Carl Jung Biography- Chapter 3

Born: July 26, 1875 , Switzerland 

Died: June 26, 1961 
Küsnacht, Switzerland 
Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist

The Swiss psychologist and Psychiatrist Carl Jung was one of the major forces responsible for bringing psychological (having to do with the mind and its processes) thought and its theories into the twentieth century.

Carl Gustav Jung was born on July 26, 1875, in Kesswil, Switzerland, the son of a Protestant minister. At the age of four, the family moved to Basel. When he was six years old, Carl went to the village school in Klein-Huningen. His father also started teaching him Latin at this time. During his childhood, Jung preferred to be left alone to play by himself. He was happiest when he was in isolation with his thoughts.

As Jung grew older, his keen interest in a large variety of sciences, and the history of religion made the choice of a career quite difficult. However, he finally decided on medicine, which he studied at the University of Basel (1895–1900). He received his medical degree from the University of Zurich in 1902. Later he studied psychology (the scientific study of the mind and its processes) in Paris, France.

In 1903 Jung married Emma Rauschenbach. She was his loyal companion and scientific coworker until her death in 1955. The couple had five children, and lived in Küsnacht on the Lake of Zurich.

Of prime importance to Jung was the detailing of the stages of inner development and of the growth of the personality, which he termed the "process of individuation." He described a strong impulse from the unconscious to guide the individual toward its most complete uniqueness. This achievement is a lifelong task of trial and error and identifying and uniting contents of the unconscious. It consists in an ever-increasing self-knowledge and in "becoming what you are."

Jung lived for his explorations, his writings, and his psychological practice, which he had to give up in 1944 due to a severe heart attack. His career included the professorship of medical psychology at the University of Basel and the titular (title without the actual position) professorship of philosophy from 1933 until 1942 on the faculty of philosophical and political sciences of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In 1948 he founded the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Honorary doctorates were given to him by many important universities all over the world. Carl Gustav Jung died in Küsnacht on June 6, 1961.