| Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss
psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology. His approach
to human psychology emphasized understanding the psyche through
exploring the world of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and
philosophy. He was a strong believer in the importance of integration
of opposites (e.g. masculine and femininine, thinking and feeling,
science and spirituality). Though not the first to analyze dreams,
his contributions to dream analysis were influential and extensive.
Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician
for most of his life, many of his studies extend into other realms
of the humanties: from comparative religion and philosophy, to criticism
of art and literature. (Interestingly, Jungian ideas are seldom
mentioned in college psychology courses while they are often explored
in humanities courses.)
Many pioneering psychological concepts were originally proposed
by Jung. Some of these are:
- The Archetype
- The Collective Unconscious
- The Complex
- Synchronicity
Jungian psychology
Although Jung was wary of founding a "school" of psychology,
(he was once rumored to have said, "Thank God I am Jung and
not a Jungian."), he did develop a distinctive approach to
the study of the human psyche. Through his early years working in
a Swiss hospital with psychotic patients and collaborating with
Freud and the burgeoning psychoanalytic community (eventually he
broke away from Freud and fell into a deep depression for several
years as a result), he gained a close look at the mysterious depths
of the human unconscious. Fascinated by what he saw (and spurred
on with even more passion by the experiences and questions of his
personal life) he devoted his life to the exploration of the unconscious.
Identifying not experimental natural science as the best means to
this end, but rather the world of dream, myth, and psychopathology,
Jung sought to understand psychology through the study of the humanities.
The ultimate goal of Jung's life work was the reconciliation of
the life of the individual with the world of the supra-personal
archetypes. He came to see the individual's encounter with the unconscious
as central to this process. The human experiences the unconscious
through symbols encountered in all aspects of life: in dreams, art,
religion, and the symbolic dramas we enact in our relationships
and life pursuits. Essential to the encounter with the unconscious,
and the reconciliation of the individual's consciousness with this
broader world, is learning this symbolic language. Only through
attention and openness to this world (which is quite foreign to
the modern Western mind) is the individual able to harmonize his
or her life with these suprapersonal archetypal forces.
"Neurosis" results from a disharmony between the individual's
consciousness and the greater archetypal world. The aim of psychotherapy
is to assist the individual in restablishing a healthy relationship
to the unconscious (neither being swamped by it--a state characteristic
of psychosis--nor completely shut off from it--a state that results
in malaise, empty consumerism, narcissism, and a life cut off from
deeper meaning). The encounter between consciousness and the symbols
arising from the unconscious enriches life and promotes psychological
development. Jung considered this process of psychological growth
and maturation (which he called the process of individuation) to
be of critical importance to the human being, and ultimately to
modern society.
In order to undergo the individuation process, the individual must
allow herself to be open to the parts of herself beyond her own
ego. In order to do this, the modern individual can pay attention
to her dreams, explore the world of religion and spirituality, and
question the assumptions of the operant societal worldview (rather
than just blindly live life in accordance with dominant norms and
assumptions).
The collective unconscious
Jung's concept of the collective unconscious has often been misunderstood.
In order to understand this concept, it is essential to understand
his idea of the archetype, something foreign to the highly rational,
scientifically-oriented Western mind. Here is a useful analogy:
the collective unconscious is the DNA of the human psyche. Just
as all humans share a common physical heritage and predisposition
towards specific physical forms (like having two legs, a heart,
etc.) so do all humans have a common psychological predisposition.
Our physical predispostions are determined by our DNA, while our
psychological predispositions are stored in the collective unconscious.
Like the human genome project that took on the tremedous labor of
analyzing the information stored in the human DNA, Jung took on
the even more extensive task of exploring and attempting to discern
the mysteries stored in the collective unconscious. However, unlike
the simple, quantifiable information that composes DNA (in the form
of coded sequences of nucleotides), the collective unconscious is
composed of archetypes. In sharp contrast to the objective material
world, the world of the archetypes can not be adequately understood
through quantitative modes of research. Instead it can only begin
to be revealed through an examination of the symbolic communications
of the human psyche--in art, dreams, religion, myth, and the themes
of human relational/behavioral patterns. Devoting his life to the
task of exploring and understanding the collective unconscious,
Jung discovered that certain symbolic themes existed across all
cultures, all epochs, and in every individual. Together these symbolic
themes comprise "the archetypes of the collective unconscious."
The shadow
The shadow is an unconscious construct that is defined as the diametrical
opposite of the ego. The shadow represents everything that the conscious
person does not wish to be identified with. For instance, someone
who identifies as being kind has a shadow that is evil. Conversely,
an individual who is evil has a kind shadow. The shadow is not necessarily
good or bad. It simply counterbalances some of the one-sided dimensions
of our personality. Jung emphasized the importance of being aware
of shadow material and incorporating it into conscious awareness.
Anima and Animus
Jung identified the anima as being the unconscious feminine component
of men and the animus as the unconscious masculine component in
women. (Many modern day Jungian practitioners believe that every
person has both an anima and an animus). Jung stated that the anima
and animus act as guides to the unconscious unified Self, and that
forming an awareness and a connection with the anima or animus is
one of the most difficult and rewarding steps in psychological growth.
Jung reported that he identified his anima as she spoke to him,
as an inner voice, unexpectedly one day. (Interestingly, Jung's
anima voice was the voice of a former patient with whom Jung had
an open affair.) Oftentimes, when people ignore the anima or animus
complexes, the anima or animus vies for attention by projecting
itself onto others. This explains, according to Jung, why we are
sometimes immediately attracted to certain strangers: we see our
anima or animus in them. Love in first sight is an example of anima
and animus projection. Moreover, people who strongly identify with
their gender role (e.g. a man who acts aggressively and never cries)
have not developed any significant relationship with either their
anima or animus.
Jung's life
Born in Kesswil, in the Swiss canton of Thurgau on July 26 1875,
Jung lived until the 6 June, 1961. A very solitary introverted child,
he was convinced from childhood that he had two personalities—
a modern Swiss citizen, and a personality more at home in the eighteenth
century. His father was a pastor, but, although Jung was close to
both parents, he was rather disappointed in his father's academic
approach to faith. Jung wanted to study archaeology at university,
but his family were too poor to send him further afield than Basel,
where they did not teach this subject, so instead Jung studied medicine
at the the University of Basel from 1894-1900. The formerly introverted
student became much more lively here. Towards the end of studies
here, his reading of Krafft-Ebbing persuaded him to specialise in
psychiatric medicine. He later worked in the Burgholzi, a psychiatric
hospital in Zurich]. In 1906, he published The Psychology of Dementia
Praecox, and later sent a copy of this book to Freud, after which
a close but brief friendship between these two men followed (see
section on Jung and Freud). By 1913, however, especially after Jung
had published Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (known in English
as The Psychology of the Unconscious) their theoretical ideas had
diverged so sharply that the two men fell out. It is generally accepted
that after this falling-out, Jung had some form of psychotic breakdown,
exacerbated by news of the First World War, which had a dire effect
on Jung even in his own neutral Switzerland. Following World War
I, Jung travelled extensively. He visited Northern Africa shortly
after World War I, and New Mexico and Kenya in the mid-1920s. In
1938, he delivered the Terry Lectures, Psychology and Religion,
at Harvard. It was at about this stage in his life that Jung visited
India, and while there, had dreams related to King Arthur. This
convinced him that his agenda should be to pay more attention to
Western spirituality, and his later writings do show deep interests
in Western mystery tradition and esoteric Christianity, and especially
alchemy. In 1903 Jung married Emma Rauschenbach, who bore him five
children. Their marriage lasted until Emma's death in 1955, but
certainly experienced emotional torments, brought about by Jung's
relationships with women other than Emma. The most well-known women
with whom Jung is believed to have had extramarital affairs are
Sabina Spielrein and Toni Wolff. Jung continued to publish books
until the end of his life, including a work showing his late interest
in flying saucers. He also enjoyed a brief friendship with an English
Catholic priest, Father Victor White, who corresponded with Jung
after he had published his controversial study of the Book of Job.
Jung and Freud
At university, Jung was a student of Krafft-Ebing. For a time,
Jung was Freud's heir-apparent in the psychoanalytic school. After
the publication of Jung's Symbols of Transformation (1912), Jung
and Freud endured a painful parting of ways: Jung seemed to feel
confined by what he believed was Freud's narrow, reductionistic,
and rigid view of libido. Freud held that all libido was at base
sexual, while Jung's psychological work continued to explore libido
as multiple and often synthetic. After the break with Freud, Jung
questioned how such divergent views as Freud's, Alfred Adler's and
his own could develop out of Psychoanalysis. The result of his questionings
was Psychological Types (volume 6 of the Collected Works), in which
Jung outlines a framework within which psychological orientations
can be identified.
Psychological Types
The often misunderstood terms extrovert and introvert derive from
this work. In Jung's original usage, the extrovert orientation finds
meaning outside the self, in the surrounding world, whereas the
introvert is introspective and finds it within. Jung also identified
four primary modes of experiencing the world: thought, feeling,
sensation, and intuition. (He referred to these as the four functions.)
Broadly speaking, we tend to work from our most developed function,
while we need to widen our personality by developing the others.
Related to this, Jung noted that the unconscious often tends to
reveal itself most easily through a person's least developed function.
The encounter with the unconscious and development of the inferior
function(s) thus tend to progress together.
Significant in Jung's theory is that "type preferences"
are inborn and not socially constructed through interaction with
the parents, family, culture and other external influences. While
this is true, the individual is impacted in the quality and strength
of the development in her or his preferences. Nature and nurture
are both at play. A supportive environment will support and facilitate
inborn preference development; a contrary environment will impede
or retard the natural development of inborn preferences. The research
on the mental health problems of many left-handed children forced
to be right-handed is not dissimilar to what often occurs for people
"forced" into a non-preferred mode of personal orientation.
In the field of family systems theory, psychological type holds
potential as another way to understand the internal conflicts and
alliances within the family. Parents can often be seen to have concern
about children who operate from type preferences different from
theirs and run the risk of encouraging, and at times coercing, children
into a false personality. As a child resists or naturally fails
to adhere to the parental guidance, conflict readily occurs. "Type-alike"
family members will naturally gravitate toward each other. The best
approach is to try to identify type preferences of all family members
and to actively encourage those preferences, while training children,
as well, in non-preferred functions.
Psychological Types – another view
Imagine a person (the subject) observing an object or event. For
example, a house that they are considering buying. The introvert
relates more to the subject – what would this house, as a
home, do for their life experience? The extravert relates more to
the object – the house. What could be done with this particular
building? The focus being on the building itself.
There are four psychological functions in Jung’s model: two
rational functions (thinking and feeling), and two perceptive functions
(sensation and intuition).
Sensation is the perception of facts. In our example, suppose the
house is well built, it has a large garden, it is two miles from
the shops, and the buyer has a nervous tic when he/she mentions
money.
Intuition is the perception of the unseen. For example, the seller
is hiding something, I’d be content here for the next twenty
years.
Thinking is analytical, deductive cognition. For example, compared
to the house I viewed yesterday, this is overpriced, bigger, nearer
to work, overall it would cost so much per month more on my mortgage,
but I’d spend two hours less travelling each week.
Feeling is synthetic, all-inclusive cognition. For example "I’ll
have to sleep on it before I know whether this house could be home.
Even then I may not know!" Feeling takes time. The feeling
function is not the same as emotion, which Jungian psychology refers
to as affect (emphasising its physiological component) but the feeling
function and affect (emotion) clearly do influence each other.
In any person, the degree of introversion/extraversion of one function
can be quite different to that of another function. For example
extraverted intuition— imagining endless means of political
change; with relatively introverted thinking— "How would
I fit into such a society?"
Introverted intuitives tend to be weak at extraverted sensation
(and vice versa)— they have very good insight into themselves,
their unseen motives and likely long term goals, but can’t
find their adjustable spanner nine times out ten. Intuition is often
inspired, and other times completely wrong. It has to be checked
with one of the rational functions, thinking or feeling. Introverted
thinking types tend to be weak at extraverted feeling.
Note. As for training children, while it is a good thing to appreciate
the psychological type of a child, or indeed of anyone (it is also
very rarely practised), it is most productive to understand the
psychological typology of children – then leave them alone.
‘Leading’ anyone into their inferior function can be
dangerous. Though it has its uses for mature analysands with the
assistance of an experienced therapist, it is not part of the educational
or parental role. If a child has suppressed feeling, for example,
it may be a survival strategy.
Influence
Jung has had an enduring influence on psychology as well as wider
society. He has influenced psychotherapy (see Jungian psychotherapy
).
•The concept of introversion vs. extroversion
•The concept of the complex
•Much of Joseph Campbell's thought leading to the creation
of Star Wars and, to a lesser extent, The Matrix trilogy
•Myers-Briggs Type Indicator tests were inspired by Jung's
Psychological Types theory. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assesses
people on extraversion and introversion, Jung's function types and
also on judging-perceiving, a dimension not found in Jung's original
taxonomy but germane to his distinction between rational and irrational
functions.
•Jung's influence can sometimes be found in more unexpected
quarters. For example, Jung once treated an American patient suffering
from chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some
time, and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that
his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility
of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that occasionally such experiences
had been known to reform alcoholics where all else had failed.
The patient took Jung's advice seriously and set about seeking
a personal spiritual experience. He returned home to the United
States and joined a Christian evangelical church. He also told other
alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual
experience. One of the alcoholics he told was Ebby Thacher, a long-time
friend and drinking buddy of Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics
Anonymous (A.A.) Thacher told Wilson about Jung's ideas. Wilson,
who was finding it hard to maintain sobriety, was impressed and
sought out his own spiritual experience. The influence of Jung ultimately
found its way in the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, drafted
by Wilson, and from there into the whole 12-step recovery movement,
which has touched the lives of millions of people.
Influence on culture
Jung had a 16-year long friendship with author Laurens van der
Post from which a number of books and film were created about Jung's
life.
The concept of the collective unconscious is one of the main topics
in the Dune novel series.
Jung's influence on noted Canadian novelist Robertson Davies is
apparent in many of Davies's fictional works. In particular, The
Cornish Trilogy and his novel The Manticore each base their design
on Jungian concepts.
The Progressive Metal band, Tool have incorporated Jung's work into
their album, Ænima. Additionally, The Police made references
to Carl Jung in their album Synchronicity.
J. Michael Straczynski's "Babylon 5" television series
used many of Jung's concepts throughout the series.
The video games Xenogears and Xenosaga utilize many of the ideas
proposed by Carl Jung as major storyline components of the game,
and even create physical manifestations of his notions within actual
characters, Albedo, Nigredo, Rubedo, etc.
Jung's writing was introduced to Italian film maker, Federico Fellini
in the 1950s and had an effect on the way Fellini incorporated dreams
into films after La Dolce Vita.
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