Carl Gustav Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is most famous as one of the first psychoanalysts to break with Freud's vision of human instincts as either sexual or self-preservative in nature and to develop a less mechanistic psychoanalytic theory of his own. In addition to reworking Freud's concept of the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious Jung developed the idea of a collective unconscious in which, he claimed, all human beings shared a link with their primeval past. Jung subsequently developed his own theory of personality in which the idea of the collective unconscious led him to the conclusion that regression, rather than being maladaptive, was a helpful psychological strategy. Jung's ideas were developed in the context of his broad interests in the literatures, religions and mythologies of the world. This produced an attempt to gain a universal perspective which would account for all aspects of the human psyche, from religious belief to the problems of pathology.

Jung was born in Kesswil, Switzerland, the son of a country pastor from a family of clergymen and physicians. He received an excellent education, beginning Latin at the age of six, but was a lonely and solitary boy who did not like school. He was sent to a boarding school at Basel but harassment by other students and Jung's dislike of competition made him extremely unhappy. At the time Jung developed the habit of using dreams and fantasies as a form of consolation that "in many ways replaced the companion

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sition to Freud's conception of causal links that stretch back to earliest childhood, Jung "was concerned to place man in a historical context which gave his life meaning and dignity" and implied a purposeful universe in which humanity occupied the most significant place (Cook 404). As he developed his general theory Jung built on the bases established by Freud, changing and adding when he saw fit. He followed Freud's lead, for example, in seeing the libido as the basic force behind all motivation and pleasure. But Jung did not see the libido as a primarily sexual force. Instead he conceived of it as a life-force which "encompassed religious awe and mystical life-affirming experiences as well as sexuality" (Hayes 234). He also accepted Freud's concept of the unconscious, preconscious and conscious levels of the mind. But he held that there was another level in the unconscious functioning of the mind, the collective unconscious "which expresses the essential shared experience of what it is to be a human being, irrespective of culture or location" (Segaller and Berger 4). In his later researches into the myths and arts of various societies Jung also noted the repeated appearance of various themes, narratives, symbols and pat

Category: Psychology - C