Freud and Jung had a long relationship, but Jung rejected some of Freud’s theories and developed his own method of psychology. They disagreed on religion, the unconscious, and what drives humans. Jung believed in the collective unconscious and the need for individuation, while Freud believed in repressed sexuality. Jung’s therapy focused on helping patients understand the work of the unconscious, while Freud’s was more focused on stripping it of repressed feelings. Both contributed to the field of psychiatry, but later psychoanalytic schools have been more effective in treating mental illness.
Freud and Jung shared a relationship of many decades, as Jung, the younger partner, learned more about Freud’s theories of the unconscious. Perhaps fortunately for modern psychology, Jung later came to reject some of Freud’s theories and leaned towards his own method of psychology which he called analytic. Both men drew on the concept of the unconscious as a way to explain dreams, but Jung drew more on a multi-layered concept of the subconscious. The primary differences between Freud and Jung are interesting to observe.
A major schism separating the two psychiatrists concerns religion. Freud felt that religion was an escape and a fallacy, which should not be propagated. His relationship to religion resembles that of Karl Marx. Religion was the “opioid” of the masses. His faith was all in the mind’s ability to access one’s unconscious thoughts, thus curing any neurosis.
Jung conversely believed that religion was an important place of safety for the individual as he began the process of individuation, exploring and accepting all parts of the self. Religion was also a means of communication between all kinds of people, because although the religions differed, the archetypes and symbols remained the same.
Jung did not practice a traditional Christian religion, but rather leaned towards the exploration of the occult. In some of Freud’s letters he accuses Jung of anti-Semitism, based not so much on the acceptance of Judaism as a religion, but rather on discrimination against Jews in general. However, Jung’s respect for the religious aspects of Jewish life was greater than Freud’s.
Freud and Jung disagreed on what constituted the unconscious. Freud saw the unconscious as a collection of images, thoughts and experiences that the individual refused to process, which led to neuroses. Jung added to this definition by stating that each individual also possesses a collective unconscious, a group of shared images and archetypes common to all human beings. These often bubbled up to the surface of the personal unconscious. Dreams could be better interpreted by understanding the symbolic landmarks of universally shared symbols.
Freud believed that the main driving force behind the activities of both men and women was repressed or expressed sexuality. Unsatisfied sexuality led to pathological conditions. Jung believed that sex is just one of the many things that drive humans. More importantly, humans are driven by their need to achieve individuation, wholeness, or full self-knowledge. Many emotions drive humans to act in psychologically unhealthy ways, but all of these ways were a desire for a desire to feel complete.
The unconscious for Freud was the repository of all repressed sexual desires, resulting in pathological or mental illness. Only by uncovering the unconscious could a person discover how to live happily and recover from mental illness. Jung, by contrast, felt that the unconscious often tended towards wholeness by itself and that mental illness was not a pathology, but an unconscious regulation of emotions and stored experience which tended towards individuation.
The therapist’s goal, according to Jung, was to help the person recognize the work of the unconscious, and thus help the patient understand how best to strive for the individuation that would produce a “whole” person.
While Freud tends to a very masterful way of assaulting the unconscious to strip it of repressed feelings, Jung’s path is more in line with later humanist psychologists. He inspires the holistic Gestalt school and subsequent therapeutic schools.
The idea of an unconscious is generally accepted almost universally, but neither Freud nor Jung felt that, after an explanation, continued therapeutic work was necessary. Later psychoanalytic schools such as those that hypothesize behavioral changes have been shown to be more effective in treating mental illness. Once you understand the underlying feelings, the job is to help deny these feelings and replace them with more positive thoughts. This work is something both Freud and Jung ignored. Yet we are indebted to both theorists for their contributions to psychiatry. In fact, they are credited with initiating the field of psychiatry.
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