Carl Gustav Jung

Carl Gustav Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was born on July 26, in the small village of Kesswil on Lake Constance. He was named after his grandfather, a professor of medicine at the University of Basel. He was the oldest child and only surviving son of a Swiss Reform pastor. Carl attended the University of Basel and decided to go into the field of psychiatry after reading a book that caught his interest.

Jung became an assistant at the Burgholzli Mental hospital, a famous medical hospital in Zurich. He studied under, and was influenced by Eugen Bleuler, a famous psychiatrist who defined schizophrenia. Jung was also influenced by Freud, with whom he later became good friends. Their relationship ended when Jung wrote a book called "Symbols of Transformation." Jung disagreed with Freud's fundamental idea that a symbol is a disguised representation of a repressed wish (Heaney, 1994). After splitting up with Freud, Jung had a 2 year period of non-productivity, but then he came out with his "Psychological Types," a famous work. He went on several trips to learn about primitive societies and archetypes. His explorations included trips to Africa, New Mexico to study Pueblo Indians, and to India and Ceylon to study eastern philosophy. He studied religious and occult beliefs like I Ching, a Chinese method of fortune telling. Alchemy became one of his interests during his journeys. His book, "Psychology and Alchemy," published in 1944, is among his most important writings. In this study, he told about the human mind. One of his methods was word association. This is when a person is given a series of words and asked to respond to them. Abnormal response or hesitation can mean that the person has a complex about that word. His basic belief was in complex or analytical psychology. The goal is psychosynthesis, or the unification and differentiation of the psyche (mind). He believed that the mind started out as a whole and should stay that way. That answered structural, dynamic, developmental questions. Jung is best known for his theory of "The three levels of the mind" (Aurelio, 1995).

Discussion

The three levels of the mind theory includes the ego (conscious), personal unconscious, and collective unconscious. The conscious level serves four functions. It is the part of the personality that carries out normal daily activities: thinking, feeling, sensing, an...

... middle of paper ...

...a shattering of a personality (Heaney, 1994).

I decided to do my research on Carl Jung because he is not discussed much in the textbook. I find his theory of conscious and unconscious very interesting. I believe the thoughts of persona and ego without a doubt. When one's ego is shot down, a person can tend to develop a complex about it. I also agree that people tend to have a different persona based on where they are at and how they are expected to act around certain people.

Works Cited:

Aurelio, Jeanne M. (1995). Using Jungian archetypes to explore deeper levels of organizational culture. Journal of Management Inquiry, 4, 347-369.

Heaney, Liam F. (1994). Freud, Jung and Joyce: Conscious connections. Contemporary Review, 265, 28-32.

Jurkevich, Gayana. (1991). Unamuno's intrahistoria and Jung's collective unconscious: parallels, convergences, and common. Comparative Literature, 43, 43-60.

Kremer, Jurgen W. (1999). Facing the collective shadow. Revision, 22, 2-5.

Mannis, Robert F. (1997). Jung and his shadow. Utne Reader, 84, 91-94.

Neher, Andrew. (1996). Jung's theory of archetypes: a critiques. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 36, 61-92.