Carl Jung

Carl Jung


Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a son of a minister in Switzerland. He
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. Two brothers died in infancy before Jung was born. Jung's mother
was a neurotic and often fought with his father. Father was usually lonely
and very irritable. When the child could not take his mother's depressions
and his parents' fights, he sought refuge in the attic, where he played
with a wooden mannikin. Carl was exposed to death early in life, since his
father was a minister and attended many funerals, taking his son with him.
Also, Jung saw many fishermen get killed in the waterfalls and also many
pigs get slaughtered. When he was eleven, he went to a school in Basel, met
many rich people and realized that he was poor, compared to them. He liked
to read very much outside of class and detested math and physical education
classes. Actually, gym class used to give him fainting spells (neurosis)
and his father worried that Jung wouldn't make a good living because of his
spells. After Carl found out about his father's concern, the faints
suddenly stopped, and Carl became much more studious.

He had to decide his profession. His choices included archeology,
history, medicine, and philosophy. He decided to go into medicine, partly
because of his grandfather. Carl went to the University of Basel and had
to decide then what field of medicine he was going to go into. After
reading a book on psychiatry, he decided that this was the field for him,
although psychiatry was not a respectable field at the time. Jung became
an assistant at the Burgholzli Mental hospital in Zurich, a famous medical
hospital. He studied under Eugen Bleuler, who was a famous psychiatrist
who defined schizophrenia. Jung was also influenced by Freud with whom he
later became good... [continues]

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