C. G. Jung
MAJOR IDEAS & BACKGROUND
1875–1961
• Jung was born in Switzerland, the son of a Protestant
minister.
• Intellectual household.
• Went to boarding school; “nervous” there. Develops
psychosomatic symptoms.
• Ends up studying medicine in Basel under famous
neurologist Krafft-Ebing. Moves into psychiatry.
• Meets Freud in 1907. Freud immediately is drawn to Jung
and quickly comes to consider him his heir.
• In 1909 they are traveling together to the U.S. They analyze
each other’s dreams. As Jung probes Freud’s dreams, Freud
becomes resistant and says they will ruin their relationship.
(Freud fears a loss of authority.) The relationship cools after
this.
• Jung is the first of Freud’s circle to clearly break with him,
thereafter.
Jung’s theory of Personality (Psyche)
•Tripartite: Consciousness (Ego), Individual
Unconscious, Collective (Universal) Unconscious
•The Ego (Conscious) is everything of which you are
presently aware and can manipulate.
•The Individual Unconscious is like Freud’s
Preconscious and Subconscious—but it does not include
the instincts and urges that Freud puts in the
Subconscious.
•The Collective Unconscious contains a universal
human psychic inheritance. It provides psychic energy
and influences all we do, but we are never able to be
directly aware of it.
Organization of the Collective Unconscious
•Archetypes: The collective unconscious
contains archetypes that correspond to an
unlearned (instinctual) way of interfacing with
the world.
•Archetypes function like instincts in Freud’s
theory.
•Archetypes are organizing principles for an
elemental force.
•Archetypes can only be “known” by seeing how
people “invest them” in order to deal with the
world.
Major Archetypes
•Mother
•Mana
•The Shadow
•Anima/animus
•Father
•Child
•Family
•Hero
•Wise old man/woman
•Maiden
•Hermaphrodite
•Trickster, etc.
What is the “self”
•The “self” is the full realization of
consciousness. It is the integration of all
levels of consciousness without the need
for a mask to the outside world, since the
“self” is one with the collective and cannot
be destroyed by the world’s realization of
the self. Two examples of people who
have fully realized their “selves” are
Buddha and Jesus Christ.
Psychodynamics -1
(action of the psyche)
•Principle of Opposites
• No interior impulse exists without its
opposite. To deny the opposite
impulse is to create the potential for
deformation of the self. The tension
between psychic opposites creates a
tension called libido or the essential
force of the psyche.
Psychodynamics - 2
(action of the psyche)
•Principle of Equivalence
• Both the positive and negative poles
in the psyche receive equal energy
from the principle of opposition.
Psychodynamics - 3
(action of the psyche)
•Principle of Entropy
• Libido decreases over time, as the
internal oppositions tend to blend and
take on each other’s characteristics.
Typology of Personality (1)
•Introversion and Extroversion
• Extroversion is an orientation
outward toward the Persona and the
External World
• Introversion is an orientation inward
toward the Collective Unconscious
and its Archetypes
Typology of Personality (2)
•Functions
• Sensing
• Thinking
• Intuiting
• Feeling
• Each of us has one of these as the
superior function, then a secondary,
tertiary, and inferior function for the rest
Typology of Personality (3)
•Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs
Meyers adapt Jung’s theory of
personality into what is now the most
popular of the psychometric
personality tests, the Myers Briggs
Type Indicator
MBTI
•The Myers Briggs Type Indicator has
four oppositions:
• Extroversion – Introversion (E-I)
•Sensing – Intuiting (S-N)
•Thinking – Feeling (T-F)
•Judging – Perceiving (J-P)
•The last category is new; it is not
directly from Jung’s typology.