Carl Jung: “She was the foundation of my house” — Emma Rauschenbach Jung

She was the foundation of my house.



Carl Jung

A man’s foremost interest should be his work. But [for] a woman, man is her work and her business. Yes, I know it sounds like a convenient philosophy of the selfish male when I say that. But marriage means a home. And home is like a nest- not enough room for both birds at once. One sits inside, the other perches on the edge and looks about and attends to all outside business.



Carl Jung, in Men, Women, and God (C.G. Jung Speaking, 1955)

It is a bit surprising to me that there has not been a biography of Emma Jung, given her pivotal role in Jung’s life. (One of the reviewers of Deirdre Bair’s even-handed book about Jung [Jung: A Biography]commented that the biggest flaw in the book was that it did not have enough about Emma Jung.)

From Wikipedia:

The couple met when she was sixteen years old (some sources say fifteen) and he was twenty one. They were married on 14 February 1903 (Valentine’s Day) seven years after they first met. Together they had five children: Agathe, Gret, Franz, Marianne and Helene.

In 1906, a variety of Carl Jung’s unusual dreams of the period were interpreted by Freud as portending the “failure of a marriage for money” (das Scheitern einer Geldheirat).

Emma Jung took a strong interest in her husband’s work and became a noted analyst in her own right. She developed a particular interest in the Grail legend. She was a psychoanalyst before they married, although her “independence” of him in this field is strongly contested. She was also in regular correspondence of her own with Sigmund Freud.

When Emma died Carl Jung carved a stone in her name, “She was the foundation of my house.” He is also said to have cried “She was a queen! She was a queen!” (Sie war eine Königin! Sie war eine Königin!) while mourning for her. The inscription Jung put on Emma’s grave was “Oh vase, sign of devotion and obedience.”

Emma Jung and Family 1917

Links About Emma Jung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Jung

http://www.answers.com/topic/jung-rauschenbach-emma

http://www.jungatlanta.com/articles/winter06-the-grail-legend.pdf

3 Comments

  1. Do you know of a picture of Analyst Frieda Stern with either Carl Jung and/or Toni Wolff or others? Frieda studied and trained with both, and then opened a practice in NYC.

  2. There is such a book which is actually what lead me here. It’s called “Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis” by Catrine Clay — it’s absolutely fascinating.

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