Jung: A Biography

One of the most influential thinkers of our time, Carl Gustav Jung has profoundly touched virtually all aspects of our modern culture, including medicine, religion, philosophy, literature, art, and, of course, the ever-evolving field of psychoanalysis. Born in Switzerland in 1875, this son of a poor country parson and his troubled wife would by the end of his life become an iconic figure, his vast body of writings and teachings known the world over. Through his pioneering theories of personality and the unconscious, Jung is responsible for many terms we now consider common: the archetype and the collective unconscious, introvert and extravert, anima and animus, synchronicity and individuation, and even New Age spirituality. Despite Jung's renown, however, the details of his life have been steeped in secrecy and controversy. Now, National Book Award-winning biographer Deirdre Bair draws on new research into untapped sources to reveal the father of analytical psychology as we have never seen him before.

Jung was Sigmund Freud's "crown prince," handpicked by the elder father of psychoanalysis to become the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1910. However, in 1914 Jung abandoned Freud's theory to found his own system of analytical psychology. As Freud's influence has waned over the years, Jung's ideas — about dream interpretation, about the integration of the psyche as the goal of personal development, about the common roots of all human mythologies — have achieved an overwhelming ascendancy. Yet Jung has also been the subject of much dispute and conjecture. Did the respected scientist fake the data that led to his seminal theory of the collective unconscious? Was he an anti-Semite, a Nazi sympathizer and collaborator? Was he a misogynist who conducted polygamous relationships throughout his life? Did Jung really author his well-known autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, or was it vetted and rewritten after his death?

Drawing on unprecedented access to private archives, restricted interviews, analytic diaries, and early drafts of Jung's own writings, Bair addresses these accusations and separates fact from myth and misconception, revealing surprising discoveries about Jung's personal and professional life. We learn the truth about Jung's role as "Agent 488," working for the U.S. government during World War II; about his relationships with the women in his life; and about the actual content of the papers that purportedly proved his scientific malfeasance. No apologist for her subject, Bair paints an engrossing, objective, and very human portrait of the controversial genius. The result is a groundbreaking, authoritative, and thoroughly readable work that promises to be the source for future discussion and debate about Jung and about his lasting impact on how we think about ourselves and our world.

"[A] biography that maintains the excellence [Bair] has achieved in previous works on Beckett, Nin, and de Beauvoir....A capacious portrait of an enigmatic pioneer." Bryce Christensen, Booklist (Starred Review)

"A fastidious, full-scale biography....[R]iveting, inspiring, and unforgettable. Apart from assuming a too-sophisticated knowledge of psychoanalysis by readers, this triumph of scholarship is also highly accessible." Kirkus Reviews

"Lucid and persuasive, [Bair] strikes a balance between damage control and deification....Bair's Jung is no saint, but he is less unpleasant and exploitative here than as portrayed in Frank McLynn's 1997 biography." Publishers Weekly

"Bair's stated goal is to rise above the fray and answer the questions most often posed about Jung....She largely succeeds. Painstakingly fair, she digs up and scrutinizes sources with an admirable, if sometimes exhausting, thoroughness." Robert S. Boynton, The New York Times Book Review

"[L]argely balanced and thorough, though Bair's perhaps excessive focus on the minutiae of Jung's life keeps her from illuminating [his] ideas and...analytic legacy..." The New Yorker

"[A] well-crafted narrative [that] integrates life and work, though the latter predominates....This massive and masterful treatment of Jung balances other, more contentious writing about him and will long be the definitive biography." Library Journal

This authoritative biography reveals the untold truth about Jung's secret work for the Allies during World War II, his controversial affair with one of his patients, and the contents of his private papers, as well as never before published photos.

Deirdre Bair has written about some of the most influential figures in 20th century culture — Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Anais Nin. Now she turns her expert eye to the one person whose teachings and writings are the most influential of all: psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. The founder of analytical psychology, Jung became the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1910. Jung had a professional relationship with Sigmund Freud until he broke with the elder father of psychoanalysis over his emphasis on infantile sexuality and the Oedipus complex. As Freud's influence has waned over the years, Jung's ideas — the collective unconscious, the archetypal myths underpinning all societies, synchronicity, "new age" spirituality, and much more — have achieved an overwhelming ascendancy. Bair addresses the myths about Jung — accusations that he was an anti-Semite and a misogynist, and that he falsified data — with evidence from his own writings and from those of his colleagues and former patients. The result is a groundbreaking and accessible work that promises to be the definitive life of Carl Jung.

Deirdre Bair has been a literary journalist and university professor of comparative literature and culture. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and the C. G. Jung Foundation of New York. She lives in Connecticut.

Author's Note ix
Introduction: Faint Clews and Indirections 3
1 How the Jungs Became Swiss 7
2 "Pastor's Carl" 19
3 Unconventional Possibilities 39
4 Unadmitted Doubt, Unadmitted Worry 55
5 "Timidly Proper with Women" 70
6 "Something Unconsciously Fateful ... Was Bound to Happen" 84
7 "Who Is the Boss in This Hospital?" 96
8 Divorce/Force, Choice/Pain 108
9 Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit 124
10 "... Like My Twin Brother" 135
11 Poetry 145
12 America 160
13 The Solar Phallus Man 171
14 "The Family Philosopher" 191
15 "Unsuited to the Position" 201
16 The Kreuzlingen Gesture 217
17 "My Self/Myself" 241
18 "Psychologically Minded" Persons 255
19 "The Work of a Snob and a Mystic" 274
20 A Prelude and Starting Points 290
21 The Second Half of Life 298
22 Bollingen 316
23 "This Analytical Powder Magazine" 330
24 The Bugishu Psychological Expedition 341
25 "Professor" Jung 358
26 Unconventional Analytic Hours 376
27 "Dangerously Famous" 401
28 A "Pretty Grueling Time" 411
29 Falling Afoul of History 431
30 Rooted in Our Soil 464
31 Agent 488 481
32 The Visions of 1944 496
33 "Carl Jung, re: Subversive Activities" 503
34 The Jungian University 524
35 "Why Men Had to Quarrel and Leave" 535
36 "The Memory of a Vanishing World" 557
37 Gathering Jung for the Future 575
38 "I Am as I Am, an Ungrateful Autobiographer!" 585
39 "The Icy Stillness of Death" 618
Epilogue: The "So-called Autobiography" 626
Appendix The Honegger Papers 641
Notes 649
Acknowledgments 853
Index 857