They were supposed to change the world together. • One became the father of psychoanalysis. • One became the father of the unconscious. They started as mentor and disciple. They ended as rivals. And the split still echoes through psychology today. 🧵
Around 1906, a young Swiss psychiatrist named Carl Jung sent a copy of his research to the legendary Sigmund Freud. Freud was impressed. Finally, someone who understood his revolutionary theories on dreams and the unconscious. He wrote back immediately.
When they met in person for the first time, they talked for 13 hours straight. Freud was 50. Jung was 30. To Freud, Jung was more than a protégé—he was a symbol: • Charismatic • Protestant • Non-Jewish Freud believed Jung could legitimize psychoanalysis in elite European
Freud called Jung his “heir.” He even sent him a key to his private study in Vienna. Jung called Freud “a father figure.” He said: “To me, he was the only authority, and I believed in him.” But that belief wouldn’t last.
The cracks started early. And the root was simple: belief. Freud believed that sexual repression was the root of nearly all neuroses. Jung disagreed. He thought the human psyche was more complex—deeper, older, even spiritual. The final break came in 1912. Jung, on Freud
Jung published “Symbols of Transformation”—a direct challenge to Freud’s views. He suggested that myths, dreams, and symbols pointed to a collective unconscious shared by all humans.
Freud was livid. They exchanged bitter letters. Freud accused Jung of mystical nonsense. Jung accused Freud of scientific dogma. Freud: “You are defending yourself like a man possessed.” Jung: “I am simply trying to follow the psyche, wherever it leads.”
In one famous letter, Jung predicted the truth: "The whole world will throw stones at me, but I will survive." He was right. He lost friends, status, and Freud’s support… But he built something Freud never could: A psychology of meaning.
Freud saw the mind as a battlefield of urges. Jung saw it as a labyrinth of symbols. Freud dug into sexual stages. Jung reached for myth and archetype. Freud wanted to diagnose and pathologize. Jung wanted to make whole.
Freud died in 1939. Jung in 1961. They never reconciled. But today, psychology owes much to both. Freud gave us the first tools to understand trauma. Jung gave us the language to explore the soul.
Two men. Two visions of the mind. One historic rupture. But without their split— We might never have found the full depth of what it means to be human. Dr. Aaron Balick
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@DrBobBeare @MindTendencies2 I am a trained Jungian analyst. I always thought it was too bad that Freud and Jung had to split up. Even greater things could have happened if they had collaborated more than they had. It is sad to me that most people do not want to do analysis because of the work and time
@Garrettk6 @MindTendencies2 Good to hear from a Jungian analyst - the true path for healers in the west. Thanks for this. Agreed.
@DrBobBeare Some stories in psychology aren’t just about ideas, they’re about the human ego, power, and the cost of breaking away from your teacher.
@ShadowWorkPro Breaking away from the teacher, and the tiny cultural boxes.
@DrBobBeare Competition brings more growth than comfort. A friend and I had one deep argument that changed how we saw everything. We grew apart, but we also grew faster.
@E_Mathias_Loli Wise
@DrBobBeare @Woodywoman Some disagreements are necessary for evolutionary expansion. Pain opens us up. As Freud would quip, "it's an unconscious repressed sexual urge that became guilt, and Jung wound respond, "let's examine the shadows you hide" 🫢
@alicia_budhram @Woodywoman Ha, so true… That's why Jung's work is embedded in 12 step Recovery… Let's examine what's underneath what we think we know.
@DrBobBeare Even Wilhelm Reich suffered the same fate. In his case, Freud said he placed too much attention on Sexuality. After Reich finished writing The Function of the Orgasm, he sent the manuscripts to Freud. He was disappointed when Freud remarked, "So thick?!"
@VOCALCHORD99 Hi, good one. I have a thread on Reich coming out next week :-)
@DrBobBeare founder–mentor breakups can shape entire industries, not just companies.
@16vchq Yes. True then. True now.
@DrBobBeare Two visions collided, yet from the fracture came clarity. Their disagreement wasn’t loss—it was the soil where understanding grew.
@WorkuHaile6 Rich soil
@DrBobBeare It is so well summarised! A brilliant thread. Thank you for sharing.
@Highlands86_91 Thanks much