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“To depict some of the ‘key’ aspects of Jung's work in the setting of his personality” is Dr Bennet's aim. The short opening chapter of this book is in many ways typical of the whole. Rapidly and graphically it sketches in the psychiatric scene at the time of Jung's entry, challenges later criticisms of his thought, and through anecdote and description gives us glimpses of Jung, the man, through a friendly eye. It is followed by a chapter on Jung's childhood and youth which depends for some of its content on memories confided to the author by Jung in the later stages of their relationship. This chapter fascinates. The factual details of family background and upbringing are interesting enough, but the analyst-reader is likely to be caught by the account of two dreams (from the ages of four and twelve) and of other early symbolical experiences. Each will speculate in his own way about the content of these, but it is Jung's attitude towards them which impresses most, giving a glimpse of his destiny.
An adequate account of the Burgholzli period is followed by the chapter “Jung and Freud: Hail and Farewell”. This is an important contribution to the considerable literature that has gathered about the story of Jung's contact with Freud, their few years of collaboration, and the schism which still reverberates after forty years. From Bennet's account this was foreshadowed at their first, thirteen-hour, talk, which Jung found “A mixture of expectation and disappointment”. Bennet focuses mainly on the contrasts in personality between these two great thinkers, with occasional flashes to the power-problems of Freud's followers and the politics of the psycho-analytic movement, and some reference to fundamental theoretical differences. He hints at the way in which the split with Freud led Jung to his researches into typology, records that Freud answered his question about the breach (put in 1932) by saying very quietly “Jung was a great loss”, and ends with reference to, and furth