Jung, Carl Gustav

Jung, Carl Gustav (1875–1961), Swiss psychiatrist. He collaborated with Freud 1907–13, but then parted with him to found his own school of ‘Analytical Psychology’. Jung introduced into psychology the terms ‘complex’, ‘collective unconscious’, ‘extrovert’—‘introvert’, ‘archetype’, and ‘individuation’. His notion of the mind as a self-regulating system is in line with modern ideas on cybernetics. In emphasizing the importance of man's search for meaning in life, he anticipated existentialism. The central theme of his work is the idea that mental illness is characterized by disunity of the personality, while mental health is manifested by unity, towards which the personality is striving.

Jung's influence has been felt in many fields outside psychiatry. J. B. Priestley made use of his ideas in Literature and Western Man; the title of Maud Bodkin's Archetypal Patterns in Poetry (1934) is directly derived from Jung. Alex Aronson's Psyche and Symbol in Shakespeare (1972) is an interpretation of Shakespearian drama in terms of Jungian psychology, and Jung himself wrote an essay on Joyce's Ulysses.