Chapter 17 The Freud–Jung Break: Reflections and Revisions in the Light of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology

This chapter examines the Freud–Jung relationship in the light of Kohut's self psychology. We believe that the Freud–Jung break was an unnecessary tragedy for the field of depth psychology and that much has been lost because of the continuation of misunderstandings and hostility that has been the legacy of their personal battle. The resulting cold war has been continued by their followers as though it were a personal quarrel or a family feud, as if duty or allegiance to the founder somehow required his adherents to continue his enmity. This situation has several roots. It has been partly the result of misunderstanding or simple ignorance of the actual work of these thinkers, partly the result of a tradition of prejudice fostered by training institutes, and partly because of Jung's alleged antisemitism, which has clouded debate about the technical differences between Freud and Jung. This split is worse in the United States than it is in Europe, where there is often contact between Jungians and Freudians. The authors, although trained primarily in the Jungian tradition, both value and utilize post-Freudian concepts in their work, especially those of psychoanalytic self psychology and British object relations theory. We find, however, that although there is widespread acceptance of these ideas in the Jungian community, the reverse is not true; most therapists trained