TOP - JUNG: ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY by Feist & Feist
JUNG: ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Proponent: Carl Gustav Jung was born on July 26, 1875, in Kesswil, a town on Lake Constance in Switzerland.
Levels of Psyche
Jung based his personality theory on the assumption that the mind, or psyche, has both a conscious and an unconscious level. Unlike Freud, however, Jung strongly asserted that the most important portion of the unconscious springs not from personal experiences of the individual but from the distant past of human exis- tence, a concept Jung called the collective unconscious. Of lesser importance to Jungian theory are the conscious and the personal unconscious.
1. Conscious - According to Jung, conscious images are those that are sensed by the ego, whereas unconscious elements have no relationship with the ego. Jung’s notion of the ego is more restrictive than Freud’s. Jung saw the ego as the center of consciousness, but not the core of personality. Ego is not the whole personality, but must be completed by the more comprehensive self, the center of personality that is largely unconscious. In a psychologically healthy person, the ego takes a secondary position to the un- conscious self (Jung, 1951/1959a).
2. Personal Unconscious - The personal unconscious embraces all repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived experiences of one particular individual. It contains repressed infantile mem- ories and impulses, forgotten events, and experiences originally perceived below the threshold of our consciousness. Our personal unconscious is formed by our individ- ual experiences and is therefore unique to each of us. Some images in the personal unconscious can be recalled easily, some remembered with difficulty, and still others are beyond the reach of consciousness. Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes. A complex is an emotionally toned conglomeration of associated ideas.
3. Collective Unconscious - In contrast to the personal unconscious, which results from individual experiences, the collective unconscious has roots in the ancestral past of the entire species. It rep- resents Jung’s most controversial, and perhaps his most distinctive, concept. The physical contents of the collective unconscious are inherited and pass from one gen- eration to the next as psychic potential. Distant ancestors’ experiences with univer- sal concepts such as God, mother, water, earth, and so forth have been transmitted through the generations so that people in every clime and time have been influenced by their primitive ancestors’ primordial experiences (Jung, 1937/1959). Therefore, the contents of the collective unconscious are more or less the same for people in all cultures (Jung, 1934/1959).
4. Archetypes - Archetypes are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious. They are similar to complexes in that they are emotionally toned collections of associated images. But whereas complexes are individualized components of the personal unconscious, archetypes are generalized and derive from the contents of the collective unconscious.
a.) Persona - The side of personality that people show to the world is designated as the persona.
b.) Shadow - The shadow, the archetype of darkness and repression, represents those qualities we do not wish to acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves and others. The shadow consists of morally objectionable tendencies as well as a number of constructive and creative qualities that we, nevertheless, are reluctant to face (Jung, 1951/1959a).
c.) Anima - Jung believed that all humans are psychologically bisexual and possess both a masculine and a feminine side. The feminine side of men originates in the collective unconscious as an archetype and remains extremely resistant to consciousness. Few men become well acquainted with their anima because this task requires great courage and is even more difficult than becoming acquainted with their shadow. To master the projections of the anima, men must overcome intellectual barriers, delve into the far recesses of their unconscious, and realize the feminine side of their personality.
d.) Animus - The masculine archetype in women is called the animus. Whereas the anima repre- sents irrational moods and feelings, the animus is symbolic of thinking and reason- ing. It is capable of influencing the thinking of a woman, yet it does not actually be- long to her. It belongs to the collective unconscious and originates from the encounters of prehistoric women with men. Jung believed that the animus is responsible for thinking and opinion in women just as the anima produces feelings and moods in men. The animus is also the explanation for the irrational thinking and illogical opinions often attributed to women.
e.) Great Mother - Two other archetypes, the great mother and the wise old man, are derivatives of the anima and animus. Everyone, man or woman, possesses a great mother archetype. This preexisting concept of mother is always associated with both positive and negative feelings. The fertility and nourishment dimension of the great mother archetype is symbolized by a tree, garden, plowed field, sea, heaven, home, country, church, and hollow objects such as ovens and cooking utensils. Because the great mother also rep- resents power and destruction, she is sometimes symbolized as a godmother, the Mother of God, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, a stepmother, or a witch.
f.) Wise Old Man - The wise old man, archetype of wisdom and meaning, symbolizes humans’ preexisting knowledge of the mysteries of life. This archetypal meaning, however, is un- conscious and cannot be directly experienced by a single individual.
g.) Hero - The hero archetype is represented in mythology and legends as a powerful person, sometimes part god, who fights against great odds to conquer or vanquish evil in the form of dragons, monsters, serpents, or demons. In the end, however, the hero often is undone by some seemingly insignificant person or event (Jung, 1951/1959b).
h. Self - Jung believed that each person possesses an inherited tendency to move toward growth, perfection, and completion, and he called this innate disposition the self. The most comprehensive of all archetypes, the self is the archetype of archetypes because it pulls together the other archetypes and unites them in the process of self- realization.
Dynamics of Personality
1. Causality and Teleology - Causality holds that present events have their origin in previous experiences. Teleology holds that present events are motivated by goals and aspirations for the future that direct a person’s destiny. Jung insisted that human behavior is shaped by both causal and teleological forces and that causal explanations must be balanced with teleological ones.
2. Progression and Regression - To achieve self-realization, people must adapt not only to their outside environment but to their inner world as well. Adaptation to the outside world involves the forward flow of psychic energy and is called progression, whereas adaptation to the inner world relies on a backward flow of psychic energy and is called regression. Both progression and regression are essential if people are to achieve individual growth or self-realization.
Psychological Types
1. Attitudes -Jung (1921/1971) defined an attitude as a predisposition to act or react in a characteristic direction. He insisted that each person has both an introverted and an extraverted attitude, although one may be conscious while the other is unconscious.
a.) Introversion - According to Jung, introversion is the turning inward of psychic energy with an orientation toward the subjective. Introverts are tuned in to their inner world with all its biases, fantasies, dreams, and individualized perceptions. These people perceive the external world, of course, but they do so selectively and with their own subjective view (Jung, 1921/1971).
b.) Extraversion - In contrast to introversion, extraversion is the attitude distinguished by the turning outward of psychic energy so that a person is oriented toward the objective and away from the subjective. Extraverts are more influenced by their surroundings than by their inner world. They tend to focus on the objective attitude while suppressing the subjective.
In summary, people are neither completely introverted nor completely ex- traverted. Introverted people are like an unbalanced teeter-totter with a heavy weight on one end and a very light weight on the other.
2. Functions - Both introversion and extraversion can combine with any one or more of four functions, forming eight possible orientations, or types. The four functions—sensing, thinking, feeling, and intuiting—can be briefly defined as follows: Sensing tells people that something exists; thinking enables them to recognize its meaning; feeling tells them its value or worth; and intuition allows them to know about it without knowing how they know.
a.) Thinking - Logical intellectual activity that produces a chain of ideas is called thinking. The thinking type can be either extraverted or introverted, depending on a person’s basic attitude. Extraverted thinking people rely heavily on concrete thoughts, but they may also use abstract ideas if these ideas have been transmitted to them from without, for example, from parents or teachers.Introverted thinking people react to external stimuli, but their interpretation of an event is colored more by the internal meaning they bring with them than by the objective facts themselves.
b.) Feeling - Jung used the term feeling to describe the process of evaluating an idea or event. Per- haps a more accurate word would be valuing, a term less likely to be confused with either sensing or intuiting. Extraverted feeling people use objective data to make evaluations. They are not guided so much by their subjective opinion, but by external values and widely accepted standards of judgment. Introverted feeling people base their value judgments primarily on subjective perceptions rather than objective facts. Critics of the various art forms make much use of introverted feeling, making value judgments on the basis of subjective individualized data. These people have an individualized conscience, a taciturn demeanor, and an unfathomable psyche.
c.) Sensing - The function that receives physical stimuli and transmits them to perceptual consciousness is called sensation. Sensing is not identical to the physical stimulus but is simply the individual’s perception of sensory impulses. Extraverted sensing people perceive external stimuli objectively, in much the same way that these stimuli exist in reality. Their sensations are not greatly influenced by their subjective attitudes. Introverted sensing people are largely influenced by their subjective sensations of sight, sound, taste, touch, and so forth. They are guided by their interpretation of sense stimuli rather than the stimuli themselves.
d.) Intuiting- Intuition involves perception beyond the workings of consciousness. Like sensing, it is based on the perception of absolute elementary facts, ones that provide the raw material for thinking and feeling. Extraverted intuitive people are oriented toward facts in the external world. Rather than fully sensing them, however, they merely perceive them subliminally. Because strong sensory stimuli interfere with intuition, intuitive people suppress many of their sensations and are guided by hunches and guesses contrary to sensory data. Introverted intuitive people are guided by unconscious perception of facts that are basically subjective and have little or no resemblance to external reality. Their subjective intuitive perceptions are often remarkably strong and capable of motivating decisions of monumental magnitude.
Development of Personality
Jung believed that personality develops through a series of stages that culminate in individuation, or self-realization.
A. Stages of development
Jung grouped the stages of life into four general periods—childhood, youth, middle life, and old age.
1. Childhood - Jung divided childhood into three substages: (1) the anarchic, (2) the monarchic, and (3) the dualistic.
a.) The anarchic phase is characterized by chaotic and sporadic consciousness. “Islands of consciousness” may exist, but there is little or no connection among these islands. Experiences of the anarchic phase sometimes enter conscious- ness as primitive images, incapable of being accurately verbalized.
b.) The monarchic phase of childhood is characterized by the development of the ego and by the beginning of logical and verbal thinking. During this time children see themselves objectively and often refer to themselves in the third person.
c.) The ego as perceiver arises during the dualistic phase of childhood when the ego is divided into the objective and subjective. Children now refer to themselves in the first person and are aware of their existence as separate individuals.
2. Youth - The period from puberty until middle life is called youth. Young people strive to gain psychic and physical independence from their parents, find a mate, raise a family, and make a place in the world. According to Jung (1931/1960a), youth is, or should be, a period of increased activity, maturing sexuality, growing consciousness, and recognition that the problem-free era of childhood is gone forever.
3. Middle Life - Jung believed that middle life begins at approximately age 35 or 40, by which time the sun has passed its zenith and begins its downward descent. f middle-aged people retain the social and moral values of their early life, they become rigid and fanatical in trying to hold on to their physical attractiveness and agility. Finding their ideals shifting, they may fight desperately to maintain their youthful appearance and lifestyle.
4. Old Age - As the evening of life approaches, people experience a diminution of consciousness just as the light and warmth of the sun diminish at dusk. If people fear life during the early years, then they will almost certainly fear death during the later ones. Fear of death is often taken as normal, but Jung believed that death is the goal of life and that life can be fulfilling only when death is seen in this light.
B. Self - Realization
Psychological rebirth, also called self-realization or individuation, is the process of becoming an individual or whole person (Jung, 1939/1959, 1945/1953). Analytical psychology is essentially a psychology of opposites, and self-realization is the process of integrating the opposite poles into a single homogeneous individual. This process of “coming to selfhood” means that a person has all psychological compo- nents functioning in unity, with no psychic process atrophying. People who have gone through this process have achieved realization of the self, minimized their per- sona, recognized their anima or animus, and acquired a workable balance between introversion and extraversion. In addition, these self-realized individuals have elevated all four of the functions to a superior position, an extremely difficult accomplishment.
Jung’s Methods of Investigation
A. Word Association Test - the basic purpose of the test in Jungian psychology today is to un- cover feeling-toned complexes. As noted in the section of levels of the psyche, a complex is an individualized, emotionally toned conglomeration of images grouped around a central core. The word association test is based on the principle that complexes create measurable emotional responses.
B. Dream Analysis - The purpose of Jungian dream interpretation is to uncover elements from the personal and collective unconscious and to integrate them into consciousness in order to facilitate the process of self-realization. The Jungian therapist must realize that dreams are often compensatory; that is, feelings and attitudes not expressed during waking life will find an outlet through the dream process. Jung believed that the natural condition of humans is to move toward completion or self-realization.
C. Active Imagination - A technique Jung used during his own self-analysis as well as with many of his patients was active imagination. This method requires a person to begin with any impression—a dream image, vision, picture, or fantasy—and to concentrate until the impression begins to “move.” The purpose of active imagination is to reveal archetypal images emerging from the unconscious. It can be a useful technique for people who want to become better acquainted with their collective and personal unconscious and who are willing to overcome the resistance that ordinarily blocks open communication with the un- conscious.
D. Psychotherapy - The ultimate purpose of Jungian therapy is to help neurotic patients be- come healthy and to encourage healthy people to work independently toward self- realization. Jung sought to achieve this purpose by using such techniques as dream analysis and active imagination to help patients discover personal and collective un- conscious material and to balance these unconscious images with their conscious attitude (Jung, 1931/1954a).
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To cite reference:
Feist, Jess & Feist, Gregory J. 2008. Theories of Personality, 7th Edition. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Publish in the United States of America.
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