In Pursuit of First Principles1

In Opposition to those who say that the patient cames first and that too much theory is to be distrusted, I do not intend to discuss patients and treatment, i.e. problems with which the analytical psychologist is confronted in his practical work (though reference will be made to them). Rather do I want to point out what the ideas are that we bring into psychology when making our observations, descriptions, and arrangements of the data. I want, if I can, to look at my prejudices without prejudice, with a view to selecting the prejudices that are least objectionable. In this respect this paper may be called ‘programmatic’ in that it aims at demonstrating how the psychological data ‘make sense’, the task of the theoretician and thinker (Hyman, 1964, p. 4). It is maintained here that certain assumptions are necessary prerequisites without which it is impossible to make the necessary and appropriate observations. These in their turn prove or disprove the assumptions. Experiences in the analytical situation can then be used to determine the validity and consistency, as well as the heuristic value, of the theory on which treatment must necessarily be based. Believing as I do that it is our duty to examine carefully the assumptions we bring into treatment I will concern myself with theory, that is, with the questions of what analytical psychology ‘is’ and what the material that underlies the symptoms is, which we as therapists have to handle.

A long time ago I read in Dante's Inferno (Dante, tr. 1949, pp. 86, 89, Canto III) that in the Vestibule of Upper Hell dwell the wretched spirits whose lives knew neither praise nor infamy, angels who rebelled not, nor were bold for God, to self and to self only true. These are creatures who, in my own words, refuse to commit themselves. Those lines made a deep impression on me, and that I must commit, that is, pledge, bind myself to certain ideas is an ethical precept that has never left me. Those ideas are not derived from analytical