Trained as a physician, practiced psychiatry
in Zurich Switzerland and
engaged in a life-long
Journey to self discovery
-Often confused with Freud's views, but made a clear stand in contrast to Freud on the theory of libido (sexual energy). Instead suggested that "life force" or psychic energy.
Self is a key concept for Jung where the act of centering the self through the union of opposites leads to the making of a whole self.
The balancing of opposites is an
notion that is drawn from medieval alchemy
('science of metals' which sought
to turn lead into gold).
This dialectical notion is commonly
found in Asian, early Greek, and Indian thought.
Introversion and Extroversion are one such pair of psychological types
Four Functions -
characterize the ways in which people typically address the world.
Two forms of Perception - Intuition
and Sensation
Two forms of Judgment - Thinking
and Feeling
Intuition
|
Feeling - - - - + - - - Thinking
|
Sensation
Consciousness is multileveled where individual and collective bands exist in the 'unconscious' realms.
-Like Freud's notion, the personal unconscious contains personal complexes of psychological ideas or symbols representing the important people, events, goals, ... of our lives. They are revealed through dreams or artwork, music, etc.
-Pioneered the word-association technique where reaction times to answer stimulus words with other words were recorded. Slowed times reveal a psychological complex of mental of psychic energy (compensations for conscious).
The collective unconscious, however is 'deeper' where is contains and expresses the common psychic background of all humanity. A universal reservoir of psychic symbols and energy, the collective unconscious harbours the archetypes or prototypical patterns of mythology, dreams, and fantasies.
-It has a 'mythological tendency' to enables groups of individuals to experience the common theme in different ways.
"... there must be a transconscious disposition in every individual which is able to produce the same or very similar symbols at all times and in all places. Since this disposition is usually not a conscious possession of the individual I have called it the collective unconscious, and, as the bases of its symbolical products, I postulate the existence of primordial images, the archetypes."
"... the identity of conscious individual contents with their ethnic parallels is expressed not merely in their form but in their meaning."
Jung and the Sea of Faith
"Myths are original revelations of the preconscious psyche, involuntary statements about unconscious psychic happenings, and anything but allegories of physical processes. Such allegories would be an idle amusement for an unscientific intellectual. Myths, on the contrary, have a vital meaning. Not merely do they represent, they are the psychic life of the primitive tribe, which immediately falls into pieces and decays when it loses its mythological heritage, like a man who has lost his soul." (Jung & Kerenyi, 1969, p.73).
-Drawn from Bastian's Elementary or Primordial Thoughts
Archetypes are: psychological complexes that are universal in nature and can touch us in our most personal experience, often "coming on like fate"
Anima & Animus are forms of femininity and masculinity that are developed in the collective and personal unconscious and affect the ways in which we experience.
-Anima
represents the "image" of women for men and exists
in their unconscious.
-Animus
represents the image of man for women and exists in
their unconscious.
Persona - the self that we present to the world around us. Arises from latin "mask" that is worn for who we are. This usually embraces the aspects that we are most confident and comfortable with. Opposite of the...
Shadow -
the 'dark half' of personality where 'repressed' desires, motives, ideas, ...
are banished.
In mythology it is often represented
by the demon or devil.
-It is important to accept or recognize
these 'weaker' aspects of our self, balancing with the ego rather than
leading to its dissociation and the fractionation of the self.
Child-God (Christ god) - who have divine powers represent "futurity" or our potential.
Wise old man (or woman) - the learned and expereienced one who often guides or gives a tool for self development or change.
Mother - may arise in response to a real 'mother figure' or a "divine" one. Can be positive or negative , light (fairy) or dark (witch), both loving and terrible.
For example: "Durga Jagadhatri
-
The Great Mother Goddess.
For Hindus she is identical with western Juno, Queen of Mothers . This most powerful ancient goddess archetype, inheritor of the attributes of the Sumerian goddess Inanna , has been portrayed in mid-east iconography riding upon her lion (or tiger; both are symbols of queenly power) since prehistoric times. She is the personification of Shakti, the creative force. Here she offers the blessing mudra (sacred gesture) of protection to all mothers and children as she defeats the destructive elephant demon Mahisa. "
Hero- has opposite (the demon) usually involves some moral victory (often symbolised as a dragon), also needs to suffer before realizing 'mission' of helping or saving.
See Joseph Campbell and Hero's Adventure
Trickster - Magicians or tricksters are common among American Native mythologies and in Africa and India. Usually joking or playing pranks, the trickster has a dual nature, presenting himself in one forms then another, or half animal half human.
Synchronicity occurs when events arise simultaneously in a meaningful fashion, such as when an archetype emerges in the collective unconscious of number of people.
The mandala (circle) is used as a way to identify the self and the important entities surrounding it. By placing the self in the centre and others around, one can visually identify the psychological meaning of all the parts.
The "squaring of the circle" is one of the many archetypal motifs which form the basic patterns of our dreams and fantasies. But it is distinguished by the fact that it is one of the most important of them from the functional point of view. Indeed, it could even be called the archetype of wholeness." - from Mandalas. C. G. Jung. trans. from Du (Zurich, 1955)
While painting them (mandalas), the picture seems to develop out of itself and often in opposition to one's conscious intentions. (p. 68 A Study in the Process of Individuation. C. G. Jung.trans. from "Zur Empirie des Individuationsprozesses,"Gestaltungen des Unbewussten, Zurich, 1950)
Integration gathers many into one. p. 69
from Concerning Mandala Symbolism.
C. G. Jung.
". . . that the yogi shall become inwardly aware of the deity.
Through contemplation, he recognizes himself as God again, and
thus returns from the illusion of individual existence into the
universal totality of the divine state." (p. 73)
the fundamental motifs are repeated so often that marked
similarities occur in drawings
done by the most diverse patients. (p. 76 )
"Most mandalas have an intuitive,
irrational character and, through their symbolical content, exert a retroactive
influence on the unconscious. They therefore possess a "magical" significance,
like icons, whose possible efficacy was never consciously felt by the patient." (p. 77)