Brenden and Gavin

Freud and Jung

Sigmund Freud is best known for his work on psychoanalysis which can be defined in three interdependent achievements, having a method, a theory of neuroses, and a theory of the normal mind. Although Freud's ideas were criticized for not having hypotheses that could be tested and the creation of to many concepts that overlap each other, he still had an enormous influence on many psychologists and fields in psychology. Clinical psychology was greatly influence by Freud because of his ideas of unconscious processes, early experience in shaping behaviors, defense mechanisms, and on sexual behavior. One of the psychologists that Freud has a major impact on was Carl Jung. Carl Jung was Freud's heir apparent and Freud saw him as "the son he never had". Jung created analytical psychology. He broke up the unconscious into two parts, the collective unconscious and the personal unconscious. Jung also derived the concepts of extraversion and introversion by theorizing that the libido could be directed outwards towards objects, or inwards toward the self. Jung's work did much influence in psychiatry and even spawned a personality test known as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

The Break

Jung was clearly a gifted and psychologist, garnering Freud’s praise as one of the most innovated and creative students he had ever worked with.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, given Jung’s unique contributions to psychology after the split) Jung was apparently a bit too creative for Freud.  After about seven years of studying under him, Jung’s theories began to take on their own personality.  Where Jung’s theories had previously served to add depth and variety to Freudian psychology, Jung began to express doubt and disagreement about some of the core tenets with some of his new theories. According to Jung’s viewpoint, Freud focused entirely too much on sexual urges as the basis of motivating forces. Additionally, Jung believe that Freud’s conception of the unconscious was myopic in its scope, while also being overly negative.  Jung believed that the unconscious could be a store for more than just repressed urges and dark desires, he thought it the seat of creativity, holding everything of which we are unaware –good and bad. Freud was not one to take criticism well, and this led to a rather malicious split between the two.  Jung stepped down from the Analytic Society, Freud losing the student who he thought to be his protégé, and the two ceased collaborative work.  Jung went on to pioneer Psychodynamic Theory which, while largely similar to Freudian Psychoanalytic theory, addresses the core differences that Jung saw in their beliefs. Freud continued on with psychoanalysis and experienced much success for quite a while, finally overtaken in popularity by the rise of Behaviorism.

Pictured Above: Freud's house in London where he spent his last year.

1909: Freud and Jung have an argument over dinner in which Freud accuses Jung of harboring deathwishes towards him. This marks the beginning decline of their relationship, which ends in the formation of Jung's Psychodynamic method as a separate school.

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Benjamin, L. T. (2014). A brief history of modern psychology (2^nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.