ABSTRACT
Since Descartes in the sixteenth century, French culture has valued rationality and has been skeptical towards the non-rational. As a consequence, Jung’s emphasis on the importance of the collective unconscious has not been easily accepted by the French. On the other hand, Jung was heavily influenced by French thought, mainly as a result of his contact with Theodore Flournoy in Geneva and the semester he spent in Paris with Pierre Janet in 1902. Janet was one of Jung’s main teachers and his influence is evident throughout Jung’s writings. It is also important to remember that even though Jung had already been offered a position in Munich, he chose instead to study in Paris. The French influence on Jung has been undervalued, and only recently the work of Sonu Shamdasani (1998c:115) and Eugene Taylor (1998:97) brought this connection to light.
