Carl Gustav Jung

700 Pages·1997·3.55 MB·English

by  Jung

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THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH, Carl Gustav Jung is remembered not
only for his valuable contributions to psychotherapy and to our
understanding of the inner workings of the mind, but also for the
enduring controversies he sparked.
Frank McLynn’s Carl Gustav Jung is the first full-length biography of
the great Swiss psychologist. Early in Jung’s career he was the admirer
and protégé of Sigmund Freud, the adopted ‘Son’ to Freud’s ‘Father’;
then, after their famous quarrel, he became his rival and bitter enemy.
Controversial for his right-wing views, his alleged anti-Semitism, and his
sexual promiscuity, Jung nonetheless seemed to many a more acceptable
icon than Freud, not least because he opposed Freud’s atheism and
stressed the necessary and overwhelming role of religion in the life of
the individual. With the discovery of the universal symbols of the
collective unconscious; his explorations of the role of dreams in the
journey toward psychic wholeness, his speculations about the true
nature of God; his passionate and profound interest in myth and in
oriental religion, in alchemy and astrology; his theory of synchronicity,
he has begun to emerge as this era’s favorite philosopher, the hero and
guru of the New Age. His theories on alternative modes of thought have
already fascinated generations and continue to appeal to new audiences.
In McLynn’s capable hands, readers will come to understand the man
who originated these great and influential ideas.
Also by Frank McLynn
CHARLES EDWARD STUART: A TRAGEDY IN MANY ACTS
STANLEY: THE MAKING OF AN AFRICAN EXPLORER
STANLEY: SORCERER’S APPRENTICE
BURTON: SNOW UPON THE DESERT
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
CARL GUSTAV JUNG
FRANK McLYNN
St. Martin’s Press New York
For Pauline, Sine Qua Non
CONTENTS
Preface
1 A Swiss Childhood
2 Troubled Adolescence
3 Student Days
4 Burghölzli Apprenticeship
5 Sex and Marriage
6 First Contacts with Freud
7 Sabina Spielrein
8 Voyage to America
9 Stormclouds Gather
10 The Rift Deepens
11 The Kreuzlingen Gesture
12 Guerre à Outrance
13 The Descent into the Underworld
14 The Psychology of Types
15 The Globetrotter
16 The Doctrine
17 Valkyries and Other Women
18 The Shadow of the Nazis
19 The World of Dreams
20 America, America
21 The Lure of the Orient
22 Freud: Final Accounts
23 Wartime
24 The Theologian
25 The New Age Guru
26 Last Years
Bibliography
Notes
Index
PREFACE
I had better state straightaway that this book does not purport to be a
definitive biography of C.G. Jung. Such a work will not be possible until
all the relevant documentation is released into the public domain. If we
may rely on recent reports of the attitudes evinced by the guardians of
the secrets of depth psychology’s founders, we may well have to wait
until the twenty-second century before we learn the final truth about
certain episodes. It is only fair to say that Freudians are just as much to
blame for these retentive attitudes as Jungians, and Peter Gay, for one,
has frequently had occasion to remark on the irony of excessive
secretiveness among depth psychologists, whose stated intention is to
bring into the light what was previously in darkness.
Nevertheless, I would be surprised if future discoveries significantly
alter our perception of Jung’s doctrines and their implications. Future
research, when the relevant material is available, will no doubt uncover
the names of Jung’s many unknown mistresses, the dates of the liaisons
and much more along these lines. Whether it will revolutionize our
understanding of his doctrines is more doubtful. Interpretation of Jung’s
theories is notoriously tricky and there are as many rival hermeneutical
sects as in biblical exegesis. I am sure my explanations will not
command universal assent, and there will be those who claim that the
true understanding of, say, the theory of archetypes or the collective
unconscious is quite other. But I know of no species of revisionism which
holds that Jung did not, after all, believe in any of these things, and I
would be amazed if future caches of Jungiana add very much to the
doctrinal side of things.
Meticulous care has been exercised to see that no copyrights have
been infringed in the writing of this book. And, since Jung is in many
ways a battlefield, I deliberately did not seek expert advice or academic