Freud, Jung thought, had been a great discoverer of facts about the mind, but far too inclined to leave the solid ground of "critical reason and common sense." Freud for his part criticized Jung for being gullible about occult phenomena and infatuated with Oriental religions; he viewed with sardonic and unmitigated skepticism Jung's defense of religious feelings as an integral element in mental health. For Freud, religion was a psychological need projected onto culture, the child's feeling of helplessness surviving in adults, to be analyzed rather than admired.
Peter GayAnd my interest in history was, and remains, very strong: what I wanted was to understand certain things better by understanding them psychoanalytically.
Peter GayI decided that what I really wanted to do was to make my writing in history deeper, if that's the right word to use. And that is what I did.
Peter Gay