Freud fainted twice in Jung's presence (as he had earlier with Fliess), once immediately before the voyage to America and again in the Park Hotel in Munich, where he had once gone with Fliess, in 1912. Freud thought this must be due to some "unruly homosexual feeling" between the two of them. Jung had thought the same thing earlier, describing his early attraction to Freud as "a religious crush".

A clear homoerotic current underlies their correspondence, and, as Freud had found in his relationship with Fliess, this element may have served to draw them apart. Because Jung may have desired Freud, he liked to spread rumours about his sex life - the story that he had an affair with Minna originated from Jung. Consider, for example, Freud's poetic tribute to his "son" of September 1907:

"Whether you have been or will be lucky or unlucky, I do not know; but now of all times I wish I were with you, taking pleasure in no longer being alone and, if you are in need of encouragement, telling you about my long years of honourable but painful solitude...."

and Jung's somewhat timid request for Freud's picture a few days later:

"I would dearly like to have a photograph of you, not as you used to look but as you did when I first got to know you.... Would you have the great kindness to grant this wish of mine sometime? I would be ever so grateful because again and again I feel want of your picture".

It should be mentioned that Jung, himself, was particularly vulnerable to such homoerotic and homophobic feelings. In particular, earlier in their relationship (1907) Jung had confessed to Freud that he had been homosexually assaulted as a boy by a man he trusted. He also admitted, when he asked Freud for his photograph, that he had "a religious crush" on Freud which he was aware had "clear erotic undertones"