Jung and Nazism

Though the field of psychoanalysis was dominated at the time by Jewish practitioners, and Jung had
many friends and respected colleagues who were Jewish, a shadow hung over Jung's career due to
allegations that he was a Nazi sympathizer. Jung was editor of the Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie, a
publication that eventually endorsed Mein Kampf as required reading for all psychoanalysts. Jung
claimed this was done to save psychoanalysis and preserve it during the war, believing that
psychoanalysis would not otherwise survive because the Nazis considered it to be a "Jewish science". He
also claimed he did it with the help and support of his Jewish friends and colleagues. This after-the-fact
explanation, however, has been strongly challenged on the basis of available documents. The question
remains unresolved.
Jung also served as president of the Nazi-dominated International General Medical Society for
Psychotherapy. One of his first acts as president was to modify the constitution so that German Jewish
doctors could maintain their membership as individual members even though they were excluded from
all German medical societies. Also, in 1934 when he presented his paper "A Review Of The Complex
Theory", in his presidential address he did not discount the importance of Freud and credited him with as
much influence as he could possibly give to an old mentor. Later in the war, Jung resigned. In addition,
in 1943 he aided the Office of Strategic Services by analyzing Nazi leaders for the United States.
However, it is still a topic of interest whether Jung's later explanations of his actions to save
psychoanalysis from the Nazi Regime meant that he did not actually believe in Nazism himself.