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Introduction
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Carl Jung
Key terms
By Victor Daniels of
Sonoma State University.
"Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide."
INDIVIDUATION. Jung believed that a human being is inwardly whole, but
that most of us have lost touch with important parts of our selves. Through
listening to the messages of our dreams and waking imagination, we can
contact and reintegrate our different parts. The goal of life is individuation,
the process of coming to know, giving expression to, and harmonizing the
various components of the psyche. If we realize our uniqueness, we can
undertake a process of individuation and tap into our true self. Each
human being has a specific nature and calling which is uniquely his or
her own, and unless these are fulfilled through a union of conscious and
unconscious, the person can become sick.
STORY. Jung concluded that every person has a story, and when derangement
occurs, it is because the personal story has been denied or rejected.
Healing and integration comes when the person discovers or rediscovers
his or her own personal story.
NEUROSIS. Jung had a hunch that what passed for normality often was the
very force which shattered the personality of the patient. That trying
to be "normal", when this violates our inner nature, is itself a form
of pathology. In the psychiatric hospital, he wondered why psychiatrists
were not interested in what their patients had to say.
MYSTERY. For Jung life was a great mystery. We know and understand very
little of it. He never hesitated to say, "I don't know." Always admitted
when he came to the end of his understanding.
THE UNCONSCIOUS. A basic tenet: All products of the unconscious are symbolic
and can be taken as guiding messages. What is the dream or fantasy leading
the person toward? The unconscious will live, and will move us, whether
we like it or not.
Personal unconscious. That aspect of the psyche which does not usually
inter the individual's awareness and which appears in overt behavior
or in dreams. It is the source of new thoughts and creative ideals,
and produces meaningful symbols.
Collective unconscious: That aspect of the unconscious which manifests
inherited, universal themes which run through all human life. Inwardly,
the whole history of the human race, back to the most primitive times,
lives on in us.
SYMBOL. A name, term, picture which is familiar in daily life, yet has
other connotations besides its conventional and obvious meaning. Implies
something vague and partially unknown or hidden, and is never precisely
defined. Dream symbols carry messages from the unconscious to the rational
mind.
ARCHETYPES. These primordial images reflect basic patterns or universal
themes common to us all which are present in the unconscious. These
symbolic images exist outside space and time. Examples: Shadow, animus,
anima, the old wise person, the innocent child. There also seem to be
nature archetypes, like fire, ocean, river, mountain.
PERSONA. The "mask" or image we present to the world. Designed to make
a particular impression on others, while concealing our true nature.
SHADOW. The side of our personality which we do not conscousnly display
in public. May have positive or negative qualities. If it remains unconscious,
the shadow is often projected onto other individuals or groups.
ANIMA. Archetype symbolizing the unconscious female component of the
male psyche. Tendencies or qualities often thought of as "feminine."
ANIMUS. Archetype symbolizing the unconscious male component of the
female psyche. Tendencies or qualities often thought of as "masculine."
DREAMS. Specific expressions of the unconscous which have a definite,
purposeful structure indicating an underlying idea or intention. The
general function of dreams is to restore one's total psychic equlilibrium.
They tend to play a complementary or compensatory role in our psychic
makeup.
COMPLEXES: Usually unconscious and repressed emotionally-toned symbolic
material that is incompatible with consciousness. "Stuck-together" agglomerations
of thoughts, feelings, behavior patterns, and somatic forms of expression.
Can cause constant psychological disturbances and symptoms of neurosis.
With intervention, can become conscious and greatly reduced in their
impact.
WORD ASSOCIATION TEST. A research technique Jung used to explore the
complexes in the personal unconscious. Consisted of reading 100 words
one at a time and having the person respond quickly with a word of his
or her own. Delays in responding can indicate a complex.
SYNCHRONICITY. The meaningful coincidence of a psychic and a physical
state or event which have no causal relationship to each other.
SELF. Archetype symbolizing the totality of the personality. It represents
the striving for unity, wholeness, and integration.
MANDALA. The Sanskrit word for circle. For Jung, the mandala was a symbol
of wholeness, completness, and perfection. Symbolized the self.
AMPLIFICATION. To get a larger sense of a dream, a kind of spreading-out
of associations by referring to mythology, art, literature, music. ("Where
have we heard this before."
ACTIVE IMAGINATION. A concept embracing a variety of techniques for
activating our imaginal processes in waking life in order to tap into
the unconscious meanings of our symbols.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES. People differ in certain basic ways, even though
the instincts which drive us are the same. He distinguished two general
attitudes--introversion and extraversion; and four functions--thinking,
feeling, sensing, and intuiting.
Extravert: Outer-directed, need for sociability, chooses people
as a source of energy, often action-oriented.
Introvert: Inner-directed, need for privacy and space; chooses
solitude to recover energy, often reflective.
Thinking function: Logical, sees cause & effect relations,
cool, distant, frank, questioning.
Feeling function: Creative, warm, intimate, a sense of valuing
positively or negatively. (Note that this is not the same as emotion)
Sensing function: Sensory, oriented toward the body and senses,
detailed, concrete, present.
Intuitive. Sees many possibilities in situations, goes with hunches,
impatient with earthy details, impractical, sometimes not present.
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