Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology. He was one of the first and most widely read writers of the twentieth century on the psychology of the human mind. His influence has proved as enduring and diverse as that of Sigmund Freud, with whom he worked for a time, although their approaches to psychotherapy are radically different. Jung regarded the unconscious as crucial to our psychological development, and he spent a significant portion of his life researching this aspect of life, as revealed in symbolic form through dreams and other spiritual experiences. He regarded his theories as applicable both to those with mental disorders and to those who are simply interested in promoting their own psychological development. 

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Jung studied medicine at the University of Basel from 1894 to 1900. Towards the end of his studies, his reading of Krafft-Ebing persuaded him to specialize in psychiatric medicine:l "He later worked in the Burgholzi, a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. In 1903, Jung married Emma Rauschenbach and together they had five children. They were close collaborators until Emma's death in 1955.

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As a boy, Jung had remarkably striking dreams and powerful fantasies that had developed with unusual intensity. After his break with Freud, he deliberately allowed this aspect of himself to arise again, and gave the irrational side of his nature free expression. At the same time, he studied it scientifically by keeping detailed notes of his unusual experiences. He later developed the theory that these experiences came from an area of the mind that he called the collective unconscious, which he held was shared by everyone. In the following years, Jung experienced considerable isolation in his professional life, which intensified through World War I and his alienation from the psychoanalytic community. His Seven Sermons to the Dead (1917) reprinted in his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Jung & Jaffe, 1962) can also be read as expression of the psychological explorations of his inner world.

 

.Jung was working as a doctor under the psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in the Burghölzli when he became familiar with Freud's idea of the unconscious through Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). The Burghölzli was a renowned psychiatric clinic near Zurich and Jung was an aspiring young doctor there on the rise. Jung's research at the Burghölzli established him as a psychiatrist of international repute. His findings corroborated many of Freud's ideas and for a time period (between 1907 and 1912) he and Freud worked closely together.

 

 Freud at one time had seemed to hope that Jung would carry "Freudianism" into the future there was a parting of the ways. When Jung spoke to Freud of precognition and parapsychology, his response was an emphatic "Sheer nonsense!" In 1912, Jung's book Psychology of the Unconscious overtly set out the difference in his approach to that of Freud.

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After his break with Freud, Jung and his followers began the school of analytical psychology. a distinctive approach to the study of the human psyche. Through his early years working in a Swiss hospital with psychotic patients and collaborating with Sigmund Freud and the burgeoning psychoanalytic community, he gained a close look at the mysterious depths of the human unconscious. Fascinated by what he saw (and spurred on with even more passion by the experiences and questions of his personal life) he devoted his life to the exploration of the unconscious. 

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It is beyond the powers of the individual, more particularly of physicians, to master the manifold domains of the mental sciences which should throw some light on the comparative anatomy of the mind... We need not only the work of medical psychologists, but that also of philologists, historians, folklore students, ethnologists, philosophers, theologians, pedagogues and biologists.

 

The overarching goal of Jung's life work was the reconciliation of the life of the individual with the world of the supra-personal archetypes. He came to see the individual's encounter with the unconscious as central to this process. The human experiences the unconscious through symbols encountered in all aspects of life: in dreams, art, religion, and the symbolic dramas we enact in our relationships and life pursuits. Essential to the encounter with the unconscious, and the reconciliation of the individual's consciousness with this broader world, is learning this symbolic language. Only through attention and openness to this world (which is quite foreign to the modern Western mind) is the individual able to harmonize his life with these suprapersonal archetypal forces.

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Analytical psychology primarily explores how the collective unconscious, the part of consciousness that is cross-cultural and common to all human beings, influences personality. It is utilized not only for those with a mental disorder, but also for those who desire to promote their own psychological development and well-being. Jung's approach to psychology emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of anthropology, astrology, alchemy, dreams, art, mythology, religion, and philosophy.

 

Jung was a strong believer in the importance of integration of opposites (e.g. masculine and feminine, thinking and feeling, science and spirituality). Though not the first to analyze dreams, his contributions to dream analysis were influential and extensive. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician for most of his life, many of his studies extend into other realms of the humanities: from comparative religion and philosophy, to criticism of art and literature. While these Jungian ideas are seldom mentioned in college psychology courses, they are often explored in humanities courses.

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