C. G. Jung's First ‘Patient’: On the Seminal Emergence of Jung's Thought

C. G. Jung's first published work was his doctoral dissertation for the M.D. degree at the University of Basel. It is entitled ‘On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena’ and was published in 1902 (JUNG 3). It is a confusing work to read, for it is couched in the psychiatric terminology of the turn of the century. But the main thrust is Jung's investigation of the then quite prevalent phenomena of hysterical altered states of consciousness and dissociation which went by the terms of ‘narcolepsy, lethargy, automatisme ambulatoire, periodic amnesia, double consciousness, somnambulism, pathological dreaminess, pathological lying, etc.’ (Ibid. p. 3). Jung approached this by carefully observing and describing in detail a series of séance sessions in which a young woman medium underwent dramatic episodes of somnambulism, double consciousness and automatic behaviours. Jung refers to this subject frequently as a ‘patient’ and gave her the pseudonym of ‘Miss S. W.’.

In actuality she was a cousin of Jung's, Hélène Preiswerk, or ‘Helly’. Jung's mother was the sister of Helly's father, both being the offspring of Samuel and Augusta Preiswerk-Faber. In his dissertation Jung states that the séances took place during and , when Helly was fifteen and a half years old. However, there is a contemporary account of these sessions written by Stefanie Zumstein-Preiswerk, the daughter of Helly's older brother (ZUMSTEIN-PREISWERK 10).* According to this account, Jung himself in as a nineteen-year-old first-year medical student helped to organise these sessions with his then thirteen-year-old cousin serving as medium in order to pursue his profound curiosity about occult and spiritualistic matters. Helly had fourteen siblings,