The State of Psychotherapy Today

This essay by Jung was published for the first time in Leipzig in 1934. Ever since, it has been a source of bitter controversy. Jung criticizes the compartmentalization of the schools and their dogmatism. He demonstrates the fact that psychotherapy is less a matter of “technique” than of encounter, confrontation, and interaction between two people. He reiterates his insistence that any psychotherapist be psychoanalyzed himself initially, and the crucial importance of counter transference and transference. He then presents and discusses the theories of Freud and Adler, accentuating the complexity of the infantile. From there, in criticizing Freud, he points out the differences he sees between the unconscious of the Jews and the “Aryan unconscious”. Lastly, he insists on the “realization potential” inherent to any neurosis.