Book summary

Deirdre Bair's well-researched and thorough biography of Carl Jung does not neglect the more controversial aspects of his career, including his quarrel with Freud in 1913; his acceptance of the presidency of the General Medical Society for Psychotherapy in 1933 in Germany after the Nazi takeover; and persistent accusations of anti-Semitism.

Media reviews

"Bair is less interested in the content of Jung's ideas than in his life, which is just as well. Many of Jung's intellectual passions--alchemy, phrenology, astrology. U.F.O.'s--are as woolly and suspect as his life story is vivid and dramatic....Bair's stated goal is to rise above the fray and answer the questions most often posed about Jung: Was he an anti-Semite: Was he a womanizer? Was his psychological theory a form of religion? She largely succeeds....Bair has presented a balanced, full-blooded portrait of a tremendously flawed and divisive figure."