Carl Jung

Carl Jung was born in Kesswil on Lake Constance in Switzerland on July 26,

1875 (Nordby, 1975). Jung’s father was a philologist and a pastor, as were his 8 uncles,

Jung felt destined to a life of ministry (Unkown, 1999). His childhood was confused and

he had vivid visions and fantasies (Nordby, 1975). Especially concerned with his father's

failing belief in religion, he tried to communicate to him his own experience of God

(Unknown, 1999). He was well liked, athletic, an expert sailor, and a father of 5 (Nordby,

1975). Mostly because of his occult experiences at college he decided to become a

psychologist (Nordby, 1975). He became part of the staff at the Burghölzli Asylum at

University of Zürich when it was under the direction of Eugen Bleuler (Unkown, 1999).

At Burghölzli, he began to study patients “peculiar and illogical” responses to words and

other stimuli Burghölzli.

Then he heard of Sigmund Freud and they became correspondents then friends

(Nordby, 1975). Jung confirmed many of Freud’s ideas with his findings and was a close

collaborator with him from the year 1907 to 1912 (Unkown, 1999). Their friendship

ended because Jung refused to place as much emphasis on sexual unconscious as Freud

did (Nordby, 1975). When Jung published Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido

(Psychology of the Unconscious), many of his ideas conflicted with Freud’s (Unkown,

1999). His first claim to fame was the invention of word association tests (Nordby,

1975). Even though he had been elected president of the International Psychoanalytic

Society in 1911, he resigned in 1914 (Unkown, 1999). Traveling and lecturing

extensively he became famous worldwide (Nordby, 1975). Jung wrote nineteen books on

everything from psychology to telepathy to flying saucers; he was particularly interested

in alchemy (Nordby, 1975). He’s still one of the most influential psychologists of all

time with institutes all around the world focusing on Jungian philosophy (Nordby, 1975).

He died on June 6, 1981 at the age of 85, that year his autobiography Memories, Dreams,

Reflections was published (Nordby, 1975).

Jungian Philosophy

The basic concepts of Jungian philosophy are that the entire personality is referred

to as the psyche (Nordby, 1975). Jung distinguished particularly between the extraverted

personality and the introverted (Unkown, 1999). He distinguished the four functions of

personality – sensation, thinking, feeling, and intuition (Unkown, 1999). He termed the

collective unconscious, the storehouse for instincts, urges, and memories in every human

species (Kasschau, 1995). He called the inherited ideas archetypes, the same archetype

being present in every person (Kasschau, 1995).

Bibliography

Bibliography

Nordby, Vernon J. and Hall, Calvin S. (1974). A Guide to Psychologists and Their Concepts, New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.

Unknown. (1999). Encyclopedia Britannica.[On-line]. Available: http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/printable/5/0,5722,44155,00.html.

Kasschau, Richard A. Ph.D. (1995). Understanding Psychology. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill.

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