C.G. Jung

Carl Gustav Jung, referred to as “C.G.” even by his family, was born on Monday, July 26, 1875, at 7:27 p.m. SZOT* in Kesswil, on Lake Constance, in the canton of Thurgau, in Switzerland.

His father, Johann Paul Achilles Jung {1842-1896}, was born to Carl Gustav Jung I {rumored to be “a son of Goethe’s, born out of wedlock”} and Sophie Frey, daughter of the mayor of Basel. Paul, as Jung’s father was called, earned a Ph.D. with a dissertation on an Arabic version of the Song of Songs, was a philologist and linguist, and worked as an ordained minister. When Jung was four years old, his father was assigned to the parish of Klein-Hüningen, near Basel, where he “filled the pulpit until his death.” He also served as pastor at Friedmatt, the insane asylum of Basel.

His mother, Emilie Preiswerk Jung {1848-1923}, was of a family from Basel. Her father, a pastor, once taught Hebrew language and literature. He was editor of the journal Das Morgenland in which he called for “a restoration of Palestine to the Jews,” and thus was considered “a forerunner of the Zionists.” Emilie had “second sight. She always took a lively interest in curious or ‘occult’ occurrences, and later on she played an active role in the spiritualistic experiments Jung conducted as a student.”

He was the fourth-born but first-surviving child of Paul and Emilie, who were each the thirteenth child of well-known parents. He was given the modern spelling of his name, Karl, but changed it when he was a university student.

C.G. died on June 6, 1961. This is his obituary as it appeared in the New York Times the following day.

* Liz Greene, The Astrological World of Jung’s Liber Novus: Daimons, Gods, & the Planetary Journey, p. 164

Timeline of Jung's Life & Work

1875
Born July 26 in Kesswil on Lake Constance, Switzerland

1876
Moves to Laufen at the Rhine Falls

1879
Moves to Klein-Hüningen, near Basel, Switzerland

1884
Birth of his sister Johanna Gertrud {d. 1935}

1886
Begins secondary school at the Basel Gymnasium

1895
Enters the University of Basel to study natural sciences and medicine;
Begins to participate in séances with his cousin Helene {Helly} Preiswerk

1896
Death of his father;
Moves to Binningen near Basel

1900
Receives medical degree from the University of Basel;
Begins psychiatric residency at the Cantonal Psychiatric University Hospital & Clinic of Zürich {the Burghölzli Mental Hospital at the University of Zürich} under the direction of Professor Eugen Bleuler {1857-1939}

1902
Doctoral dissertation at the University of Zürich, On the Psychology & Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena, is published

1902-1903
Winter Semester in Paris with Pierre Janet at the Salpêtrière for the study of theoretical psychopathology;
Visits London to study

1903
Marries Emma Rauschenbach {1882-1955} on February 14

1903-1905
Experimental research on word association at the Burghölzli Clinic

1904
Birth of his first child, Agathe Regina Niehus-Jung {d. 1998};
Meets Sabina Spielrein {1885-1942}

1905
Appointed assistant medical director at the Burghölzli Clinic and begins research on schizophrenia;
Publishes The Psychology of Dementia Praecox

1905-1913
Appointed Lecturer in Medicine {Psychiatry} at the the University of Zürich

1906
Begins correspondence with Sigmund Freud {1856-1939};
Birth of his second child, Anna Margaretha {Gret} Baumann-Jung {d. 1995}

1907
First meeting with Freud in Vienna, Austria

1908
Birth of his third child, Franz Karl Jung-Merker {d. 1996};
Attends first International Congress of Psychoanalysis in Vienna

1909
Moves to Küsnacht, near Zürich, and devotes himself to private practice;
First trip to the United States, accompanied by Freud, at the invitation of Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts;
Receives honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Clark University

1910
Attends Second International Congress of Psychoanalysis and becomes first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association;
Birth of his fourth child, Marianne Niehus-Jung {d. 1965};
Meets Toni Anna Wolff {1888-1953}

1912
Publishes Psychology of the Unconscious {Symbols of Transformation};
Returns to the United States to give a series of lectures at Fordham University in New York where he is granted an honorary doctorate recognizing his research on word association

1913
Correspondence with Freud ceases;
Resigns academic position at the University of Zürich;
Designates his psychology Analytical Psychology;
Edith Rockefeller McCormick {1872-1932} arrives in Zürich for analysis with Jung;
In the Fall, begins work on a series of Black Books which would later become The Red Book

1914
Resigns as president of the International Psychoanalytic Association;
Birth of his fifth child, Emma Helene Hoerni-Jung {d. 2014}

1916
First mandala painting, description of active imagination, and use of the terms personal unconscious, collective unconscious, individuation, animus/anima, persona;
Writes Seven Sermons to the Dead {included in this edition of Memories, Dreams, Reflections};
Founding of the Psychology Club Zürich;

1917-1919
Serves as commandant of the medical corps of a camp for interned British soldiers at Château d’Oex

1920
Trip to North Africa {Algeria and Tunisia}

1921
Publishes Psychological Types

1922
Purchases property in Bollingen, Switzerland

1923
Death of his mother;
Begins building the tower in Bollingen on the shore of the Obersee basin of Lake Zürich

1924-1925
Trip to the United States where he visits Chicago, New Mexico, Arizona, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, D.C.

1925-1926
Expedition to East Africa {Kenya, Uganda, and the Nile}

1928
First reference to the idea of synchronicity published in Dream Analysis;
Receives a copy of The Secret of the Golden Flower from Richard Wilhelm {1873-1930};
Begins the study of alchemy

1929
First explicit use of the term synchronicity

1930
Ceases work on the Red Book;
Meets Wolfgang Pauli {1900-1958}

1933
Becomes president of the General Medical Society for Psychotherapy;
Appointed Lecturer at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule {ETH} Zürich;
Delivers “A Study in the Process of Individuation” at the first Eranos Conference in Ascona, Switzerland;
Meets Marie-Louise von Franz {1915-1998};
Cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean with Hans Eduard Fierz-David {stops in Athens, Constantinople/Istanbul, Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine, and Rhodes}

1934
Begins seminars on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra at the Psychology Club Zürich

1935
Death of sister Gertrud;
Appointed titular professor at the ETH Zürich;
Tavistock Lectures at the Institute of Medical Psychology, London: Analytical Psychology: Its Theory & Practice

1936
Trip to the United States with Emma to lecture at Harvard University’s Tercentenary on Psychological Factors Determining Human Behavior and receives an honorary Doctorate of Science;
Visits Bailey Island, Maine and delivers part I of the seminar Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process

1937
Trip to the United States with Emma to deliver the Dwight Harrington Terry Lectures at Yale University: Psychology and Religion;
Delivers part II of Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process in New York

1938
Visit to India where he is bestowed honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Calcutta, the Islamic University of Allahabad, and the Hindu University of Benares;
Receives honorary Doctor of Sciences from Oxford University;
Appointed Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine London;
Participates in the International Medical Congress for Psychotherapy

1939
Resigns from the International Medical Society for Psychotherapy

1942
Lectures on Paracelsus in Einsiedeln, Switzerland;
Resigns appointment as professor at the ETH Zürich

1943
Becomes honorary member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences;
Appointed Chair in Medical Psychology at the University of Basel

1944
First heart attack concurrent with a near-death experience;
Resigns professorship at the University of Basel;
Publishes Psychology & Alchemy

1945
Receives honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva on his 70th birthday

1946
Second heart attack

1947
Retires to Bollingen, Switzerland

1948
Approves the establishment of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich

1950
Writes a foreword to the The I Ching;
Carves the square stone at his retreat in Bollingen

1951
First full-scale work on the subject of synchronicity: Eranos lecture, On Synchronicity;
Publishes Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self

1952
Collaborates with Wolfgang Pauli on the concept of synchronicity in The Interpretation of Nature & the Psyche;
Experiences the recurrence of a serious illness;
Publishes Answer to Job

1953
Death of Toni Wolff;
Publication of the first volume of the American/British edition of The Collected Works of C.G. Jung

1955
Receives honorary doctorate in natural sciences from the ETH Zürich on his 80th birthday;
Publishes Mysterium Coniunctionis;
Death of wife Emma on November 27 after a severe illness

1956
Builds a fourth extension of the Bollingen Tower

1957
Begins work with Aniela Jaffé on his memoirs, Memories, Dreams, Reflections {published posthumously in 1962};
BBC television interview with John Freeman;
Writes The Undiscovered Self

1958
Publishes his study of the UFO phenomenon in Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies

1960
Made an honorary citizen of Küsnacht, Switzerland on his 85th birthday;
Begins work on Man and His Symbols

1961
Finishes his last work 10 days before his death: “Approaching the Unconscious” {posthumously published in Man and His Symbols};
Dies on June 6 at his home in Küsnacht, Switzerland

(Updated Jan. 11, 2022)

SOURCES

C.G. Jung: Word & Image Edited by Aniela Jaffé

Jung: A Biography by Deirdre Bair

The Art of C.G. Jung Edited by The Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung

The Tao of Jung: The Way of Integrity by David Rosen, M.D., Jungian analyst

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