Carl Jung biography briefly Swiss psychiatrist, the founder of analytical psychology is described in this article.

Carl Jung short biography

Carl Gustav Jung graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Basel. From 1900 to 1906 he worked in a psychiatric clinic in Zurich as an assistant to the famous psychiatrist E. Bleuler.

In 1909-1913 he worked with Sigmund Freud, played a leading role in the psychoanalytic movement: he was the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Society, editor of a psychoanalytic journal, lectured on an introduction to psychoanalysis.

In 1914, Jung withdrew from the International Psychoanalytic Association and abandoned the technique of psychoanalysis in his practice. He developed his own theory and therapy, which he called "analytical psychology". With his ideas, he had a significant impact not only on psychiatry and psychology, but also on anthropology, ethnology, cultural studies, comparative history of religion, pedagogy, and literature.

Psychiatrist introduced the terms as "extrovert", "introvert", "archetype"

In 1922, Jung purchased an estate in Bollingen on the shores of Lake Zurich, where by 1956 he had built a real castle.

In 1933 he became an active participant and one of the inspirers of the influential international intellectual community Eranos.

In 1935, Jung became professor of psychology at the Swiss Polytechnic School in Zurich, as well as the founder and president of the Swiss Society for Practical Psychology, teaching in Zurich and Basel.

From 1933 to 1939 he published the "Journal of Psychotherapy and Related Fields", which supported the Nazis' national and domestic policy of race cleansing. After the war, Jung explained the journal's policy to the demands of the times.

The author of the free association technique, the Swiss psychologist and philosopher Carl Jung is familiar to many from the books Man and His Symbols, Archetypes and Memories, Reflections, Dreams. Jung's teachings are based on the terms "introversion" and "extraversion" developed by him personally. Karl argued that each individual, depending on the dominant function of the personality, can be turned either to his inner self (introversion) or to the outside world (extraversion).

Based on this conclusion, the researcher developed the psychological types of people and derived the formula of the human soul, enclosing it in a psychiatric and psychological framework. Jung's work has had a significant impact on cultural studies, comparative religion, anthropology, pedagogy and literature.

Childhood and youth

Carl Gustav Jung was born on July 26, 1875 in the commune of Queswil, located in the north-east of Switzerland. The father of the future psychotherapist, Johann Jung, was a reformist pastor, and his wife Emily was engaged in raising their son. As a child, Carl was a reserved and somewhat strange child. Unsociableness and detachment appeared as a result of a tense relationship with the head of the family and frequent hysterical attacks of the mother, which Gustav repeatedly observed in childhood.

At the age of 10, Jung cut out a 6-centimeter man from a wooden block picked up on the street, put him in a pencil case and took the craft to the attic. When the irritability of his father or the sickness of his mother brought the boy to the extreme degree of despair, he climbed into the attic and spoke in a secret language with a man-made friend. These oddities were the first manifestation of unconscious behavior, which Karl later described in detail in essays on the psychology of the unconscious.

Parents sent their son to the gymnasium when he was 11 years old. It is worth noting that Gustav showed no interest either in the sciences or in creativity. While the teaching staff complained about the lack of talent of the uninitiated student, Karl, upon returning home, enthusiastically painted ancient castles and read prose. Karl could not make friends and fully express himself at school because of the feeling of a split personality that did not leave him. Jung himself in his "Red Book" noted that he had "two selves" since childhood.

At the age of 16, the fog of loneliness began to slowly dissipate. Bouts of depression were a thing of the past, Jung became interested in the study of philosophy. He determined for himself a circle of topics that he certainly wanted to study, read, and even found a reflection of his thoughts in his works. In 1893 Karl entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Basel. At the university, in addition to reading compulsory literature, Jung became interested in the works of mystical philosophers: Emmanuel Swedenborg and Adolf Eschenmeier.

Impressed by the works he read, Gustav even held séances a couple of times. This unusual hobby led him to write a dissertation in medicine called "On the Psychology and Pathology of the So-Called Occult Phenomena." In the future, in order to correctly formulate a commentary on ancient texts (I Ching, Secret of the Golden Flower, Tibetan Book of the Dead), he will deliberately return to the topic of studying the spiritual world.

For Jung, this period was very difficult financially. After the death of his father, his family was left without a livelihood. Gustav attended lectures during the day, and in his free time he was engaged in tutoring. So the young man maintained a rather modest existence and paid for his studies. After graduating from a higher educational institution, a graduate fell into the hands of the "Textbook of Psychiatry" by Richard von Krafft-Ebing. This discovery predetermined the further future of Jung.

Psychology

In 1900, Carl moved to Zurich and began working as an assistant to Eugene Bleuler, a well-known psychiatrist at the time, at the Burgholzli mental hospital (a suburb of Zurich). Gustav settled in the hospital area. Soon he began to publish his first clinical papers, as well as articles on the application of the word association test he had developed.

In 1907, his first large-scale work, The Psychology of Dementia Prax, was published, which Jung sent for review. The meeting with Freud marked an important milestone in Karl's scientific development. By the time of personal acquaintance in February 1907 in Vienna, where Jung arrived after a short correspondence, he was already widely known both for his experiments in word associations and for the discovery of sensory complexes.

In 1909, together with Freud, Jung first came to the United States of America, where he gave a course of lectures. International fame, and with it a private practice that brought a good income, allowed Gustav to leave his post in the Burholzl clinic in 1910 (by that time he already held the position of clinical director), return to his native land and immerse himself in in-depth studies of myths, legends, fairy tales in the context of their interaction with the world of psychopathology.

In the same period, publications appeared that quite clearly marked the boundary of Karl's ideological independence from Freud in both views on the nature of the unconscious. In 1913, the geniuses of psychoanalysis decided to stop all communication. The drama of parting turned for Jung into an opportunity to publish the works "Symbols of Transformation" and "The Red Book".

In the 1920s, Jung made a series of long and fascinating journeys to Africa and North America. A peculiar cultural-psychological essay formed the basis of one of the chapters in the autobiographical book “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”. In 1930, Karl was awarded the title of honorary president of the Psychotherapeutic Society of Germany, and also revealed to the world his new creation - the book Problems of the Soul of Our Time. Two years later, the Zurich City Council awarded him the Literature Prize with a check for 8,000 francs.

From 1933 to 1942 Jung taught in Zurich, and from 1944 in Basel. Also in 1933-1939. the scientist published the "Journal of Psychotherapy and Related Fields", which supported the internal policy of the Nazis to purify the race, and excerpts from "Mein Kampf" became an obligatory prologue to any publication. Among the works of Jung of this period, the articles "Relations between the Self and the Unconscious", "Psychology and Religion", "Psychology and Education", "Images of the Unconscious", "Symbolism of the Spirit" and "On the Origins of Consciousness" were especially distinguished.

In February 1944, during an excursion, Jung broke his leg and, while in the hospital, suffered a heart attack, after which he teetered on the verge of life and death for several weeks. He later described his visions in detail in his autobiography.

In November 1955, after fifty-two years of marriage, Jung's wife, Emma, ​​died, and this loss completely devastated the psychotherapist. To get rid of sad thoughts, Karl plunged headlong into work. The autobiography, which Jung wrote down with the help of a secretary, was time-consuming, and the amount of correspondence grew so much that he sometimes had to hide bundles of incoming letters behind bookshelves.

Personal life

Jung met his first and only wife, Emma Rauschenbach, as a medical student. At the time of their first meeting, he was 21 years old, and she was 15 years old. A sweet, modest girl with thick hair neatly braided into a braid immediately attracted Gustav. Emma and Carl legalized their relationship on February 14, 1903.

The chosen one of the philosopher came from an old Swiss-German family of wealthy industrialists. The financial well-being of his wife allowed Jung to devote himself to scientific research in the field of psychology without regard to the need to earn money every day. Emma showed a sincere interest in her husband's work and supported him in everything. Rauschenbach gave her husband four daughters and a son: Agatha, Gret, Franz, Marianne and Helen.

The presence of a legal wife and children did not prevent Jung from starting relationships on the side. On August 17, 1904, an eighteen-year-old girl, Sabine Spielrein, was admitted to the Swiss clinic where Karl worked. This love story became popular due to the fact that the relationship between Spielrein and Jung was based on the phenomenon of erotic transference (the patient's infatuation with the attending physician). Jung noticed and appreciated the sharp mind and scientific mindset of the girl, and Spielrein could not help but fall in love with the doctor who felt the world subtly. Their romance ended immediately after Sabina recovered from her illness and left the medical facility.

In 1909, 21-year-old Toni Wolff came to Karl as a patient. This young lady, after recovery, became the official assistant and mistress of a psychiatrist. In September 1911, the girl even accompanied the Jung family to the Weimar Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Society. Emma knew about her husband's passion, but the boundless love for the father of her children did not allow her to file for divorce.

Toni Wolf is Jung's only assistant who for 40 years shared not only a bed, but also a workplace with a psychoanalyst. As a result of their collaboration, the book "Metamorphoses and Symbols of the Libido" appeared.

Death

In May 1961, Jung went for a walk. There, the psychotherapist had another heart attack, which provoked blockage of cerebral vessels and partial paralysis of the limbs. For a couple of weeks, Karl was on the verge of life and death. According to the recollections of a nurse who looked after the thinker, the day before his death, the philosopher had a dream, after which, with a smile on his face, he declared that he was no longer afraid of anything.

Jung died on June 6, 1961 at his home in the village of Küsnacht. The eminent psychotherapist was buried at the local cemetery of the Protestant church. On the rectangular tombstone, in addition to the initials of the eminent psychoanalyst, the names of his parents, sister Gertrude and wife Emma are engraved.

Bibliography

• "Archetype and Symbol"
• "Memories, Reflections, Dreams"
• Soul and Myth. Six archetypes»
• "The Relationship Between the Ego and the Unconscious"
• "Man and his Symbols"
• "Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype"
• "Psychology of Transference"
• "A General Perspective on Psychology and Dreams"
• “Symbols and Metamorphoses. Libido"
• "Marriage as a psychological relationship"
• "Problems of the soul of our time"
• "Psychological types"
• "Works on Psychiatry"

Quotes

• “Do not hold back the one who leaves you. Otherwise, the one who comes to you will not come.
• “Everything that irritates others can lead to self-understanding”
• "Any kind of addiction is bad, be it addiction to alcohol, drugs or idealism"
• "I am not what happened to me, I am what I decided to become"

Carl Jung is one of the most prominent psychologists and psychotherapists of our time. A student of Freud and the founder of analytical psychology, Jung did not fully share the views of his teacher and eventually moved away from the classical Freudian concept of personality. The disagreements that arose between psychologists gave the world a deep and unusual theory of personality.

Jung's personality structure

Like Freud, Jung believed that the personality (psyche) consists of: Ego (I), personal unconscious and collective unconscious (Super-Ego).

The ego is our consciousness. It consists of sensations, memories, thoughts, perceptions. The ego is responsible for self-identification, and is in fact the center of the personality.

The personal unconscious includes sensations, fears, complexes, thoughts that were forced out of consciousness and allegedly "forgotten". The personal unconscious is constantly filled with new experiences that we either ignore or are not fully aware of. Jung believed that the content of this level of personality is available for awareness, but requires some effort on the part of the person.

The collective unconscious is the most controversial aspect of Jungian personality theory and was one of the major disagreements between Jung and Freud. This level of personality is also called the transpersonal unconscious. It includes memories and images inherited from previous generations and is common to all people. Jung believed that the collective unconscious is the legacy of ancestors, formed in the process of human evolution. These are hidden memories and experiences that are passed on at the gene level. Basically, the collective unconscious manifests itself in images - archetypes that are. Jung found direct confirmation of the existence of the collective unconscious in the symbols and images repeated in the cultures of different peoples of the world. For example, in many myths there are identical descriptions of the goddess of Fertility, which is the prototype of the Mother archetype.

The main archetypes according to K. Jung

Unlike Freud, who considered suppressed sexual desires and aggression to be the main dynamic forces of personality development, Jung gave the main motivational role to archetypes - deep images formed in the process of evolution. Among all the archetypes, Jung assigned the leading role to 5 main ones: Anime, Animus, Persona, Shadow, Self. Anime and Animus are two components of one whole, where the first part is the embodiment of the female unconscious in men, and the second is the male unconscious in women. Thus, each person has feelings, emotions and experiences of both sexes. A person is often also called a Mask, since this archetype is identified with the role of a person in society and resembles the role of an actor in a theater. Shadow is the other side of Persona. It hides all the socially unacceptable aspects of the personality that cannot be shown in this society. The self is the center of the personality, a manifestation of its inner harmony and integrity.

Personality types: extroverts and introverts

One of Jung's greatest contributions to modern psychology is the introduction of the concepts of "extroversion" and "introversion". These two main directions are simultaneously present in every personality, but one of them is dominant and determines the vector of human development. So, extraversion is a manifestation of interest in the outside world. Accordingly, extroverts find strength and energy in communicating with people around them. They easily make contact with strangers, are communicative, friendly, often very talkative and active. Interacting with others, an extrovert develops as a person, so forced loneliness is difficult for him.

The exact opposite of an extrovert is an introvert. A person with dominant introversion is distinguished by isolation, laconicism, and a tendency to loneliness. An introvert draws energy from his inner spiritual sources, so he avoids big noisy companies. The external or internal locus of personality is closely related to the innate characteristics of the nervous system and temperament. As a rule, extroverts have a sanguine or choleric temperament, while introverts have a phlegmatic or melancholic temperament.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) - Swiss psychiatrist, founder of analytical psychology, which is based on the concept of the collective unconscious and archetypes.

In the initial period of his creative activity, Jung was an active supporter of the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, and for several years he was chairman of the international psychoanalytic community. Subsequently, their paths diverged. In 1911 he left the psychoanalytic association and created his own theory of analytical psychology.

In 1921, Jung proposed a new typology of personality, highlighting two main qualities: extraversion and introversion, and four additional ones: sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition. Subsequently, this typology was transformed by his followers and represented by a separate direction - socionics.

During his life, Carl Gustav Jung left a rich creative heritage of works on psychiatry, psychology, cultural studies and philosophy.

Analytical psychology.

According to Jung's theory, there is an inherited part of the psyche that has been formed over hundreds of thousands of years, and through which we perceive the environment and our life experience in a very specific way. This feature of perception depends on our archetypes, which influence our sensations, thoughts, feelings and our intuition. The unconscious part of the human psyche, according to Jung, consists of innate reflexes (instincts), acquired (conditional - author) and intuition. Intuition is understood as an unconscious part of our consciousness, which, in turn, also has an innate and acquired component. Archetypes are an innate part of intuition that affects the way a person perceives and understands.

Instincts and archetypes, taken together, form the collective unconscious.

Jung considered the main task of analytical psychology to be the analysis and interpretation of the archetypical images that arise in patients. Comprehension of the components of the collective unconscious, through the study of human dreams, elements of folklore and myths that he encounters in everyday life in the form of symbols and images.

“Many crises in our lives have a long unconscious prehistory. We are approaching them step by step, unaware of the accumulating dangers. However, what we overlook is often perceived by the subconscious mind, which can convey information to us through dreams,” wrote Jung.

The idea of ​​the archetype took place in the medieval religious philosophy of Augustine the Blessed (354-430). In the 11th-13th centuries, it was assumed that archetypes are natural images embedded in the human mind and helping it come to a particular judgment.

"Archetypes have a huge impact on a person, shaping his feelings, morality, worldview, influencing the relationship of the individual with other people and, thus, on his entire destiny."

There are as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life. For many hundreds of years, they were formed and gathered by peoples in their folklore, fairy tales, legends and myths. Passed from mouth to mouth, honing their images. Archetypes manifest themselves in our dreams in the form of images and symbols.

Sometimes dreams have elements that do not belong to the personality of the dreamer. These are elements that are innate and inherited from primitive people forms of mind. They express new thoughts, never before crossed the threshold of his consciousness. The peculiarity of the concept of analytical psychology lies in the fact that the provisions put forward by it often have vague formulations, are not indicated by clear and specific definitions. They cannot be refuted in principle, and therefore, it (according to the falsifiability criterion of K. Popper) cannot be attributed to scientific theories.

A number of terms are among the key concepts in analytical psychology and the concept of the collective unconscious.

The self is an archetype that characterizes the unconscious image of a person's life goal, which determines his individuality.

According to Jung himself, he studied about 80,000 dreams. Certain images emerge over the years, disappear and repeat again. Gradually, they noticeably change depending on the process of individual spiritual growth of a person.

Sometimes the future in symbolic form is foreshadowed not by a dream, but by some very bright and unforgettable real event, and we carry this event (for example, a fairy tale) with us in the form of images and symbols through life, “following” it.

A persona is an archetype, which is an image of a person's social role in his daily life in relation to other people. The concept of social role includes skills and development in childhood and the corresponding societal expectations.

The shadow is an archetype, symbols and images, by which they mean suppressed, repressed or alienated personality traits. She (the shadow) is manifested in rash statements, actions, spontaneously made decisions.

Anima is an archetype representing the inner image of a woman in a man, characterizing his unconscious female component.

Animus is an archetype, an internal image of a man in a woman, personifying her unconscious male side.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist and philosopher, founder of "analytical psychology".

The center of Jung's teaching is the idea of ​​"". The process of individuation is generated by the totality of mental states, which are coordinated by a system of complementary relationships that promote maturation. Jung stressed the importance of function. Since its suppression leads to mental disorders, religious development is an essential component of the process of individuation.

Jung introduced the concept of "collective unconscious". Its content is innate forms of the psyche, patterns of behavior that always exist potentially and, when actualized, appear in the form of special images. Since the typical characteristics due to belonging to the human race, the presence of racial and national characteristics, family characteristics and trends of the time are combined in the human soul with unique personal characteristics, its natural functioning can only be the result of the mutual influence of these two parts of the unconscious (individual and collective) and their relations. with the realm of consciousness.

Jung proposed the famous theory of personality types, pointed out the differences between the behavior of extroverts and introverts in accordance with the attitude of each of them to the world around them.

Jung's interests extended to areas very far from psychology - medieval alchemy, yoga and gnosticism, as well as parapsychology. Phenomena that are not amenable to scientific explanation, such as telepathy or clairvoyance, he called "synchronistic" and defined as some "significant" coincidence of events of the inner world (premonitions, visions) and real external events in the present, immediate past or future, when the causal there is no connection between them.

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