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Carl Jung

Carl Jung’s Early Life and Personality

September 7, 2022 by Essay Writer

Carl Jung

Carl Jung developed a theory like no other, named the analytical psychology theory. Jung did not agree with many of Freud’s theories, which is why he developed his own. His experiences had a lot to do with why he did not agree with Freud’s statements. Jung’s life inspired the development of his own personality theory, in which the personality had three major structures that are called the ego, personal unconscious and the collective unconscious; and Jung also noticed that there were different psychological functions of extraverted and introverted people.

Carl Jung’s childhood was not a perfect one. He was miserable many times, mostly because of his family members. His mom and dad were not perfect. Jung’s father was weak, while his mother was considered to be the stronger parent. Her emotions were not consistent, though, and it caused Jung a lot of confusion. He considered his mother as being two people because of how different one minute she would be compared to the next. He lived a very lonely childhood, and the only companionship he had was a doll that he had carved out of wood. He did not take part in the real world; in fact, he spent a lot of time in the unconscious, where he would dream and live his life in his fantasies. And the fact that he was a lonely child, it impacted his theory later on where he would talk about introversion. And another important part of his life was Sigmund Freud. They were friends for some time, but Jung broke it off because he did not feel comfortable around him. But even though they were friends, they did not share similar opinions. Freud stated that the most important part of the development of our personalities was our childhood, but Jung believed that it was actually the middle-aged years that were the most important. He believed that our future experiences also have an impact in our personalities.

Jung thought that the total personality consisted of three major structures: the ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The ego is responsible for carrying out the daily activities in our lives. The personal unconscious is our own thoughts, like dreams and thoughts. The collective unconscious is a knowledge that we are all familiar with from birth. It’s a universal language that all humans understand. The ego and the personal unconscious are similar to Freud’s ego, preconscious and unconscious.

Jung learned that there were different forms of extraverts and introverts. The psychological functions was “ a function from either judging or perception pair” (Personality Type Explained). The four functions are sensing, intuiting, thinking and feeling. The non-rational functions are sensing and intuiting because they are based on how we feel and not what is rational. It is all based on our natural instinct. The rational functions are thinking and feeling. They both are based consciously. Jung also said that only one of each, of the rational and irrational function, could be dominant.

Carl Jung’s personality theory was mostly based on his life. He lived a different life compared to Sigmund Freud’s, which is why he understood how everyone was different. He believed that as we grow older, the experiences that we have later on still reflect how our personalities are as we continue growing and experiencing new things. Personalities are complex, but Jung did not live a regular life. He was an extraordinary man who lived an unordinary life.

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