Swiss psychiatrist and writer Carl Jung was BOTD in 1861. Born in Kewsswil to an impoverished bourgeois family, his mother spent much of his childhood in psychiatric care, leading to his lifelong distrust of women. After studying medicine at the Universities of Basel and Zürich, he worked at a psychiatric institute in Zurich, and started a long association with psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who groomed him as his successor. They fell out in 1912 over disagreements about Freud’s theory of the libido and Jung’s interest in the paranormal. Jung developed his own theories of analysis, creating the concepts of Individuation, the collective consciousness, psychological “complexes” and introvert/extrovert personality types. His views on sexuality were relatively enlightened for the times. Like Freud, he believed that homosexuality was the result of psychological immaturity, but should not be treated as a criminal offence. In later years he became professor of psychology at the Federal Polytechnical University in Zürich and professor of medical psychology at the University of Basel. He travelled extensively, including to the United States, where he promoted psychoanalysis as a therapeutic practice, and also popularised art and dance therapy to help treat trauma. He married Emma Rauschenbach in 1903, with whom he had five children. He is also thought to have had affairs with his patient Sabina Spielrein and his colleague Toni Wolff, suggesting that Freud may have been correct about the libido. He died in 1961 aged 85. He has been portrayed many times on stage and screen, most notably by Michael Fassbender in David Cronenberg‘s 2011 film A Dangerous Method, chronicling his sado-masochistic affair with Spielrein.
Carl Jung

