Theories of Personality: Carl Jung

Biography

  • 1875 - 1961
  • Very metaphysical
  • At a young age, he turned from reason to his dreams, visions, and fantasies
  • At critical times, Jung resolved problems and made decisions based on what his unconscious told him through his dreams
  • Became interested in Freud’s work in 1900 when he read “The Interpretation of Dreams”
  • While a follower of Freud, he was never an uncritical one
  • Originally trained with Freud
  • Broke from Freudian analysis
  • EVENT: Freud and Jung analyzed each others’ dreams   * Freud showed resistance to Jung’s analysis   * Freud stopped, saying he would lose authority
  • Felt Freud overemphasized sexual aspects
  • Experience with developing sciences of Anthropology and Sociology
  • Spent time living in different cultures

Major Theories

  • Focused on the unconscious and conscious mind … he believed that the unconscious played more of a role in controlling our thought process (especially during dreaming)
  • The collective unconscious was also more dominant factor in the development of human personality   * Behavior -> Ancestor

Introduction – Basic Principles

  • Psychic Energy   * Libido   * Contrary to Freud’s sexual energy
  • Principle of Opposites   * Our personality consists of opposing/competing forces that we strive to balance   * Ex. Conscious vs Unconscious   * Ex. Introversion vs. Extraversion   * Opposition (conflict) creates energy     * Propels movement forward   * One force comes with an opposing force   * Libido drives but more holistic   * Experience rather than biological   * More spiritual ideas   * Transcends biological needs
  • Principle of Equivalence   * Energy created by opposites is given to both sides equally   * Each pair in opposite has = amounts of energy   * Increase in one area pulls energy from other area   * Too much on one side:     * May spur growth/create problems     * Complex is said to develop   * One are diminished -> will go to other areas
  • Principle of Entropy   * Tendency for opposites to come together – be less extreme opposites   * When younger, degree of opposites tends to be extreme   * As one grows, able to tolerate differences/opposites (doesn’t have to be one or the other – can be both)   * We strive toward balancing the opposites     * Natural tendency for growth     * Balance -> not free of conflict     * Individuation: term used for goal of unity of our personality (unification of opposing forces into whole)   * Extreme opposites -> tendency to find balance

Core Concepts

 Ego

  • Conscious mind
  • Center of consciousness
  • Characterized by one dominant attitude (introversion/extraversion)   * Determines perception of and reaction to environment
  • Characterized by 2 functions:   * Thinking/Feeling: rational, logical   * Sensing/Intuiting: based on experiences

Personal Unconscious

  • Similar to Freud’s conception of preconscious and unconscious
  • Contains memories that can be recalled as well as those that have been repressed
  • Complex: cluster of emotionally-charged memories that influence behavior   * Arise from need to adapt and inability to meet that need/challenge   * Develop over time   * Identified through word association tests     * Ex. Mother complex, guilt complex, hero complex

Collective Unconscious

  • Psychological residue of man’s ancestral past   * Reservoir of mankind’s experiences as species   * accumulated memories of mankind’s experiences   * Seen in themes and symbols in cultures (why we respond to them):     * Parallels in myths, fairy tales, literature, art, etc.     * Dreams     * Deja vu experiences     * Near death experiences   * Passed on unconsciously   * Shared

Archetypes

  • Inherited predisposition to experience things in certain ways
  • “Symbols” for significant disposition
  • A way to understand a “role”
  • Transcends culture
  • More like an emotion
  • Jung described them as “thought-forms” -> implied as much feeling as thought
  • Experience archetypes as emotions associated with significant life events such as birth, adolescence, marriage, and death or with extreme reactions to danger
  • Jung found common archetypal symbols in cultures that were so widely separated in time and location that there was no possibility of direct influence
Additional Archetypes
  • Persona   * Your public personality, aspects of yourself that you reveal to others   * masks
  • Shadow   * Prehistoric fear of wild animals, represents animal side of human nature   * Dark; undesirable parts of ourselves
  • Anima   * Feminine archetype in men
  • Animus   * Masculine archetype in women
  • Anima/Animus: opposing forces in a person
  • Others   * God, Hero, Nurturing Mother, Wise Old Man, Wicked Witch, Devil, Powerful Father
Examples of Archetypes
  • Family Archetypes   * Father: stern, powerful, controlling   * Mother: feeding, nurturing, soothing   * Child: birth, beginnings, salvation
  • Animal Archetypes   * Faithful Dog: unquestioning loyalty   * Enduring Horse: never giving up
  • Story Archetypes   * Hero: rescuer, champion   * Maiden: purity, desire   * Wise Old Man: knowledge, guidance   * Magician: mysterious, powerful   * Witch/Sorceress: dangerous   * Trickster: deceiving, hidden
Archetypes of Collective Unconscious
  • Self   * Center of psyche   * Represents our striving for unity of opposing forces   * Individuation     * Process by which individual integrates opposing tendencies     * Indivisible     * Contradictions do not overwhelm   * Personified by Jesus Christ and Buddha   * Perfection only completed at death   * Symbolized in mandala   * Drive => to become better

Theory of Psychological Type

  • Attempt to explain individual differences
  • Began with concepts of introversion and extraversion
  • Added functions (thinking-feeling, sensing-intuiting) later
  • Represents preferences rather than exclusive talents
  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
  • Explains why one person is different to the other
  • Attitudes   * Orientations   * Our tendency to act in certain ways; how we orient to the world   * Introversion     * Oriented toward inner world (object -> ego)     * Prefer inner world of thoughts, feelings, dreams, etc.     * Focus on concepts, ideas, internal expressions     * More oriented to collective unconscious and archetypes   * Extraversion     * Oriented to outside world (ego -> object)     * Prefer world of things and people     * Focus on others and thinks aloud     * More oriented toward persona and outer reality
  • Functions: rational functions   * Judging: how we come to conclusions about what we perceive     * Thinking       * Decide impersonally on basis of logical conclusions       * Tell what it is       * Naming and interpreting experience     * Feeling       * Decisions based on personal and social values       * Tell what it is worth       * Evaluating an experience for its emotional worth to us
  • Functions: nonrational functions   * Perceiving: how we gather/take in information     * Sensing       * Pay attention to observable facts/events through 5 senses (seeing, hearing, touching, etc.)       * Good at looking and listening     * Intuiting       * Focus on meanings, relationships, possibilities       * Unconscious sensing – knowing without sensing       * Unconscious processing
  • Types   * Each type represents preferences for one over the other   * Dominant function => function used most enthusiastically   * Development and type     * Youth and Adolescence       * Develop dominant function       * Most natural - feels most comfortable     * Midlife       * People tend to be motivated toward completion of personality       * Begin to add neglected functions

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