Miss Wolff: Is thinking in general terms a new acquisition
Miss Wolff: But is thinking in general terms a new acquisition? In medieval times did they not think in general terms?
Dr. Jung: I am speaking of the scientific spirit of modern times.
In the Middle Ages, or in the development of the Christian virtues, they thought in a different way, they thought of souls and of the individual welfare, what they could do for the people just near them.
In modern times the scientific spirit thinks of so many heads of cattle, so many virgins.
They take the poor, for instance, all together, no matter who they are, and count them as so many heads.
That is thinking in abstractions and handling the problem as if some mechanical contrivance could solve it, as if a scientific solution could be invented.
But the problem itself is utterly unscientific because it consists of individuals only.
This is also scientific, sure enough, but in the end it must be an individual problem. ~Visions Seminar, Page 1288
Toni Wolff Biography
Antonia (Toni) Wolff(l888-1953), analytical psychologist and teacher, was for over 40 years a member of Jung’s closest circle.
Born into a distinguished Zurich family, after her father’s death in 1910 her mother sent her to C.G. Jung, a young psychiatrist, for treatment.
Her aptitude for psychology was immediately evident, and she quickly became a leading exponent of Jung’s thought.
From the time of Jung’s break with Freud in 1912, she was a trusted confidante and co-worker with Jung, occupying an important place in his life.
In his letters of 1947 and 1948, White often includes Toni Wolff in his closing greetings.
Wolff became President of the Zurich Psychological Club for a brief time after its founding in 1916.
She then held the presidency, with short breaks, from 1926 until she retired in 1952.
From 1948 until her death she taught at the Jung Institute, on whose founding committee she served with Jung and C.A. Meier.
At the founding of the Institute, April 1948, Jung singled out her essay,” [“Introduction to the Foundations of Complex Psychology”] as “a work distinguished for its philosphical clarity.”
[The Cultural Meaning of Complex Psychology] (1935), were republished after her death as [Studies in Jungian Psychology]
Jung’s Foreword to the latter edition appears in CW 10, Civilization i11 Transition (§887-902, pp. 4691f). ~Jung-White Letters, Page 38, fn 49