.

In 1905, Jung became a member of the faculty in psychiatry at the University of Zurich, as well s a senior physician at its clinic. Eventually, a growing private practice led him to resign his university position. Jung's early published studies on schizophrenia established his reputation, and he also won recognition for developing a word association test.

Relationship with Freud

While working as a psychiatrist at the famous Burghölzli Clinic in Zurich, Jung had read Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams shortly after its publication in 1900. Jung initiated a friendship with Freud by correspondence and became one of Freud’s most respected students after the two men met in 1907. Jung wrote of their first meeting,

Nobody within my own area of experience was capable to measure with Freud. In his mind, there was no place for trivial things; I found him indeed intelligent, analytically penetrating and remarkable in every way.

Collaboration

As they worked together, Freud clarified his intellectual commitment to the sexual basis of development, while Jung tried for synthesis of the differences seen by Freud, Adler and himself. By 1911, Freud wrote "becoming steadily more impatient of Adler's paranoia and longing for an occasion to throw him out ... especially since seeing a performance of Oedipus Rex here -- the tragedy of the 'arranged libido'" ( Referring to Adler as "Fliess redivivus," Freud also notes that Stekel's first name is Wilhelm, suggesting that both relationships evoked the ending of his friendship with Wilhelm Fliess in 1901, because of what Freud described as Fliess's paranoia.

Jung breaks with Freud

Along with Alfred Adler, Jung eventually broke off his close professional relationship with Freud. It is generally accepted that their models of personality had become incompatible.

There is a considerable body of correspondence between Freud and Jung, which, according to Fiebert, showed a growing pattern of mistrust on a personal level, which eventually poisoned the professional relationship. The issues involved Freud and Jung's individual love affairs as well as a romantic triangle, Freud accusing Jung of racism, and dissatisfaction with their mutual psychoanalyses of one another.