On our journey through the pioneering women of psychology, we meet Emma Jung.
Her influence extended far beyond her role as Carl Jung's wife. Little is known, but Emma Jung was a Swiss psychotherapist and author.
Her contribution to the development of analytical psychology is unfortunately little known.
Family & Marriage
Born in 1882 in Switzerland, Emma Rauschenbach grew up in a wealthy family. She was the daughter of a very wealthy industrialist, Johannes Rauschenbach, the then owner of IWC Schaffhausen.
She falls in love with Carl Jung, a then-unknown psychiatrist. However, it is said that there was an allure of having a doctor in the family - one who could attend to the debilitating symptoms of Emma's father's shameful syphilis.
After her father's death, she becomes one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland, ensuring the family's financial security for life.
Holy grail
From a young age, Emma Jung was extremely curious about the legend of the Holy Grail, having studied French, Greek, English and Latin in Paris in order to carry out her research.
She studied these topics her entire life, without completing them in her lifetime. At the request of Carl Jung, after Emma's death, LM von Franz finished his studies and later published a book.
These studies solidified her reputation as an independent thinker, and also highlighted her ability to connect psychology with history, mythology, and spirituality.
The Path to the Unconscious
Emma's decision to begin her own analysis with Jung marked a significant turning point in her story.
From then on, she received training to become a psychoanalyst and several sources confirm that she became a great Jungian analyst, achieving excellent results with her patients.
Over time, she developed an independent voice in the psychological community, contributing her own ideas and research into the collective unconscious.
Animus and Anima
Emma then began to take a more active role alongside Jung. Their collaboration became a true intellectual partnership, with Emma contributing significantly to the theory of the collective unconscious and studies of alchemy.
She writes two essays collected in a book called Animus and Anima. In these two essays, Emma Jung presents in a brilliant synthesis the two functional complexes of the psyche Anima and Animus, their forms of manifestation and how they act in our unconscious.
Carved in stone
Emma died in 1955 , due to cancer . Upon her death, Jung carved into a stone "She was the foundation of my home".
Mother of five children, while studying Latin, Greek, mathematics and psychology, she became one of the directors of the Carl Gustav Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, where she gave lectures and worked as an analyst and supervisor.
Conclusion
Emma's name is usually mentioned only to say that she is Carl Jung's wife, focusing on her role as wife.
When we explored a little more, we discovered a respected analyst and researcher.
This shows the importance of knowing the stories of women who would not be so “in the shadow of men's history” if it weren't for the way History has been told through time.