The Theory of Psychoanalysis

In 1913, Carl Jung broke from Sigmund Freud in what would become one of the most consequential intellectual ruptures of the twentieth century. This book is the record of that rupture: Jung's systematic critique of Freudian psychoanalysis and his articulation of an alternative vision of the human psyche. Here Jung challenges Freud's theory of libido as purely sexual, disputes the centrality of infantile sexuality, and argues that Freud's emphasis on repression obscures the creative, generative nature of the unconscious. The text pulses with the energy of a thinker who had absorbed his mentor's framework thoroughly enough to shatter it. Jung was not merely disagreeing with Freud; he was building the foundations of analytical psychology while demolishing what he saw as Freud's reductionism. The work is essential reading for understanding how modern psychology fractured into competing schools, and why Jung's concept of the collective unconscious, archetypes, and individuation still resonate a century later. For anyone curious about the roots of therapeutic practice, the history of ideas, or the drama of intellectual rebellion, this book reveals the moment psychology became aplurality rather than a monolith.