This abridged edition makes the Freud/Jung correspondence accessible to a general readership at a time of renewed critical and historical reevaluation of the documentary roots of modern psychoanalysis. This edition reproduces William McGuire's definitive introduction, but does not contain the critical apparatus of the original edition.

"I am confident that you will often be in a position to back me up, but I shall also gladly accept correction." So wrote Freud in his first letter to Jung in 1906. Over the next eight years the tenor and tone of their correspondence changed dramatically, reflecting the growing differences in their approach to the theory and practice of psychology and psychoanalysis. Their disagreements, captured here, led to the dissolution of their relationship as mentor and student. Jung's break with Freud is one of the most famous stories in the early history of psychoanalytic thought. As late as 1959 Jung was moved to refer to the letters as "that accursed correspondence."

The eventual publication of the Freud/Jung letters was a testament to the diplomacy and persistence of William McGuire, executive editor for Bollingen Series. He managed to secure the agreement of both the Freud and the Jung trustees in the face of what seemed insurmountable difficulties. The book generated a frenzy of media interest by providing unparalleled insights into the love/hate relationship between two of the century's most influential intellectual protagonists. As Lionel Trilling wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "Both as it bears upon the personal lives of the men between whom the letters passed and upon the intellectual history of our epoch, it is a document of inestimable importance."