Personal unconscious

In analytical psychology, the personal unconscious is Carl Jung's term for the Freudian unconscious, as contrasted with the collective unconscious. Often referred to by him as "No man’s land," the personal unconscious is located at the fringe of consciousness, between two worlds: "the exterior or spacial world and the interior or psychic objective world". As Charles Baudouin states, "That the unconscious extends so far beyond consciousness is simply the counterpart of the fact that the exterior world extends so far beyond our visual field" (Ellenberger, 1970).

The personal unconscious includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious is made up essentially of contents which have at one time been conscious but have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed. The personal unconscious is like most people's understanding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. Jung's theory of a personal unconscious is quite similar to Freuds creation of a region containing a person's repressed, forgotten or ignored experiences. However, Jung considered the personal unconscious to be a "more or less superficial layer of the unconscious." Within the personal unconscious is what he called "feeling-toned complexes." He said that "they constitute the personal and private side of psychic life."

C. G. Jung. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 2nd ed., trans. by R.F.C. Hull. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969, p. 4.

Ellenberger F. Henri (1970). The discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books.

Collective Unconscious and Archetypes

Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. It is proposed to be a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience. Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal unconscious, in that the personal unconscious is a personal reservoir of experience unique to each individual, while the collective unconscious collects and organizes those personal experiences in a similar way with each member of a particular species.

[edit] Jung's definitions

For Jung, “My thesis then, is as follows: in addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal,

and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.”.[1]

Jung linked the collective unconscious to 'what Freud called "archaic remnants" - mental forms whose presence cannot be explained by anything in the individual's own life and which seem to be aboriginal, innate, and inherited shapes of the human mind'.[2]

[edit] Archetypes and collective representations

Jung considered that 'the shadow and the anima/animus differ from the other archetypes in the fact that their content is more directly related to the individual's personal situation'[3], and less to the collective unconscious: by contrast, 'the collective unconscious is personified as a Wise Old Man'.[4]

Jung also made reference to contents of this category of the unconscious psyche as being similar to Levy-Bruhl's use of collective representations or "représentations collectives," Mythological "motifs," Hubert and Mauss's "categories of the imagination," and Adolf Bastian's "primordial thoughts."

[edit] Minimal/maximal interpretations

In a minimalist interpretation of what would then appear as 'Jung's much misunderstood idea of the collective unconscious', his idea was 'simply that certain structures and predispositions of the unconscious are common to all of us...[on] an inherited, species-specific, genetic basis'.[5] Thus 'one could as easily speak of the "collective arm" - meaning the basic pattern of bones and muscles which all human arms share in common'.[6]

Others point out however that 'there does seem to be a basic ambiguity in Jung's various descriptions of the Collective Unconscious. Sometimes he seems to regard the predisposition to experience certain images as understandable in terms of some genetic model'[7] - as with the collective arm. However Jung was 'also at pains to stress the numinous quality of these experiences, and there can be no doubt that he was attracted to the idea that the archetypes afford evidence of some communion with some divine or world mind', and perhaps 'his popularity as a thinker derives precisely from this'[8] - the maximal interpretation.

Marie-Louise von Franz accepted that 'it is naturally very tempting to identify the hypothesis of the collective unconscious historically and regressively with the ancient idea of an all-extensive world-soul'.[9] New Age writers go unhesitantly further, claiming that Jung himself 'dared to suggest that the human mind could link to ideas and motivations called the collective unconscious...a body of unconscious energy that lives forever'.[10]

[edit] Criticism

'In spite of his avoidance of ontological affirmations, Jung often appears to suggest that the collective unconscious is a metaphysical reality, which invites less sophisticated analysts to engage in ideological thinking and inflated claims to transcendent knowledge'.[11]

[edit] References

1 ^ C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (London 1996) p. 43

2 ^ C. G. Jung, Man and his Symbols (London 1978) p. 57

3 ^ Walter A. Shelburne, Mythos and Logos in the Thought of Carl Jung (1988) p. 150

4 ^ C. G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis (London 1963) p. 106

5 ^ Stan Gooch, Total Man (London 1975) p. 433

6 ^ Gooch, p. 433

7 ^ D. A G. Cook, "Jung" in Richard L. Gregory, The Oxford Companion to the Mind (Oxford 1987) p.

405

8 ^ Cook, p. 405

9 ^ Marie-Louise von Franz, Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology (1985) p. 85

10 ^ Sherry Healy, Dare to be Intuitive (2005) p. 10

^ David I. Trésan, "Collective Unconscious (Analytical Psychology)"

[edit] Further reading

Michael Vannoy Adams, The Mythological Unconscious (2001)

Gallo, Ernest. "Synchronicity and the Archetypes," Skeptical Inquirer, 18 (4). Summer 1994.

Jung, Carl. (1959). Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.

Jung, Carl. The Development of Personality.

Jung, Carl. (1970). "Psychic conflicts in a child.", Collected Works of C. G. Jung, 17. Princeton University Press. 235 p. (p. 1-35).

Whitmont, Edward C. (1969). The Symbolic Quest. Princeton University Press.

Carl Jung: Analytical Psychology

Broke from traditional psychoanalysis and rests on the assumption that occult phenomenon can and do influence the lives of everyone.

Jung believed that each of us is motivated not only by repressed experiences but also by certain emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ancestors. These inherited images make up the collective unconscious. The CU includes those elements that we have never experienced individually but which have come down to us from our ancestors.

This theory includes:

Archetypes – The most inclusive archetype is self-realization and can be viewed as a balance between various opposing forces of personality. It is a compendium of opposites (introverted/extraverted, rational/irrational, male/female, conscious/unconscious, past events/future expectations).

Background

Born in 1875 in Switzerland

Religious upbringing (10 pastors)

Occult background on mothers side

Middle of three children; oldest died after 3 days; sister was 9 years younger

Experienced an early separation from his mother; had positive/negative feelings toward mother

Became interested early in dreams, during childhood

Identified separate personalities early on in his life (#1 & #2)

Interested in archeology as a young student but settled for medicine

Experienced séances as a child

Befriended Freud; had a long training period with many of the pillars of psychology including Bleuler and Janet

First president of the International Psychoanalytic Association

Multiple trips to America

Interested in dreams and interpreted Freud’s dreams while in America

Dissatisfied with relationship with Freud and they went their separate ways

Had an apparent mother complex which was based on his volatile relationship with his mother.

Spilled over into his relationships with women in his life

Had multiple relationships with women while married and with the knowledge of his wife

Had erotic feelings toward Freud which may have been a factor in the termination of their relationship. Was also sexually assaulted by an older man who was his confidant as a young man.

Went through a deep period of isolation and searching which ultimately helped him better understand himself and help his theory develop

Taught medical psychology at the University of Basal

Died on June 6, 1961

Levels of the Psyche

Like Freud, Jung believed that the mind had both conscious and unconscious levels.

Unlike Freud, Jung strongly asserted that the most important part of the unconscious springs not from personal experiences of the individual but from the distant past of human existence, a concept called the collective unconscious.

Of lesser importance to Jung are the conscious and the personal unconscious.

Conscious

Images are those that are sensed by the ego

The unconscious elements have no relationship to the ego

Jung’s notion of the ego is more restrictive than Freud. For Jung, the ego is not the whole personality but must be completed by the more comprehensive self, the center of the personality is largely unconscious

In a psychologically healthy person, the ego takes a secondary position to the unconscious self

Consciousness plays a relatively small role in analytic psychology

o An overemphasis on expanding one’s conscious psyche can lead to psychological imbalance

o Healthy individuals are in contact with the conscious world but also allow themselves to experience their unconscious self

o When this happens the individual can then achieve individuation

Personal Unconscious

The personal unconscious embraces all repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived experiences from one particular individual

The personal unconscious is similar to Freud’s view of the unconscious and the preconscious combined

Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes

o These are emotionally toned conglomerations of associated ideas

o For example, the concept of “mother”

o Complexes may be partly conscious and may stem from both personal and the collective unconscious

Collective Unconscious

Has roots in the deep ancestral past of the entire species

These include distant ancestor’s experiences with universal concepts like God, mother, water, earth, that are transmitted through the generations so that people in every time have been influenced by their primate ancestor’s primordial experiences

The contents of the collective unconscious are the same (more or less) for people of every culture!

These influence may peoples myths, legends, and religious

It is human’s innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever their experiences stimulate a biologically inherited response tendency (like a mother’s unlearned or unlikely response of love toward her newborn)

Initially contact with these images are forms without content but with practice the content emerges and become relatively autonomous images called archetypes

Archetypes

Archetypes are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious. They are similar in that they are emotionally toned collections of associated images. While complexes are individualized

components of the personal unconscious, archetypes are generalized and derive from the contents of the collective unconscious.

The potential for countless numbers of archetypes exists within each person, and when a personal experience corresponds to the latent primordial image, the archetype becomes activated.

Archetypes are expressed indirectly and, when activated, it expresses itself through dreams, fantasies, and delusions.

o Dreams are the main source of archetypal materials and offer what Jung considered proof for the existence of archetypes.

o Dreams produce motifs that could not have been known to the dreamer through personal experience

Examples of archetypes include:

o Persona which is the side of personality that people show to the world.

o Not necessarily the same as the public face that one shows others.

o Jung believed that, to be psychologically healthy, one must strike a balance between the demands of society and what we really are.

To be oblivious to one’s persona is to underestimate the importance of society, but to be unaware of one’s deep individuality is become societies puppet.

Shadow is the archetype of darkness and repression, representing the qualities that we do not wish to acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves and others.

o The shadow consists of morally objectionable tendencies as well as a number of constructive qualities that we are reluctant to face.

o We must continually strive to know our shadow and this is our first test of courage. It is easier to project this dark side onto others that we refuse to see in ourselves.

o To come to grips with the darkness within ourselves is to achieve the realization of the shadow. Most of us never realize our shadow and this leads to tragedy in our lives and feelings of defeat and discouragement.

Anima is the feminine side of men and originates in the collective unconscious as an archetype and remains extremely resistant to consciousness.

o Few men become well acquainted with the anima because this task requires great courage and is even more difficult to become acquainted with than their shadow.

o To master the projection of the anima, men must overcome intellectual barriers, delve into the far recesses of their unconscious, and realize the feminine side of their personality.

o Jung believed that the anima originated from early men’s experiences with women including mothers, sisters, and lovers which combine into the concept of women.

o At times the archetype of anima is an image and at other times it is represented as a feeling or a mood.

Animus is the masculine side of women and originates in the collective unconscious as an archetype that, too, is resistant to consciousness.

o The animus is symbolic of thinking and reasoning and is capable of influencing the thinking of women yet it does not belong to her.

o It belongs to the collective unconscious and originates from the encounters of prehistoric women with men.

o Animus originates from early women’s experiences with men including fathers, brothers, and lovers that are combined into the concept of men.

o Both the anima and animus can influence the relationship of men and women with partners.

o The animus appears in dreams, visions, and fantasies in a personified form.

Great mother is a derivative of the animus and anima.

o Every man and women possess a great mother archetype.

o The pre-existing concept of mother has both positive and negative feeling which extends to this archetype.

o The great mother represents the opposing forces of fertility and nourishment on the one hand and power and destruction on the other.

o It is also known as godmother, Mother of God, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, the stepmother, and even a witch.

o Fertility and power combine to form the concept of rebirth which, itself, may be a different archetype altogether.

o Rebirth is represented in the process of reincarnation, baptism, resurrection, and individuation.

Wise Old Man is also a derivative of the anima and animus.

o The archetype is representative of wisdom and meaning, and symbolizes human’s pre-existing knowledge of the mysteries of life.

o This archetype is unconscious and cannot be directly experienced by the individual.

The collective unconscious cannot directly impart its wisdom to an individual.

o The wise old man archetype is personified in dreams as father, grandfather, teacher, philosopher, guru, doctor, or priest.

o It can be a king, sage, or even a magician in tales and stories.

Hero is an archetype that is represented in mythology and legends as a powerful person, sometimes part god, and one who fights evil.

o Heroes are always mortal because an immortal person has no weaknesses and cannot be a hero.

o The image of the hero touches an archetype within us, as demonstrated by our fascination with heroes in movies, novels, plays, and on television. When the hero conquers the villain, he or she frees us from feelings of impotence and misery.

o At the same time the hero serves as a model for the ideal personality!

The self is the most powerful archetype.

o Jung believed that each person possesses an inherited tendency to move toward growth, perfection, and completion, and he called this innate disposition the self.

o The most comprehensive of all archetypes, the self is the archetypes of archetypes because it pulls together the other archetypes and unites them in the process of self-realization.

Dynamics of Personality

Jung insisted that human behavior is shaped by both causal and teleological forces and that causal explanations must be balanced by teleological ones.

Adaptation to the outside world involves the forward flow of psychic energy called progression while adaptation to the inner world relies on a backward flow of psychic energy is called regression.

Progression inclines a person to react consistently to a given set of environmental conditions, whereas regression is a necessary backward step in the successful attainment of a goal.

Balance of both regression and progression leads to health personality development

Psychological Types

Various psychological types grow out of the union of two basic attitudes (introversion and extraversion) and four separate functions (thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting).

Attitudes

Attitude is a predisposition to act or react in a characteristic direction.

Introversion is the turning inward of psychic energy with an orientation toward the subjective

Extraversion is the turning outward of psychic energy so that a person is oriented toward the objective and away from the subjective

People are neither one nor the other but, rather, a balance of both

Functions

These four functions are combined with the two attitudes to form eight possible orientations.

Sensing tells people that something exists

Thinking enables them to recognize its meaning

Feeling tells them its value or worth

Intuiting allow them to know about it without knowing how they know

Functions Attitudes

Introversion Extraversion

Thinking Philosopher, theoretical Research scientist, accountants,

scientist, some inventors mathematicians

Feeling Subjective movie critics Real estate appraisers, objective

art appraisers movie critics

Sensation Artists, classical musician Wine tasters, proof-readers, popular

musicians, house painters

Intuition Prophets, mystics, Some inventors, religious reformers

religious fanatics

The four functions usually appear in a hierarchy, with one occupying a superior position, another a secondary position, and the other two inferior positions. Most people cultivate only one function, so they characteristically approach a situation relying on the one dominant or superior function. Some people develop two functions, and a few very mature individuals have cultivated three. A person who has theoretically achieved self-realization or individuation would have all four functions highly developed.

Development of Personality

Jung emphasized the second half of life

o The person can bring together various aspects of life to gain self realization

Childhood

o Early morning…full of potential

o Lacks consciousness

Anarchic phase (chaotic, disconnected islands of consciousness, primitive images of consciousness)

Monarchic phase (development of the ego, logical & verbal thinking, see themselves objectively in the third person, islands are larger, more numerous, but still disconnected)

Dualistic phase (ego is both objective and subjective, refer to themselves in the first person, aware of the existence of other people as separate, islands are now continuous land, complex self with ego that recognizes both the object and subject)

Youth

o Morning sun

o Climbing toward zenith toward impending decline

Young people strive to gain psychic and physical independence from their parents, find a mate, raise a family, and make a place in the world

Middle aged people that attempt to hold on to youthful values face a crippled second half of life, unable to self-realize and to establish new goals and seek out new meaning in life

Middle life

o Brilliant late morning sun but heading toward sunset

Begins at 35 or 40 and is filled with much anxiety and periods of tremendous potential

Discover new meaning in life and often have a new religious orientation and deal with life/death

Old age

o Evening sun

o Once bright conscious that is now markedly dim

Fear of death, meaning of death

Self-realization

Analytical psychology is essentially a psychology of opposites, and self-realization is the process of integrating the opposite poles into a single homogeneous individual. This process of “coming to selfhood” means that a person has all psychological components functioning in unity, with no psychic processes atrophying. People who have gone through this process have achieved realization of the self, minimized their persona, recognized their anima or animus, and acquired a workable balance between introversion and extraversion. In addition, these self-realized individual have elevated all four of the functions to a superior position, an extremely difficult accomplishment.

Psychotherapy

Word Association Test (responses reveal complexes)

Dream Analysis (reflect a variety of complexes and concepts)

o Proof of the collective unconscious

Active Imagination (requires the person to begin with an impression like a dream, image, vision, picture, fantasy, and to concentrate on it until the impression begins to move). Follow the image and try to communicate with it no matter where it goes.

Psychotherapy – Four basic approaches

o First, confession of a pathogenic agent

o Second, interpretation, explanation, and elucidation (insight, too)

o Third, education of the patient as social beings

o Fourth, transformation of the patient into a healthy human

Critique

Nearly impossible to verify or falsify

Difficult to test empirically

Generated a moderate amount of research

Moderate rating on organizing research

Low rating on practicality

Has some internal consistent but terms can have more than one meaning

o Low internal consistency

Low rating on parsimony

Neither optimistic nor pessimistic

Neither deterministic nor purposive

Both conscious and unconscious

Motivation is both causal and teleological

Has a clear biological orientation

Emphasizes highly the similarities among people

Low on individual differences