Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychologist and the founder of analytical psychology, which is sometimes referred to as “Jungian psychology.” His father was a pastor in the Swiss Reformed Church, and he had a strong impact on Jung’s interest in learning and spiritual pursuits. However, Jung was critical of his father’s faith and bitterness. His relationship with his mother was complicated, and he later saw his mother’s many absences and mental illness as the root of his mistrust in women. Jung wanted to be a pastor like his father or study archaeology, but he eventually decided to study medicine at the University of Basel in 1895. In his autobiography, Jung explains that the symbols he encountered in his dreams led him toward science and medicine.

Jung’s religious upbringing had a lifelong impact on his psychological theories. The foundation for his theories on archetypes and symbolism in dream interpretation emerged while he worked at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital in Zürich. During this time, Jung completed his dissertation titled On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena. The overseeing psychiatrist at the hospital encouraged Jung to read Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. Freud’s work resonated with Jung, but he noticed that his colleagues were less receptive to Freud’s theories. Jung wanted to emphasize treatment and recovery, while the senior doctors focused on diagnosis.

Jung quickly built a reputation in the psychological community. He was appointed senior doctor at the hospital and developed a friendship with Freud. Jung began his own private practice in 1909 while he began to shape new ideas about the mind and the nature of consciousness. Jung connected with philosopher William James, author of The Varieties of Religious Experience, through a shared interest in spiritualism. Jung’s friendships with both Freud and James later dissolved because of diverging theories.

When Jung published The Psychology of the Unconscious in 1912, Freud was dismissive of Jung’s approach. The younger psychoanalyst refers to this moment in Memories, Dreams, Reflections and describes it as a pivotal time in his life and work. Freud wanted Jung to act as his protégé, carrying forward the structure of his work, but Jung had diverging opinions about the meaning of dreams and iconography.

Jung, experiencing psychological distress from his split with Freud and confronting the realities of World War I after being drafted as an army doctor, withdrew from society and professional commitments. He used this time to explore his unconscious. While isolated, Jung wrote an extensive personal log of his visions and symbolic experiences, including hand-drawn illustrations, while confronting his own unconscious. This seven-volume manuscript was published in its entirety in 2020 with the title Black Books.

Many of the ideas that Jung developed during this time play a role in the themes of Memories, Dreams, Reflections. While in isolation and examining his own psyche through a process he called “active imagination,” Jung developed an understanding of the collective unconscious and its connection to universal archetypes. His process led him to view individuation as the primary occupation of humanity, and the memoir genre provides an ideal form for exploring Individuation as a Process of Personal Evolution.

Jung saw this first period of isolation as a type of rebirth, allowing him to diverge from his contemporaries and develop his own voice as a psychologist and philosopher. He returned to his retreat at Bollingen by Lake Zurich multiple times throughout his life to pursue individuation through isolated memory work. Jung was a prolific author. Many books, such as Man and His Symbols, were published after his death, while others remained unpublished.

Jung received numerous awards throughout his life, as well as honorary doctorates from nine universities, including Harvard University and the University of Oxford. Jung was the president of the Society of Analytical Psychology, an honorary member of the Royal Society of Medicine, and titular professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.