Jung

(Paperback)

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Deirdre Bair has written about some of the most influential figures in 20th century culture - Samuel Beckett, Simone De Beauvoir & Anais Nin. Now she turns her expert eye to the one person whose teachings & writings are the most influential of all: psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. Jung was Freud's "crown prince", hand picked by the founding father of psychoanalysis to become the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1910. Their professional relationship ended in 1914 when Jung could not accept Freud's emphasis on infantile sexuality. Jung abandoned Freud's theory to found his own system of Analytical psychology. As Freud's influence has waned over the years, Jung's ideas - the collective unconscious, the archetypal myths underpinning all societies, synchronocity, "new age" spirituality & much more - have achieved an overwhelming ascendancy. Bair addresses the myths about Jung - accusations that he was an anti- Semite and a misogynist and that he falsified data - with evidence from his own writings & from those of his colleagues & former patients. The result is groundbreaking & accessible.

Reviews

'She has produced an insightful biography.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Bair's previous biographies of Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beavoir have shown her skill in analysing the tensions in long-standing relationships. This expertise is evident again in her handling of the marriage of the Jungs.' GUARDIAN 'Bair's painstaking but cool portrait is...intellectually brilliant, innovative.' IRISH TIMES 'Bair's material is rarely less than complex and it threatens at times to become explosive, yet she inspires confidence throughout.' LITERARY REVIEW 'Bair has done for her subject what Jung tried to do for humankind: as it was put in MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS, "to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being."' SUNDAY HERALD 'Bair's Jung is a big book about a big man...Dierdre Bair proves how impossible to ignore CG Jung was.' GLASGOW HERALD 'Bair's account strives for balance... a dense and perhaps therefore an ephemeral contribution to the reader's state of knowledge.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Bair's book is a mighty work and one that will certainly stand the test of time.' SUNDAY TRIBUNE 'Bair is to be congratualted for the meticulousness of what is certainly the most important Jung biography in years.' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'In her scholarly portrayal she has given readers the man behind the psychoanalyst.' CONTEMPORARY REVIEW 'Scrupulously researched and detailed narrative' SUNDAY TIMES

Author Bio

Deirdre Bair has been a literary journalist and university professor of comparative literature and culture. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, and the C.G. Jung Foundation