thehealseekers.com

From the moment we are born, we all start out as part of an external collective.

This collective encompasses our familial upbringing, social circles, educational systems, religious beliefs, and cultural norms that profoundly shape our personalities.

In this external world, we are subjected to conventional rules, guidelines, and expectations that dictate our beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors.

Within us, however, resides a distinct and equally significant world—the inner world of the “psyche.” This inner realm is as real and impactful as the external world.

Unfortunately, many of us remain unaware of the intricate workings of this inner world, which encompasses our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and feelings.

Acquiring an understanding of how the psyche operates and how you can exert influence over its functioning is crucial for achieving what the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung termed “completeness” or “wholeness of the personality.”

In this blog post, we will delve into the intricacies of the human psyche and the process of attaining a complete and integrated personality.

To embark on this journey effectively, we must first clarify the term “Psyche.”

Originally, it referred to the soul or spirit, but by the turn of the twentieth century, it had evolved to represent the “mind.”

In Jungian psychology, a person’s psyche can be seen as their total personality and encompasses all one’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and emotions.

Jung categorized the psyche into three major realms, each playing a unique role in our inner world:

The Conscious

This realm represents your field of awareness, it consists of the psychic contents you are consciously aware of.

At its core lies the Ego which is your personality as you are aware of it, firsthand.

The Ego plays a crucial role in each person’s life as it acts as a gatekeeper that influences what contents of experience are reflected in consciousness and those that are repressed, limited, or ignored.

The Ego in its role as gatekeeper, helps to control the content of the next main area of the psyche.

The Personal Unconscious

In the words of Jung, “There are certain events of which we have not consciously taken note; they have remained, so to speak, below the threshold of consciousness. They have happened, but they have been absorbed subliminally.”

Jung is referring to events that the Ego rejects, represses, or disregards for a range of reasons. These events might be distressing, fade from memory, or be considered unimportant.

Regardless, they don’t disappear completely from the psyche. Instead, they occupy the personal unconscious and continue to have the potential to influence our personalities.

Your personal unconscious consists for the most part of complexes, a term that was coined by Jung which represents a knot of unconscious feelings and beliefs that can be detected through your behaviors and may prevent you from achieving psychic wholeness.

On a much deeper level, there exists the collective unconscious.

Collective Unconscious

Sometimes referred to as the “objective psyche,” the collective unconscious refers to the idea that a segment of the deepest unconscious mind is genetically inherited and not shaped by personal experience.

Jung believed that the collective unconscious is expressed through universal archetypes.

Archetypes are signs, symbols, and patterns of thinking and/or behaving that are inherited from our ancestors; events such as birth, death, and the union of opposites; archetypal figures such as the mother, the father, the trickster, the hero, and the wise old man; and archetypal motifs such as the creation of the world and the apocalypse.

These universal archetypes exist because of shared human experiences throughout the world.

Here’s a brief history of how Jung discovered the existence of a collective unconscious:

During his work, Jung encountered similar patterns in the dreams of patients with schizophrenia and by observing many primitive cultures across the world.

He noticed that not only were there uncanny similarities between the unconscious materials of different patients, but more interestingly, there were also uncanny similarities in the major mythological motifs and religious symbols of different civilizations.

This led Jung to propose that, in addition to the conscious and personal unconscious realms of the psyche, there also existed another realm -the collective unconscious.

He also studied Gnosticism, Alchemy, Comparative Religion, and Mythology to acquire a wider knowledge of the origins and significance of mankind’s collective unconscious.

The personal unconscious consists primarily of thoughts and memories that were once part of our conscious awareness but have since faded from it due to either forgetting or repression.

In contrast, the collective unconscious comprises elements that have never been part of an individual’s conscious awareness; they are entirely inherited and not personally acquired.

It’s important to note that, these realms of the psyche do not exist in isolation but continually interact with one another, creating a dynamic interplay between conscious and unconscious aspects.

This interplay forms the foundation for personal growth and the wholeness of the personality through what Jung termed “The Individuation Process.”

To comprehend the individuation process fully, we must first explore the four major Jungian archetypes that play pivotal roles in this transformative process:

1. The Persona

This is the confirmative archetype. It is the element of the personality which arises for reasons of adaptation and personal convenience.

The persona represents all of the different social masks that we wear among various groups and situations.

It is regarded as a mask because it hides the true character of an individual. In short, the persona is who you appear to be, not who you are.

It develops social masks to contain all the primitive ways, impulses, and emotions that are not considered socially acceptable.

It acts to shield the Ego from negative images -so it’s not seen in a negative light.

However, over-identification with your persona and believing it is who you are, will cut you from the deeper realms of your psyche and you’ll lose sight of your true self.

Also, repressing the sides of yourself you don’t want to show will only strengthen and darken your shadow.

2. The Shadow

Jung stated the shadow to be the “dark unknown side of the personality.” It is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, desires, instincts, and shortcomings.

The shadow forms out of your attempts to adapt to cultural norms and expectations.

It is this archetype that contains all of the things that are unacceptable not only to society but also to your own personal morals and values, which might include things such as envy, greed, jealousy, prejudice, hate, and aggression.

Each one of us has a shadow although people sometimes deny this element of their psyche and instead project it onto others through psychological projection: a defense mechanism in which the individual defends himself against unconscious impulses denying their existence in himself while attributing them to others.

The qualities that we often cannot stand in others, we have in ourselves and wish not to see.

But, if you do not recognize your psychological projections, you will eventually create an illusory environment that’s a replica of your unknown face.

The shadow plays an important role in balancing your overall psyche; therefore, a weak adaptation of the shadow will result in a low level of personality.

You’ll behave like a passive victim of your shadow -extremely worried about the opinions of others, and basically becoming a walking persona.

The dissolution of the persona and integration of the shadow is a central part of the individuation process and marks the first stage of the process; without it, a recognition of the Anima and Animus is impossible.

3. The Anima/Animus

The human psyche inherently consists of both feminine and masculine aspects, remaining androgynous irrespective of an individual’s physical gender.

The personality or persona naturally takes on the gender role that you were born into physically. So, women take on a feminine role and men take on a masculine role.

The psyche compensates for this by birthing a contra-sexuality in the inner life of the person.

So, within the shadow, there exists two contra-sexual figures: The Anima and the Animus.

In every man’s psyche, there is an unconscious feminine aspect called the Anima, which is a personification of all feminine psychological tendencies.

And in every woman’s psyche, there’s an unconscious masculine aspect called the Animus, which is a personification of all masculine psychological tendencies.

As a man integrates his Anima, it transforms into Eros, leading to the emergence of a nurturing and empathetic personality, facilitating a deeper connection with his emotions.

When a woman assimilates her Animus, it transforms into Logos, equipping her with the ability to exhibit assertiveness, thoughtful decision-making, and a spirit of exploration.

In many cultures, however, men and women are encouraged to adapt to traditional and often rigid gender roles.

Jung suggested that this discouragement of men from exploring their feminine aspects and women from exploring their masculine aspects served to undermine psychological development.

4. The Self

This is the archetype of wholeness.

The Self is the culmination of both conscious and unconscious elements of the psyche, constituting an individual’s total personality.

Achieving the Self is the central goal of Jung’s psychology, and it involves what he called individuation or self-realization.

What is The Individuation Process?

This is a lifelong process in which the various aspects of personality/psyche are integrated.

The individuation process according to Jung, is something that occurs naturally and does not require any initiation by the individual.

As we age, the depth and complexity of our consciousness increases whether we are intentionally striving for that outcome or not.

Jung, however, promoted a proactive approach to individuation or wholeness of the personality.

A good way to understand the natural individuation process, which just happens, and the more conscious way of individuation, which Jungian psychology promotes, is to consider the analogy of the human body.

Our physical bodies grow and develop on their own without requiring our conscious awareness. We can, however, take a more proactive conscious stance towards our development by exercising and eating properly.

In the same manner, we can be more proactive in terms of the development of our psyche by taking certain measures that help to accelerate the natural process of individuation.

Here are a few simple tools you can employ to expedite your individuation process.

Dreamwork:

The best method to accelerate the individuation process is to record and analyze your dreams over an extended period of time.

Dreams, Jung found, are the gateway through which the unconscious communicates with our conscious minds.

“Our dreams are like windows that allow us to look in, or to listen in, to that psychological process which is continually going on in our unconscious.” – Carl Jung

The reason many people have trouble making sense of their dreams is that they do not understand the language of the unconscious mind, which is purely symbolic.

In his attempt to decipher the symbolic language, Jung noticed a remarkable similarity between the symbols expressed in the dreams of many of his patients and those found in the mythologies of cultures past and present.

To account for such similarities, Jung proposed that the unconscious mind contains transpersonal or universal elements that are heritable and the product of one’s biology, not their personal experiences.

The commonality of symbols found in the dreams of different people, and myths past and present, can be attributed to the fact that they are manifestations of, “identical psychic structures common to all,” which Jung would call archetypes -that were mentioned earlier.

Individuation, therefore, is the process whereby one becomes increasingly conscious of the symbolic manifestation of the archetypes. Thus, gaining knowledge of the timeless “patterns of human life.”

This knowledge is of great value for it provides us with the awareness that many of our problems are not unique to us, but common to all humanity.

Shadow work:

Solely identifying with your persona and striving for perfection is akin to chasing after the wind; instead of fostering personal growth, it significantly impedes your development.

Because, the more you strive for perfection, the further you fuel your dark side and lose control over how it manifests itself in your day-to-day actions.

You have to face up to the parts of yourself that you deem unacceptable. This is no easy task, I know!

But, by recognizing qualities like selfishness, greed, and aggression, you’ll start to understand them and even begin to channel them in a healthier way.

A great way to recognize these qualities is by maintaining an ongoing record of significant mental, physical, or emotional responses to people and events in your environment.

Journaling about the sources of your irrational anger, the triggers for your sadness, and those moments when you experience an unsettling discomfort or anxiety, fear, loneliness, or confusion, is a really good start to doing shadow work.

Also, acknowledge and embody the contra-sexual aspects of your psyche instead of repressing them.

Being a compassionate and emotional man is perfectly honorable, just as being a confident and adventurous woman is entirely respectable!

Remember, “There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection.” – Carl Jung

Active imagination:

This is the act of producing a sequence of fantasies by deliberate concentration.

Occasionally relax your mind and simply contemplate any one fragment of fantasy that seems significant to you or something you have become conscious of in your dreams.

Then elaborate the fantasy by observing the further fantasy material that adds itself to the fragment in a natural manner.

Allow the images to arise from the unconscious and communicate with you. Write down, or if you can, draw what comes up -you might even stumble upon a masterpiece. 🙂

Here’s something interesting to know:

Jung found that the existence of unrealized unconscious fantasies increased the frequency and intensity of dreams and that when these fantasies are made conscious, the dreams change their character and become weaker and less frequent.

From this, he drew the conclusion that dreams often contain fantasies that “want” to become conscious.

So, why not go ahead and live out some of your fantasies in your imagination?

However, it’s worth noting that while this method can be powerful, it is not without potential risks. It can, for instance, lead you too far from reality, so it should be approached with caution.

Conclusion

Individuation or the journey to wholeness of the personality is a transformative process that not only promotes positive mental health but also fosters maturity and personal responsibility.

To embark on this quest successfully, you must commit to understanding and embracing all elements of your psyche -consciously.

By doing so, you can achieve psychological wholeness and discover your true self, ultimately reaching the goal of human psychological development outlined by Carl Jung.

This path is a lifelong endeavor, so approach it with dedication, and you will uncover the profound potential for growth and self-discovery that lies within you.