A
Brief Introduction to C. G. Jung
and
Analytical Psychology
C.
G. Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was the
best known member of the group that formed the core of
the early psychoanalytic movement--followers and students
of Sigmund Freud. After completing his medical studies,
Jung obtained a position at the Burghoelzli Hospital in
Zurich, Switzerland, There he worked with patients
suffering from schizophrenia, while also conducting word
association research. In 1904 Jung corresponded with
Freud about this latter work and also began to use
Freud's psychoanalytic treatment with his patients. In
1906 Freud invited Jung to Vienna, and they began a
professional relationship. Freud soon began to favor Jung
as his successor in the new and growing psychoanalytic
movement. Through Freud's efforts, Jung was appointed
Permanent President of the Association of Psycho-Analysis
at its Second Congress in 1910. Jung and Freud held in
common an understanding of the profound role of the
unconscious. Their understanding of the nature of the
unconscious, however, began to diverge. This led to a
painful break between the two men in 1913 after Jung's
publication of a major article on the psychology of the
unconscious which emphasized the role of symbolism (Jung,
1912). Freud felt personally betrayed by Jung's departure
from his theoretical views. Jung likewise felt betrayed,
believing that Freud, because of his inflexibility, had
failed to support this extension of their mutual
work.
In the years from 1913 to
1917, when Jung was largely ostracized by the
psychoanalytic community, he embarked upon a deep,
extensive, (and potentially dangerous) process of
self-analysis that he called a "confrontation with the
unconscious" (Jung, 1961, chap. 6, pp. 170-99). Jung
emerged from this personal journey with the structures in
place for his theories on archetypes, complexes, the
collective unconscious, and the individuation process.
These theories, along with his understanding of the
symbolism found in dreams and in other creative
processes, formed the basis of his clinical approach,
which he called analytical psychology. Throughout his
long life, Jung continued to develop and broaden his
theoretical framework, drawing both on his clinical
practice and his study of such wide-ranging subjects as
alchemy, Eastern religions, astrology, mythology, and
fairy tales.
Jungian
Theory
Jungian theory is very
much experience driven. It is an approach which keeps one
foot in the world of outer events and the other on the
inner realm of fantasies, dreams, and symbols. Jung
himself largely moved from human observation to theory.
He constructed his concepts on the evidence derived from
his clinical observations and personal experience,
including an extended period of deep and intense
self-analysis (see Jung, 1961). Jung drew upon an
enormous variety of mythical and anthropological material
to amplify and illuminate (rather than to prove) his
theory. Samuels notes that awareness of this sequence is
of great help in understanding Jung's often extremely
dense writings:
[Jung]
begins from the human interaction in analysis or from
observation of life, develops a theory which is then
illustrated by comparative material or further
observation. Only then could the mass of imagery and
data from many sources be organised. The organisation
itself then helps to understand one aspect or other of
human behavior. Thus the process is circular: human
material - theory - illustration - application to
human behavior (1985, p. 5).
Although some of Jung's
structural terms were drawn from the Freudian
psychoanalytic lexicon of the day, they are not
necessarily used in the same way. (This is, of course,
also true for the various neo-Freudian usages of this
terminology.)
In the Freudian
conceptualization, ego refers to a psychic structure
which mediates between society (superego) and instinctual
drives (id). Jung's usage is in contrast to this. For
Jung the ego can be understood in a much more
dynamic, relative, (and fragile) way as
a complex, a
feeling-toned group of representations of oneself that
has both conscious and unconscious aspects and is at
the same time personal and collective. Simply put, too
simply perhaps, the ego is how one sees oneself, along
with the conscious and unconscious feelings that
accompany that view (Hopcke, 1989, p. 77).
The ego, as one complex
(see below) among many, is not seen by Jungians as the
goal of psychological development. As the carrier of the
individual's consciousness, it is the task of the ego to
become aware of its own limitations, to see its existence
as only a small island -- though an essential one -- in
the much greater ocean of the personal and collective
unconscious.
A major part of the ego's
task -- and a major goal of psychotherapy -- is to
develop an appropriate relationship with what Jung termed
the Self, the archetype of wholeness. The Self can
be understood as the central organizing principle of the
psyche, that fundamental and essential aspect of human
personality which gives cohesion, meaning, direction, and
purpose to the whole psyche.
Resting (for the most
part) close to the surface of the unconscious are those
personal attributes and elements of experience which have
been excluded from the ego, usually because of parental
and societal disapproval. These elements are known as the
shadow, and they tend to be projected on less
favored individuals and groups. While in general these
qualities are negative ones, the shadow may also contain
positive aspects which the individual has been unable to
own. Typical of the latter are qualities disparaged by
the individual's family and/or peers with labels such as
"unmanly," "unfeminine," "weak," or
"childish."
Finally, the
persona -- the Greek word for an actor's mask --
is the face shown to others. It reveals certain selected
aspects of the individual and hides others. Hopcke
writes: "Jung saw the persona as a vital sector of the
personality which provides the individual with a
container, a protective covering for his or her inner
self" (1989, p. 87). A well-developed individual may have
several personae appropriate to business and social
situations. The problem comes not in having a persona but
in identifying with it to the neglect of the person's
inner life.
The concept of the
archetypes is perhaps the most distinctive of the
Jungian concepts (Jung, 1934b, 1936). It is a concept
which Jungians understand as a given in human experience
but which often baffles those from other psychoanalytic
schools. Jung began to observe, in his work with
patients' dreams, the appearance of symbols which seemed
to have little or no personal meaning for the dreamer and
yet which often had great emotional charge. He observed
that many of these symbols had appeared again and again
throughout history in mythology, religion, fairy tales,
alchemical texts, and other forms of creative expression.
Jung became convinced that the source of this symbolic
material was what he identified as the collective
unconscious, a pool of experience accessible to all
humans through history which lies below the personal
unconscious. The archetypes were, for Jung, "typical
modes of expression" arising from this collective layer.
The archetypes are neither images nor ideas but, rather,
fundamental psychic patterns common to all humans into
which personal experiences are organized.
As a result of Jung's
early word association research, he came to recognize the
existence of clusters of ideas, thoughts, memories, and
perceptions, organized around a central affective and
archetypal core. He termed these clusters "feeling-toned
complexes" (Jung, 1907, par. 82). Feeling-toned
complexes are the basic structural units of the
psyche.
Jung saw complexes as
"the living units of the psyche" (1934a, p. 191), as
distinctive part personalities
each carrying a
splinter consciousness of its own, a degree of
intentionality, and the capability of pursuing a goal.
They are like real personalities in that they contain
images, feelings, and qualities, and if they engulf
the ego, they determine behavior as well (Sandner and
Beebe, 1995, p. 302).
In ordinary human
experience, the experience of being taken over by a
complex is what we point to with language such as "I was
beside myself" or "I don't know what got into me." Jung
wrote vividly of the autonomous quality of the
complexes:
Reality sees to
it that the peaceful cycle of egocentric ideas is
constantly interrupted by ideas with a strong
feeling-tone, that is, by affects. A situation
threatening danger pushes aside the tranquil play of
ideas and puts in their place a complex of other ideas
with a very strong feeling-tone. The new complex then
crowds everything else into the background. For the
time being it is the most distinct because it totally
inhibits all other ideas; it permits only those
egocentric ideas to exist which fit its situation, and
under certain conditions it can suppress to the point
of complete (momentary) unconsciousness all ideas that
run counter to it, however strong they may be. It now
possesses the strongest attention-tone (Jung, 1919, p.
41).
Jungian
Analysis/Psychotherapy
Jungian psychotherapy, as
it is currently practiced, covers a wide range of
perspectives, ranging from a primary stress on the
analysis of the archetypal material of dreams and
fantasies to a major focus on the unraveling of early
developmental issues, and including a strongly clinical
emphasis which combines these two elements. A number of
authors have attempted to classify Jungians by school
(especially see Samuels, 1985), an attempt which seems
only partially successful in capturing the great
diversity found among Jungians, precisely because the
theory is experience driven. Joseph Henderson notes
that
. . . we
individual practitioners have had to reformulate our
therapeutic experiences when they differ from those of
the master. This is to be expected since individuation
. . . implies that no psychotherapist can be called
Jungian without first becoming as differentiated an
individual as he or she can be in response to his or
her own personal analysis (1995, p. 10).
Although there are
differing emphases and styles in Jungian psychotherapy,
there are fundamental goals which almost all Jungians
hold in common. Murray Stein summarizes these as
follows:
Jungian
analysis, which takes place in a dialectical
relationship between analyst and analysand, has for
its goal the analysand's movement toward psychological
wholeness. This transformation of the personality
requires coming to terms with the unconscious, its
specific structures and their dynamic relations to
consciousness as these become available during the
course of analysis. Transformation also depends upon
the significant modification of the unconscious
structures that shape and control ego-consciousness at
the beginning of analysis, a change that takes place
through the constellation of archetypal structures and
dynamics in the interactive field between analyst and
analysand (1995, p. 33).
A primary aim of Jungian
psychotherapy/analysis is to establish an ongoing
relationship between consciousness (ego) and the
unconscious, between what is happening in the unconscious
and what is taking place in day-to-day life. Jungian
theory understands the psyche as containing a drive
toward balance and wholeness, differentiating and
incorporating the various elements of the personal
unconscious and establishing access to the collective
unconscious. Jung called this the process of
individuation. In psychotherapy, this unconscious
material gradually manifests itself symbolically in
dreams, in products of active imagination, and in the
transference/countertransference relationship between
therapist and patient.
Given an adequate
relationship, setting, and time, the client's psyche
tends toward healing itself. Whitmont writes:
Eventually the
unconscious will begin to provide not only
descriptions of the existing impasse but also positive
suggestions for possibilities of development which
could reconcile the opposing positions, showing us
what avenues of development are available to us, what
paths are required of us or closed to us, according to
the inherent plan of the Self (1969, p. 294).
Jungians are generally
reluctant to overdirect the therapeutic process,
believing that the patient's psyche rather than the
therapist's is the appropriate guide. Karen Signell
speaks of the therapeutic process, from a Jungian
perspective, as
respect[ing]
the . . . guidance of one's center--the source of
one's deepest intuitions, feelings, and values (1990,
p. 22).
References
(purchasing
information)
Henderson, J. L.
(1995). Reflections on the history and practice of
Jungian analysis. In M. Stein, Ed., Jungian
analysis (2nd ed.). Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open
Court.
Hopcke, R. H. (1989).
A guided tour of The Collected Works of C. G.
Jung. Boston and London: Shambhala.
Jung, C. G. (1953-79).
The collected works (Bollingen Series XX), R. F.
C. Hull, trans.; H. Read, M. Fordham, and G. Adler, eds.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 20
vols.
Jung, C. G. (1907). The
psychology of dementia praecox. In The psychogenesis
of mental disease, Collected works 3.
Jung, C. G. (1912).
Transformations and symbols of libido, Collected works
supplementary vol. B.
Jung, C. G. (1917). On
the psychology of the unconscious. In Two essays on
analytical psychology, Collected works 7.
Jung, C. G. (1919). On
the problem of psychogenesis in mental disease. In The
psychogenesis of mental disease, Collected works
3.
Jung, C. G. (1934a), A
review of the complex theory, In The structure and
dynamics of the psyche, Collected works 8.
Jung, C. G. (1934b).
Archetypes of the collective unconscious. In The
archetypes and the collective unconscious, Collected
works 9, I.
Jung, C. G. (1936). The
concept of the collective unconscious. In The
archetypes and the collective unconscious, Collected
works 9, I.
Jung, C. G. (1944).
Psychology and alchemy, Collected works
12.
Jung., C. G. (1954). The
psychology of the transference. In The Practice of
Psychotherapy, Collected works 16.
Jung, C. G. (1951). The
shadow. In Aion, Collected works 9, II.
Jung, C. G. (1961).
Memories, dreams, reflections. New York:
Pantheon.
Samuels, A. (1985).
Jung and the post-Jungians. London and New York:
Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Sandner, D. F. and Beebe,
J. (1995). Psychopathology and analysis. In M. Stein,
Ed., Jungian analysis (2nd ed.). Chicago and La
Salle, IL: Open Court.
Signell, K. A. (1990)
Wisdom of the heart: Working with women's dreams.
New York: Bantam.
Stein, M. (1995). The
aims and goal of Jungian analysis. In M. Stein, Ed.,
Jungian analysis (2nd ed.). Chicago and La Salle,
IL: Open Court.
Whitmont, E. (1969).
The symbolic quest. New York: Putnam.
©
1998 Marilyn A.
Geist
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