Toni Wolff
| Toni Wolff | |
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Wolff c. 1911 (age 23)
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| Born | Toni Anna Wolff 18 September 1888 Zürich, Switzerland |
| Died | 21 March 1953 (aged 64) Zürich, Switzerland |
| Residence | Switzerland |
| Citizenship | Swiss |
| Fields | Psychology, psychotherapy, Analytical psychology |
| Institutions | Burghölzli |
| Known for | Analytical psychology |
| Influences | Carl Jung |
Toni Anna Wolff (18 September 1888 — 21 March 1953) was a Swiss Jungian analyst and a close collaborator of Carl Jung. During her analytic career Wolff published relatively little under her own name, but she helped Jung identify, define, and name some of his best-known concepts including anima, animus, and persona, as well as the theory of the psychological types. Her best-known paper was an essay on four "types" or aspects of the feminine psyche: the Amazon, the Mother, the Hetaira, and the Medial (or mediumistic) Woman.
Wolff was born in 1888, the eldest of three daughters of a wealthy Zurich family. Encouraged by her parents to pursue creative interests, Wolff developed a passion for philosophy and mythology, as well as for astrology. However, when she asked to be allowed a university education, her father denied her request, explaining that it was not appropriate for a young woman of her class to have an "official" education. Wolff pursued her studies by enrolling in classes as a non-matriculating student.
In December 1909, when she was 21, Wolff's father died and she became acutely depressed. She began analysis with Jung, who was impressed by her intellect and treated her depression by stimulating and encouraging her to use it. Wolff became one of "a long line of women who gravitated to Jung because he allowed them to use their intellectual interests and abilities in the service of analytical psychology". She began to help him with research, and accompanied both Carl and Emma Jung to a psychoanalytic conference in Weimar in 1911; at that time Jung describing her in a letter to Freud as "a new discovery of mine, Frl. Antonia Wolff, a remarkable intellect with excellent feeling for religion and philosophy". Jung discharged Wolff from his analytic care around the end of 1911, despite his growing feeling of "being involved with her".
Wolff's relationship with Jung was pivotal in her development as an analyst and member of the early analytic psychology circle in Zurich. She became an analyst and president of the Zurich Psychological Club. By age 60, she had a busy practice, but was in poor health, suffering from both severe arthritis and her years of heavy smoking. She died suddenly and unexpectedly on 21 March 1953, aged 64.
About a year after terminating Wolff's analysis, Jung had several dreams that indicated to him a need to reestablish their relationship; finally, he wrote to her in 1913. Initially Wolff took on the role of Jung's assistant, but over the next year their relationship became increasingly intimate. During the period of intense introspection that began in late 1913 — in which Jung began composing his Red Book: Liber Novus — Wolff was a pivotal figure in his life. In his 1957 interviews with Aniela Jaffé, Jung explained to Jaffé that he couldn’t talk with anyone other than Toni Wolff about the inner experiences, and she was in the same mess and without orientation. He described the situation as "absolutely awful". During these years Wolff was a "constant presence in the [Jung] household. It was she who listened to all Jung's visions, dreams, and fantasies, serving his every need from sounding board to devil's advocate".
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