Carl Gustav Jung and his Biographical, Philosophical, and Psychoanalytic Journe

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the influences on Carl Gustav Jung that shaped his biographical, philosophical, and psychoanalytic journey, as well as the relationship between elements present in Jung's theory of the human psyche and the theories of contemporary philosophers. Jung drew upon personal experiences to form his theory of the psyche. However, these were complemented by numerous other influences that are directly or indirectly present in his psychological approach. In its early development, philosophy united a series of other areas of knowledge in its reflective analysis, which in modernity gradually gained epistemological autonomy. Psychology is one of these. Jung was influenced by several thinkers. In Freud, we find the elements that underpin the existence of other structures of the psyche that coexist with consciousness. With these analyses, we intend to demonstrate that analytical psychology, as Jung's school of psychology became known, was profoundly influenced by philosophy. In Kant, we find references to a priori categories that compose the human psyche and how it perceives reality. In Nietzsche, we find elements related to a behavioral nature of a communal character, from which individuals make their choices based on categories present in a given social group. In Darwin, we find elements that allow us to understand the existence of basic genetic forms that are not modified by the process of adaptation to reality.