CARL JUNG

CARL JUNG

                      Carl Jung is the proponent of analytical psychology that rests on the assumption that occult phenomena can and influences the lives of everyone. It provided  a substitute in the form of some general urge in place of sex.  This also explains that each of us is motivated not only by repressed experiences but also by certain emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ancestors. It also talks more about the collective unconscious which tells about inherited images that includes elements that we have never experienced individually but which have come down to us from our ancestors. The highly developed elements of the collective unconscious are the archetypes. Archetype is used for self-realization which can only be attained by achieving balance between various opposing forces of personality.

                    Before we dig deeper on the ideas propagated by Carl Jung, let’s have a look at his biography briefly. He was born on July 26, 1875 in Resswil, a  town in Lake Constance, Switzerland. His parents are Johann Paul Jung who is a sentimental idealist with strong doubts about his religious faith, and Emilie Preiswerk Jung who is a daughter of a theologian. When he was still young, he started to have two views on his mother: first is realistic, practical and warm hearted; the second is unstable, mystical, clairvoyant, archaic and ruthless. He has two siblings, the one preceded him only lived 3 days after being born and his youngest sibling is nine years younger than him. At the age of three, he was separated from his mother who had to be hospitalized. It troubled Jung,  as a result, he felt distrustful about love and still associated woman with unreliability and father  who is reliable but powerless.

                   During his adolescence years, he became aware of his 2 personalities. The no.1 personality he has was he repressed the world of intuitive premonitions; extraverted and in tune to the objective world while the no. 2 personality shows his reflection of something other than himself; an old man long since dead and he’s in touch with feelings and intuitions; introverted and directed inward.

                 Jung and Freud developed a strong, mutual respect and affection for each other but it has changed because of an incident that happened when Jung asked Freud to analyze his dream.

                   In 1944, he became a professor of medical psychology at the University of Basel but poor health forced him to resign from his position the following year. He died on June 6, 1961. At the time of his death,  Jung’s reputation was worldwide, extending beyond psychology to include philosophy, religion and popular culture.

                 Going back to analytical psychology, here are the terms and key concepts included:

v  The personal unconscious is formed by the repressed experiences of  one particular individual and is the reservoir of the complexes (unstated desire).

v  Humans inherit a collective unconscious that helps shape many of their attitudes, behaviours and dreams.

v  Archetypes are contents of the collective unconscious. Typical archetypes include persona, shadow, anima, animus, great mother, wise old man, hero and self

v  The persona represents the side of personality that people show to the rest of the world.

v  The anima is the feminine side of men and is responsible for many of their irrational moods and feelings.

v  The animus is the masculine side of women responsible for irrational thinking and irrational  opinions on women

v  The great mother is the archetype of fertility and destruction

v  The wise old man archetype is the intelligent but deceptive voice of accumulated experience.

v  The hero is the unconscious image of a person who conquers an evil foe but who also has a tragic flow

v  The self is the archetype of completeness, wholeness and perfection

v  Introversion – can be compared to being “lonesome”, and people with this characteristic like to work by themselves. It is also defined as turning inward of psychic energy with an orientation toward the subjective

v  Extraversion – an attitude distinguished by the turning outward of psychic energy so that a person is oriented toward the objective and away from the subjective. People with this attitude tend to be influenced more by their surroundings than by the inner world.

v  Symbols – the symbol is a central part of Jung’s thinking. It refers to a name, term or picture that is familiar in daily life yet has other connotations beside its obvious meaning. It is a key to discovering feelings or preferences of which we are unaware. Dream symbols bring messages from the unconscious to the rational mind.

              As a summary, Jung believed that a human being is inwardly whole but that most of us have lost touch with important parts of ourselves. Through listening to the messages of our dreams and waking imagination, we can contact and reintegrate our different parts. The goal of life is individuation, the process of coming to know, giving expression to and harmonizing the various components of the psyche. If we realize our uniqueness, we can undertake a process of individuation and tap into our true self. Each human being has a specific nature and calling which is uniquely his or her own  and unless these are fulfilled through a union of conscious and unconscious.