Work · Science & Human Sciences
Transformations and Symbols of the Libido
Two-part study (1911–12) that starts from the fantasies of an American woman, “Miss Miller”: libido appears as psychic energy in general and myths of the hero, the mother and sacrifice as its symbols; the second part led to the break with Freud.
Introduction
Jung published the work in two parts in the Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen, which he edited, and as a book in 1912. Its material is a set of fantasies and poems by a young American woman that Théodore Flournoy had published in 1906; Jung compared them with myths and religious texts from many cultures. The decisive step comes in the second part: libido is no longer sexual energy alone but psychic energy as such, and the incest motif is read symbolically, as a longing for rebirth from the mother. Freud saw in this an abandonment of psychoanalysis, and the two men broke in 1913. Jung revised the book thoroughly in 1952 as Symbols of Transformation.
More works by C. G. Jung
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made