Jung, Carl Gustav

Jung, Carl Gustav (1875–1961). Psychiatrist and analytical psychologist, whose views have been thought by some to be more sympathetic to religion than those of Freud. After an exchange of letters, Jung first met Sigmund Freud in 1907; they collaborated closely until 1913. By 1912, however, Jung could no longer conceal his differences from Freud. After his break with Freud, Jung suffered a psychotic breakdown during which he believed that he confronted his own unconscious. The first fruit of this exploration was his formulation of a general theory of psychological types. Jung's typology has been the subject of debate and application, for example in the Myers Brigg's type indicator (MBTI) which has been widely used in church and other circles in order to enable a dispassionate awareness of one's preferences to be developed.

Jung felt humans to be naturally religious, the religious function being as powerful as the instinct for sex or aggression. He was not a supporter of established religions but he was interested in religious philosophies. Jung could be said to have spent his whole life trying to relate human nature and beings to God. Jung distinguished between God and God-image. From his view that a collective personality is carried in the racial or collective subconscious, he claimed to have located the source which gives rise, not only to artefacts, but to dreams, myths, and religions.

Jung was not so much concerned with the ontological truth of religious assertions as with the role of religious symbols in enabling a healthy life.