Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis

by Catrine Clay

Overview

 A sensational, eye-opening account of Emma Jung’s complex marriage to Carl Gustav Jung and the hitherto unknown role she played in the early years of the psychoanalytic movement.

Clever and ambitious, Emma Jung yearned to study the natural sciences at the University of Zurich. But the strict rules of proper Swiss society at the beginning of the twentieth century dictated that a woman of Emma’s stature—one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland—travel to Paris to "finish" her education, to prepare for marriage to a suitable man.

Engaged to the son of one of her father’s wealthy business colleagues, Emma’s conventional and predictable life was upended when she met Carl Jung. The son of a penniless pastor working as an assistant physician in an insane asylum, Jung dazzled Emma with his intelligence, confidence, and good looks. More important, he offered her freedom from the confines of a traditional haute-bourgeois life. But Emma did not know that Jung’s charisma masked a dark interior—fostered by a strange, isolated childhood and the sexual abuse he’d suffered as a boy—as well as a compulsive philandering that would threaten their marriage.

Using letters, family interviews, and rich, never-before-published archival material, Catrine Clay illuminates the Jungs’ unorthodox marriage and explores how it shaped—and was shaped by—the scandalous new movement of psychoanalysis. Most important, Clay reveals how Carl Jung could never have achieved what he did without Emma supporting him through his private torments. The Emma that emerges in the pages of Labyrinths is a strong, brilliant woman, who, with her husband’s encouragement, becomes a successful analyst in her own right.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062245151
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	421
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Catrine Clay has worked for the BBC for over twenty years, directing and producing award-winning television documentaries. She won the International Documentary Award and the Golden Spire for Best History Documentary, and was nominated for a BAFTA. She is the author of King, Kaiser, Tsar and Trautmann’s Journey, which won a British Sports Book Award for Biography of the Year and was runner-up for the William Hill Sports Book Award. She is married with three children and lives in London.

Table of Contents

1 A Visit to Vienna 1

2 Two Childhoods 18

3 A Secret Betrothal 44

4 A Rich Marriage 67

5 Tricky Times 92

6 Dreams and Tests 113

7 A Home of Their Own 135

8 A Vile Scandal 158

9 Emma Moves Ahead 181

10 A Difficult Year 206

11 Ménage à Trois 229

12 The Great War 246

13 The Americans 265

14 Into the Twenties 287

15 Coming Through 317

Notes 347

Bibliography 379

Credits 387

Acknowledgements 389

Index 393

Editorial Reviews

07/25/2016
This book takes as its starting point the observation that although Carl Jung’s ideas did much to shape our understanding of all that is interpersonal, his own most significant relationship has remained largely unexamined. Clay (King, Kaiser, Tsar), a BBC director and producer, suggests that Jung’s wife, Emma, was the driving force behind her husband’s renowned insights. Clay’s narrative displays expert scholarship in drawing on a variety of archival sources, some never used before in a published study. However, her writing is most infused with the spirit of a storyteller, weaving a tale of love, despair, and the psyche in which, predictably, Sigmund Freud makes regular appearances. Such prioritization of story over the intricacies of each source might leave historically inclined readers unsatisfied. And inevitably, this kind of biography will, in spite of its insistent focus on a wife, at times veer more towards the famous husband. Indeed, the survival of Jung’s diary allows his own voice to be directly present while Emma’s is drawn from hearsay. But with its imagery and dramatic tenor, this is a tale within which Jung himself would find many psychoanalytic riches, even as it places some of his greatest innovations at the feet of a fascinating woman. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Impressive…An entertaining portrait.” — New Yorker

“Clay’s narrative displays expert scholarship in drawing on a variety of archival sources, some never used before in a published study…with its imagery and dramatic tenor, this is a tale within which Jung himself would find many psychoanalytic riches, even as it places some of his greatest innovations at the feet of a fascinating woman.” — Publishers Weekly

“Sympathetic, carefully researched…Emma’s volatile, difficult husband intrudes, resulting in a portrait of a troubled marriage and the rivalrous beginnings of psychoanalysis…A sensitive biography of a woman whose emotional and intellectual strengths were the ballast of her marriage and family.” — Kirkus

“Arresting, well-researched… Clay’s Emma was every bit the firebrand innovator Carl was, though without his psychoses and dramatic bravado, making her a real icon and this a compelling and significant biography.” — Booklist

“Clay navigates the maze-like story with perspicacity and ease.… It’s a gripping story of two talented individuals, their fascinating, often troubled, but ultimately enduring partnership, and how together they shaped the brave new world of psychoanalysis.” — The Observer (London)

“Clay remains a clear, unostentatious narrator … Emma’s voice - as well as her insight and daring - is loud and clear … admirable.” — Daily Telegraph (London)

“Clay’s book is a warm-hearted tribute to Emma’s wisdom and tenacity.” — Sunday Times (London)

“Labyrinths’ finally gives a voice to Emma … Clay’s story is riveting because the patients’ stories are so gripping … Clay creates a wonderful atmosphere in her writing and … negotiates the labyrinth with aplomb.” — The Times (London)

“Catrine Clay’s absorbing new biography charts the twists and turns in some of the key lives involved in that historical moment, in particular those of Emma Jung and her more famous husband Carl.” — Financial Times

“Engaging … acute … For Clay, Emma Jung’s quiet growth to dominance over the psychoanalytic establishment her husband had constructed seems the more significant.” — Literary Review

From the Publisher

Clay remains a clear, unostentatious narrator … Emma’s voice - as well as her insight and daring - is loud and clear … admirable.

Daily Telegraph (London)

Clay navigates the maze-like story with perspicacity and ease.… It’s a gripping story of two talented individuals, their fascinating, often troubled, but ultimately enduring partnership, and how together they shaped the brave new world of psychoanalysis.

The Observer (London)

Arresting, well-researched… Clay’s Emma was every bit the firebrand innovator Carl was, though without his psychoses and dramatic bravado, making her a real icon and this a compelling and significant biography.

Booklist

Labyrinths’ finally gives a voice to Emma … Clay’s story is riveting because the patients’ stories are so gripping … Clay creates a wonderful atmosphere in her writing and … negotiates the labyrinth with aplomb.

The Times (London)

Impressive…An entertaining portrait.

New Yorker

Engaging … acute … For Clay, Emma Jung’s quiet growth to dominance over the psychoanalytic establishment her husband had constructed seems the more significant.

Literary Review

Catrine Clay’s absorbing new biography charts the twists and turns in some of the key lives involved in that historical moment, in particular those of Emma Jung and her more famous husband Carl.

Financial Times

Clay’s book is a warm-hearted tribute to Emma’s wisdom and tenacity.

Sunday Times (London)

Catrine Clay’s absorbing new biography charts the twists and turns in some of the key lives involved in that historical moment, in particular those of Emma Jung and her more famous husband Carl.

Financial Times

Arresting, well-researched… Clay’s Emma was every bit the firebrand innovator Carl was, though without his psychoses and dramatic bravado, making her a real icon and this a compelling and significant biography.

Booklist

Impressive…An entertaining portrait.

New Yorker

An entertaining portrait…impressive.

The New Yorker

09/01/2016
Anyone who has read a biography of Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung has to have wondered why his wife, Emma, put up with him. Beautiful, intelligent, filthy rich (and with a marriage contract that ensured that wealth would have reverted to her in case of divorce), Emma endured Carl's dalliances with other women, his periodic breakdowns, his frequent long journeys, and his insistence that his long-term mistress, Toni Wolfe, be given equal status in social situations with his wife. This was while she was raising their five children, maintaining a large household, studying psychoanalysis, and bankrolling the whole circus. Unfortunately, documentarian Clay's (King, Kaiser, Tsar) book fails to answer that question, and Emma herself remains a shadowy figure, stoically suffering along in the shadow of the Great Man. Can there be people who are so self-contained and private that they can't be biographized? Emma may be one; the only other attempt, Imelda Gaudissart's Love and Sacrifice, suffers from the same lack of data. VERDICT For readers already familiar with the Carl Jung bio basics (the autobiographical Memories, Dreams, Reflections and Deidre Bair's Jung: A Biography), this study adds some provocative snippets to our knowledge of the more confessional Carl.—Mary Ann Hughes, Shelton, WA

Library Journal

Karen Cass’s studious and crisp narration guides listeners through the complexities of Emma Jung’s marriage to Carl Jung, the eminent psychologist. The intersection of the institution of marriage and the practice of psychoanalysis during the early twentieth century provides the engaging premise for Clay's exhaustive account. Emma’s role isn’t merely dutiful; her partnership with Carl is rooted in intellect as Carl becomes a sought-after public academic in the era of Freud—with whom Carl eventually has a falling out. This is an invaluable historical document on personal and professional relationships in the human environment. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-08-21
The making of two psychoanalysts: Carl Jung and his loyal, ever supportive wife.When she was 17, Emma Rauschenbach, the quiet, shy daughter of an “unimaginably wealthy” Swiss business magnate, met the impoverished medical student Carl Jung (1875-1961). Already engaged to a young man from her own class, she refused Jung’s first proposal of marriage. But eventually, encouraged by her mother, she was won over by her handsome, intelligent, boisterous, and persistent suitor. Award-winning documentary producer Clay (Trautmann’s Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend, 2010, etc.) tries to push Emma to the center of this sympathetic, carefully researched biography, but Emma’s volatile, difficult husband intrudes, resulting in a portrait of a troubled marriage and the rivalrous beginnings of psychoanalysis. Clay diagnoses Jung’s neurosis as a kind of split personality: a “loud, opinionated, energetic Steam-Roller” Personality 1 alternated with Personality 2, a depressed, neurotic, “inferior wretch” who flew into inexplicable rages; withdrew from family life (the Jungs had five children); and was haunted by disturbing dreams. Confronting her husband’s dramatic mood swings was one challenge for Emma; another was his conviction that infidelity was a requirement for a good marriage. Clay chronicles many “infatuations,” including notorious liaisons with two deeply unstable patients: Sabina Spielrein and Toni Wolff. Wolff came to live with the Jungs, with Emma’s acquiescence, serving as Carl’s “anima figure.” Spielrein, Wolff, and Emma herself became analysts, demonstrating the fluid nature of professionalism in early psychoanalysis. Clay maintains that Emma’s close involvement in her husband’s work provided her analytical training. As is well-known, Freud first considered Jung to be his heir, but Jung came to reject Freud’s views and, to Emma’s dismay, broke off their relationship. “So we are rid of them at last,” Freud wrote to a colleague, “the brutal holy Jung and his pious parrots.” Emma forged her own friendship with Freud, often sharing her analysis of her husband and herself. A sensitive biography of a woman whose emotional and intellectual strengths were the ballast of her marriage and family.

Kirkus Reviews