Jung’s view of the person
- Dialectical:
- believed that people experience, both consciously and unconsciously, opposing forces, a drive and a draw, that determined a person’s behaviour
- this in turn propelled the psyche to evolve from a natural state to a complex one, ultimately determining a person’s behaviour - Holistic
- placed emphasis on the ultimate goal of the personality development to be reaching a certain ‘wholeness’ that then represents a person attaining the self
- focused on the context of the individual, rather than only the structure and processes of the psyche
4 human dimensions: Jung
- Physiological: includes all biological processes, such as the need to eat, sleep and copulate. He was opposed to the view of explaining psychological processes in terms of physiology, and rather studied it separately
- Social: the individual’s interactions with others and the relationships that form as a result
- Psychic: conscious processes that one is aware of, and serves the function to help us make sense of our reality and thereby adapt to it
- Spiritual: all the irrational aspects of the individual, that elevates the psyche to a spiritual plane superior to that of the physiological and social dimension
Collective unconscious
An inherited potential or “blueprint” , which has been transmitted from previous generations, and which forms the inherited foundation of the individual psyche
Archetypes
The main content of the collective unconscious, they are innate primordial psychic predispositions which influence a person to perceive an experience a certain way
Archetype: The anima and animus
- all humans posses the psychological traits of the opposite sex
- animus for women (rationality and logic)
- anima for men (feelings and emotionalism)
- they function from within the unconscious, and posses the qualities that are lacking from the persona
- main function: to assist an individual to interact with someone of the opposite sex, and thereby form relationships
Archetype: Persona
- the way in which people present themselves to society (public-self)
- how they believe others see them, and how they wish to be seen
- wears different ‘masks’, depending on the social context and the role they have to fulfil (parent, sibling, friend, etc.)
- although it doesn’t form part of reality, it is perceived as such
Archetype: The shadow
- contains all of a person’s primitive and instinctual desires that is normally unacceptable in the eyes of society, and therefore get repressed
- if a person expresses these urges inappropriately or repress it too deeply, it can lead to self destructive behaviour and feelings
Archetype: the self
- motivates the individual to balance various facets of the psyche in a harmonious way
- once the conflict between the conscious and unconscious is resolved, the self actualises
- it forms the centre of the personality
- present at birth, but only surfaces later in life through the process of self individuation
The conscious (Jung)
- the ego, which refers to a person’s experience of life and its cognitive processed such as sensation, perception, feelings, and memory
- Internal function: give the person awareness and identity
- External function: to make sense of one’s physical and social world in order to take part in it
The personal unconscious (Jung)
- where all the individual’s memories are stored
- memories can be recalled by drawing them from the personal unconscious into the consciousness
- individual complexes: when an archetype is paired with a personal experience that is loaded with emotion
- remain in the unconscious, in an autonomous state, influencing behaviour unnoticed
Dynamics of the personality: Basic assumptions (Jung)
- referred to the human being as an energy system, abiding to the principles of equality and entropy, as is seen in thermodynamics
- people posses psychic energy, which is used by the personality
- psychic energy is sourced from within the body, much like physiological energy, but can also be derived externally through experiences
Dynamics of personality: principles of thermodynamics (Jung)
The principle of equality: we have a constant reserve of psychic energy, which neither increases or decreases. Energy that is ‘used’ by one of the systems of the psyche, simply gets redirected to a different one
The principle of entropy: the psyche maintains its balance by transferring psychic energy from stronger components to weaker ones. The psyche strives to create a situation in which all the subsystems have an equal amount of psychic energy at their disposal so that a system of total balance can existence
Dynamics of the personality: Harnessing psychic energy (Jung)
Progression:
takes place when the ego successfully adapts to the demands of the environment and the needs of the unconscious, so that the flow of energy reconciles these opposing forces
Regression:
an adaption to the inner world that occurs whenever the flow of energy is blocked, preventing compromise between two opposing systems
Sublimation:
the displacement of energy from an instinctive or less differentiated process to a more differentiated process, usually of a cultural and spiritual nature. For example, a woman decides, as a result of frustrated love, to enter the nursing profession or becoming a social worker, thereby displacing her love and transforming it into loving care
Repression:
takes place when conscious impulses threaten the ego and the persona, and are repressed into the unconscious
Dynamics of the personality: Interaction between subsystems of the psyche (Jung) COS
Opposition:
the subsystems of the psyche are polar opposites that creates a state of tension that is essential for life. Without tension there would be no energy and therefore no psyche or even life
Compensation:
emphasised characteristics in the conscious is compensated for by emphasising the opposite characteristic in the unconscious (shadow). For example, dominant masculinity on the conscious level is compensated for by the anima on the unconscious level
Synthesis:
Synthesis, that suggests a union between the opposing systems can be formed only through the transcendent function in the development of the self.
Dynamics of the personality: Functions of the personality (Jung)
Internal functions:
Sensation: refers to the way in which the psyche experiences external impulses through the senses
Intuition: unconscious perception on a subliminal level
Rational level:
Thinking: a logical and structuring function directed towards the objective explanation and understanding of the world
Feeling: is an evaluative function by which information is judged as good or bad, right or wrong, positive or negative. Forms the basis of subjective feelings
Dynamics of the personality: Attitudes of the psyche (Jung)
Progression, as adaption to outer conditions, could be regarded as extroversion. Extroversion is an outer directedness and flow of psychic energy indicating a person who reveals a lively interest in the world around them
Regression, as adaption to inner conditions, could be regarded as introversion. Introversion is an inner directedness and flow of psychic energy indicating a person who is preoccupied with his or her own emotions and experiences
Personality types: Extrovert (jung)
Extravert-thinking type perceives the world as structured and lives according to fixed objective rules and all subjective feelings are repressed
Extravert-feeling type emotions fluctuate as situation changes. Person is social and experiences intense relationships, but these relationships are often short
Extravert-sensing type is characteristically highly pragmatic and realistic and accepts life without thinking too much about it. Usually sensual and geared towards pleasure
Extravert-intuitive type are always looking for something new and find it difficult to sustain anything- ideas, jobs, relationships. Impulsive
Personality types: Introvert (Jung)
Introvert-thinking type are highly intellectual and care little about their day-to-day experience. Impractical, philosophical and private people
Introvert-feeling type are intensely emotional and hypersensitive. They do not display characteristics outwardly, they are expressed through art
Introvert-sensing type take life as it comes without displaying great social involvement. Described as calm, passive or boring
Introvert-intuitive type includes eccentric thinkers and dreamers who are known for brilliant theories and creative ideas based mostly on intuition
The development of personality: Jung (IT)
Individuation: is the process whereby the infant’s undifferentiated psyche divides into subsystems. Each subsystem strives to further differentiate themselves from the infant-psyche to develop into an integrated system on its own
Transcendent function: refers to how the person’s development of synthesis between the opposed differentiated systems of the psyche can be achieved in attaining the self. Implies brining the conscious and unconscious together through the integration of opposing aspects of the personality into a whole
Optimal development: Jung
Optimal development lies within the attaining of the self. Usually this occurs only later in an individual’s life, and is achieved by the process of Individuation, and the Transcendent function. Within this state of optimal development, there is no longer direct boundaries between the conscious and the unconscious. Instead, they have successfully synthesised a union between these two realms.
A person first had to have gone through the process of the differentiation of the psyche, as well as their egos having adapted to their external world. It is only when an individual has accomplished these obstacles, that they can then redirect their psychic energy inwards to then start the formation of the union between the conscious realm and the unconscious realm.
Jung believed that not many people reach this state of optimal development, but that those luckily enough to succeed also posses optimal psychic health. He also viewed this minority of people to be superior to others in terms of wisdom as well as willpower, since they have transitioned from natural existence to cultural existence. This state of optimal development is marked by complete differentiation (individuation) and synthesis (transcendency).
Views on Psychopathology: Jung
Pathology, in terms of neurosis, is caused due to the uneven development of one side of the psyche in relation to another. In the case of psychosis, it is caused by an extreme case of fragmentation of a system that is completely autonomous in existence. Both neurosis and psychosis causes an uneven accumulation of psychic energy in one system, leading to the psyche not being in compliance with the principle of equality and entropy. Thus the psyche is unable to reach a state of equilibrium.
Normality, on the other hand, is a state where all the subsystems of the psyche co-function in harmony. To some degree, Jung’s definition of normality can be conflated with his view on optimal development.
Evaluation of the theory: Jung
Jung’s theory has been criticised for being unscientific, since his data wasn’t empirically obtained. Rather he made use of sources that are more subjective in nature, such as religion. He also relied on observations he made with his patients to substantiate his theory. However, Jung believed this criticism to only be that people misunderstood his motives. He firmly believed that in order to study the human psyche, you have to include an individual’s own personal experiences. Thus a level of subjectivity is needed.
It is believed that Jung’s theory needs to be studied as a whole, and that one cannot criticise his work if one only studied certain aspects of his theory. While some criticise his concept of ‘the attainment of the self’ and its teleological motivation for being pompous, other commend him for breaking the norm of only focusing on the ‘average person’. This concept also laid the foundation for the work of Rogers, Maslow and Frankl.
Van der Post commended Jung for including women as well in his archetype of anima and animus, whilst Freud only focused on men and claimed women are jealous for not being born male.
Although not much empirical research resulted in Jung’s theory, its influence surpasses the borders of psychology, affecting both literature and art. There is also now renewed interest in his theory, especially in the field of personality psychology.
Word-association test (Jung)
- used to discover emotionally loaded complexes
- patient’s reaction time is measured
- physiological reactions that accompany emotional excitement is also measured (heart rate)
- a word that caused a delayed reaction time and/or change in pulse rate, indicated a complex
Dream analysis: Jung
- dreams are a path to the unconscious and irrational functioning of the psyche
- reveal the archetypal contents of the psyche
- the general function of dreams is to try and restore our psychological balance by producing dream material that re-establishes, in a subtle way, the total psychic equilibrium
- the content of dreams as reflectors of archetypes can possibly provide the opposite meaning of what is yielded through the content of the complexes
- Jung discovered that some of the symbols that occur in dreams are exact replicas of symbols used by medieval alchemists
