Freud & Jung: A Dual Introduction

by Anthony Storr & Anthony Stevens

These critical introductions from Oxford University Press's distinguished Past Masters series present the essential features of two of the most important and complementary bodies of thought in the twentieth century. In this accessible format, the lives and works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung can be approached easily and confidently.

Anthony Storr's Freud is an elegant study that guides the reader through exciting but entangling terrain. The core of our understanding of the significance of sexuality, dreams, repression, and taboo in the formation of personality are in large part the result of Freud's pioneering work. Storr's explorations of the development and change in Freud's theories are devoid of textbook rigidities and academic clichés. His perception, wit, and mastery of his material illuminate his subject, bringing to the surface those aspects of Freud's development and work which have often been glossed over if not virtually ignored.

Anthony Stevens's Jung introduces the reader to the work of this second great innovator in the field of psychology. The author's deft handling of even the most subtle refinements of Jung's oeuvre make it comprehensible to the reader.

Unlike his science-minded mentor Freud, Jung was, to a significant degree, a visionary and a mystic whose bold incursions into the arcane have sometimes served to frighten away potential readers. Often considered too murky, convoluted, and erudite for a general audience, Jung's mammoth output becomes, in this introduction, more readily apprehended.

About the Author(s):

Anthony Storr is a medical doctor and a trained psychoanalyst. He has taught at Oxford University, and is Emeritus Fellow of Green College, Oxford. He is the author of many books on the history and practice of psychoanalysis.

Anthony Stevens is a distinguished Jungian analyst. A graduate of Oxford University, he has written several books on the subjects of archetypes, myth, and dreams.

"I have always felt that there is something about my personality, my ideas and manner of speaking, that people find strange and repellent, whereas all hearts open to you. If a healthy man like you regards himself as an hysterical type, I can only claim for myself the 'obsessional' type, each specimen of which vegetates in a sealed-off world of his own."
—Sigmund Freud, in a letter to Carl Jung September 2, 1907