Book Description

In March of 1911, Jung, Freud and Havelock Ellis were introduced to a Dr. Andrew Davidson, the Secretary of the Section of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, to submit papers to be read at the Congress in Sydney in September 1911. This is a translation of the transcript of that speech. The Complex Theory is one of Carl Jung's fundamental contributions to psychology. This theory revolves around the idea that certain emotionally charged experiences or groups of ideas, which Jung referred to as complexes, can unconsciously influence an individual's behavior, thoughts, and emotions. These complexes often stem from past traumatic or significant experiences, typically in early childhood, that leave a lasting imprint on the psyche. Jung’s complex theory laid the foundation for much of modern depth psychology and psychoanalysis. This edition is a new translation with an Afterword by the Translator, a philosophic index of Jung's terminology and a timeline of his life and works. Jung respects Prince as a capable researcher with significant achievements in psychopathology, particularly in dissociative states, which earned him recognition in both Europe and the United States​. Prince applied his analytic method to six dreams of a patient with dissociative identity disorder, utilizing both hypnosis and free association. While Prince acknowledged Freud's genius in uncovering that dreams are not random, but instead have an underlying logical structure, Prince disputed Freud's theory that dreams universally represent wish-fulfillment. In some cases, Prince found that dreams expressed fears or frustrations rather than the fulfillment of desires​​. Jung, however, points out a fundamental flaw in Prince's analysis. According to Jung, Prince confused the manifest content of the dreams with their latent content. While Prince viewed some dreams as reflecting fears, Jung insisted that even these could be interpreted as wish-fulfillment, particularly through the lens of Freudian dream interpretation. For example, Jung argued that a dream where the patient is attacked or in distress might reflect a deeper unconscious desire for attention or care, a need fulfilled by the dream despite its seemingly negative content​.