Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis - Hardcover

Clay, Catrine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007510667 ISBN 13: 9780007510665

Publisher: William Collins, 2016

Synopsis

Long overshadowed by her husband, Emma Jung was a resourceful and intelligent woman who became a noted practitioner of psychoanalysis and made significant contributions to the early development of the movement. This book follows the twists and turns of the Jungs personal and professional lives together, from the penniless doctors first meeting with the teenage heiress, through the years when his numerous affairs and complex personality tested the marriage, to their achievement of greater harmony and understanding.

About this title

Review:

‘Clay navigates the maze-like story with perspicacity and ease ... It's a gripping story of two talented individuals, their fascinating, often troubled, but ultimately enduring partnership, and how together they shaped the brave new world of psychoanalysis’ Observer

‘Clay remains a clear, unostentatious narrator ... Emma's voice – as well as her insight and daring – is loud and clear ... admirable’ Daily Telegraph

‘Clay's book is a warm-hearted tribute to Emma's wisdom and tenacity’ Sunday Times

‘Labyrinths finally gives a voice to Emma ... Clay's story is riveting because the patients’ stories are so gripping ... Clay creates a wonderful atmosphere in her writing and ... negotiates the labyrinth with aplomb’ The Times

‘Catrine Clay's absorbing new biography charts the twists and turns in some of the key lives involved in that historical moment, in particular those of Emma Jung and her more famous husband Carl’ Financial Times

‘Engaging ... acute ... For Clay, Emma Jung's quiet growth to dominance over the psychoanalytic establishment her husband had constructed seems the more significant’ Literary Review

‘This book will fascinate you’ Psychologies magazine

From the Back Cover:

Emma was clever, attractive, and wealthy, one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland, when, at age seventeen, she met and fell in love with Carl Jung, a brilliant but penniless doctor working in a lunatic asylum. Determined to share his adventurous life and to continue her own studies, she was too young to understand Carl's complex personality, which was laden with secrets, or to conceive what dramas lay ahead.

Labyrinths tells the story of Emma and Carl's unconventional marriage, their friendship and subsequent rift with Sigmund Freud, and their contribution to the development of psychoanalysis. In its many twists and turns, the Jung marriage was indeed labyrinthine, and Emma was forced to fight with everything she had to keep her husband close to her. Carl's belief in polygamy led to many affairs, including a menage a trois with a former patient, Toni Wolff, that lasted some thirty years. But as Emma came to understand her husband better, the marriage thrived, and finally, always encouraged by Carl, Emma emerged to become a noted analyst in her own right.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0007510667
• ISBN 13: 9780007510665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416