On Jung’s “anti-Semitism”

By Gustav Dreifuss

Much is and has been written on the subject, very often from book-knowledge only. I met Jung for the first time in 1948, in the Psychological Club of Zurich. Later, while studying at the Jung-Institute in Zurich, I heard a few lectures by him and met him personally. In 1952 and 1953 I had two analytical hours with him.

When reading the “The Relationship between the Ego and the Unconscious”, which was first published in 1934, I was taken aback by Jung’s remark on a Jewish Psychology in contradistinction to other psychologies. This was at a time, when the Nazis were already in power. How was such a statement possible by a famous Swiss psychiatrist, I asked myself?

And then I heard about Jung’s cooperation with the Nazis in 1933/34.

How come that this great psychologist was so fascinated by the Nazi movement that he could not see the shadow of this trend in those critical years? I could explain this only by his personal psychology, being the son of a pastor and by his concern with Christianity. He was evidently fascinated by German mythology. This was a relatively early Jung, which only partially reduces the graveness of his misjudgment. Later, he related to this period by saying that he “slipped”, which was of course an understatement.

In order to clarify the issue, I talked to the following prominent Jewish Jungian analysts, who had fled from Nazi Germany and worked with Jung in those crucial years: Erich Neumann, Gerhard Adler and James Kirsch. They were victims of the Nazi persecution and I am sure they could not have worked with and learned from Jung, “the anti-Semite”. I also discussed the matter with my friends Sigmund Hurwitz, Aniela Jaffe and Rivkah Schaerf Kluger, prominent Jungians, who had worked with Jung and knew him well.

I am convinced that they would have left Jung had they experienced him as an anti-Semite.

To end this short personal statement I want to stress the fact that my personal analysis and my studies have helped me to “find myself” and to work as a Jungian therapist in Israel for over 40 years. Here I was able to help many victims who had suffered from Nazi persecution. The religious dimension of Jungian psychology, the dreams serving as a guideline, has given my personal life a spiritual and creative content.

(These lines have been written at the age of 79, in the year 2000.)

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