Back to the Rough Ground

Abstract

I will now discuss the talking cure in its relation to mental disorder to highlight differences between an empirical approach and an elucidatory one. Freud, Jung and the cognitive therapists were psychologists whose quest was the essential structure of the mind and the causes of neurosis and psychosis. In the early twentieth century Freud and Jung formed an enthusiastic partnership to further ‘the cause’. Freud wrote, ‘Nothing can befall our cause as long as the understanding between you and me remains unclouded’ (McGuire 1974, 212 F, October 1910). Jung wrote, ‘Anyone who knows your science has veritably eaten of the tree of paradise and become clairvoyant’ (Ibid., 28 J, May 1907).