The controversy between Freud and Jung

If the figure of Sigmund Freud is important to understand the origin of psychoanalysis, the figure of Carl Gustav Jung is no less important. Swiss psychiatrist born in 1875, he was one of the most important psychoanalysts in the birth and constitution of the psychoanalytic orientation.

Thus, Jung became interested in Freud’s work. However, at a certain point his theoretical positions took different paths. In fact, Carl Jung was expelled from the International Psychoanalytic Society at that time.. Thus, the controversy between Freud and Jung is of great importance. Especially for psychoanalytic researchers and other intellectual historians.

The controversy between Freud and Jung is a specific event in the constellation of actions that have shaped the psychoanalysis we know today (1). Within this sky, they have special importance the rhetorical and legitimizing strategies carried out by Freud and the psychoanalytic movement with the aim of instituting, perpetuating and controlling psychoanalytic practice. Furthermore, in this, the segregation and expulsion of dissidents was a central issue.

How does the controversy between Freud and Jung begin?

The strongest hypothesis about Freud’s tolerance of Jung’s clear and early dissidences highlights the strategic role of the Swiss psychiatrist in the consolidation and dissemination of the incipient psychoanalytic movement (2).

Apparently, the strategic importance of Jung and the Swiss for the survival of psychoanalysis had already been declared by Freud years before (2). Thus, in May 1908, Sigmund Freud confessed to Karl Abraham that It was “only by the appearance of Jung on the scene that psychoanalysis escaped the danger of becoming a Jewish national issue.”

It is said that the most complex period of the private relationship between Freud and Jung was around 1912. Freud tried to refute Jung’s theories in some way, just as he did with Adler’s.. This was a clear beginning of the controversy between Freud and Jung. Not agreeing with his theories, Freud pointed out Jung’s contributions as unnecessary. There is a clear controversy between Freud and Jung that significantly affects psychoanalysis.

Freud’s reaction to Jung’s studies

In the first letter in which Jung systematically presents his views on the symbolic nature of the incest taboo, Freud responds that he considers innovation to be regressive and excessively Adlerian.. To this, Jung responds indignantly that he has sadly verified “what intense emotional motives contrary to my proposals arise in you” (McGuire & Sauerländer, 2012).

In this same response, dated June 8, 1912, Jung mentions his future lectures for America. When Freud responds, he points out to Jung that His interpretations regarding the works on the incest taboo and on libido are erroneous.

Given this, Jung responded on July 18 in a negative tone. He tells Freud that the success or failure regarding his negative judgment on innovation on the topic of libido and incest would be settled in the “success or failure of my own works” (2).

Freud interprets the latter as “a formal renunciation of our hitherto friendly relations. I am sorry, not so much for personal reasons, but for the future of the Verein (association) and the cause of psychoanalysis” (3).

Four years later, In 1916, Jung published his work consisting of studies on symbolism and libido. This work was not very well received by Freud and his colleagues, as expected.

Conferences in America

Another of the events that marked the differences between Jung and Freud were conferences in America. These occurred during September 1912. Jung gives a series of lectures at Fordham University that will be the subject of Freud’s objection.

However, Jung is quick to maintain that he hopes that Freud will progressively accept his innovations. Being that they represent intellectual efforts that require objective judgment.

Jung maintains that he does not identify Freud with a dogma. As he would have mentioned in his own conferences in 1912 in North America, the Swiss considered that his reformulations did not imply a division in the psychoanalytic movement, since “such seismic events can only exist in matters of faith. But psychoanalysis is dedicated to knowledge and its ever-changing formulations.” (4)

So, so much Freud and his psychoanalytic colleagues such as Ferenczi begin to speak somewhat negatively of Jung. They consider him an “incomprehensible mystic, an occultist and a theopsychologist.”

Faced with this and subsequent devaluations of Jung’s work, he states:

Freud’s political proposal to Jung

In formal terms, Freud offers Jung a position as a collaborator in the new magazine he intends to create.. On December 3, 1912, Jung responded to this offer: he told Freud about the fixation he had with respect to neurosis. Given this, Freud tells him to “take more zealous care of his own neurosis than that of his neighbor” (2)

Jung’s discontent with Freud’s attitude towards his innovations and those of other psychoanalysts is condensed in a phrase he addressed to him in a letter on December 18, 1912:

The end of the private relationship

The correspondence between the two professionals begins to diminish From this moment. The controversy between Freud and Jung thus becomes clearer. Thus, in 1913 the IV Congress of International Psychoanalysis took place in Munich, in which both psychiatrists agreed.

Psychoanalytic historiography, with Freud in its foundations, has generally supported the Jung’s inappropriate and erratic behavior at this congress (2). However, other sources describe the congress providing a different perspective.

Between October 1913 and April 1914, various psychoanalytic criticisms of Jung’s work came to light.. It is these criticisms and their violence that caused the resignation of the president of the IPA (International Psychoanalytic Association) until now, Carl Jung.

The relationships between Freud and Jung, as well as between them and the psychoanalytic movement, were problematic. The personal and professional relationship began as a formal relationship, evolving towards paternalistic tutelage by Freud. Towards the end Jung’s distancing is evident.

Freud’s disappointment with Jung was soon colored by intense emotions, which can be seen clearly in the correspondence they maintained, thus creating the controversy between Freud and Jung that we are talking about. However, it can be said that the relationship that these two psychiatrists maintained was a great contribution to history (4).

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