Carl gustav jung the practice of psychotherapy (1954)

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY... I would remind youoftheLi6beault-Bernheim French methodofsuggestion therapy, reeducation de la volonte; Babinski's "per-suasion"; Dubois' "rational p

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THE PRACTICE

OF

PSYCHOTHERAPY

AND OTHER SUBJECTS

COPYRIGHT 1954 BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION INC., NEW YORK, N Y.

PUBLISHED FOR BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION INC

BY PANTHEON BOOKS, INC., NEW YORK, N. Y

THIS EDITION IS BEING PUBLISHED IN THE

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EDI-TION, ALL THE VOLUMES COMPRISING THE

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VOLUME IS NUMBER l6 OF THE COLLECTED

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 52-8757

MANUFACTURED IN THE U S A. BY H WOLFF

NEW

EDITORIAL NOTE

This volumecontains, inaddition to "Psychologyof the ference," publishedasa separatevolumein Switzerland, all Pro-fessorJung's various papers on psychotherapy. Only two works

Trans-of importance have not previously appeared in English: ciples of PracticalPsychotherapy" and "Psychologyof the Trans-ference." Thefirst contains a new formulationof the analyticalrelationship; this formulation Jung calls the dialectical pro-cedure The secondgives the only authoritativestatement from

"Prin-his pen of the wayin whichthe individuation process expresses

itself in the transference

Itwasfeltthat sincemanywillreadthisvolume who may have

not an adequateclassical scholarship at their command, a lation oftheLatinquotationsfromlittleknownalchemicaltexts,

trans-in the final paper, would beof assistance in promotinga deeper understandingofthe material A bibliographygiving details oftheextensiveliteraturehasbeen added; initanumberofEnglish

and American editions of foreign books will be found, though

the translations in thesevolumes have not necessarily been used

in the text All bibliographical references are printed in face type

bold-The sources ofthe translations are given in the table of

con-tents, and further bibliographical details will be found at theopeningofeach paper The Latin and Greekpassageswereorigi-nally translated by Dr A Wasserstein and were later somewhat

revisedbyDr Marie-Louise vonFranz, whose expertknowledge

ofalchemical Latin has been invaluable

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

Certain of the essays in this volume were previously translatedand published in Contributions to Analytical Psychology

(London and NewYork, 1928), Modem Man in Search ofa Soul

(London and New York, 1933), and Essays on Contemporary

Events (London, 1947) I wish to thank Mrs Gary F Baynes

and Miss Mary Briner for permission to make full use of those

texts in preparing the present revised versions. My particularthanks are due to Miss Barbara Hannah for placing at mydis-

posalherdrafttranslationoftheopeningchaptersof"Psychology

of the Transference/*

It may be noted that two papers, "Some Aspects of Modern

Psychotherapy" and "The Therapeutic Value of Abreaction,"

were written by Professor Jung in English, and are published

hereonly withcertain editorial modifications

in Some AspectsofModern Psychotherapy 29

Originally published in English, Journal of StateMedicine (London), XXXVIII (1930).

Translated from"Zieleder Psychotherapie," probleme der Gegenwart (Zurich: Rascher, 1931)

Seelen-v Problemsof Modern Psychotherapy 53

Translated from "Die Probleme der modernen

Psychotherapie," Seelenprobleme der Gegenwart(Zurich: Rascher, 1931).

vi. Psychotherapy and a Philosophyof Life 76

Translated from "Psychotherapie und schauung," Aufsatze zur Zeitgeschichte (Zurich:

Weltan-Rascher, 1946).

Translated from "Medizin und Psychotherapie,"

Bulletin der Schweizerischen Akademie der izinischen Wissenschaften(Basel), I(1945)

Translated from "Die Psychotherapieinderwart/' Aufsdtze zur Zeitgeschichte (Zurich: Rascher,1946)

Translated from "Grundfragen der pie/'Dialectica (Neuchatel),V (1951).

York: Harcourt,Brace, 1928)

n The PracticalUseofDream-Analysis 139

Translated from "Die praktische Verwendbarkeitder Traumanalyse," Wirklichkeit derSeele (Zurich:Rascher, 1934).

in Psychologyofthe Transference 163

Translated from DiePsychologic der Ubertragung(Zurich: Rascher, 1946).

64

BASED ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE *

'ROSARIUM

viii

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures i-io are fullpages,with woodcuts, reproduced from the Rosariumphilosophorum, secundaparsalchemiae de lapidephilosophico (Frankfort,

1550). Thesections which theypertain to are indicated in brackets.

1. [The Mercurial Fountain] 205

Figures 1 i i 3 are full pages reproduced from the textless picture book

Mutus liber, in quo tamen iota philosophia hermetica . depingitur

(La Rochelle, 1677).Theyare describedon page 320, note i.

GENERAL PROBLEMS

OF

PSYCHOTHERAPY

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY1

Psychotherapy is adomain of the healing artwhich has veloped and acquired a certain independence only within the

differentiated in a great variety ofways,and themass of ence accumulated has given rise to all sorts of different in-

experi-terpretations The reason for this lies in the fact that therapy is not the simple, straightforward method people atfirstbelieveditto be, but, as has graduallybecomeclear, akind

psycho-ofdialectical process, a dialogue or discussion between two

per-sons Dialecticwas originally the artof conversation amongtheancient philosophers, but very early became the term for theprocess of creatingnew syntheses A person is a psychic systemwhich, when it affects another person, enters into reciprocalreaction with another psychic system. This, perhaps the most modern,formulation of the psychotherapeutic relation betweenphysician andpatientis clearly veryfarremoved from the orig-inal view that psychotherapy was a method which anybody

could applyin stereotyped fashion in order to reach the desired

result Itwasnot the needsof speculationwhich prompted this

unsuspected and, I might well say, unwelcome widening ofthehorizon, but the hard facts of reality. In the first place, it was

probably the fact that one had to admit the possibility of

dif-ferent interpretations of the observed material Hence theregrew up various schools with diametrically opposed views. I

would remind youoftheLi6beault-Bernheim French methodofsuggestion therapy, reeducation de la volonte; Babinski's "per-suasion"; Dubois' "rational psychic orthopedics"; Freud's psy-choanalysis,withitsemphasis on sexualityandthe unconscious;

i

[Delivered as a lecture to the Zurich Medical Society in 1935. Published as

"Grundsatzliches zur praktischen Psychotherapie," Zentralblatt fur

Psychothera-pie,VIII (1935): 2, 66-82. EDITORS.]

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

Adler's educational method, with its emphasis on power-drivesand conscious fictions; Schultz's autogenic training to name

only the better known methods Each of them rests on specialpsychological assumptions and produces special psychological

results; comparison between them is difficult and often nigh impossible Consequently it was quite natural that thechampions of any one point of view should, in order to sim-

well-plify matters, treat the opinions of the others as erroneous.Objective appraisal of the facts shows, however, that each ofthesemethods and theoriesis justified up to a point, since each

canboast not onlyof certain successesbut of psychological datathat largely prove its particular assumption Thus we are faced

In psychotherapy with a situation comparable with that inmodernphysics where, for instance, there are two contradictorytheoriesof light. Andjust as physics does not find this contra-diction unbridgeable, so the existence of many possible stand-points in psychology should notgive groundsfor assumingthatthe contradictions are irreconcilable and the various views

merely subjective and therefore incommensurable. tions ina departmentof science merely indicate thatits subjectdisplays characteristics which at present can be grasped only

Contradic-by means of antinomieswitness the wave theory and the

cor-puscular theoryoflight. Now the psycheisinfinitelymore plicated than light; hence a great number of antinomies is re-

com-quired to describe the nature of the psyche satisfactorily One

of the fundamental antinomies is the statement that psyche

de-pends on body and body dede-pends on psyche There are clearproofs for both sides of this antinomy, so that an objective

judgment cannot give more weight to thesis or to antithesis

The existence of valid contradictions shows that the object

of investigation presents the

inquiring mind with tional difficulties, as a result of which only relatively validstatements can be made, at least forthe time being. That is tosay,thestatement isvalidonlyin so far asitindicates what kind

excep-of psychic system we are investigating Hence we arrive at the

dialecticalformulationwhichtellsusprecisely thatpsychic

influ-ence is the reciprocal reaction of two psychic systems. Sincetheindividuality of the psychic system is infinitely variable, theremust be an infinite variety of relatively valid statements. But

if individuality were absolute in its particularity, if one

indi-PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

vidual were totally different from every other individual, thenpsychology would be impossible as a science, for it would con-

sist in an insoluble chaos of subjective opinions Individuality,however, is onlyrelative, the complement ofhumanconformity

or likeness; and therefore it is possible to make statements ofgeneral validity, i.e., scientific statements These statements re-late only to those parts of the psychic system which do in fact

conform, i.e., are amenable to comparison and statisticallymeasurable; theydo notrelate to that part of the system which

is individual and unique. The second fundamental antinomy

in psychology therefore runs: the individual signifies nothing

in comparison with the universal,, and the universal signifiesnothing in comparison with the individual. There are, as weall know, no universal elephants, only individual elephants.But if a generality, a constant plurality, of elephants did not

im-probable

: These logical reflectionsmay appear somewhat remote from

our theme But in so far as they are the outcome of previouspsychological experience, they yield practical conclusions of

up as a medical authority over mypatient and on that accountclaim to know something about his individuality, or to be able

to make valid statementsabout it, I am only demonstrating my

lack ofcriticism, for I am in noposition to judge the whole ofthe personality before me. I cannot say anything valid about

him exceptinso far ashe approximates to the "universalman."

Butsince all life is to be found only in individual form, and I

myself can assert of another individuality only what I find in

my own, I am in constant danger either of doing violence tothe other person or ofsuccumbingto hisinfluence If I wish to

treatanother individual psychologically atall, I mustfor better

or worse give up all pretensions to superior knowledge, all thority and desire to influence I must perforce adopt a dialec-

find-ings But this becomes possible only if I give the other person

a chance to play his hand to the full, unhampered by my

as-sumptions In this way his system is geared to mine and actsupon it; my reaction is the only thing with which I as an in-

dividual can legitimately confrontmy patient

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

3 These considerations of principle produce in the therapist a very definite attitude which, in all cases of indi-

psycho-vidual treatment, seems to me to be absolutely necessary cause it alone is scientifically responsible Any deviation from

be-thisattitudeamounts totherapy bysuggestion, thekind of

ther-apy whose main principle is: "The individual signifiesnothing

in comparisonwith the universal/' Suggestion therapy includes

allmethodsthat arrogate to themselves, andapply, a knowledge

oran interpretation ofotherindividualities Equally it includes

that all individuals are alike To the extent that the cance ofthe individual is a truth, suggestive methods, technicalprocedures, and theorems in any shape or form are entirelycapable of success andguarantee resultswith the universal man

insignifi-as for instance, Christian Science, mental healing, faith cures,remedial training, medicalandreligious techniques, and count-

less other isms Even political movements can, not without

justice, claim to be psychotherapy in the grand manner The

outbreak of war cured many a compulsion neurosis, and fromtimeimmemorialcertain miraculouslocalities have caused neu-

rotic states to disappear; similarly, popular movements bothlarge andsmallcanexert acurative influence ontheindividual

4 This fact finds the simplest and most nearly perfect sion intheprimitive idea of"mana." Mana isa universalmedi-cinal or healing power which renders men, animals, and plants

expres-fruitful and endows chieftain and medicine-man with magicalstrength Mana, as Lehmann has shown, is identifiedwith any-

thing "extraordinarily potent/* or simply with anything

im-pressive On the primitive level anything impressive is fore "medicine." Sinceit is notorious thatahundredintelligentheads massed together make one big fathead, virtues and en-dowments are essentially the hallmarks of the individual and

there-not of the universal man The masses always incline to herdpsychology,hencethey areeasilystampeded; andtomobpsychol-

ogy, hence their witless brutality and hysterical emotionalism

The universal manhas the characteristics ofa savage and musttherefore be treated with technical methods It is in fact badpractice to treat collectiveman withanything other than "tech-nically correct" methods, i.e., those collectively recognizedandbelieved to be effective. In this sense the old hypnotism or the

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

still older animal magnetism achieved, in

principle, just as

much as a technically irreproachable modern analysis, or forthat matter the amulets of the primitive medicine-man It all

depends on themethod the therapisthappenstobelieve in. His

belief is what does the trick If he really believes, then hewill do his utmost for the sufferer with seriousness and per-severance, and this freely given effort and devotion will have

a curative effect up to the level of collective man's mentality.

But the limits are fixed by the "individual-universal"

anti-nomy.

5 This antinomyconstitutes apsychologicalas wellas asophical criterion, since thereare countless people who are notonly collectivein all essentialsbut are firedby a quite peculiar

philo-ambition to be nothing but collective This accords with all

the current trends in education which like to regard

individu-ality and lawlessness as synonymous On this plane anything

individualis rated inferior and isrepressed In the ing neuroses individual contents and tendencies appear as psy-chological poisons Thereis also, aswe know, anoverestirnation

correspond-of individuality based on the rule that "the universalsignifiesnothing in comparison with the individual." Thus, from thepsychological (notthe clinical) point of view,wecan divide thepsychoneuroses into two main groups: the one comprising col-lective people with underdeveloped individuality, the other in-dividualists with atrophied collective adaptation. The thera-peutic attitude differs accordingly, for it is abundantly clearthat a neurotic individualist can only be cured by recognizingthe collective man in himself hence the need for collective

adaptation Itis therefore right to bring him down to the level

of collective truth On the other hand, psychotherapists arefamiliar with the collectively adapted person who has every-thing and does everything that could reasonably be required

as a guarantee of health, but yet is ill Itwould be a bad

mis-take, which is nevertheless very often committed, to normalizesucha personand trytobringhim down tothe collective level

In certain cases all possibility of individual development is

thereby destroyed

6 Since individuality, aswe stressed inour introductory

argu-ment, isabsolutelyunique, unpredictable, anduninterpretable,

in these cases the therapist must abandon all his

preconcep-GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

tionsand techniques andconfine himself to a purely dialecticalprocedure, adopting the attitude that shuns all methods.

7 Youwill have noticedthatI began bypresenting the

devel-opment. I must now correct myself and put this procedure inthe right perspective:it isnotsomuch anelaborationofprevioustheoriesandpracticesasacomplete abandonment ofthem in fa-

vour ofthe mostunbiased attitudepossible.In other words, thetherapist is no longer the agent of treatment but a fellow par-ticipant in a process of individual development

8 I would not like it to be supposed that these discoveriesdropped straight into ourlaps. They too havetheir history. Al-though I was the first to demand that the analyst should him-

self be analysed, we are largely indebted to Freud for the

in-valuable discovery that analysts too have their complexes andconsequentlyone ortwoblindspotswhichact assomanypreju-

dices The psychotherapist gained this insight in cases where it

was no longer possible for him to interpret orto guide the

pa-tient from on high or ex cathedra, regardless of his own sonality, but was forced to admit that his personal idiosyncra-

per-sies or special attitude hindered the patient's recovery. When

onepossessesnovery clear ideaaboutsomething, becauseoneis

unwillingto admititto oneself,onetriestohideitfromthe

pa-tient as well, obviously to his very great disadvantage The

demand that the analyst must be analysed culminates in theidea of a dialectical procedure, where the therapist enters intorelationship with another psychic system both as questionerand answerer No longer is he the superior wise man, judge,and counsellor; he is a fellow participant who finds himselfinvolved in thedialectical process just as deeply as the so-calledpatient

9 The dialectical procedure has anothersource, too, and that

is the

multiple significance of symbolic contents Silberer

dis-tinguishes between the psychoanalytic and the anagogic terpretation, while I distinguish between the analytical-reduc-

in-tiveandthesynthetic-hermeneutic interpretation.I willexplainwhat I mean by instancing the so-called infantile fixation onthe parental imago, one of the richest sources of symbolic con-

tents. The analytical-reductive view asserts that interest

("li-bido") streams back regressively to infantilereminiscences and

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

there "fixates" ifindeedit haseverfreeditselffrom them The

synthetic or anagogic view, on the contrary,asserts that certainparts of the personality which are capable of development are

inan infantilestate, as though still in thewomb Both

interpre-tations can be shown to be correct We might almost say thatthey amountvirtuallyto the same thing. Butit makes an enor-

mousdifference in practice whether we interpret something

re-gressively or progressively. It is no easy matter to decide aright

in agivencase.Generallywefeelratheruncertainon thispoint

The discovery that there are essential contents of an tably equivocal nature has thrown suspicion on the airy appli-cation of theoriesand techniques, and thushelped to range the

indubi-dialectical procedure alongside the subtler or cruder tion methods

sugges-> The depth-dimension which Freud has added to the lemsofpsychotherapy mustlogically lead sooner or laterto theconclusion thatany final understanding between doctorand pa-

prob-tientis bound toinclude the personality of the doctor The oldhypnotistsand Bernheim with his suggestiontherapywere wellenough awarethatthehealingeffectdependedfirstlyonthe"rap-port" in Freud's terminology, "transference"andsecondlyonthe persuasive and penetrative powers of the doctor's person-

psychic systems interact, and therefore any deeper insight intothepsychotherapeuticprocesswill infalliblyreachtheconclusionthat in thelast analysis,since individuality isa factnotto beig-

nored, the relationship must be dialectical

It is now perfectly clear thatthis realization involves averyconsiderable shift of standpoint comparedwith the older forms

of psychotherapy In order to avoid misunderstandings, let me

sayat once that this shift iscertainly notmeant tocondemn theexisting methods as incorrect, superfluous, or obsolete The

more deeply we penetrate the nature of the psyche, the more

the conviction grows upon us that the diversity, the dimensionality of human nature requires the greatest variety

multi-of standpoints and methods in order to satisfy the variety ofpsychicdispositions It is therefore pointless to subject a simplesoul who lacks nothing but a dose ofcommon sense to a com-plicated analysis of his impulses, much less expose him to thebewildering subtleties of psychological dialectic It is equally

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

obvious that with complex and highly intelligent people weshall get nowhere by employing well-intentioned advice, sug-gestions, and other efforts to convert them to some kind of sys-tem In'such cases the best thingthe doctor can do is lay aside

his whole apparatus of methods and theories and trust to luckthathispersonalitywillbe steadfast enoughtoact as a signpost

forthepatient. Atthesame timehe mustgiveserious tion to the possibility that in intelligence, sensibility, rangeand depth the patient's personality is superior to his own But

considera-in all circumstances the prime rule of dialectical procedure is

that the individuality of the sufferer has the same value, thesame rightto exist, as thatof the doctor, and consequently thatevery developmentin the patientis to be regarded as valid, un-

less of course it corrects itself of its own accord Inasmuch as a

man is merely collective, he can be changed by suggestion tothe point of becomingor seeming to become different from

what hewas before But inasmuchashe is an individual he can

only become what he is and always was To the extent that

"cure" means turning a sick man into a healthy one, cure is

change Wherever this is possible, where it does not demand

too great a sacrifice of personality, we should change the sick

man therapeutically. But when a patient realizes that cure

through change would mean too great a sacrifice, then the

doc-torcan, indeed heshould, give up any wish to change^or cure.

He musteither refuse to treatthe patient orrisk the dialectical

procedure This isofmore frequent occurrencethan one mightthink Inmy ownpracticeIalwayshavea fairnumberof highlycultivatedand intelligent people of marked individuality who,

on ethicalgrounds,would vehementlyresistanyseriousattempt

to change them Inallsuchcases thedoctor mustleave the

indi-vidual way tohealingopen, and thenthe cure will bringabout

noalteration of personality butwill be the process we call

"in-dividuation," in which the patient becomes what he really is.

If the worst comes to the worst, he will even put up with his

neurosis,oncehehasunderstoodthemeaningofhisillness.More

than onepatienthasadmittedtomethathehaslearnedtoaccept

his neuroticsymptomswithgratitude, because,likea barometer,theyinvariably told him when and where he was strayingfromhis individual path, and also whether he had let importantthings remain unconscious

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

12 Although the new, highly differentiated methods allow us

an unsuspected glimpse into the endless complications o

psy-chic relationships and have gone a longwaytoputtingthem on

a theoretical basis, they nevertheless confine themselves to theanalytical-reductive standpoint, so that the possibilities of indi-

vidualdevelopmentareobscured by being reduced tosome

gen-eral principle, such as sexuality This is the prime reason why

the phenomenology ofindividuationis at present almostvirgin

territory Hence in what follows I mustenter into somedetail,

for I can only give you an idea of individuation by trying toindicate the workings of the unconscious asrevealed in the ob-served materialitself. For, in the process ofindividual develop-ment, it isaboveallthe unconsciousthat is thrust into the fore-

front of our interest The deeper reasonfor this may lie in the

fact that the conscious attitude of the neurotic is unnaturallyone-sided and must be balanced by complementary or compen-satory contentsderivingfrom the unconscious.The unconscioushas a special significance in this caseas a corrective to the one-sidedness of the consciousmind; hence theneed to observe thepoints of view and impulsesproduced in dreams, because thesemust take the place once occupied by collective controls, such

as the conventional outlook, habit, prejudices of an

intellec-tual ormoralnature The road the individual followsisdefined

byhis knowledgeof the laws that are peculiar to himself; wise he will get lost in the arbitrary opinions of the conscious

other-mind and break away from the mother-earth of individual stinct.

in-*3 So far asour presentknowledge extends, itwould seem thatthe vital urge which expresses itself in the structure and in-

dividualformofthe livingorganismproducesintheunconscious

aprocess, oris itselfsuchaprocess,which on becomingpartially

conscious depicts itself as a fugue-like sequence of images sons withnatural introspective abilityarecapableofperceivingfragments of this autonomous or self-activatingsequence with-out toomuchdifficulty, generally in theformof visualfantasies,

Per-although they often fall into the error of thinking that they

havecreated these fantasies,whereasinreality thefantasieshave merely occurred to them Their spontaneous nature can nolonger be denied, however, when, as often happens, some fan-tasy-fragment becomes an obsession, like a tune you cannot get

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPYoutofyourhead, or a phobia,or a "symbolic tic." Closerto theunconscious sequence ofimages are the dreams which, ifexam-

ined overa longseries,reveal thecontinuity of the unconscious

pictorial flood with surprising clearness The continuity Is

shown in the repetition of motifs These may deal with people,animals, objects, or situations Thus the continuity of the pic-

ture sequence finds expression in the recurrence of some suchmotif over alongseries ofdreams

14 Inadreamseriesextending over a periodoftwo months, one

of my patients had thewater-motif in twenty-sixdreams In the

first dream itappeared as the surfpoundingthe beach, then in

the second as a view of the glassy sea. In the third dream thedreamer was on the seashore watching the rain fall on thewater In thefourth there was an indirect allusion to a voyage,for he was journeying to a distant country In the fifth he wastravelling to America; in the sixth, water was poured into abasin; in the seventh he was gazing over a vast expanse of sea

at dawn; in the eighth he was aboard ship. In the ninth hetravelled to a far-off savage land In the tenth he was againaboard ship. In the eleventh he went down a river In thetwelfth he walked beside a brook In the thirteenth he was on

a steamer In the fourteenth he heard a voice calling, "This is

the way to the sea, we must get to the seal

1 *

In the fifteenth he was on a ship going to America In the sixteenth, again on a

ship.In the seventeenth he drove to the ship in an automobile

In the eighteenthhe made astronomical calculations on a ship.

In the nineteenthhe went down theRhine. In the twentieth he was on an island, and again in the twenty-first. In the twenty-second he navigated a river with his mother In the twenty-third he stood on the seashore In the twenty-fourth he lookedfor sunken treasure In the twenty-fifth his father was telling

him about the land where the water comes from And finally

in the twenty-sixth he went downa small river that debouchedinto a larger one

15 This example illustrates the continuity of the unconscioustheme and also shows how the motifs can be evaluated statis-

what the water-motif is really pointing, and the interpretation

of motifs follows from a number of similar dream-series Thus

the sea always signifies a collecting-place where all psychic life

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

originates, i.e., the collective unconscious Water in motion

means somethinglike the stream oflife or theenergy-potential.

The ideas underlying all the motifs are visual representations

of an archetypal character, symbolic primordial images which have served to build up and differentiate the human mind These primordial images are difficult to define; one might

even call them hazy. Cramping intellectualformulae rob them

of their natural amplitude They are not scientific concepts

which mustnecessarily be clear andunequivocal; they are

uni-versal perceptionsofthe primitivemind, andthey never denote

any particular content but are significant for their wealth of

associations Levy-Bruhlcallsthem "collectiverepresentations,"

and Hubert and Mausscall themapriori categories of theination

imag-16 In a longer series of dreams the motifs frequently change

places.Thus, after thelastoftheabove dreams, the water-motifgradually retreated to make way for a new motif, the "un-

women whom the dreamer knows But now and then there aredreams in which a female figure appears who cannot be shown

to be an acquaintance and whom the dream itself distinctly

characterizes as unknown This motif has an interesting

phe-nomenology which I should like to illustrate from a dream

series extending over a period of three months. In this series

the motif occurred no less thanfifty-one times At the outset it

appeared as a throng of vague female forms, then it assumed

thevague formof awomansittingon a

step She thenappeared

veiled, and when she took off the veil her face shone like thesun.Thenshewas anakedfigurestandingonaglobe, seenfrombehind After that she dissolved once more into a throng ofdancing nymphs, then into a bevy of syphilitic prostitutes. A

gave her some money. Then she was a syphilitic again. From

"dual motif," a frequent occurrence in dreams. In this series asavage woman, a Malay perhaps, is doubled She has to be

taken captive, but she is also the naked blonde who stood onthe globe, or else a young girl with a red cap, a nursemaid, or

an old woman. She is very dangerous, a member of a band and notquitehuman, somethinglikeanabstractidea.She

robber-GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

isaguide,who takes thedreamer up ahighmountain. ButsheIsalso like a bird, perhaps a marabou or pelican* She is a man-

catcher Generally she is fair-haired, a hairdresser's daughter,but has a dark Indian sister. As a fair-haired guide she in-

forms the dreamer that part of his sister's soul belongs to her.

She writes him a love-letter, but is another man's wife She

neither speaks nor is spoken to. Now she has black hair, now

white Shehas peculiar fantasies, unknown to the dreamer She

may be his father's unknown wife, but is not his mother She

travels with him in an airplane, which crashes She is a voicethat changes into a woman She tells him that she is a piece of

broken pottery, meaning presumably that she is a part-soul.Shehas abrotherwho is

prisoner in Moscow Asthedark figureshe is a servant-girl, stupid, and she has to be watched Oftenshe appears doubled, as two women who go mountain-climbing

with him On one occasion the fair-haired guide comes tohim

in a vision She brings him bread, is full of religious ideas,

knows the way he should go, meets him in church, acts as hisspiritual guide She seems to pop out of a dark chest and can

change herself from a dog into a woman Onceshe appears as

an ape. The dreamer draws her portrait in a dream, but what

comes out on the paper is an abstract symbolic ideogram taining the trinity, another frequentmotif

con-tradictory character and cannot be related to any normal

woman. She represents some fabulous being, a kind of fairy;and indeed fairies have the most varied characters There arewicked fairies and good fairies; they too can change themselvesinto animals, they can become invisible, they are of uncertain

age, nowyoung, nowold, elfin in nature, with part-souls,

allur-ing, dangerous, and possessed of superior knowledge. We shall

hardlybe wronginassumingthatthismotifisidenticalwith the

parallel ideas to be found in mythology, where we come across

this elfin creature in a variety of formsnymph, oread, sylph,undine, nixie, hamadryad, succubus, lamia, vampire, witch,and whatnot Indeed the whole world of myth and fable is an

outgrowth of unconscious fantasy just like the dream. quently this motif replaces the water-motif Just as water de-notes the unconscious in general, so the figure of the unknown

Fre-woman is a personification of the unconscious, which I have

called the "anima." This figure only occurs in men, and sheemerges clearly only when the unconscious starts to reveal its

problematical nature. In man the unconscious has feminine

features, inwoman masculine; hence inmanthe personification

of theunconsciousisafemininecreature of the typewehavejustdescribed

18 I cannot, within the compass of a lecture, describe all themotifs thatcrop up in the process ofindividuation when, that

is to

say, the material isno longer reduced to generalities

ap-plicable onlytothecollectiveman Therearenumerous motifs,

and we meet them everywhere in mythology Hence we canonly say that the psychic development of the individual pro-ducessomething that looks verylike the archaicworld offable,

andthattheindividualpathlookslikea regressiontoman's

pre-history,andthatconsequentlyitseemsasifsomethingvery ward were happening which the therapist ought to arrest. We

unto-can in fact observe similar things in psychotic illnesses, cially in the paranoid forms of schizophrenia, which oftenswarm with mythological images The fear instantlyarises that

espe-we are dealing with some misdevelopment leading to a world

of chaotic or morbidfantasy. A development of this kind may

be dangerous with a person whose social personality has not

found its feet; moreover any psychotherapeutic intervention

may occasionally run into a latent psychosis and bring it tofull flower For this reason to dabble in psychotherapy is to

play with fire, against which amateurs should be stringentlycautioned It is particularly dangerous when the mythologicallayer of the psyche is uncovered, forthese contentshave afear-ful fascination for the patient which explains the tremendousinfluence mythologicalideashave had on mankind.

19 Now, it would seem that the recuperative process mobilizesthesepowers forits ownends Mythological ideaswith their ex-traordinary symbolism evidently reach far into the human

psyche and touch the historicalfoundationswhere reason, will,

and good intentions never penetrate; for these ideas are born

of the same depths and speak a language which strikes an sweringchord in the inner man, although our reason may notunderstand it. Hence, the process that at first sight looks like

an-an alarming regression is rather a reculer pour mieux sauter,

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

an amassing and integration ofpowers that will

develop into a

new order

20 A neurosis at this level is an entirely spiritual form of

suf-feringwhich cannot be tackled with ordinaryrational methods

For thisreason there are nota few psychotherapists who, whenall else fails, have recourse to one of the established religions

orcreeds I am farfromwishingtoridicule these efforts. Onthecontrary, I mustemphasize thatthey are basedon an extremelysoundinstinct, for ourreligionscontain the still livingremains

of amythologicalage Evenapoliticalcreedmayoccasionally

re-vert to mythology, as is proved veryclearlyby the swastika, the

onlyChristianitywith its symbols ofsalvation, but allreligions,

including the primitive with their magical rituals, are forms

ofpsychotherapy which treatand heal the suffering of thesoul,

andthesuffering of the bodycaused by the soul How much inmodern medicineis still suggestion therapy isnotfor me to

say.

To putit mildly, "consideration of the psychological factor" inpractical therapeutics is by no means a bad thing. The history

ofmedicine is exceedingly revealing in thisrespect.

21 Therefore, when certain doctors resort to the mythologicalideas of some religion or other, they are doing something his-torically justified. But they can only do this with patients for

whom the mythological remains are still alive. For these

pa-tients some kind of rational therapy is indicated until suchtime as mythological ideas become a necessity. In treating de-

vout Catholics, I always refer them to the Church'sconfessionalanditsmeans ofgrace. It is more difficult in the case of Protes-

tants, who must do without confession and absolution The

more modern type of Protestantism has, however, the valve of the Oxford Group movement, which prescribes layconfession as a substitute, and group experience instead of ab-solution A numberof my patients have joined this movement

safety-with my entire approval, just as others have become Catholics,

or at least better Catholics than they were before In all these

cases I refrain from applying the dialectical procedure, sincethere isno point inpromoting individualdevelopment beyondthe needs of the patient. Ifhe can find the meaning of his life

and thecurefor hisdisquietanddisunitywithin theframework

of an existing credo including a political credo that should

16

OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

be enough for the doctor After all, the doctor's main concern

is thesick, not the cured

22 There are, however, very many patientswhohave either noreligious convictions at all or highly unorthodox ones Such

persons are, on principle, not open to any conviction All

ra-tional therapy leaves themstuck where they were, although onthe face of it their illness is quite curable. In these circum-stances nothing is left but the dialectical development of the

mythological material which is alive in the sick man himself,regardless of historyandtradition It isherethatwe comeacross

those mythological dreams whose characteristic sequence of

imagespresents thedoctorwith anentirelynew and unexpected

pro-fessional studies have not equipped him in the least. For the

human psycheis neithera psychiatric nor aphysiological lem; it is not a biological problem at all but precisely a psy-chological one It is a field on its own with its own peculiar

prob-laws Itsnature cannot be deduced fromtheprinciples of othersciences without doing violence to the idiosyncrasy of thepsyche Itcannot beidentified with the brain,orthe hormones,

or any known instinct; for better or worse it must be accepted

psyche contains more than the measurable facts of the ural sciences: it embraces the problem of mind, the father of

nat-all science The psychotherapist becomes acutely aware of thiswhen heisdriven topenetrate belowthe level ofaccepted opin-

ion It is often objected that people have practised therapy before now and did not find it necessary to go into all

psycho-these complications I readily admit that Hippocrates, Galen,

andParacelsus were excellent doctors, butI do notbelieve thatmodern medicineshouldon thataccountgive up serumtherapyand radiology. It is no doubt difficult, particularly for the lay-

man, to understand the complicated problems of apy; but ifhe will justconsider for amoment whycertain situ-

psychother-ations in life or certain experiences are pathogenic, he willdiscover that human opinion often plays a decisive part. Cer-tain things accordinglyseem dangerous, or impossible, orharm-

ful, simply because there are opinions that cause them to

ap-pear in that light. For instance, many people regard wealth asthe supreme happiness and poverty as man's greatest curse, al-

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

though in actual fact riches never brought supreme happiness

toanybody,noris

povertyareasonformelancholia/But we havethese opinions, and these opinions are rooted in certain mentalpreconceptions in the Zeitgeist,or in certain religious or anti-

religious views Theselast playan importantpartin moral

con-flicts. As soon as the analysis of a

patient's psychic situationimpinges on the area of his mental preconceptions, we have al-

ready entered the realm of general ideas The fact that dozens

of normal people never criticize their mental

preconceptions-obviously not, since they are unconscious of themdoes notprove that these preconceptions are valid for all men, or in-

deedunconscious forall men, any more than itproves that they

maynot become the source of theseverest moral conflict. Quitethe contrary: in our age of revolutionary change, inheritedprejudices ofa general nature on the one hand and spiritual

and moraldisorientation on the other are very often the lying causes of far-reaching disturbances in psychic equili-

deeper-brium To these patients the doctor has absolutely nothing tooffer but the possibility of individual development And fortheir sake the specialist is compelled to extend his knowledge

over the field of the humane sciences, if he is to do justice tothe symbolism of psychic contents

I would make myself guilty of a sin of omission if I were

to foster the impression that specialized therapy needed ing but a wide knowledge. Quite as important is the moraldifferentiation of the doctor's personality Surgery and obstet-rics have long been aware that it is not enough simply to washthe patientthe doctor himself must have clean hands A neu-

noth-rotic psychotherapist will invariably treat his own neurosis inthe patient. A therapy independent of the doctor's personality

is justconceivablein the sphere of rational techniques, but it isquite inconceivable in a dialecticalprocedure where the doctormust emerge from his anonymity and give an account of him-

self, justas he expects his patient to do. I do not know which

re-nounce one's professional authority and anonymity. At all

events the latter necessity involves a moral strain that makesthe profession of psychotherapist not exactly an enviable one

Among laymen one frequently meets with the prejudice thatpsychotherapy is the easiest thing in the world and consists in

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

the art of putting something over on people or wheedling

moneyoutofthem Butactually it isa trickyand not

undanger-ous calling. Just as all doctors are exposed to infections andother occupationalhazards, so the psychotherapist runs the risk

of psychic infections which are no less menacing On the one

hand he isoften in danger of getting entangled in the neuroses

of his patients; on the other hand if he tries too hard to guardagainst their influence, he robs himself of his therapeutic ef- ficacy. Between thisScyllaand this Charybdis lies the peril, but

also the healing power

corre-sponding to the diversities of the patients requiring treatment

The simplest cases are those who just want sound common

sense and good advice With luck they can be disposed of in asingle consultation This is certainlynot to say that caseswhichlook simple are always as simple as they look; one is apt to

make disagreeable discoveries Then there are patients for

whoma thorough confessionor "abreaction"is enough The

se-verer neuroses usually require a reductive analysis of theirsymptoms andstates.Andhereoneshould not apply thisorthatmethod indiscriminately but, according to the nature of the

case, shouldconduct the analysis more alongthe linesofFreud

or more alongthose of Adler St. Augustine distinguishes twocardinal sins: concupiscence and conceit (superbia). The first

corresponds to Freud'spleasure principle, thesecond to Adler'spower-drive, the desire to be on top. There are in fact twocategories of people with different needs. Those whose main

characteristic is infantile pleasure-seeking generally have the

satisfaction ofincompatible desires and instincts more at heartthan the social role'they could play, hence they are often well-to-do or even successful people who have arrived socially. Butthosewho wanttobe "ontop" aremostly peoplewhoare eitherthe under-dogs inrealityor fancythattheyare not playing therole that is properly due to them Hence they often have diffi-

culty in adapting themselves socially and try to cover up their

inferiority with power fictions. One can of course explain all

neuroses in Freudian or Adlerian terms, but in practice it is

better to examine the case carefully beforehand In the case

of educated people the decision is not difficult: I advise them

to read abit of Freud and a bit of Adler As a rule they soon

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPYfind out which o the two suits them best So long as one is

movingin the sphere of genuine neurosis one cannot dispensewith the views of either Freud or Adler

25 But when the thing becomes monotonous and you begin

to getrepetitions, and your unbiased judgment tells you that a

standstill has been reached, or when mythological or typal" contents appear, then is the time to give up the analyti-

"arche-cal-reductive method and to treat the symbols anagogically or

synthetically, which is equivalent to the dialectical procedure

and the way of individuation

26 All methods of influence, including the analytical, requirethat the patient be seen as often as possible I content myself

with a maximum of four consultations a week With the ginningof synthetic treatment it is of advantage to spread outthe consultations I then generally reduce them to one or two

be-hours a week, for the patient must learn to go his own way.

This consists in his trying to understand his dreams himself,

so that the contents of the unconscious may be progressivelyarticulated with the conscious mind; for the cause of neurosis

is the discrepancybetween the consciousattitude and the trend

of theunconscious This dissociation is bridgedby the tion ofunconscious contents Hence the interval between con-sultationsdoesnot go unused In thisway onesaves oneselfandthe patient a good deal of time, which is so much money to

assimila-him; and at the same time he learns to stand on his own feet

instead of clingingto the doctor

27 The work done by the patient through the progressive

as-similation of unconscious contents leads ultimately to the

in-tegration ofhispersonalityand henceto the removalofthe

neu-rotic dissociation To describe the details of this development

would far exceed the limits of a lecture I must therefore rest

content with having given you at least a general survey of theprinciples ofpracticalpsychotherapy*

WHAT IS PSYCHOTHERAPY?1

28 It is not so very long ago that fresh air, application of coldwater, and "psychotherapy" were all recommended in the samebreath by well-meaning doctors in cases mysteriously compli-cated by psychic symptoms On closer examination "psycho-

therapy" meant a sort of robust, benevolently paternal advicewhich sought to persuade the patient, after the manner ofDubois, that the symptom was "only psychic" and therefore amorbid fancy.

29 It is not to be denied that advice may occasionally do somegood, but advice is about as characteristic of modern psycho-

therapyasbandagingofmodernsurgery thatisto say, personaland authoritarian influence is an important factor in healing,but not by any means the onlyone, andin nosense does itcon-

stitutethe essence ofpsychotherapy.Whereasformerlyitseemed

to be everybody's province, today psychotherapy has become ascience and uses the scientific method With our deepened understanding of the nature of neuroses and the psychic com-plications of bodily ills, the nature of the treatment, too, has

undergoneconsiderablechange and differentiation The earliersuggestion theory, according to which symptoms had to be

suppressed by counteraction, was superseded by the analytical viewpoint of Freud, who realized that the cause ofthe illness was not removed with the suppression of the symp-

psycho-tom andthatthesymptom wasfarmoreakindof signpost

point-ing, directly or indirectly, to the cause This novel attitudewhich has been generally accepted for the last thirty years orsocompletely revolutionized therapy because, in contradic-tion to suggestion therapy, it required that, the causes be brought to consciousness.

l

[First published as "Was ist die Psychotherapie?/' Schweizerische Aerztezeitung fur Standesfragen,XVI: 26 (June, 1935),335-39 EDITORS.]

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

30 Suggestion therapy (hypnosis, etc.) was not lightly

aban-donedit was abandoned only because its results were so

un-satisfactory Itwasfairlyeasyandpractical to apply,andallowed

skilled practitioners to treat a large number of patients at thesame time, and this at least seemed to offer the hopeful begin-nings of a lucrative method. Yet the actual cures were exceed-ingly sparse andso unstable that even the delightful possibility

of simultaneous mass treatment could no longer save it. Butfor that, both the practitioner and the health insurance of- ficerwould have had everyinterest in retainingthis method. It

perished, however, of its own insufficiency.

3* Freud's demand that the causes be made conscious has come the leitmotiv or basic postulate of all the more recentforms ofpsychotherapy Psychopathological research duringthe

be-last fifty years has proved beyond all

possibility of doubt thatthe most important aetiological processes in neurosis are essen-

the makingconscious ofaetiological facts or processes is a

cura-tive factor of far greater practical importance than suggestion.Accordingly in the course of the last twenty-five or thirty yearsthere has occurred over the whole field of psychotherapy a

swing away from direct suggestion in favour of all forms oftherapy whose common standpointis the raising to conscious-ness of the causes thatmake for illness.

32 As already indicated, the change of treatment went hand

in handwith a profounder and more highly differentiated

the-ory of neurotic disturbance. So longas treatmentwas restricted

to suggestion, it could content itself with the merest skeleton

of a theory.People thoughtitsufficient toregard neurotic tomsas the "fancies" ofan overwrought imagination, and from

symp-this view the therapy followed easily enough, the object ofwhich was simply to suppress those products of imaginationthe "imaginary" symptoms But what people thought theycould nonchalantly write off as "imaginary" is only one mani-

festationofa morbidstate thatis positivelyprotean in its

symp-tomatology No soonerisone symptomsuppressed than another

is there The core of the disturbance had notbeen reached

33 Under the influence of Breuer and Freud the so-called

"trauma" theory of neuroses held the field for a long time.Doctors tried to make the patient conscious of the original