ABSTRACT
Jung’s earliest discussions on the existence of God are distinctly Freudian. Freud, of course, was delighted. One of his letters to Jung (of 1 September 1911) concludes with an exultant ‘Bravo!’ on receiving further evidence that his young colleague had become ‘aware that the Oedipus complex is at the root of religious feeling.’1 And there was ample evidence for Freud’s satisfaction. Between 1909 and 1911 Jung wrote a series of five articles very much in the Freudian mode and in one of these-‘The Significance of the Father in the Destiny of the Individual’ (1909)—he not only endorses Freud’s claim that ‘all “divine” figures have their roots in the father-imago,’ but goes on to sketch a brief history of religion based on this premiss.
