Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology

“It would be so much simpler if I knew nothing; but I know too much, through my ancestors and my own education.”

Jung: Background History

• Born in 1875 in Switzerland

  • Only son of a minister and grandson of clergyman

    • Went to many funerals; death was very much present in his childhood

  • Rumored to be grandson of Goethe, German author of Faust

    • Jung fostered this because he liked to be linked to mysticism

• Jung was close to father

  • Considered him weak, though, because he was dominated by his mother

  • Mother said to have emotional disorders —> he distrusted women

• Parents’ marital strife forced Carl into attic with a manikin and philosophy books

  • Visions

    • At 11, he came out of school and saw the sun on top of the church . . . Then saw excrement shatter the cathedral

    • At funeral heard people chanting “Lord Jesus,” . . . This scared him from the church

    • Saw people of his native Switzerland drown in a flood of blood

      • Thought he was becoming psychotic

  • Together, these occurrences led Carl against the church and he began to seek “God within”

• Went to medical school

  • Like Freud, liked science being blended with humanistic pursuits

  • Interested in the occult

    • Wrote his thesis on being a psychic medium

  • Expert (and co-namer!) of schizophrenia

• Worked with Freud and was supposed to be the next leader of psychoanalysis

  • At their first meeting, they talked for 13 straight hours!

  • Jung broke off from Freud because of basic disagreements, and Jung’s resistance to be analyzed

Branching out on his own…

• At break with Freud, he suffered a “neurotic” episode

  • Self-analysis of dreams

  • Study of Eastern and Western traditions

    • Africa

    • India

    • Egypt

    • China

    • Tibet

  • Introspection

Jung’s Libido

• Definition: A NEUTRAL form of general psychic energy that may be shaped, channeled, suppressed, repressed, blocked, or expressed

• A “creative life force”

  • If blocked at the conscious level, it is replaced with unconscious substitute or symbol

  • Not neuroses, like Freud believed

  • Expressed in poetry or art

  • People make symbols and weave them into myths and use them as part of religious rituals

The Self

• Jung referred to the Self as the integrated, or total personality

  • Includes all current and potential aspects of personality contained within

Individuation

• The process of restoring wholeness to the psyche in adult development

  • As children, our psyches are a unified whole, although largely unconscious

  • We acknowledge strengths (our social identity) and ignore shortcomings (shortcomings)

  • In adulthood, we try to “re-unify the psyche” and work on all aspects of our psyche, strengths and weaknesses

Ego Inflation

• During childhood, we tend to over-acknowledge our consciousness, which is mostly our social identity (or strengths)

  • Ego inflation

• Mid-life crises occur when we become more aware of our limitations

Structure of Personality

• Conscious Ego

• Personal Unconscious

• Collective Unconscious

Conscious Ego

• What is conscious

Personal Unconscious

• Compensatory function

  • If attitude is too one-sided, unconscious may balance our perspective in dreams to emphasize opposite

• Prospection

  • Dreams solve problems of which we are unconsciously aware

Collective Unconscious

• Inherited by forefathers, related and otherwise (ghosts)!

• Images and ideas common to all people everywhere (e.g., sun rising)

• Are templates for us to follow . . . ARCHETYPES

Archetypes

• A readiness to produce over and over again the same or similar mythical ideas

  • It is NOT the memory of an actual physical experience itself

  • It IS a tendency

Archetypes - Examples

Shadow, Anima(us), Persona, Hero, Trickster (simple-minded prankster), Mandala

Shadow

• Represents our unacceptable motives and desires

  • Does not fit with one’s self-concept, often sexual and aggressive in nature

  • Symbolized by demons and devils

• The shadow, if dealt with on a conscious level, can bring zest, creativity, and pleasure to an integrated, full life.

• If you don’t like someone, you’re simply projecting your shadow . . . Often the cause of “out-group bias,” racism, and religious persecution

Anima/Animus

• Anima: A man’s undeveloped feminine qualities

  • Unconscious preoccupation with anima causes men to be overly moody and emotional

• Animus: A woman’s undeveloped masculine qualities

  • Unconscious preoccupation causes women to be too opinionated and seeking of power

• Pros and Cons

  • Promotes our understanding the opposite sex (+)

  • A collection of all things “male” and “female”; stereotypical (-)

    • Jung advocated sexual androgyny for both sexes

Anima(us) Projection

• We can only fully accept the opposite sex when we accept our anima/us

  • Otherwise, a man will belittle the feminine characteristics of a woman (e.g., sentimentality) and visa versa (e.g., need for power)

• Falling in love

  • Feeling complete by having the anima(us) be represented by one’s partner

The Persona or “mask”

• We often do not reveal to others our true Selves:

• Pros and Cons:

  • The “front” we present (+/-)

  • Can mislead perception of ourselves (-)

Hero

• Conquers great enemies and wins mighty battles (+)

• Takes many risks and is typically physically weak (-), but have additional, spiritual source of strength (+)

The Trickster (simple-minded prankster)

• Outwitted (-)

• Often produces positive results, laughter (+)

Mandala

• The archetype of order

• Usually seen symbolically

  • represented often by a circle, square, or square within a circle

  • Often found in dreams during times of conflict, indicating that a new order is being established . . . Often a more whole, complete sense of Self

Psychosis

• Hallucinations/Delusions

  • The result of the collective unconscious, if not successfully balanced by the conscious ego

  • Direct experience with the collective unconscious is dangerous – and may be promoted by the use of drugs (reducing the conscious ego) – but it may be cautiously approached through symbols and myths

Word Association Test

• Purported to demonstrate unconscious mental processes

• “Answer as quickly as possible with the first word that occurs to you.”

  • COMPLEXES: a personally disturbing constellation of ideas connected together by a common feeling-tone

• Thought that words which trigger a hesitation or inability to respond were linked symbolically to emotionally painful ideas or experiences

• Often, there was a collection of thoughts with a common theme . . . Called complexes

  • Evidenced by:

    • Long reaction time

    • Mishearing

    • Repetition

    • Superficial reaction (rhyming)

    • Body language reaction

• Family members were found to have similar patterns of response, indicative of similar emotional issues

• Jung acknowledged Freud’s contribution to this body of research and began to correspond with Freud

  • Corresponded weekly and met in 1907

  • Rumored to have talked for 13 straight hours

  • Became fast friends, and Freud dubbed Jung “heir to psychoanalytic throne”

The Rocky Relationship of Freud & Jung

• Initially both agreed that the findings of the word association tests and free association revealed repressed, unacceptable, sexual and aggressive strivings

• But then Jung began to question the relationship between sexual motives and neurosis (not always negative!)

Personality Typology

• Attitudes (where does libido/attention turn?)

  • Extravert (75%) – libido is turned outward

  • Introvert (25%) – libido is turned inward

(The fundamental attitude)

• Functions

  • Sensing (75%) Pays attention to detail through 5 senses

  • Intuiting (25%) Grasps big picture, but unsure how

  • Thinking (rational) 75% men, 25% women

  • Feeling (rational) 25% men, 75% women

  (“Basic Four”)

• Judging (50%) Careful, perhaps inhibited

• Perceiving (50%) More spontaneous, perhaps careless

Personality Typology

• Sensing/Intuiting

  • Ways of gathering information

• Thinking/Feeling

  • Ways of forming judgments and making decisions

• Judging/Perceiving

  • Information required to make decisions

  • “Judgers” wait until the last minute to make a decision

  • “Perceivers” tend to need to make a decision and feel anxious until they have made that decision

Dominant/Auxilliary Function

• Dominant function

  • The psychological function one prefers to use when an extrovert has libido pointed outward or when an introvert has libido turned inward

• Auxilliary Function

  • The psychological function that, say, an extrovert prefers when libido is pointed inward

  • Often different

Personality Types Predict Behavior/Interests

• Who will excel in sales, extroverts or introverts? (Sundberg)

• Sensors or intuitors, who are more creative? (Tegano)

• Feelers or thinkers, who are better at judging tachistoscopically presented emotional faces? (Martin et al.)

Breakdown of Dreams - Three Steps:

• Recalling dream

• Amplification

  • Dreamer elaborates on the dreams details to foster more complete understanding

• Active imagination

  • The dream is thought to be just the beginning of what the individual needs to “process”

  • Dreamer continues the dream in waking imagination, adding new scenes and continuing the symbolic work to aid in personal growth

Breakdown of Dreams - Intro parts of a Greek play:

• Dramatis Personae

  • Scene of action and cast of characters

  • Shows who/what you care about

• Exposition

  • Statement of problem

• Peripety

  • Backbone of dream and where action reaches climax

  • Presents dreamer with alternative solutions

• Lysis

  • Solution of dream with meaningful conclusion and disclosure of message

  • What should you do?

Why is Jung important?

• Development persists past adolescence!

• Developed personality typologies!

• The first to break from Freud! The beginning of a revolution against some of Freud’s ideas