Emma Jung

Emma Jung (née Emma Rauschenbach, 1882-1955) was wife to the famous psychologist Carl Jung for fifty two years. She came from an old Swiss-German family of wealthy industrialists; later, that wealth gave Carl financial freedom to pursue his own work and interests. They met when she was sixteen years old (some sources say fifteen) and he was twenty one. Carl and Emma were married on February 14, 1903 (Valentine's Day) just seven years after they first met. She bore him five children.

In 1906, various of Carl's strange dreams of the period were interpreted by Freud as portending the "failure of a marriage for money" (das Scheitern einer Geldheirat).

Emma took a strong interest in her husband's work, and became a noted psychologist 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 too was in regular correspondence of her own with Sigmund Freud.

Sometime around the birth of her fifth and last child, in 1914, Carl began a relationship with a young patient, Toni Wolff, that lasted for decades. Deidre Bair (Carl Jung's biographer) describes Emma bearing up nobly as Jung insisted that Toni become part of their household, saying Toni was "his other wife." Wolff tried to persuade Carl to divorce Emma, but this did not come to pass. He also had an affair with Sabina Spielrein.

When she died Carl 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.


 * Quote:"The real thinking of woman is pre-eminently practical and applied. It is something we describe as sound common sense, and is usually directed to what is close at hand and personal. In general, it can be said that feminine mentality manifests an undeveloped, childlike, or primitive character; instead of the thirst for knowledge, curiosity; instead of judgment, prejudice; instead of thinking, imagination or dreaming; instead of will, wishing. Where a man takes up objective problems, a woman contents herself with solving riddles; where he battles for knowledge and understanding, she contents herself with faith or superstition, or else she makes assumptions."

References and further reading

 * Emma Jung. Animus and Anima. Continuum International Publishing Group. Reprint edition, 1985. ISBN 0-88214-301-8.
 * Bair, Deirdre Jung: A Biography

External link

 * C. G. Jungs drei "Hauptfrauen"