Marie-Louise von Franz - C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time

For permission to quote from the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Jung's Letters, edited by Gerhard Adler in collaboration with Aniela Jaff, and Mircea Eliade's Shamanism, acknowledgment is made to Princeton University Press, publishers of these works in Bollingen Series in the United States, and to Routledge & Kegan Paul, publishers in the United Kingdom. For permission to quote from Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaff, acknowledgment is made to Pantheon Books, Inc., a division of Random House, New York, and Collins and Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. (As these editions have different pagination, both are cited. See Introduction, n. 4.)

1875

July 26: Carl Gustav Jung born in Kesswil (Canton Thurgau), Switzerland, to Pastor Johann Paul Achilles Jung (1842-1896) and Emilie, ne Preiswerk (1848-1923).

1876

Six months after his birth, the family moves to Laufen, near the Falls of the Rhine.

1879

Family moves to Klein-Hningen, near Basel.

1884

Birth of sister, Gertrud (d. 1935). Jung enters the Gymnasium at Basel.

1895-1900

Studies natural science, then medicine, in the University of Basel.

1898

Begins preliminary studies for his dissertation.

1900

Completes state examinations in medicine. December 10: Assumes position as assistant to Eugen Bleuler at Burghlzli Mental Hospital (Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Zurich).

1903

Married to Emma Rauschenbach (1882-1955), daughter of a Schaffhausen industrialist. There were five children: Agathe (Niehus), Gret (Baumann), Franz, Marianne (Niehus), and Helene (Hoerni).

1905

Qualifies as lecturer in psychiatry on the medical faculty of the University of Zurich; becomes senior staff physician at the Burghlzli; continues as lecturer until 1913.

Defends Sigmund Freud at a congress in Baden-Baden, without having yet met him personally.

1907

March: First meeting with Freud, in Vienna.

1909

Invitation from Clark University, Worcester, Mass., to lecture on his word-association studies; travels with Freud, who lectures there on his work.

1910

Establishment of the International Psychoanalytic Association; Jung is first president, 1910-1914.

1911-1914

Gradual break with Freud.

1914

Journey to Italy (Ravenna).

1914

July: Lecture before the British Medical Association in Aberdeen, Scotland.

1914-1918

Confrontation with his own unconscious and with his "myth."

1916

Lecture on "The Structure of the Unconscious." Founding of the Psychology Club in Zurich.

1918-1919

Stationed, with the rank of Captain, as Commandant de la Rgion des Interns de Guerre, at Chteau d'Oex (Canton Vaud). Mandala studies.

1918-1926

Study of Gnosticism.

1920

Journey to Algeria and Tunisia.

1923

Begins building his "Tower" in Bollingen (Canton St. Gallen).

1924-1925

Visit to the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and Arizona.

1925-1926

Expedition to Kenya, British East Africa, especially to the Elgonyi on Mt. Elgon.

1932

Awarded Literature Prize of the City of Zurich.

1933

Became president of the International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy and editor of the Zentralblatt fr Psychotherapie und ihre Grenzgebiete; served until 1939.

1933

Lecturer at the Federal Institute of Technology (E.T.H.), in Zurich.

1933-1951

Participant in and lecturer at the Eranos Conferences in Ascona.

1934

Begins systematic research into alchemy.

1935

Honorary Professor, Federal Institute of Technology (E.T.H.), until his resignation in 1941.

1938

Journey to India, at the invitation of the British Government, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Indian Science Congress; honorary doctorates from the Universities of Calcutta, Benares, and Allahabad. (Jung also received honorary doctorates from Clark University, Worcester, Mass., Fordham University, New York, Harvard University, Oxford University, the University of Geneva, and the Federal Institute of Technology, in Zurich. He was also an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London.)

1944

Professor of Medical Psychology, University of Basel. Resigns the same year because of illness.

1945

Chairman of the newly founded Schweizerischen Gesellschaft fr praktische Psychologie.

1948

Founding of the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich.

1955

November 27: Death of Emma Jung.

1960

Awarded Honorary Freedom of the City of Ksnacht.

1961

June 6: Carl Gustav Jung dies in his home at Ksnacht. June 9: Funeral service and burial at Ksnacht.

To write about C. G. Jung's effect both in and on the culture of our day and to do justice to the subject is an uncommonly difficult assignment. As a rule, outstanding individuals are influential chiefly or exclusively in their own professional fields. In Jung's case, however, his original, creative discoveries and ideas had to do with the whole human being and have therefore awakened echoes in the most varied areas outside that of psychology: his concept of synchronicity, for example, in atomic physics and Sinology; his psychological interpretation of religious phenomena, in theology; his fundamental view of man, in anthropology and ethnology; his contributions to the study of occult phenomena, in parapsychology, to mention only a few instances. Because Jung's work encompasses so many varied fields of interest, his influence on our cultural life has made itself felt only gradually and, in my opinion, is still only in its beginnings. Today, interest in Jung is growing year by year, especially among the younger generation. Accordingly, the growth of his influence is still in its early stages; thirty years from now we will, in all probability, be able to discuss his work in very different terms than we do today. In other words, Jung was so far ahead of his time that people are only gradually beginning to catch up with his discoveries. There is also the fact that his perceptions and insights are never superficial, but are so astonishingly original that many people must overcome a certain fear of innovation before they are able to approach them with an open mind. Furthermore, his published works include an enormous amount of detailed material from many fields, and the reader must work through this wealth of information in order to be able to follow him. Jung once remarked that ''anything that is good is expensive. It takes time, it requires your patience and no end of it.''

Since this was the spirit in which he worked, it is not surprising that Jung's influence is slow in making itself felt. The reader must give close attention to his patient reflections, involving the painstaking elucidation of much factual material, in order to understand what Jung is aiming at.

In addition to the above considerations there is a further characteristic which distinguishes both Jung's personality and his work quite fundamentally from all other cultural achievements up to the present time. This lies in the fact that the unconscious was intensely constellated in him and so also constellates itself in his readers, for Jung was the first to discover the spontaneous creativity of the unconscious psyche and to follow it consciously.