The Theory of Psychoanalysis — C. G. Jung
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Theory of Psychoanalysis Author : C. G. Jung Release date : August 11, 2021 [eBook #66041] Most recently updated: October 18, 2024 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66041 Credits : Turgut Dincer, David King, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) *** START OF 19 The Theory of Psychoanalysis BY DR. C. G. JUNG of Zurich NEW YORK THE JOURNAL OF NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1915 NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE MONOGRAPH SERIES Edited by Drs. SMITH ELY JELLIFFE and WM. A. WHITE Numbers Issued 1. Outlines of Psychiatry. (4th Edition.) $3.00. By Dr. William A. White. 2. Studies in Paranoia. By Drs. N. Gierlich and M. Friedman. 3. The Psychology of Dementia Praecox. (Out of Print). By Dr. C. G Jung. 4. Selected Papers on Hysteria and other Psychoneuroses (2d Edition.) $2.50. By Prof. Sigmund Freud. 5. The Wassermann Serum Diagnosis in Psychiatry. $2.00. By Dr. Felix Plaut. 6. Epidemic Poliomyelitis. New York, 1907. (Out of Print). 7. Three Contributions to Sexual Theory. $2.00. By Prof. Sigmund Freud. 8. Mental Mechanisms. $2.00. By Dr. Wm. A. White. 9. Studies in Psychiatry. $2.00. New York Psychiatrical Society. 10. Handbook of Mental Examination Methods. $2.00. By Shepherd Ivory Franz. 11. The Theory of Schizophrenic Negativism. $0.60. By Professor E. Bleuler. 12. Cerebellar Functions. $3.00. By Dr. André-Thomas. 13. History of Prison Psychoses. $1.25. By Drs. P. Nitsche and K. Wilmanns. 14. General Paresis. $3.00. By Prof. E. Kraepelin. 15. Dreams and Myths. $1.00. By Dr. Karl Abraham. 16. Poliomyelitis. $3.00. Dr. I. Wickmann. 17. Freud’s Theories of the Neuroses. $2.00. Dr. E. Hitschmann. 18. The Myth of the Birth of the Hero. $1.00. Dr. Otto Rank 19. The Theory of Psychoanalysis. $1.50. Dr. C. G. Jung. Copyright, 1915, by The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Company, New York Press of The New Era Printing Company Lancaster, Pa. The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Theory of Psychoanalysis, by Carl Gustav Jung CONTENTS Introduction 1 CHAPTER I Consideration of Early Hypotheses 4 CHAPTER II The Infantile Sexuality 17 CHAPTER III The Conception of Libido 27 CHAPTER IV The Etiological Significance of the Infantile Sexuality 45 CHAPTER V The Unconscious 55 CHAPTER VI The Dream 60 CHAPTER VII The Content of the Unconscious 67 CHAPTER VIII The Etiology of the Neuroses 72 CHAPTER IX The Therapeutical Principles of Psychoanalysis 96 CHAPTER X Some General Remarks on Psychoanalysis 111 Here is my attitude towards those principles which my honored teacher Sigmund Freud has evolved from the experience of many decades. Since I have long been closely connected with psychoanalysis, it will perhaps be asked with astonishment how it is that I am now for the first time defining my theoretical position. When, some ten years ago, it came home to me what a vast distance Freud had already travelled beyond the bounds of contemporary knowledge of psycho-pathological phenomena, especially the psychology of the complex mental processes, I no longer felt myself in a position to exercise any real criticism. I did not possess the sorry mandarin-courage of those people who—upon a basis of ignorance and incapacity—consider themselves justified in “critical” rejections. I thought one must first work modestly for years in such a field before one might dare to criticize. The evil results of premature and superficial criticism have certainly not been lacking. A preponderating number of critics have attacked with as much anger as ignorance. Psychoanalysis has flourished undisturbed and has not troubled itself one jot or tittle about the unscientific chatter that has buzzed around it. As everyone knows, this tree has waxed mightily, and not in one world only, but alike in Europe and in America. Official criticism participates in the pitiable fate of Proktophantasmist and his lamentation in the Walpurgis-night: “You still are here? Nay, ’tis a thing unheard! Vanish at once! We’ve said the enlightening word.” Such criticism has omitted to take to heart the truth that all that exists has sufficient right to its existence: no less is it with psychoanalysis. We will not fall into the error of our opponents, nor ignore their existence nor deny their right to exist. But then this enjoins upon ourselves the duty of applying a proper criticism, grounded upon a practical knowledge of the facts. To me it seems that psychoanalysis stands in need of this weighing-up from the inside. It has been wrongly assumed that my attitude denotes a “split” in the psychoanalytic movement. Such a schism can only exist where faith is concerned. But psychoanalysis deals with knowledge and its ever-changing formulations. I have taken William James’ pragmatic rule as a plumb-line: “You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience. It appears less a solution, then, than as a program for more work and more particularly as an indication of the ways in which existing realities may be changed. Theories thus become instruments, not answers to enigmas, in which we can rest. We don’t lie back upon them, we move forward, and, on occasion, make nature over again by their aid.” And so my criticism has not proceeded from academic arguments, but from experiences which have forced themselves on me during ten years earnest work in this sphere. I know that my experience in no wise approaches Freud’s quite extraordinary experience and insight, but none the less it seems to me that certain of my formulations do present the observed fac