Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology.

Jung’s work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature,  philosophy,  psychology, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli  psychiatric hospital, in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. Jung established himself as an influential mind, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, conducting a lengthy correspondence, paramount to their joint vision of human psychology. Jung is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists in history.

Jung’s thought was formed by early family influences, which on the maternal side were a blend of interest in the occult and in reformed academic theology. On his father’s side were two important figures, his grandfather, the physician and academic scientist Karl Gustav Jung, and Lotte Kestner, the niece of German polymath Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s “Lottchen”. Though he was a practicing clinician and writer and as such founded analytical psychology, much of his work was spent exploring other areas such as quantum physics, vitalism, Eastern and Western philosophy  including  epistemology, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung’s interest in philosophy and spiritual subjects led many to view him as a mystic, although his preference was to be seen as a man of science; Jung was, unlike Freud, deeply knowledgeable of philosophical concepts and aimed to link the branch of epistemology to the more modern theories of psychology.