Jung

Carl G. Jung was not only a pupil of Freud’s, but Jung became one of Freud’s most searching critics. At first glance, Frank McLynn’s biography of Jung ¹ looked like the best one to date. Jung, who was born in Switzerland in 1875 and died there in 1961, has to be considered one of the central figures in twentieth century psychology. After he and Freud had their famous falling-out before the First World War, Jung went on to publish about as many volumes as Freud, and eventually founded his own school. I approached reading this book with anticipation, since so much of the Jung literature has been written for those already initiated into his work. McLynn is a biographer with several titles to his credit, but his book does not succed in making Jung’s life more understandable. Within a couple of hundred pages, I was keenly disappointed with McLynn’s efforts.