Unit 3: Carl G. Jung
Concern?
 The unconscious
but much broader
 Insight?
 Are patterns of
growth that need
to be made
conscious
 Central Problem?
 Projection
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Once unconscious
want to become
conscious it is
projected onto
world and others:
unconscious evil
within is projected
onto others
Jungian Therapy?
 Making
these patterns of growth
conscious
 Where is religion?
 In religious experience
 Jung: We have to become conscious
of the Imago Dei within if we are
become a whole (Holy?) Self
 Hugely influential in contemporary
spirituality
5 Things about Jung
1. The Psyche (and Unconscious) is real:
rejects Western concept of Tabula Rasa
 2. Passionately concerned with
experience: inner life (dreams) most
important
 3. Many interpretations: almost a religion:
take what you want
 4. Focused on second half of life (35+)
 5. Is very religious (untraditionally): God
very real for him

1st Reading: Bio Questions
What do you think Jung meant by his
“personal myth”?
 Does a beautiful sunset need to be
proved?
 Do you think religious needs are more
important than sexual needs?
 Do you believe the universe is full of
meaning, that we are surrounded by
unseen powers? Why, why not?
 Do you view life more as a problem to be
solved or a mystery to be lived?

Jung, Freud, and James

An historic meeting
at Clarkson
College, RI of
Freud, Jung and
William James
(front center)
Jung Quotes
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“Our heart glows, and
secret unrest gnaws at the
root of our being. Dealing
with the unconscious has
become a question of life
for us”. - Carl Jung
“Masses are always
breeding grounds of
psychic epidemics”
“Who looks outside,
dreams; who looks inside,
awakes”
Quotes continued

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“Everything that irritates
us about others can lead
us to an understanding of
ourselves”
“It all depends on how we
look at things, and not how
they are in themselves”
“Knowing your own
darkness is the best
method for dealing with
the darknesses of other
people”
Theory of Personality (The Self)
How is the Self
different from Ego?
 Is it scientific?
 A philosophical,
religious postulate?
 Jung: self is
unifying,
integrating center
of consciousness

Structure of Personality
 The
Psychic system:
– Ego, personal unconscious, collective
unconscious
– Functions: thinking, feeling, sensing,
intuition
– Attitudes: introversion, extroversion
 Goal?
 Wholeness:
a state of balance
Complexes and Archetypes

What are complexes?
– Group of emotions, behaviors linked together
How identified?
 Difference from archetypes?
 How do complexes and archetypes
influence our behavior?
 What, according to Jung is the ultimate
function of consciousness?

Archetypes
From the Greek: “primary imprint”
 Forms of being human: “outlines” filled in
through experience
 What it means to be human: parallel to
instincts
 As many archetypes as there are ways to
be human
 Archetypes for mother, father, little boy,
little girl, wise old woman, wise old man

Core Concept of Individuation
 Individuation:
process of becoming a
Whole Self
 Task of going beyond individuality
and individual consciousness and
rediscovering one’s unity with all
humanity: involves incorporating the
collective unconscious
 Fundamentally religious process
3 Stage Pattern of Individuation
1) Unconscious unity: the infant’s state
before individual consciousness
 2) Individual consciousness: distinguishing
between self and others; male and female,
good and evil: a tension of opposites (task
of first half of life)
 3) Conscious Unity: reuniting these
“opposites” to state of unity: involves
incorporating unconscious life into our
conscious life

Process of Individuation
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takes place primarily during the second half of
life
Assumes the more the unconsciousness becomes
conscious, the more whole one becomes
is a process (journey) towards wholeness
(and holiness); is always a process of
reconciling opposites
ego has to be clearly formed (primary task of
adolescence and young adulthood): in terms of
competency and responsibility, means taking on
positive roles in the community
-if ego not strong, can be disastrous; can be
taken over by archetypes (shadow)
Main Opposites

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Conscious-unconscious; male-female; young-old;
ego-Self; persona-shadow; anima-animus
Shadow:
– all the ego has repressed in order that you can
adapt to environment, society
– in many ways is opposite of persona

Persona:
– Mask we present to outside
– develops by repressing shadow

Projection: whatever we allow to remain
unconscious in ourselves (shadow) tends to
be projected onto those around us
Level 1: Consciousness: Ego, Persona,
Shadow

Ego: center of consciousness:
– relates to reality
– Thinking “I”
– Has to be built up during first half of life

Persona:
– Public “Face”: mask of roles we can put on and take off
in society
– Danger of persona taking over ego: prevents further
growth from occurring
– Develops through repression of shadow
– Individuation requires that ego become separated from
persona
Projection of Shadow
 Projection:
changes the world
into a replica of one’s “Unknown
Face”:
 only that which we do not accept
in ourselves do we find
impossible to live with in others
Projection of Shadow cont
 the
shadow threatens ego; when
repressed (and seen in others), it
produces intense hatred and
anger
 to pretend shadow does not exist
is to give it strength
 people not in touch with shadow
more likely to be manipulated
and influenced by it
The Feminine and Masculine
 What
is the ‘contrasexual’ side of
one’s personality and where,
according to Jung, does it often go?
 What are the two opposite
archetypes that represent these two
aspects of human gender?
Level 2: Anima and Animus
 according
to Jung, everyone has
qualities of the opposite sex
 we are all really male-female
 anima: the female side of male
 animus: the male side of female
 Once persona is held lightly enough,
anima and animus want to become
conscious
 Just as the outward face of the
psyche is the persona, the inward
Anima and Animus
 growing
up, we all spend a lot of
energy appearing to be the proper
sex; for male, have to be ALL MALE;
for female, ALL FEMALE; (obviously
this has changed in contemporary
culture but basic thrust of argument
seems)
Anima and Animus
 male
and female sexuality largely a
product of particular cultures
 Both anima/animus are archetypes:
patterns of being, of understanding
and perceiving the opposite sex
Anima/Animus continued
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if men cannot deal with their anima, they get
moody, for women, they get opinionated
generally, anima of man fights with animus of
woman
when anima of man cannot become conscious
(remains repressed and hidden), it behaves like
an undeveloped, adolescent girl: pouts, moody
when animus of women is not made conscious, it
becomes aggressive, opinionated (like immature
adolescent male)
need to work on making both conscious if
wholeness is to be reached
Third Level: Self, or God-Image
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cannot be dealt with unless first and second
levels have been dealt with
Self: the most real part of person (Divine, our
True Self that faces God)
the organizing principle of the psyche
It is the Principle of unification of all archetypes
because it draws to itself and harmonizes the
others
Self draws others to wholeness
Goal of individuation is the Self
is the archetype of Wholeness (Holiness)
Level 3 continued
 *At
depth of self we are the
image and likeness of God
 *not possible to realize self
without having some kind of
experience of God
 for Jung: whatever reveals the
self reveals God
Christ: Symbol of Fully Individuated Self
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For Jung, Christ unifies the human and
Divine
The Christian message is supposed to be a
symbol of individuation, of Divine
Wholeness
this is found in the Beatitudes: described as
a sort of handbook for individuation
Christ as Individuated Self cont
 believed
focus of religions all
wrong: should be on the
experience of the God-Image;
instead it was on creeds and
dogmas
 Creeds and Dogmas should be
guides that point the way to
personal religious experience;
instead, too often, the creeds
have become the focus