Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Prepsychotic or genius—the mystery remains, depending on whom you read.

His mysticism began early in his childhood. Examples of his visions, dreams and fantasies include the creation of a manikin, at age 10, communion with the stone, at 7, the phallus dream, at age 4, and the throne vision, at age 8. These experiences convinced Jung that there are aspects of the human psyche that are independent of any individual’s personal experiences.

M.D. in 1900, dissertation on the occult. Interest in séances, mediums, parapsychology, supernatural. Personal experiences confirmed his belief in the supernatural.

Married in 1903, father of five children, long time affair with Toni Wolfe, who was accepted by his wife. Both women published papers about Jungian theory.

Established word association test to tap into the unconscious mind. Introduction to Freud in 1907 and they began close friendship. Freud decided that Jung would be his successor. During a tour of the U.S. and lectures at Clark University, Jung began to disagree with Freud’s emphasis on the sexual motivation for behavior. The disagreement over the role of the libido caused a rift between the two men. By the age of 40 he had severed his relationship with Freud and entered into a four year period of darkness, exploring his own dreams and fantasies, bringing him to the brink of madness. Creative illness or full-blown psychotic episodes—a matter of opinion.

TERMINOLOGY AND THEORY

Libido is redefined to move beyond the sexual drive to a general creative life force that applied to the continuous psychological growth of the person’s psyche. The value of something depends on how much libidinal energy is invested in it.

The amount of energy in a system is fixed, and if it moves from one part it will show up in another (the principle of equivalence). There is a tendency for all components of the psyche to have equal energy (the principle of entrophy). In the psyche exist polar opposites; unconscious and conscious, feminine and masculine, rational and irrational, animalistic and spiritual, progression and regression, introversion and extroversion, thinking with feeling, sensing with intuiting.

COMPONENTS OF THE PERSONALITY

Ego is everything of which we are conscious, our thinking, feeling, remembering, perceiving, responsible for our sense of identity and our sense of continuity of time.

Personal Unconscious is everything repressed from consciousness, often containing complexes, a personally disturbing constellation of ideas connected to a common feeling tone. A complex has a powerful influence on one’s thinking and behaving: mother complex, power complex, father complex, sex complex, etc. The word association test was a means of searching for complexes.

Complex Indicators: resistance to reaction, repetitious responses, no responses, body language, stammering, creating words, rhyming words, multiple words, misunderstanding of the stimulus word.

Collective Unconscious is Jung’s “boldest, most mystical, most controversial concept. The collective unconscious is the depository of ancestral experience. These primordial, ancestral memories are referred to as archetypes, inherited predispositions to respond to certain aspects of the world: birth, death, sun, darkness, power, women, men, sex, water, magic, mother, heroes, pain, nightmoare, stranger, earthquake, flood, storm, wild animal, pet, fence, etc.

Jung wrote extensively on the following archetypes: persona, anima, animus, shadow, self

Persona: public self, the part of the psyche that we present to others, not to be valued too highly, or seen as the equivalent of the psyche

Anima: female component of the male psyche, a framework within which a man interacts with woman. Men’s collective experiences with women, as perilous, loyal, seductive, dangerous, challenging, nurturing, form an idealized framework for men.

Animus: masculine component of the female psyche, formed in the same way as the anima.

Shadow: darkest, deepest part of the psyche, animalistic, immoral, aggressive, passionate, personified by devil, monsters, evil spirits, magician. Jung believed that the shadow should be recognized and accepted, that it was the source of vitality, spontaneity, and creativity. One who does not use the shadow is dull and lifeless.

Self: the component of the psyche that integrates all of the other components. Represents human striving for unity, wholeness, and integration of the total personality. Achievement of such integration is referred to as self-actualization.

PERSONALITY TYPES

Two general orientations: introversion and extroversion. Created notions of type in 1921 book, Psychological Types. Jung and Adler were both introverts. Freud was an extrovert.

Rational functions of thought include Thinking and Feeling: irrational functions of thought include Sensing and Intuiting.

The Myers-Briggs is a product of Jungian theory, with the addition of Judging and Perceiving.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is also a product of Jungian theory, with an emphasis on four archetypes: Artisans, Guardians, Idealists, Rationals.

Pearson’s The Heron Within: Six Archetypes We Live By (1989) describe the following archetypes: orphan, martyr, wanderer, warrior, magician, innocent.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

His theory is not as advanced as Freud’s, but he did see that the libido is divested in differing tasks, depending on the stage of life. Sexual energy peaks during adolescence, relationships and vocation come to be paramount in young adulthood, and in the later years, there is an emphasis on cultural, philosophical, and spiritual values, wisdom and life’s meaning.