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Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who founded analytical psychology. He disagreed with Freud’s focus on repressed memories and believed in the creative potential of the unconscious. He also developed the concept of the collective unconscious and believed in the existence of archetypes. Jung believed that all men have an unconscious feminine side and vice versa, and he saw the shadow as a part of the unconscious that was the exact opposite of a person’s normal personality. His theories are now considered more philosophical in nature but have had a great influence on psychology.
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher born in 1875. He started out as a medical student towards the turn of the century, later turning to psychiatry. Jung had a brief friendship with Sigmund Freud; however, as their theories diverged, the friendship ended. He died in 1961.
Considered the founder of analytical psychology, Carl Jung used elements of human identity and society – dreams, art, religion and mythology – to interpret human nature. Many of his psychological theories of him contain references to religion and myth, and he is often at the center of any study of mythology.
Like Freud, Jung had a theory of the unconscious mind – a large portion of the mind that was virtually undetectable by the conscious mind. However, he disagreed with Freud’s focus on repressed memories in the unconscious. Freud believed that the unconscious was a detrimental thing to mental well-being, generating hysteria and other psychological conditions. Jung, on the other hand, saw the unconscious as creative potential.
The Swiss psychiatrist also took the notion of the unconscious and carried it forward, developing the notion of the collective unconscious. He believed that there is a collection of ideas that are a part of the mind shared by all of humanity. His justification for this theory was based on the vast similarities between different religions: flood myths, female figures such as the virgin and the crone, and other distinct similarities. He called these features of mythology “archetypes,” attesting that they were repeated in one form or another in all the world’s religions because they were fundamentally pre-programmed into the collective unconscious, a part of the mind that every human being shared without exceptions.
Carl Jung expanded Freud’s ideas into other areas as well. While Freud had a rather rigid view of gender identity and how it developed, Jung believed that all men have an unconscious feminine side to their minds, and vice versa. He called the female component in the male mind anima and the male part of the female mind animus. In this way, he was one of the first theorists of the time to touch upon the concepts of androgyny.
The last major concept in Jung’s theories is that of the shadow. He saw the shadow not as a negative influence on a person, but as a part of the unconscious that was the exact opposite of a person’s normal personality. The best analogy would be the startling incident of a usually kind and mild-mannered individual yelling at someone or becoming violent.
Unfortunately, Jung’s theories are not often studied in psychology, as they are now considered to be more philosophical in nature, thanks to his extensive analysis of mythology. Regardless, the man and his theories have had a great influence on psychology.
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