Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung with Friends

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung with friends in the bathhouse. 1907.
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung with friends after a bath, Austria, 1907.
The friendship between **Sigmund Freud** and **Carl Jung** is one of the most fascinating and complex relationships in the history of psychology. Their bond began in 1907 when they met in Vienna. Freud, who was already an established figure in the field of psychoanalysis, saw great potential in Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, and invited him to join the **Vienna Psychoanalytic Society**. Jung, in turn, admired Freud’s work and saw him as a mentor. Their relationship was initially one of mutual respect and collaboration.

Freud saw Jung as the heir to his psychoanalytic legacy, and he regarded him as a key ally in spreading psychoanalysis worldwide. Jung, deeply influenced by Freud’s theories, initially embraced Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind and the importance of repressed desires.

However, as time passed, differences between the two men began to emerge. Jung started to question some of Freud's core concepts, particularly Freud’s emphasis on sexuality as the primary motivator of human behavior. Jung introduced his own ideas, such as the concept of the **collective unconscious** and archetypes, which significantly diverged from Freud's theories. He believed that there were deeper, universal psychological structures shared by all humans, not just repressed personal memories and desires.

These theoretical differences eventually led to a rift between Freud and Jung. In 1913, their friendship officially ended when Jung publicly distanced himself from Freud and the psychoanalytic movement. Freud felt deeply betrayed by Jung’s departure, believing that Jung had undermined his work. Jung, for his part, felt that Freud was too rigid and fixated on his own ideas.

Despite the break, both Freud and Jung continued to influence each other's work indirectly. While Freud is often credited as the founder of psychoanalysis, Jung went on to develop his own school of thought, known as **analytical psychology**, which became an important and influential branch of psychology. Their relationship remains a key chapter in the history of psychology, marked by both profound intellectual collaboration and eventual divergence.