Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a son of a minister in Switzerland. Hewas born on July 26, in the small village of Kesswil on Lake Constance. Hewas named after his grandfather, a professor of medicine at the Universityof Basel. He was the oldest child and only surviving son of a Swiss Reformpastor. Two brothers died in infancy before Jung was born. Jung's motherwas a neurotic and often fought with his father. Father was usually lonelyand very irritable. When the child could not take his mother's depressionsand his parents' fights, he sought refuge in the attic, where he playedwith a wooden mannikin. Carl was exposed to death early in life, since hisfather was a minister and attended many funerals, taking his son with him.Also, Jung saw many fishermen get killed in the waterfalls and also manypigs get slaughtered. When he was eleven, he went to a school in Basel, metmany rich people and realized that he was poor, compared to them. He likedto read very much outside of class and detested math and physical educationclasses. Actually, gym class used to give him fainting spells (neurosis)and his father worried that Jung wouldn't make a good living because of hisspells. After Carl found out about his father's concern, the faintssuddenly stopped, and Carl became much more studious. He had to decide his profession. His choices included archeology,history, medicine, and philosophy. He decided to go into medicine, partlybecause of his grandfather. Carl went to the University of Basel and hadto decide then what field of medicine he was going to go into. Afterreading a book on psychiatry, he decided that this was the field for him,although psychiatry was not a respectable field at the time. Jung becamean assistant at the Burgholzli Mental hospital in Zurich, a famous medicalhospital. He studied under Eugen Bleuler, who was a famous psychiatristwho defined schizophrenia. Jung was also influenced by Freud with whom helater became good friends. Freu...
