The Psychologist That Went Mad To Understand Madness
When one imagines a psychologist, they may bring forth images of an old man in a lab coat injecting rats with drugs. Maybe we envision a therapist, listening to your problems and doodling indiscriminately on a clipboard. Perhaps we even recall a certain sex-obsessed founder of psychoanalysis.
However all of these icons of psychology quickly become obscured under the shadow of a psychologist who loved alchemy, listened closely to the ramblings of schizophrenic patients, studied seances and the paranormal, developed dance/movement therapy and, when he began to experience a psychotic breakdown that would last years, used it as an opportunity to study the inner workings of his subconscious.
Carl Jung was born in July 1875 in a small Swiss hamlet by a lake. Jung’s mother was the daughter of an eccentric theologian who had conversations with the dead. His other grandfather was a respected physician. This clash of mysticism with the physical sciences would be a central theme in Jung’s life.
Jung was a unique child. At a young age, Carl kept a small manikin in the attic and, from time to time, would present this figure scrolls filled with a…
