C. G. Jung – Short Version (German)
Dr. Carl Gustav Jung lived from 1875 to 1961. He was arguably one of the finest psychiatrists—and the best analyst—of his time. His life spanned the era of Freud, two world wars, and the emergence of "modern psychiatry." Jung is one of the founding figures in the study of the unconscious. His grandfather, Samuel, was a pastor who believed he was constantly surrounded by spirits, especially when writing his sermons. On such occasions, Jung’s mother would have to sit behind him to ward off "these spirits."
Jung’s childhood was cruel. Raised in an environment defined by a fear of the afterlife, he developed what could be described as a "Sacco syndrome" (a state of profound, internalized dread) while still a child. His father and two of his father’s brothers were also pastors; on his mother’s side of the family, there were six more. For years as a child, he was required to recite the same nightly prayer, in which he had to ask the infant Jesus: "Should Satan seek to devour me, let the little angels sing." This became the source of deep psychological trauma. "I began to distrust... Jesus." The mere sight of a Jesuit would fill Jung with "hellish terror," and for years, he could not bring himself to enter a Catholic church. Jung later recalled: "I had learned that I was at the mercy of God, and that nothing mattered except fulfilling His will." A suspicion dawned on him "that God might be something terrible. It was a dreadful secret I had experienced, and for me, it became a dark and frightening matter. It cast a shadow over my entire life..." He felt a sense of profound inferiority: "I am a devil or a pig, I thought—something utterly depraved." Furthermore, Jung had been told that he, too, bore responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus. "The church gradually became a source of torment for me, for there—loudly, and I might almost say shamelessly—things were preached about God: what He intends, what He does."
As a child, Jung "knew" that "grace is granted only to those who unconditionally fulfill the will of God." According to Jung, God punishes sin "even with eternal damnation in the fires of hell." He experienced his first Holy Communion as a harrowing event. For Jung, this was "not religion." Thereafter, the church was, to him, "not life, but death." "God is not human," he thought. Schopenhauer became a great source of comfort for Jung, who had fallen into a depression brought on by chronic anxieties. When Jung’s father died, his mother told him that his father "has... died for you." This struck Jung as "terrible"—just as terrible as telling children that Jesus died for them. Jung’s story is a prime example of how children can be rendered small, fearful, depressed, and spiritually—or even existentially—sick.
Religious imagery, he noted, is "highly suggestive" for young children. Jung also understood that a church service is, in effect, a form of hypnosis. He observed that the Protestant individual, in particular, remains defenseless within his religion.
Later in life, Jung remained remarkably well-behaved when it came to the church—likely because his fear of the "devouring" Satan—whom he had been forced to pray about as a child—remained too intense. He claimed that religious topics were "of secondary importance" and that they bored him "to death" (a curious choice of words, given the context). Despite his childhood experiences, he viewed the church as a "venerable" institution, its rites and symbols as helpful, and his "New Testament" God as purely benevolent—a "loving Father." Its evil counterpart, he suggests, is the Devil. Well, Jung cannot have truly read the New Testament. A critique of the Church does not allow Jung’s unconscious to manifest to the necessary extent.
What the "saving" experience of powerlessness was for Freud, the study of alchemy was for Jung. Within it—and by means of it—he felt secure; as secure as Jakob Böhme, to whom this discipline also came "to the rescue." Jung wrote this in the book *Archetypes* (published by dtv). Jung was also aided by a conception of what follows death: "...unexpectedly, a boundless expanse, full of an unprecedented indeterminacy... neither good nor evil." Furthermore, he drew support from his engagement with hundreds of religions—of which, at most, only one could be correct, i.e., correspond to the truth. It is hardly to be expected that our own orthodox Christian faith happens to be the correct one, given that there are over 4 million gods. Indeed, this form of belief is not even a religion; the critic of the church, Schopenhauer, calls it a "dysreligion."
And yet, even as an adult, Jung continued to suffer from what could be termed the "Sacco syndrome." He had gone to great lengths in his critique of the god of his childhood. For months, he was severely ill, plagued by dreams, visions, and hallucinations—fears of a religious nature, it seems, were at the forefront. In Das sexuelle Bollwerk ("The Sexual Bulwark"), Harry Mulisch describes these fears and Jung’s "apocalyptic visions." Jung himself remarked that it was only his exceptional psychological strength that allowed him to survive it all.
One of Jung’s long-forgotten contributions is his refusal to dismiss the genesis of schizophrenia as purely genetic; instead, he viewed it as a form of neurosis—a developmental process rooted in an anxiety disorder. Jung addressed this in his doctoral thesis (On the Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, published by Rascher Verlag), effectively refuting those who insist on prioritizing a genetic hypothesis. Jung argued that individuals with schizophrenia—who are primarily neurotic—possess a personal history: a history "that remains untold, and of which, as a rule, no one else is aware. For me, the actual therapy begins only after this personal history has been uncovered. It is the patient’s secret—the very thing upon which they have shattered." In Jung, I find confirmation for my own theory regarding the origins of schizophrenia and autism. Diagnoses are of highly questionable value; they merely describe symptoms. An article on obsessive-compulsive disorders in children, published in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt in March 2011, notes that up to 100% of these cases involve comorbid conditions, such as depression or ADD. This overlooks the fact that psychiatric diagnoses are, in most instances, simply symptomatic manifestations of underlying anxiety disorders. These are, therefore, secondary symptoms. Jung provides examples of schizophrenia in his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections (published by Walter). Here they are:
Example 1: A woman suffering from schizophrenia would constantly perform enigmatic movements, reminiscent of the way cobblers used to sew. Jung asked the patient’s brother why his sister had become schizophrenic. It turned out she had been in love with a shoemaker who did not marry her. This triggered emotions of an intensity that is difficult for us to grasp today—perhaps even fantasies of murder (perceived as a "sin") or profound, overwhelming sadness. Her movements reflected an identification with her beloved. Today, in 2011, rather than being healed, such a patient would likely be treated with powerful neuroleptic drugs.Example 2: A woman with paranoid schizophrenia claimed to hear the "voice of God" emanating from the center of her chest. At her request, Jung—who was then a senior physician at the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich—would read passages from the Bible to her. He often had to do this in secret to avoid being considered mad himself. Following this, the woman largely recovered; she had found in Jung a therapist who interpreted—or reinterpreted—the Bible for her in a human, relatable way.
Example 3: A Jewish girl was not yet suffering from schizophrenia, but she did have a severe neurosis. Exploration revealed that her father had turned away from Judaism. Jung explained to her: "Your father has become an apostate from the Jewish faith. He has betrayed the secret and forgotten God. And you have this neurosis because you are suffering from the fear of God!" This struck her "like a bolt of lightning." And: "Not a trace of the neurosis remained." That is how quickly effective psychotherapy can work—when it is done well, and when insight breaks through in a sudden flash. In this instance, Jung was, in principle, an "EA" (existential-analytical/religious-oriented) therapist. Such speed saves a great deal: the need for medication, periods of incapacity for work, hospitalizations, pension payments, and the suffering of both patients and psychiatrists. However, such savings in psychiatry are only possible if one does not—as many contemporary therapists do, driven by a compulsive, anxious avoidance—exclude the subject of religion. Psychiatry must now learn to rid its patients' minds of the fear of God.
Example 4: A theologian presented with severe anxiety symptoms. Jung discovered that a terror of hell lay at the root of it all—an insight he reached by examining the patient's dreams.
Example 5: To illustrate this point, Jung describes a schizophrenic patient who had all her teeth extracted in order to be fitted with dentures. Following the procedure, she felt "damned and lost for eternity." She believed that by having her teeth pulled, she had committed a grave sin, and she insisted that people should pray for her. In this case, the patient's history revealed that the trigger for her illness was her "illegitimate" child—a child conceived and born in "sin," according to church doctrine. Jung stated: "Among all my patients in the second half of life—that is, over the age of 35—there is not a single one whose ultimate problem is not that of their religious outlook." Furthermore, he noted: "Nowadays, there is hardly any doubt that schizophrenia... possesses essentially the same mechanisms as any other psychoneurosis." He argued that the approach to and therapy for such conditions must be psychoanalytic. In his book *Carl Gustav Jung* (published by Diogenes), Gerhard Wehr writes: "As a physician, Jung therefore takes the religious issues raised by a patient as the core problem of their situation."
According to Jung, the effort invested in the "psychological investigation" of schizophrenia is richly rewarded if one pays "great attention" to it. Jung was appalled by what passes for Christianity today, remarking: "I only wish that Christians nowadays would realize that what they represent is not Christianity at all, but rather a dismal, legalistic religion..."
One of the traumatic experiences of Jung’s childhood was witnessing his own father "break down—and... die—over the problem of faith." In Jung’s view, no form of psychotherapy can bypass the significance of religion.
Like me, Jung insisted that psychiatrists-in-training must come to know their own souls intimately through their own didactic analysis. If religion is phobically excluded from this process—as is the case today—the physician, Jung warned, "will pay dearly for it later." Such a psychiatrist will be unable to help their patients, and may even end up paying a high price themselves—potentially through suicide. "If you are not 'right' yourself, how can the patient ever become 'right'?" Jung once asked a colleague. He placed the role of the church—and its origins—at the forefront of his understanding of the genesis of mental illness.