ABSTRACT
The situation becomes more understandable if Jung is seen not as essentially a Nazi or a fellow-traveller through motives of self-interest, but as a somewhat suggestible member of the German-speaking middle classes, having so much in common with the Nazis through their own tradition that they were, so to speak, betrayed from within. With this evidence for suggestibility in other directions we may wonder what the effect is likely to have been in the therapeutic situation. The ordinary person, it may be suggested, does not need to develop so much defence against disintegration. Reviewing the development of Jung’s ideas, it seems that the position may have been as follows. Supposing that a degree of schizophrenic influence can be demonstrated in Jung’s work, this does not tell us anything about the value of the experiences themselves. Certain persons, however, seem to be born with a kind of bypass that circumvents the reducing valve.
