Jung was a complex and controversial character, probably best known through his ‘autobiography’ Memories, Dreams and Reflections (actually it was dictated to his assistant Aniela Jaffé, who had a significant influence on the form and content of the book, omitting what she felt inappropriate). This split capitulated Jung into a personal but ultimately creative crisis, and he emerged from this period of self-exploration and discovery having developed the concepts that were to become the cornerstones of analytical psychology. Jung was openly acknowledged as the heir apparent to Freud’s legacy for a while, until the differences in their theoretical positions and personalities became manifest and they split irreconcilably in 1913. They collaborated in setting up and popularising Freud’s psychoanalysis in its difficult early years, when this radical new understanding of the mind was meeting much opposition. After a period of correspondence, Jung became an uneasy pupil of Freud’s. Jung trained as a psychiatrist and worked at the Burghölzli hospital in Zürich, where he came across Sigmund Freud’s work, in which he was immediately interested. He married in 1903 and had five children. His father was a village pastor, something that gave Jung a unique insight into Christianity. Jung was born in 1875, near Lake Constance in Switzerland. Jung’s biographical detailsĬarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded the idea of analytical psychology. More significantly, he founded a system of thought which has directly helped very many people and indirectly influenced countless more, as well as having entered and influenced mainstream culture itself. He was a radical and inspirational psychologist and thinker who developed a characteristic and unique way of understanding the human psyche and its functioning.Ĭertain of Jung’s concepts and terms have entered into everyday language, such as introversion and extroversion, complex and archetype. Carl Gustav Jung was one of psychology’s pioneering figures of the 20th Century.

Carl gustav jung autobiography