Review of Jung's "Freud and Psychoanalysis"

The fourth volume of Jung's Collected Works is one that shows his defense of Freudian Psychoanalysis and then the evolution of him turning away from a Freudian point of view. The earliest essays are ones of a defensive nature against those who critique Freud's views and explanations for misconceptions surrounding some of the key themes of psychoanalysis. It is not until the major essay "The Theory of Psychoanalysis" which is actually a transcript of a lecture given by Jung after the writing of his book "Symbols of Transformation" that we see the beginning divergence of Jung's personal approach to psychology from that of Freud's. I will be doing videos on Youtube discussing the Freud and Jung relationship which lead up to their breaking apart from each other and both writing two large works, Jung's "Symbols of Transformation" and Freud: "Totem an Taboo". However this short essay, while being out of order on a chronological level can still be discussed here without the reader having any prior knowledge of the above material. I will attempt to summarize the material found in this paper, however I should note that there will be key moments where I will not cover the material since specific topics will be covered in greater detail in later works that I will be doing here on this blog or on my Youtube channel.

Jung begins by discussing the earliest views of psychoanalysis such as Freud and Breuer's book "Studies on Hysteria"(which I have discussed in a video on Youtube), and also some of the views of anxiety, its roots derived from repressed sexuality and also hypnosis. He then discussed Freud's views on Infantile Sexuality and produces an alternative view of the earliest psychic experiences, namely the Nutritive Function. Jung does not deny that some of the earliest emotional experiences we have as infants is that of pleasure, however Jung rejects the notion that said pleasure is sexual in nature. Rather there is no biological or psychological evidence that this pleasure is derived from the sex drive, it is actually that of nutrition. We of course gain pleasure from the sucking on the breast and the food that is given to us, however this does not have any correlation to sexuality, but rather just the pleasure we get from eating something that is good an feeling full. We still experience this today when we feel satisfied after being hungry and feel comfort when a loved one is near, yet this is not something that excites us sexually in the least bit. It is the obviously idea that when we are young are need for comfort(platonic), survival and nutrition are the earliest things that drive us and not a wholly exclusive sexual libido.

Jung then discusses the Libido in the context of it either being purely sexual in nature or something else. Jung does not deny, like the man Freudians who charged him with this, that there is NO sexuality AT ALL in the libido. Rather he ventured an alternative view which established the idea that sexuality was not the ONLY part of the psychic energy within us but that there are other drives that make up any of the psychic experiences we have. Jung then moves away from Freud's "Stags of Infantile Sexuality" such as the oral, anal and phallic stage and replaces them with his own. These are:

1. Presexual Stage-the first years of life, focus is on nutrition and growth.

2. Prepubertal Stage- later years of childhood up to puberty, beginning of what will become sexuality.

3. Maturity- adult period from puberty on.

Another large factor that lead Jung to reject Freud's views on the subject of sexuality was his work with patients who were Schizophrenic. He analyzed their visions and hallucinations and could not find a overdose of sexual symbolism or even their reactions to what they saw an heard as being strictly sexual. Rather they were common to the motifs found in religion and mythology which lead him to expound on such concepts in this later works.

Jung of course agreed that we have not only a conscious part of our personality but also an unconscious as well. Also that through dreams one could understand the unconscious and what it is trying to tell us so we can integrate consciously its contents. He also found that having the patient and therapist discuss what the dream could mean, its symbols and content, was the best way to understand the topic at hand. Furthermore he did not agree with Freud that the images as presented to the patient in the dream were just a mask for the real(sexually repressed) meanings behind them. Rather the visible and "masked" content BOTH held importance and of course not every symbol had to do with a repressed sexual wish-fulfillment. He also discusses the merits of the Association Tests(see my previous article on Jung for more details) and its revealing of complex's in patients.

The refutation of the dominance of the Oedipus Complex, the symbols seen in the unconscious and the topic of Transference will be discussed in later articles and videos. This is just a brief summary of the large essay that is in this volume. The rest of the essays are simple and are either expounded upon in Jung's later works, so that I will cover them in detail another time. This present volume falls into the category of being "historical" in the understanding of Jung's theory and not necessary to have a large grasp on.