Ch 4: Jung Analytical Psychology Flashcards
Analytical Psychology
-give brief overview of jungs main theories
- rests on assumption that occult phenomena can and do influence lives of everyone
- Carl Jung believed that people are extremely complex beings who possess a variety of opposing qualities, such as introversion and extraversion, masculinity and femininity, and rational and irrational drives.
- Jung believed each of us is motivated not only by repressed experiences but also certain emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ancestors ->collective unconscious
- some elements of the collective unconscious become highly developed and are called archetypes
- > the most inclusive archetype is the notion of self-realization which can be achieved only by attaining a balance between various oppossing forces of personality (theory compendium of opposites)
Biography of Carl Jung
Carl Jung was born in Switzerland in 1875, the oldest by about 9 years of two surviving children. Jung’s father was an idealistic Protestant minister and his mother was a strict believer in mysticism and the occult. Jung’s early experience with parents who were quite opposite of each other probably influenced his own theory of personality, including his fanciful No. 1 and Number 2 personalities. Soon after receiving his medical degree he became acquainted with Freud’s writings and eventually with Freud himself. Not long after he traveled with Freud to the United States, Jung became disenchanted with Freud’s pansexual theories, broke with Freud, and began his own approach to theory and therapy, which he called analytical psychology. From a critical midlife crisis during which he nearly lost contact with reality, Jung emerged to become one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century. He died in 1961 at age 85.
(more detail in notes)
Levels of the Psyche
Jung saw the human psyche as being divided into a conscious and an unconscious level, with the latter further subdivided into a personal unconscious and a collective unconscious.
-collective unconscious most important of unconscious
Conscious
- Images sensed by the ego are said to be conscious.
- The ego thus represents the conscious side of personality (centre of consciousness but not the core of personality)
- in the psychologically mature individual, the ego is secondary to the self. (must have contact with conscious word but must allow self to experience their unconscious self to achieve individuation)
- > ego is not the whole personality but must be completed by the more comprehensive self, the centre of personality that is largely unconscious
Unconscious
-two types
The unconscious refers to those psychic images not sensed by the ego. Some unconscious processes flow from our personal experiences, but others stem from our ancestors’ experiences with universal themes. Jung divided the unconscious into the personal unconscious, which contains the complexes (emotionally toned groups of related ideas) and the collective unconscious, which includes various archetypes.
Personal Unconscious
- personal unconscious embraces all repressed, forgotten or subliminally perceived experiences of one particular individual, formed by individual experiences so unique to us
- some images recalled easily, some remembered with difficulty and others beyond reach of consciousness
- contents of personal unconscious called complexes (emotionally toned conglomeration of associated ideas)
- > may be partly conscious and may stem from both personal and collective unconscious
Collective unconscious
- Collective unconscious images are those that are beyond our personal experiences and that originate from the repeated experiences of our ancestors. (has root in the ancestral past of the entire species)
- Collective unconscious images are not inherited ideas, but rather they refer to our innate tendency to react in a particular way (thoughts, emotions and actions) whenever our personal experiences stimulate an inherited predisposition toward action (aka biologically inherited response tendency)
- > primitive ancestors primordial experiences
- “forms without content representing merely the possibility of a certain type of perception and action”, with more repetition these forms begin to develop some content and emerge as relatively autonomous archetypes
Archetypes
- Contents (ancient or archaic images) of the collective unconscious are called archetypes.
- > similar to complexes as that they are emotionally toned collections of associated images but whereas complexes are individualized components of the personal unconscious, archetypes are generalized and derive from the contents of the collective unconscious
- Jung believed that archetypes originate through the repeated experiences of our ancestors and that they are expressed in certain types of dreams, fantasies, delusions, and hallucinations.
- Several archetypes acquire their own personality, and Jung identified these by name: persona, shadow, anima, animus, great mother, wise old man, hero and self
archetypes vs instinct
- instinct: unconscious physical impulse toward action and saw archetype as the psychic counterpart to an instinct
- both archetypes and instincts are unconsciously determined and both help shape personality
- archetypes: biological basis but originate through the repeated experiences of early ancestors
- > archetype activated when personal experience corresponds to the latent primordial image
collective unconscious vs Freuds phylogenetic endowment
- Freud: personal unconscious then resorted to phylogenetic endowment
- Jung: emphasis on collective unconscious into autonomous forces called archetypes each with life and personality of its own
persona
One is the persona—the side of our personality that we show to others/the world
- Jung believed each of us should project a particular role one that society dictates to each of us
- if we identify too closely with our persona, we remain unconscious of our individuality and are blocked from attaining self-realization
- to be psychologically healthy we much balance demands of society and what/who we truly are
- 1913-1917 Jung struggles to stay in touch with persona ->self talk
Shadow
shadow—the dark side of personality (darkness and repression).
- presents those qualities we do not wish to acknowledge but hide from ourself and others (morally objectionable tendencies, constructive and creative qualities
- In order for people to reach full psychological maturity, they must first realize or accept their shadow.
- > first test of courage
- easier to project dark side onto others, “realization of the shadow” is coming to grips with darkness
- Anima
2. Animus
A second hurdle in achieving maturity is for men to accept their anima—their feminine side—and for women to embrace their animus—their masculine side.
-Jung believed all humans are psychologically bisexual and possess both a masculine and feminine side
- anima
- feminine side of men originates in the collective unconscious as an archetype and remains extremely resistant to consciousness as an archetype and remains extremely resistant to consciousness
- anima influences the feeling side in men and is explanation for irrational feelings and mood
- few mean become well acquainted with their anima because tasks requires great courage “second test of courage” (recognize anima only after learning to felling comfortable with shadow)
- anima originate from early men’s experiences with women combined to form generalized picture of women, global concept became embedded in collective unconscious of all men as anima archetype
- men inclined to project anima onto wife or lover; see not as really is but as personal and collective unconscious has determined
- >source of misunderstanding in relationship and also alluring mystique women have in psyche of men - Animus
- the masculine archetype in women
- animus symbolic of thinking and reasoning (irrational thinking and illogical opinions)
- >can influence think of women, belongs to collective unconscious (encounters prehistoric women had with men)
- collective unconscious and personal unconscious enter relationships with men
- appear in dreams, vision and fantasies in personaified form just as anima
Great Mother
great mother (the archetype of nourishment and destruction)
- derivative of anima and animus
- everyone possesses a great mother archetype
- represents two opposing forces: fertility and nourishment and power and destruction on the other (Jungs mother two personalities)
- strong fascination that mother has for people is often absence of a close personal relationship (Jungs evidence of great mother archetype)
- fertility an nourishment symbolized: tree, garden, sea, heaven, home church, oven etc.
- power and destruction symbolized: god-mother, mother nature, step mother or witch eg cinderella (legends myths, stories, religion)
- fertility and power combine to form concept of rebirth (may be separate archetype)
Wise Old Man
the wise old man (the archetype of wisdom and meaning)
- symbolizes humans preexisting knowledge of the mysteries of life
- > this archetypal meaning however is unconscious and cannot be directly experienced by a single individual
- man or women dominated by wise old man may gather large following, sound profound but actually little sense (because collective unconscious cannot impart wisdom to an individual)
- > politicians, religious and social prophets (eg wizard of oz)
- > Jungs father paster (hollow pontifications)
- dreams: father, guru, doctor, priest, king, magician, life itself
Hero
the hero, (the image we have of a conqueror who vanquishes evil but who has a single fatal flaw).
- hero archetype represented in mythology and legends as powerful person fights against great odds to conquer evil; in end hero often undone by some seemingly insignificant person or event
- > heroic deeds can be performed only by someone who is vulnerable
- when hero conquers villain frees us from feelings of impotence and misery and serves as our model for ideal personality
- origin of the hero goes back to earliest human history (dawn of consciousness)
- > in conquering villain hero is symbolically overcoming the darkness of prehuman unconsciousness
Self
The most comprehensive archetype is the self; that is, the image we have of fulfillment, completion, or perfection.
The ultimate in psychological maturity is self-realization, which is symbolized by the mandala, or perfect geometric figure.
- each person possesses an inherited tendency to move toward growth, perfection and completion, called this innate disposition the self (the archetype of archetypes)
- unites all archetypes in process of self-realization
- it possesses conscious and personal unconscious components but it is mostly formed by collective unconscious images
- self is symbolized by a person’s idea of perfection, completion and wholeness but its ultimate symbol is the mandala
- self includes both conscious and unconscious mind and unites the opposing elements of psyche
- complete self realization is seldom but as an ideal exists within the collective unconscious of everyone
- to fully experience self, people much overcome their fear of the unconscious; prevent their persona from dominating their personality; recognize the dark side of themselves (shadow); and muster even greater courage to face their anima or animus
Mandala
- ultimate symbol for self
- depicted as a circle within a square or square in a circle, represents the strivings of the collective unconscious for unity, balance and wholeness
- > see notes or fig 4.1 for drawing
- each archetype partly conscious, personal unconscious and collective unconscious
- fig 4.1 idealistic (even), archetypes not usually even
- > people with over abundance of consciousness=fail to realize richness and vitality of personal unconscious and collective unconscious
- > person overpowered by unconscious=pathological, one-sided personality
- although self almost never perfectly balanced, each person has in collective unconscious a concept of perfect, unified self
- > mandala represents the perfect self, the archetype of order, unity and totality
- realization is also represented by the mandala ->signifies divinity
- historically people created mandalas without understanding significance
- Jung believed psychotic patients experience more mandala motifs in their dreams (evidence people strive for order and balance)