The founder of the new direction of Analytical Psychology, Carl Gustav Jung, was born in 1875 in the Swiss town of Keeswil in the family of a pastor. After graduating from the University of Basel, the young doctor worked for about 6 years in a psychiatric hospital in Zurich as an assistant to the famous psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, and since 1910, Jung has been one of the students of the founder of the psychoanalytic movement, Sigmund Freud.
Pretty soon, Jung becomes one of Freud's most promising students and takes a leading position in the psychoanalytic movement.
Between 1909 and 1913, Jung became president of the Psychoanalytic Society and editor of its journal.
A departure from Freud's classical psychoanalysis.
In 1914, a break occurred between Freud and Jung.
And although, in general, Jung remains in the position of psychoanalysis, his views on one of Freud’s most basic provisions - on the dominant role of sexual drives in the motivation of the human personality - diverge significantly from the views of the teacher, which leads to irreconcilable contradictions, extremely painful for himself. Freud.
There were two reasons for the fundamental discrepancy: new approach Jung's ideas of libido and the unconscious.
The emergence of analytical psychology.
Let us remember what the main idea of psychoanalysis was.
According to Freud, the behavior of a person is determined by unconscious motives based on sexual attraction, and the cause of internal conflicts - neuroses and depression - is nothing more than the inevitable contradictions that arise between the conscious part of the personality and unconscious impulsive desires caused by the animal nature of man, which is invariably suppressed social and ethical attitudes.
And this idea may seem strange only at first glance, because in his reasoning Sigmund Freud proceeded from a completely rational understanding of the facts and causes of the neurotic behavior of his patients and a scientific hypothesis about the contradiction between the natural animal impulses of man and the demands of society.
In Freud's teachings, man as an animal and man as a social being were in a state of natural contradiction.
Carl Jung's ideas regarding libido and the unconscious were similar to Freud's only at first glance, and some of them, especially his views on the unconscious, were based on views that were very exotic for that time.
In general, by accepting the very idea of libido, Jung deprived it of its main function - sexual. In his understanding, the original source of conflict was not only sexual energy, but a certain psychic energy as such. Sexual energy was nothing more than a part of it and came to the fore (like any other need) only in those moments when it became relevant for the individual.
In such a coordinate system, any human need, being unrealized, could serve as a source psychological problems, and the list of such needs expanded very far beyond the limits of purely bodily impulses. More precisely, the nature of basic (animal) energy according to Jung remained the same, but manifested itself not only in the sphere of animal needs, but also in types of activity inherent only to humans.
Jung also invested completely different meanings in understanding the motives for personal development. Thus, Freud's famous idea about the Oedipus complex in Jung's understanding takes on a slightly different context. Now, Jung explains, for the most part, the child’s attachment to his mother by the fact that the mother is the source of satisfaction of the current needs of the individual, for example, the basic needs for food and warmth. As for sexual energy, according to Jung’s logic, it became much more relevant during puberty, and therefore much later. At the same time, Jung did not at all deny the phenomenon of sexual desires at an early age, but they were reduced only to fragmentary manifestations, along with other mental needs.
Based on the difference in views on the dominant mental energy, a much more far-reaching difference emerged regarding the basic paradigm of views on a person’s personality, or more precisely on how this personality is determined at a given moment in time.
Thus, according to Freud’s views, the basis of human personality, its motives and impulses in the present were largely determined by the past, namely the childhood period of development. Jung argued that personal development does not end in childhood.
A person can change significantly at any age, and his motivations are equally determined not only by his childhood traumas, but also by current motives and tasks that exist now and are determined in the present.
Thus, using Freud's psychoanalysis as a basis, Jung essentially treated his teacher's theory quite radically.
But at the same time, without a doubt, Jung’s truly revolutionary view was his interpretation of the unconscious, which became one of the foundations new theory personality.
Personality structure according to Jung.
Structurally, Jung's personality is almost no different from Freud's, but this is only at first glance.
According to Jung, personality - soul (psyche), consists of three components - Ego, Personal unconscious and Collective unconscious.
Ego- the central part of consciousness which includes thoughts, feelings, sensations, information (memories). It is this part of our consciousness that is responsible for identifying us as a separately existing person, for rational perception of the world and for conscious activity (conscious behavior).
Personal unconscious- a repository of information that was previously recognized, however, for certain reasons, repressed and forgotten. Such a concept of the unconscious would be similar to Freud's, if Jung had not gone much further, suggesting that this same area contains the so-called complexes or emotionally colored (charged) parts of the psyche that have acquired the properties of autonomous existence as certain independent entities capable of exerting a significant influence on a person, his condition and behavior.
The reason for the emergence of such mental structures is traumatic situations from the past, which, among other things, were in opposition to the ego, that is, for some reason they could not be accepted by it, and therefore found themselves locked in the subconscious in the form of images of these situations.
In essence, Jung argued for the existence of alien independent elements in the sphere of personal consciousness.
Complexes are suppressed by the volitional conscious efforts of the ego, but without problems they continue to exist again and again, making themselves felt in situations similar to those in which they arose.
The problem is that thanks to these components of the psyche, a person’s free will is significantly violated and the individual begins to behave not in accordance with the requirements of the real situation, but under the influence of internal reasons from the past.
Complexes affect not only a person’s behavior, but also his worldview.
According to Jung, information located in the sphere of the personal unconscious can be realized by the individual.
The third part of personality according to Jung is collective unconscious, which represents the repository of the universal memory of humanity over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. This is, as it were, the collective heritage of our ancestors, existing in a hidden figurative form in the subconscious of each individual and, under certain conditions, accessible to awareness in the form of images.
The bearers of this collective heritage were particularly significant and energetically powerful images - archetypes(primary modules), which were responsible for the instinctive behavior of people, for perceiving the world in a certain way through basic ideas that are the same in different cultures but often not causally related.
This meant that people react to certain situations in approximately the same way, for example, their attitude towards father and mother, child, death, etc.
In fact, each archetype is responsible for a certain typical life situation and determines (is a template) a model of human behavior under given circumstances.
Examples of significant Jungian archetypes are mother, child, death, sage, god, self.
Jung believed that the perception of archetypes is available in figurative form during dreams.
These archetypes are also found in different cultures in the form of symbols, religious, artistic, literary, philosophical.
The most important archetypes of Jung.
It is believed that the number of archetypes in general should be equal to the number of typical situations in our life, which means unlimited. However, Jung identified a number of the most important of them: mask, anima, animus, shadow and self.
Mask (person). One of the most important archetypes for a person whose name speaks for itself.
The mask is that part of our consciousness that faces society. It is through it that interaction with society occurs.
For every social situation, every person has their own type of mask.
The function of a mask is to imitate a socially acceptable image of ourselves, as well as to hide who we really are.
The mask is a very important part of our personality, which is responsible for a successful social life, but, like any useful thing, it carries both good and evil. Often the mask begins to play such a big role for most of us that we completely forget who we really are, which means that we fall under the power of a skillful tool that quietly enslaves us.
Shadow. What is responsible for the “primitive” animal part of our personality, the shadow, is our natural impulses (selfish, sexual, aggressive), which for various reasons are not accepted either by society or by ourselves. Accordingly, we tend to suppress its natural manifestations. However, Jung himself considered the Shadow to be essentially twofold.
On the one hand, it presents obvious problems for the individual, on the other, it is a powerful source of universal energy that can also be used for “peaceful purposes,” for example, channeled into a creative direction.
According to Jung, both the Shadow and the Persona are special archetypes and are a certain basic structure (core) in the collective unconscious. The reason for this view is probably that these archetypes, unlike the others, are responsible for the self-consciousness of the individual, and therefore, both one and the other manifest themselves both in the personal unconscious and directly in consciousness.
The role of the Ego is precisely to create a certain semblance of harmony between the Shadow and the Persona.
This means directing the enormous energy of the Shadow in the right direction.
On the other hand, this means using the Persona, precisely as a practical tool for life in society, without identifying with it.
Anima and Animus. These two archetypes are associated with the images of the Father and Mother, man and woman.
For a man, the Anima image is an ideal, connected on the one hand with the mother, on the other, carrying within itself the unconscious feminine side of male nature, as well as ideas about the ideal woman, which largely influence the search for a partner.
Typical manifestations of Anima in a male character are excessive emotionality, sensuality, and irrational impulsiveness.
Ignoring the feminine side of your nature leads to a certain disharmony in the development of the male personality and the loss of certain opportunities.
For a woman, Animus is an image ideal man, partner, father, as well as the male part of her personality. Manifestations of the Animus in feminine character- aggressiveness in society and family, desire for dominance, independence, logic.
Just as in the case of a man, ignoring or rejecting the male part of the personality leads to one-sided development.
Archetype Self(I, as it is). Unmanifested under ordinary conditions, this archetype becomes the center of the entire personal structure after a special act, which Jung called individuation.
The individuation of a personality occurs when all its internal structures, which under normal conditions are in antagonism, come into balance and are united in one integral harmony.
Only then does the Self become the defining archetype of personality.
Jung believed that self-actualization of the Self is a very rare phenomenon, nevertheless, it is the main goal of human existence. According to Jung, the Self is the embodiment of our natural religiosity and subconsciously pushes a person to develop inner harmony.
Jung believed that the personality structure consists of three parts - the collective unconscious, the individual unconscious (It) and consciousness (Ego).
Fig.1. Jung's structure of the psyche
Jung paid great attention to the unconscious and its dynamics, but his idea of it was radically different from Freud's. Jung moved away from Freudianism, believing that the unconscious cannot be reduced to the biological. In his opinion, the unconscious represents the mental experience of previous generations, is the sum of types of behavior, emotional reactions, images of spontaneous fantasies, dreams.
He viewed the psyche as a complementary interaction of conscious and unconscious components with a continuous exchange of energy between them. He considered the unconscious to be a creative, rational principle that connects man with all of humanity, with nature and the cosmos.
1.1. The structure of the conscious and unconscious in the human psyche
Let us take a closer look at how Jung understood the structures of consciousness and the unconscious in the human psyche.
Jung noted that human consciousness consists of a number of components.
The first one is perception. A person sees, hears, touches the world and thereby understands it. Perception indicates that something exists. But it doesn't say what it is. It is concretized by the process of apperception - a complex process of memory and thinking that allows us to understand what something is. Thus, the second component of consciousness is thinking.
However, often, before we have fully analyzed the information, we already experience emotional reactions of a pleasant or unpleasant nature, i.e. sensual, emotional assessments, which are also an obligatory component of human consciousness (this is the third component).
The process of anticipation, intuition (perception of prisoners in a situation of potential opportunities) is one of the main functions of the psyche. A person can be aware these intuitive anticipations(the fourth component of consciousness).
Depending on which of the components of consciousness is predominant in a given person, which of them he relies on in receiving and processing information, Jung distinguished different types people:
♦ mental or emotional;
♦ sensing (based on one’s real perceptions at the moment) or intuitive (based more on premonitions and intuition);
♦ volitional, rational or perceptive, irrational, spontaneous.
The strong-willed type is characterized by greater severity of processes will(this is the fifth component of consciousness), and they are impulses directed by thinking that allow a person to act at his own discretion, based on a clear decision made, and consistently implement his decisions.
The perceiving, irrational, spontaneous type is characterized by a predominance of processes drives(sixth component of consciousness). They encourage a person to repeatedly change his decisions and actions, hesitate, and react flexibly. People of this type are dominated by “attractions-impulses arising from the unconscious and having the nature of dependence and coercion.”
Dreams– this is a specific component of consciousness; according to Jung, “the resultant of unconscious processes invading consciousness.” Sleep is a state in which consciousness is substantially limited, but has not completely disappeared, just as the unconscious mental life does not cease during wakefulness. Jung notes that any work that is usually carried out in consciousness can also take place in the unconscious - even intellectual activity (for example, the search for a solution is sometimes carried out in a dream).
Jung's merit is to reveal that unconscious part of the psyche human being is the most important information and creative base, that it contains much more information than consciousness, and therefore serves as a link with the world, nature, and space. Jung pointed out that it is the unconscious that receives information from the external world that initially has low intensity or other parameters that make it inaccessible to human consciousness. Jung's correctness was confirmed by modern research, which found that the unconscious is incomparably more information-rich than consciousness, and is more closely connected with the world, nature, people, and space. And at the same time, the unconscious part of the psyche stores repressed, suppressed thoughts, feelings, desires, events that a person does not want and cannot think about due to their prohibition or traumatic nature.
While studying the dynamics of the unconscious, Jung discovered functional units that he called complexes. Complexes are a set of mental elements (ideas, opinions, attitudes, beliefs), united around a thematic core and associated with certain feelings. These are “special affective contents that have a certain autonomy, are capable of resisting conscious intentions, are capable of appearing and disappearing as they please, since they are deprived of conscious control.” Complexes- either a consequence or a cause of conflict, shock, shock, awkwardness. They contain memories, desires, fears, responsibilities, thoughts that we cannot get rid of, and therefore constantly interfere and harm, interfering with our conscious life. Complexes, according to Jung, are “the nodal point of mental life”, they provide an incentive to new aspirations, preventing the emergence of “harmful stagnation”, but, on the other hand, “a complex means that area in a person in which he is now suffering defeat, where nothing can be overcome.” They manifest themselves in the form of certain symptoms (these are mental and behavioral oddities and disorders, physical ailments and diseases). By eliminating individual of them, it is not possible to really help a person until the complex itself is eliminated - the root cause of the symptoms themselves.
Jung managed to trace complexes from biologically determined areas of the individual unconscious to the original myth-generating patterns, which he called archetypes. Within each complex, archetypal elements are closely intertwined with aspects of the physical environment. Through research, Jung came to the conclusion that archetypes must somehow influence our physical world. Since they seemed to be the connecting link between matter and psyche, he called them psychoids.
Jung came to the conclusion that in addition to the individual unconscious, there is collective unconscious, common to all humanity and which is a manifestation of creative cosmic force. Jung believed that through the process of individualization, a person can overcome the narrow boundaries of the Ego and the personal unconscious and connect with the higher Self, commensurate with all humanity and the entire cosmos. Thus, Jung can be considered the first representative of a transpersonal orientation in psychology.
1.2. Collective unconscious and archetypes
Collective unconscious, in contrast to the individual (personal), is identical for all people, one for all humanity and therefore forms the universal basis of the mental life of each person, being super-personal in nature. This is the deepest level of the psyche. Jung considers it both as a result of previous phylogenetic experience, and as a priori forms of the psyche, and as a set of collective ideas, images, and representations of humanity, as the most widespread mythologems in a given era, expressing the “spirit of the times.”
If the individual unconscious and consciousness are purely personal lifetime acquisitions, then the collective unconscious is a kind of “memory of generations,” a psychological inheritance with which a child is born. The collective unconscious is “the spiritual heritage of everything that has been experienced by humanity,” “a common soul that has no time limits,” the foundation of the individual psyche. Jung wrote that “the content of the collective unconscious is only minimally formed by the individual and in its essence is not an individual acquisition at all. This unconscious is like the air that everyone breathes and that belongs to no one.” It is “the precondition of each individual psyche, just as the sea is the precondition of each individual wave.”
Characterizing the collective unconscious as a mental system that has a “collective, universal and impersonal nature, identical in all individuals,” Jung identifies the following features:
1) it owes its existence solely to heredity;
2) it is not based on personal experience and does not develop individually;
Archetypes act as a set of certain principles and predispositions existing in the unconscious that are activated under certain conditions and invade consciousness as energy flows. Archetype is understood by Jung as a certain degree of independence, and consciousness as creative freedom. An archetype can take on visual symbolic forms and be expressed in stereotypical reactions or modes of action.
Archetypes, according to Jung’s definition, are “mental prototypes hidden in the depths of the foundation of the conscious soul, its roots descended into the world as a whole,” these are systems of attitudes that are both images and emotions.” They are inherited along with the structure of the brain, moreover, they are its mental aspect. On the one hand, they form an extremely strong instinctive prejudice, and on the other hand, they turn out to be the most effective aid in the process of instinctive adaptation. In essence, they represent, so to speak, the chthonic part of the soul - that through which the soul is connected with nature, or at least in which such a connection with the Earth and the world is most noticeable. As Jung notes, the influence of the Earth and its laws on the soul is manifested in prototypes, perhaps most clearly.
An archetype is activated when a situation corresponding to it arises. Then, like an instinctive drive, contrary to all reason and will, he makes his way. In this case, the specific form of the archetype is realized symbolically - through the archetypal image in the individual’s psyche.
He believed that archetypes organize not only individual, but also collective fantasy (for example, they underlie the mythology of a people, their religion, determine the psychology of the people, their self-awareness, and express the “spirit of the era”). Through the actualization of certain archetypes, culture also influences the formation of the individual human psyche. All the most powerful ideas and concepts of humanity can be reduced to archetypes (these are religious, scientific, philosophical, moral systems).
“The collective unconscious is a huge spiritual heritage, revived in each individual brain structure. Consciousness, on the contrary, is an ephemeral phenomenon that carries out momentary adaptations and orientations, which is why its work can most likely be compared to orientation in space. The unconscious contains the source of the forces that set the soul in motion, and the forms or categories that regulate all this are archetypes,” writes Jung. The number of archetypes located in the collective unconscious can be unlimited. However, Jung considered the main archetypes of the individual psyche to be the Ego, the Persona, the Shadow, the Anima, or Animus, and the Self. The Ego and Persona are easier to understand than the other main archetypes, which are difficult to reflect on by the person himself.
Ego is a central element of personal consciousness, it seems to collect scattered data personal experience into a single whole, forming from them a holistic and conscious perception of one’s own personality. At the same time, the Ego seeks to resist everything that threatens the fragile coherence of our consciousness, tries to convince us of the need to ignore the unconscious part of the soul.
Jung notes that the archetype is internalized by the personality, but it also exists outside of it. Part of the archetype, internalized and directed outward, forms the Persona (Mask). The side of the archetype facing the inside of the individual is the Shadow.
Person- this is the part of our personality that we show to the world, how we want to be in the eyes of other people. A persona serves to impress others and hide the true essence of a person from them. As an archetype, she is necessary in order to get along with other people in everyday life. A persona includes our typical roles, style of behavior and clothing, and ways of expression. A persona has both a positive and a negative impact on our personality. A dominant person can suppress a person’s individuality, develop conformism in him, the desire to merge with the role that the environment imposes on a person. At the same time, the Persona protects us from environmental pressure, from curious glances trying to penetrate a person’s soul, and helps in communication, especially with strangers.
Shadow represents the center of the personal unconscious. The shadow represents the repressed, shadowy, evil and animal side of the personality, containing socially unacceptable sexual and aggressive impulses, immoral thoughts and passions. Thus, the content of the shadow are those aspirations that are denied by a person as incompatible with his person and with the norms of society. At the same time, the more the Person dominates in the personality structure, the greater the content of the Shadow, since the individual needs to repress everything into the unconscious. more desires. But it also has positive properties. Jung sees the Shadow as the source vitality, spontaneity, creativity in a person's life. According to Jung, the function of consciousness (Ego) is to channel the energy of the Shadow, to curb the harmful side of one's nature to such an extent that one can live in harmony with others, while at the same time openly expressing one's impulses and enjoying a healthy and creative life.
In fact, the differences between Jung and Freud largely concerned the role of the Shadow in the personality structure, since Jung considered it only one of the components of this structure, while Freud placed the Shadow at the center of the personality and made its content the center of his research. At the same time, Jung did not consider it possible to simply get rid of the Shadow, not to recognize it, since it is a legitimate part of the personality and a person without the Shadow is just as inferior as without other parts of the soul. The most harmful thing, from his point of view, is precisely not noticing, ignoring the Shadow, while an attentive attitude towards it, the desire to analyze its content (what Jung calls the technique of dealing with the Shadow) help overcome its negative influence.
Anima(for a man) or Animus(in a woman) - these are those parts of the soul that reflect intersex connections, ideas about opposite field. Their development is greatly influenced by their parents (a boy’s mother and a girl’s father). This archetype largely shapes human behavior and creativity, as it is a source of projections and new images in the human soul.
The collective unconscious is inextricably linked with the individual, forming, together with it and other mental systems, a single mental structure of the individual. According to Jung, all these different levels of the unconscious and consciousness create interconnected systems of the psyche: Self, Mask (Persona), Shadow, Anima, Animus, etc. The Self is called upon to unite them.
Self, from Jung’s point of view, represents the central archetype of the entire personality, and not just its conscious or unconscious part, it is “an archetype of order and integrity of the personality.” Acting as an integrating principle, it is called upon to unite within its limits all the contradictory interactions of the mental structure, to express the mental integrity of the individual and ensure its realization as a subject. Self – the most important archetype in theory Jung, it represents the core of the personality around which all other elements are organized and integrated. When integration of all aspects of the soul is achieved, a person experiences harmony.
Thus, in Jung's understanding, development of the Self is the main goal of human life. But harmonization of the soul is a complex process. True balance in personality structures is difficult or even impossible to achieve; at least, this can be achieved no earlier than in middle age. Moreover, the archetype of the Self is not fully realized until there is integration and harmony of all aspects of the soul - both conscious and unconscious. Therefore, achieving a mature self requires consistency, perseverance, intelligence and a lot of life experience. According to Jung, the ultimate goal in life is the complete realization of the Self, i.e. the formation of a single, unique and integral person.
The formation of personality (self) according to Jung is individuation, i.e. separation from the collective foundations of one’s own psyche. The spiritual birth of a person, the emergence of a mentally independent person capable of development is the essence of individuation. Unfortunately, the consciousness of modern man is developed, but, according to Jung, it is not used for development and individuation. Individuation occurs in consciousness, and the result is an increase in the level of consciousness.
The formation of the Self is realized only in the second half of life, when the individual is completely freed from parental ties and acquires a new unity of consciousness and the unconscious. The movement of each person in this direction is unique, it continues throughout life, including the process of individuation, during which the integration of many opposing forces and tendencies within the personality occurs, the full development and expression of all personal elements. According to Jung, the Self can be represented as a certain geometric symbol, divisible by four and having a circular structure with a hypothetical center between the conscious and unconscious.
That's why she unites four mental systems:
♦ Persona (Mask);
♦ Schatten (Shadow);
♦ Anima and Animus (images of a woman and a man).
Rice. 2. The relationship of the four mental systems in the model of mental structure substantiated by Jung
As can be seen from Fig. 2, Jung, unlike Freud, derives consciousness from unconscious mental processes, which “give a certain form to the contents of the psyche.” Possible conflicts that arise at the intersection of systems lead to destabilization of the Self; it can manifest itself in the loss of Persona, in “personal inflation” (when an individual identifies with a collective or group as subjects of activity), in underestimation of one’s Shadow, in obsession with Anima or Animus, and others possible personality shocks.
Finding Self- this is the result of the desire of various components of the personality for unity. The Self archetype becomes the center of the personality and balances many of the opposing qualities that make up its composition. The result of individuation is self-realization, but highly educated and capable people who also have leisure time. Because of these limitations, self-realization is not available to the vast majority of people.
K.G. Jung, speaking about the development of personality, concerns the conditions of education and the emergence of integrity and individuality of a person. In this context, we are not talking about a person, but about that integrity, which is a value. “Personality is not an embryo that develops gradually, thanks to life or in its course. Without certainty, integrity and maturity, personality will not emerge. These three properties cannot and should not be inherent in a child, because with them he would be deprived of childhood.
No one is able to raise a personality if he is not a personality himself. ...Personality as the complete realization of the integrity of our being is an unattainable ideal. However, unattainability is not an argument against an ideal, because ideals are nothing more than signposts of the way, but not goals...”
Ideas about the need to preserve integrity and individualization during personality development were developed by Jung already in the 50-60s under the influence of new trends in the understanding of personality, including in line with humanistic psychology. His provisions on the role of consciousness in spiritual growth and organization of behavior date back to the same time. This transformation of some of the provisions of psychoanalysis, accepted by Jung at the beginning of the century, was especially important for him, since he constantly emphasized the openness of his concept to everything new, in contrast to the orthodoxy of Freud’s theory. Concept by K.G. Young is presented in Table 1.
Concept by K.G. Jung
| Understanding Personality | Personality (human soul) consists of three interacting structures: consciousness (Ego), individual unconscious and collective unconscious. Personality development is a dynamic process, evolution throughout life as a result of the desire of various components of the personality for unity, integration, harmony, integrity, and the acquisition of Self. Individuation is the development of personality, a dynamic process of integration of many opposing forces and tendencies within the personality, resulting in the full development and expression of all elements of personality - self-realization. |
| Attitude to the body | The body is not an independent principle, but an expression of mental experiences, i.e. the physical and spiritual are in unity. The significance of bodily experiences fully corresponds to how they are represented in the psyche. |
| Social relations | Social relationships are material for filling out archetypes. The shape of this material is given by archetypes, i.e. social relations are not dominant. Personal development is individuation, i.e. the path to the Self, but at the same time it is associated with a deepening into the collective unconscious. |
| Will | Manifestation of volitional energy as an introduction to culture. The will can influence the unconscious, although not directly. |
| Emotions | The significance of emotions is determined by their connection with archetypes. Emotions are a manifestation of the unconscious. This is a kind of mediator between the psyche and physical life. They act as an energetic force that allows us to determine the success of the individuation process. Strong emotions are the source of personality development. |
| Intelligence | Intelligence is a conscious function, so it has limitations. Intellectual explanations can never be complete. Intelligence is complemented by intuition (the intuitive function is based on unconscious material). |
| Self | The self is the central formation in the human psyche. This is a dynamic balance of mutually exclusive forces: extra- and introversion, conscious and unconscious; masculine and feminine principles. Such balance presupposes the completeness of experiences of one’s unconscious. The path to the Self is never completed, since personality is not subject to description or full awareness. Development of the Self is the main goal of human life |
| Attitude towards psychotherapeutic assistance | Jungian psychotherapy is one of the most popular in the world. It involves two stages: 1. Analytical includes two phases: ♦initial phase – recognition of the analyzed material; ♦second – interpretation, interpretation of the material (the patient depends on the therapist). 2. Synthetic (the patient becomes independent from the therapist) includes: ♦learning phase (past material is applied to today); ♦phase of transformation – mini-individuation (a new understanding of the problems of one’s personality is achieved). |
Although Jung considered the main content of the soul to be its unconscious structures, he not only did not deny the possibility of their awareness, but also considered this process to be very important for a person’s personal growth. One of the options for such self-awareness includes psychotherapy, in which the doctor is the patient’s assistant, helping him understand himself and regain his integrity. Jung recognized the complexity of symbolic interpretation and argued for the need to abandon the simplifications adopted by Freud in interpreting them. His analysis of symbols and their possible interpretation is one of the significant achievements of Jung's theory. Unlike most psychoanalysts, Jung consciously built his theory as an open system that can perceive new information without distorting it to suit his postulates, and this is another advantage of his theory.
Jung's innovative ideas are further developed and confirmed in modern studies of transpersonal psychology.
2. Personality typology
Based on the structure of the soul, Jung created his own typology of personality, identifying two types - extroverts And introverts. In the process of individualization, introverts pay more attention to the inner part of their soul, building their behavior on the basis of their own ideas, their own norms and beliefs. Extroverts, on the contrary, are more focused on the Persona, on the external part of their soul. They are well oriented in the outside world, unlike introverts, and in their activities they proceed mainly from its norms and rules of behavior. If for an introvert the danger is a complete severance of contacts with the outside world, then for extroverts no less danger lies in losing oneself. At their extreme, extroverts are dogmatists, while introverts are fanatics.
However, the Self, the desire for personality integrity, does not allow one of its sides to completely subordinate the other. These two parts of the soul, these two types, seem to divide their spheres of influence. As a rule, extroverts build relationships well with a large circle of people, taking into account their opinions and interests, while at the same time, in a narrow circle of people close to them, they open up to another side of their personality, the introverted one. Here they can be despotic, impatient, do not take into account the opinions and positions of other people, and try to insist on their own. Communicating with a wide range of unfamiliar and poorly acquainted people is extremely difficult for an introvert, who proceeds only from his own positions and cannot build an adequate line of behavior or understand the point of view of the interlocutor. He either insists on his own or simply avoids contact. At the same time, in communication with loved ones, on the contrary, he opens up, his extroverted, usually suppressed side of his personality takes over, he is a soft, caring and warm family man.
Like Freud, Jung often illustrated his conclusions with references to a particular historical figure. Likewise, in describing extra- and introverts, he, in particular, mentioned the famous Russian writers Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, classifying Tolstoy as a typical extrovert, and Dostoevsky as an introvert.
Jung's typology is based on two foundations - the dominance of extra-introversion and the development of four basic mental processes: thinking, feeling, intuition and sensations.
Each person, Jung argued, is dominated by one or another process, which, in combination with intro- or extraversion, individualizes the path of human development. At the same time, he considered thinking and feeling as alternative ways of making decisions.
Since thinking is focused on logical premises, thinking people value abstract principles, ideals, order and consistency in behavior above all else. Feeling people, on the contrary, make decisions spontaneously, focusing on emotions, preferring any feelings, even negative ones, to boredom and order.
If thinking and feelings characterize active people who are capable of making decisions for one reason or another, then sensation and intuition rather characterize ways of obtaining information, and people in whom these types of mental processes dominate are more contemplative. Sensing focuses on direct, immediate experience, and sensing types tend to respond better to the immediate situation, while intuitive types tend to respond better to the past or future. For them, what is possible is more important than what is happening in the present. Although all these functions are present in every person, one of them dominates, which is partially complemented by the second function. Moreover, the more conscious and dominant one of these functions is, the more unconscious and complementary the other functions are. Therefore, the data of their experience can be perceived by a person not only as alien to him, but also as downright hostile.
Conclusion
So, according to Jung, the human psyche includes three levels: consciousness, personal unconscious and collective unconscious. The decisive role in the structure of a person’s personality is played by the collective unconscious, formed from traces of memory left by the entire past of humanity. The collective unconscious is universal. It influences a person’s personality and predetermines his behavior from the moment of birth. In turn, the collective unconscious also consists of different levels. It is determined by national, racial and universal heritage. Most deep level consists of traces of the pre-human past, i.e. from the experience of animal ancestors of humans. Thus, according to Jung's definition, the collective unconscious is the mind of our ancient ancestors, the way they thought and felt, the way they comprehended life and the world, gods and human beings.
The collective unconscious manifests itself in individuals in the form of archetypes, which are found not only in dreams, but also in real creativity. Archetypes are inherent to individuals, but they reflect the collective unconscious. These are certain general forms of mental representations, including a significant element of emotionality and even perceptual images. For example, the mother archetype is the universal idea of a mother with the sensual and figurative content of her own mother. The child receives this archetype ready-made by inheritance and, on its basis, creates a specific image of his real mother.
In addition to the collective unconscious, there is, according to Jung, a personal unconscious, but it is not separated from consciousness. The personal unconscious consists of experiences that were once conscious and then forgotten or repressed from consciousness. Under certain conditions they become conscious.
Chapter 2. Psychological Concepts
6. Analytical psychology by K. Jung
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) - famous Swiss psychologist, psychiatrist and philosopher. In 1909-1913. collaborated with Z. Freud, played a leading role in the psychoanalytic movement: he was the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Society, editor of a psychoanalytic journal, and lectured on an introduction to psychoanalysis.
Along with Z. Freud, A. Adler and others, Jung is one of the founders of depth psychology, which studies the so-called deep levels of the individual’s psyche. They consist of drives and other motivational tendencies, including main role unconscious motives play, the unconscious in general, opposed to mental processes functioning on the upper “floors” of the human psyche. In his theory of the unconscious, Jung largely continues the line of Freud.
First of all, he shares and develops the general Freudian approach to the psyche as an energy contradictory system - multi-level and multi-polar. At the same time, he does not agree with the pansexual interpretation of libido, arguing - contrary to Freud - that the basis of personality and the source of its conflicts is not sexual desire, but psychic energy as such, that is, any need, not just those directly related to the somatic, bodily sphere . Such a very broad, desexualized concept of libido could not be accepted by Freud. Between him and Jung in 1913. there was a break.
Subsequently, Jung moved away from Freudianism and developed his own theory, which he called “analytical psychology.” With his ideas, he had a significant influence not only on psychiatry and psychology, but also on anthropology, ethnology, comparative history of religion, pedagogy, and literature.
The structure of the human psyche in the concept of K. Jung
Jung viewed structural personality as consisting of three components:
- consciousness - EGO - I;
- individual unconscious - “IT”;
- “collective unconscious”, consisting of mental prototypes, or “archetypes”.
- information from the external world of low intensity that has not reached the level of consciousness
- Contents that have lost intensity and are forgotten
- Innate biological instincts and drives
- Repressed from consciousness, suppressed desires, thoughts, experiences, forming “unconscious complexes”
Archetypes determine:
- Predisposition to behave in a certain way
- Collective ideas of humanity in a certain era, "spirit of the era"
- Affect the external physical world, nature, space
Jung noted that the following contents, or components, can be represented in human consciousness:
It is necessary to correct complexes as a whole; in order to correct a “complex”, it is necessary to extract an emotionally charged “complex” from the unconscious, re-aware it and change its emotional sign, change the direction of affect, that is, the goal is to eliminate not the symptom, but the affect that underlies “ complex."
Jung discovered the law of “unity of being in a common unconsciousness”: if two people have the same complex at the same time, then an emotional projection arises, causing attraction or repulsion between them, i.e. you begin to treat this person the way you would treat this complex if you were aware of it.
Jung notes that such an unconscious projection, a connection, exists between parents and children: “a well-known example is the mother-in-law who identifies herself with her daughter and thus, as it were, marries her son-in-law; or a father who believes that he cares for his son by naively forcing him to fulfill his paternal desires, for example, in choosing a profession or in getting married; either the son identifies himself with the father, or the presence of a close unconscious connection between mother and daughter.”
Jung argues that any psychic reaction that is disproportionate to the cause that caused it must be examined as to whether it was not at the same time determined by the archetype.
Jung introduced the concept acausal connecting principle of synchronicity- which denotes meaningful coincidences of events separated in time and space.
By his definition, synchronicity occurs when “a certain mental state occurs simultaneously with one or more external events that occur as significant parallels to the current subjective state.” Synchronically related events are clearly related thematically, although there is no linear causal connection between them. For example, you thought about a person whom you have not seen for a long time, and he suddenly appears in front of you or calls you from afar, or suddenly you have an anxious state of fear and you soon find yourself a witness or participant in an accident, etc.
A possible explanation for the phenomena of “synchronicity” is the presence of an unconscious connection between a person and other people, with the archetypes of the collective unconscious, with the physical world and the information field of humanity and space, with past, present and future events.
Jung's innovative ideas about the collective unconscious, about the unconscious unity of man with all of humanity, the world, and the cosmos are further developed and confirmed in modern studies of transpersonal psychology.
The Universe is an integral and unified network of interconnected, interpenetrating worlds, therefore it is possible that under certain circumstances a person can restore his identity with the cosmic network and consciously experience any aspect of its existence (telepathy, Psychodiagnostics, vision at a distance, foreseeing the future, penetration into the distant past appear in some people, and the question is no longer whether such phenomena are possible, but how to describe the barrier that prevents them from occurring at any time). Experimental modern research S. Grof confirm the correctness of K. Jung’s concept, the inextricable connection of human consciousness with the unconscious phenomena of the personal and collective unconscious, with archetypes, the possibility of human access to the global information field of the collective unconscious and cosmic consciousness in transpersonal experiences.