In 1948, the C. G. Jung Institute Zurich was founded with the cooperation of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.

His Analytical Psychology and Psychotherapy belong to the psychodynamic therapies, which attach great importance to the unconscious.

To the idea of the personal unconscious, Jung added the concept of the collective unconscious. In this he recognized the primeval imprinting and basic patterns of human life which he called “archetypes” and which are depicted, for example, in myths and fairy tales. These basic patterns give rise to the development of complexes which mirror our individual relationship experiences as well as personal experiences and anchor them in our memories.

Jung’s theory of complexes helps us to understand personality development, relationship conflicts and psychological maladjustmentes and, on this basis, to treat them psychotherapeutically. Jungian psychotherapy promotes the development of one’s own resources and regards a psychic problem as a challenge to a real personal development, a process Jung called “individuation”.

In practical psychotherapeutic work, the interpretation of dreams, typology, pictures, sandplay and active imagination are very important for an understanding of conscious and unconscious psychic processes. The purpose and aim of working with the unconscious is to get in touch with the soul and with one’s individual creative possibilities. On this basis, Jungian psychology and psychotherapy touches upon questions of meaning and of spirituality.

The transcultural orientation of Jung’s work makes for an richer interdisciplinary exchange which is capable of exploring answers to the challenges of a globalized world and of multicultural societies. This aspect in particular makes Analytical Psychology increasingly relevant in the context of the modern world.