Aside from Sigmund Freud, no one had a bigger impact on modern psychology and psychiatry than did Carl Jung. He was born in Kesswill, Switzerland in 1875. He studied medicine at the School of Basil and he studied psychology in Paris. He became a physician in Zurich and a lecturer in psychiatry and he traveled around the world. In 1912 he founded his own school of psychology in Zurich. He than became a Professor of Psychology at the Federal Polytechnical University of Zurich.
Carl Jung is one of the most respected and recognized psychologists of all time. Many people know Jung as one of Sigmund Freud's followers and co-workers. Many other people know of Freud from his school called C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. Jung's emphasis in the field in psychology had to do with dreams. Jung developed many theories about dreams, a lot of them disagreeing with Freud. Jung was a great psychologist and psychiatrist that changed the ways of psychology today.
Freud and Jung were friends besides co-workers until they had a falling out. They met in 1907 and worked together until about 1912 when Jung decided to start his own school of psychology in Zurich. The friction between Jung and Freud goes much deeper than a simple argument. In some ways they were just to smart for each other. They would often disagree with each others theories, however this was not the true source of their problems.
When they worked together they took turns analyzing each other's dreams. Jung was getting suspicious about some of the things that Freud was telling him about his unconscious. Jung dug deeper and deeper only to find out that Freud was sleeping with Jung's wife. But while telling each other their dreams in their unconscious, Freud found out something about Jung also. Freud found out that Jung was sleeping with one of his younger female patients. Freud used this information against Jung, saying that if Jung told anyone about Freud and Jung's wife, that Freud would publicly disburse his secret also. After all this the two went their separate ways.
When it came to the study of dreams Freud and Jung had some different ideas. Freud had ideas saying that dreams were all about sex. No matter what the dream was, he could relate it to a sexual feeling or fantasy. Jung had other ideas, he thought that dreams were a tool to help us grow, not just to release extreme sexual desires. Jung felt that dreams were more than about sex, they were about life. Jung said that sexual drive doesn't even motivate us as much as the fear of death. Jung was an inspiration to all in the psychology field. His theories are instrumental in psychology and psychiatry fields today. He was a brilliant man not afraid to stand on his own for what he believed in.
Jung died at the age of 85 on June 6, 1961.
Written by: Andrew Barrows