by Ruth Snowden
Jung wanted to move away from the idea of separate instincts such as hunger, sex and aggression. He found this approach too concrete and decided that it was more helpful to see the various instincts as being different expressions of a single, motivating psychic energy. He called this energy libido, comparing the concept to the one in physics, where heat, light and electricity are all different aspects of physical energy. Freud had used the term libido to describe sexual drive, but Jung stressed that it is important not to select one single motivating instinct in this way, any more than the physicist would say that all forces derive from heat alone.
THE EGO AND THE SELF
The ‘ego’ is the centre of consciousness and gives us our sense of who we think we are. It organizes and balances the conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche, giving it a sense of personal identity and purpose. Jung came to identify his own ego with his analytical (Number 1) personality. The ego is not to be confused with the ‘Self’, which is the wholeness that the psyche is constantly seeking and moving towards. The Self transcends the ego and is the goal of the individuation process. But a strong ego can exert a balancing influence, keeping the conscious and unconscious aspects of the personality in equilibrium. An over-inflated ego, on the other hand, will form a dictatorial, intolerant personality. Such an ego can become highly unpleasant, even dangerous, seeing itself as all-important, almost god-like.
THE SHADOW AND PROJECTION
THE SHADOW
The ‘shadow’ is an unconscious part of the personality that contains weaknesses and other aspects of personality that a person cannot admit to having. The ego and the shadow work together as a balancing pair. Jung related the shadow to his intuitive (Number 2) personality. It is usually the first hidden layer of the personality to be encountered when a person begins psychological analysis. One of the primary tasks of the analyst is to begin to make a person aware of the relationship between the ego and the shadow. When a person has a very weak ego they may be in danger of becoming swamped by images from the shadow, rather as Jung himself was during his midlife crisis.
The shadow…
The shadow is the dark side of our nature and often appears in dreams as a dark, usually rather negative figure, who is always the same sex as the dreamer. The ego wishes to hide shadow aspects of the personality, but in fact the shadow is not necessarily ‘bad’. If we face our shadow properly, then it can offer us integration between the conscious and unconscious parts of our psyche.
PROJECTION
The ego often projects the shadow onto other people. Projection is a normal and natural process whereby an unconscious characteristic, a fault, or even a talent of one’s own is seen as belonging to another person or object. When the shadow is projected, the ego may see the other person or people as being evil and so can conveniently deny any nasty aspects of itself. Projection is always accompanied by a strong emotional reaction to a person, object or situation. Obvious examples are developing a ‘crush’ on someone, or taking an excessive dislike to someone or something.
Projection is an indication that unconscious ideas are trying to break through into the conscious mind. It is not really the other person or thing that we love or loathe, but a part of our own psyche that is projected onto them. As the psyche matures, it is often able to recognize and own its shadow characteristics and the projection is then withdrawn. When we project, we tend to dwell on the attitudes of the other person, and repress criticisms that are trying to surface from our own psyche. These criticisms often appear in dreams.
THE ZEITGEIST
Jung stresses that the psyche is not confined to the individual. A collective psyche forms the spirit of the age, or ‘Zeitgeist’. This collective psyche forms a collective shadow, which can be exceedingly dangerous. For example, in World War II, the Nazis formed a collective shadow which they projected onto the Jewish people, whom they then saw as worthless and evil.
Jung urged mankind to take a good look at itself. He sensed dark, uncontrolled shadow forces building up in civilized society. Society has a tendency to keep its problem aspects tucked away in separate drawers. These deadly, self-created dangers are often projected onto other nations. Jung said that we must recognize that shadow projections are moral problems, which cannot be solved by arms races or economic competition. We need to look at our own shadow, instead of blaming ‘them’ all the time.
THE PERSONA
The ‘persona’ (from the same Latin word, meaning ‘actor’s mask’) is like a mask that the ego creates in order to hide its true nature from society. It is our public face and may be assumed both deliberately and unconsciously. Whenever we relate to others, we put on this mask. The form of the mask depends on the expectations and conditioning of society, from parents, teachers, peer groups and so on.
It is necessary for each individual to assume a persona sometimes, in order to function normally within society, because it gives some degree of protection to the vulnerable ego. We need it in order to be able to fit in with cultural norms, or to do a particular job. Every profession has its own persona, and it is easy for people to fully identify with their professional image and to hide behind it. This is when problems arise: the person becomes nothing but the role they play. Behaviour becomes rigid, and the person is fearful of dropping the mask. Such a personality becomes confined and liable to develop neuroses. There is a failure to see the broader aspects of life beyond the ego’s own tiny role – this situation is spiritually suffocating.
ANIMA AND ANIMUS
Jung used the word ‘anima’ to describe the personification of the unconscious feminine aspect of a man’s personality. The ‘animus’ is the corresponding masculine aspect of a woman’s personality. These unconscious aspects of the personality are seen as being very important in regulating behaviour.
THE ANIMA
The anima appears in dreams as archetypal figures such as the seductress, harlot or divine female spirit guide. She represents a man’s feeling nature, which is fascinating and secretive. Because the anima is composed of feelings, she may distort a man’s understanding. She is often associated with earth and water imagery, such as caves, fertile soil, waterfalls or the sea. The anima communicates the images of the unconscious to a man’s conscious mind. Jung always questioned his own anima when he felt emotionally disturbed. He found that after a while she would always produce a useful image of some sort and his sense of unrest would vanish. For a man to be in touch with his anima is therefore healing and balancing.
The anima is not a specific woman but an archetype. She contains all the ancestral impressions of what it means to be female. Her form will depend on a man’s individual knowledge of women. Passionate attractions occur when the anima is projected onto an actual woman, so that the man falls in love. If, on the other hand, the man over-identifies with the anima, he may become moody, resentful or effeminate. If a man’s anima is very weak then he will find relationships with women difficult.
THE ANIMUS
Jung does not say as much about the corresponding animus in women, probably because he had no direct experience of it in his own psyche. The animus represents the thinking, logical part of the woman’s psyche and can lead her towards knowledge and true meaning. It is made up of spontaneous, unpremeditated opinions, which can affect a woman’s emotional life. The animus appears in dreams as heroes, poets, gurus and so on. He is also represented in imagery of the air and fire elements, such as swords or burning flames. Projection of the animus onto a real man results in the woman falling in love. The animus likes to project itself onto sporting heroes, intellectuals and so on. If a woman over-identifies with the animus, she becomes dominating, opinionated and pig-headed. The woman’s animus development is important in the way she relates to men – if it is weak then she will have problems.
Ideas about the archetypal male or female from myths, dreams and fantasies can lead people to have very distorted ideas about the opposite sex. For example, the little girl who has been raised on ‘Slee
ping Beauty’ type stories might constantly seek a handsome prince. Jung believed that men were naturally polygamous, and that the anima compensated for this by always appearing as a single woman or female image. Women on the other hand were naturally monogamous, so that the animus often appears as whole groups of men. If it functions properly, the anima or animus should act like a sort of bridge or door between the personal unconscious and collective unconscious. In a similar way, the persona acts as a bridge between the ego and the external world.
THE GROWTH OF THE PSYCHE
Jung suggested several basic principles at work in the psyche, which he based on scientific principles:
• The principle of opposites: everything in the psyche naturally has an opposite aspect – this principle is basic to all of nature.
• The principle of equivalence: equal amounts of energy are given to each of the opposites. If we deny the negative aspects they will tend to emerge from the unconscious in dreams, fantasies, slips of tongue and so on.
• The principle of entropy: opposite aspects tend eventually to blend together.
• The principle of homeostasis: the psyche always seeks to maintain itself in a state of balance.
Jung sees the psyche not as a fixed, static entity, but as constantly changing and developing throughout life. A great deal of the work of personality development goes on at an unconscious level, and throughout life we are influenced by our environment and the people we encounter on our journey.
Jung conceived the psyche as something organic, going through stages of growth.
Jung sees the individuation process as a basic biological process, present in all living organisms, not just in humans. He even saw it occurring in inorganic systems, such as when a crystal forms a definite shape as it grows, suspended in a liquid solution. The goal of individuation is wholeness – a process of each individual organism becoming fully what it was intended to be from the beginning. In other words, for human beings it is a long process of becoming as complete and balanced a human being as we can.
The individuation process is never complete: the spiral path takes us on a lifelong journey. As we travel, we gradually unravel the conditioning imposed by our parents and society and peel away what Jung calls the ‘false wrappings’ of our persona. This frees us to meet our own shadow and acknowledge its power within us, so that we can try to stop projecting it onto others. Gradually, our psyche becomes more balanced and we are able to become much more whole and effective humans.
ARCHETYPAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
The archetypes are the structural elements, or basic patterns, of the collective unconscious: the psychic health of the individual depends on their proper functioning. As it develops, the individual psyche has to go through the same basic stages that occurred in the evolution of consciousness throughout the history of mankind.
Jung explored the archetypal stages mainly through looking at myths and legends. He says that understanding these archetypal stories can help us to understand how the psyche develops, because the individual psyche mirrors the cultural evolution of consciousness that can be traced back through recorded history. The myth of the hero is the most commonly recurring myth throughout the world and it also crops up frequently in people’s dreams. It varies enormously in its details, but the underlying theme is always similar: a good example is found in the King Arthur myth. Jung says that the hero story has relevance for the development of individuals as they struggle to establish their own identity. Like the mythical hero, we all encounter a new set of archetypal energies at each stage of our development. We need to integrate these, in both our personality and our behaviour.
INDIVIDUATION AND THE SELF
Unlike most psychologists of his day, Jung insisted that the development of the psyche extends well beyond childhood and adolescence, even continuing into old age. Jung believed that this process can never become complete unless the individual confronts the monsters that lurk in his own unconscious. He discovered these in his own psyche during his midlife crisis, and they appear throughout myth and legend in archetypal themes, such as slaying the dragon.
Taking responsibility for our less favoured aspects (confronting the shadow), is the first task of the Self in the individuation process. Throughout this process, the psyche has to continually examine and confront what it produces. The work is not easy, as Jung himself admitted, but it can have great rewards as it helps us to become more peaceful humans, better able to relate effectively to our fellow beings. Once we begin to know the shadow, we reach the next layer in the psyche, which is the anima or animus – the opposite-sex image in the psyche. Opposite-sex relationships present us with the stage on which we can explore the interacting anima/animus energies: this explains why they are frequently so difficult! If we are willing to grow together and help one another, we can work towards a mutual understanding.
We can begin to explore the world of the unconscious by means of dreams, because they represent ways in which the unconscious is trying to become conscious. Jung also used active imagination techniques to work further with dream contents and begin to unravel and understand their deeper meaning. These techniques encourage a person to produce fantasy images that are very much like waking dreams and work in much the same way. The important thing is always to seek and retain a sense of balance, connecting with both the inner and outer worlds.
SEX AND GENDER
For many years, psychologists have debated whether ‘nature’ or ‘nurture’ has the greater effect on our development of gender awareness. Jung said that we are all born with a built-in archetypal pattern that gives us the blueprint for all aspects of psychic development, including our sexuality. He saw masculine and feminine as two major archetypal forces that co-existed as a balancing, complementary pair of opposites. As we grow up, we begin to create a persona that reflects the teachings of the society into which we were born. The animus or anima develops to compensate for this, incorporating the characteristics that we are not supposed to show publicly.
At first, the child identifies with the mother, which causes a problem for the growing boy, who has to establish a gender identity that is opposite to that of the mother. If all goes well, he will be able to transfer his gender identity to his father-or to other masculine figures. This enables him to learn how to function effectively in the outer world. Girls do not have to break away from gender identification with the mother. However, they are expected to develop a strong ego identity and function in the outer world. This means that they, too, have to follow the hero myth cycle.
Jung says that there is another problem for girls, too, because of the ancient archetypal energy that drives the woman towards biological fulfilment by giving birth to and mothering children. In order to do this, she has to break the emotional and spiritual bond between herself and her father, because she has to seek a new man to be her mate. Sometimes women resist this archetypal urge, because it drives them away from the world of careers, competition, success and friendship in the outer world. This is one example of the problems that Jung suggested our modern psyches will encounter when they try to develop along lines that have been laid down by thousands of years of evolution. He warns that our personal psychology is only skin deep, like a ripple on the ocean of the collective unconscious. Collective psychology is the most powerful force in our lives, the one that changes the world and makes history.
RITES OF PASSAGE
Throughout life, we all pass through different stages, which bring change into our lives. Many of these changes are marked by special ceremonies. One of the most important ancient rituals is the initiation rite to mark puberty. Jung says that all primitive groups and tribes that are at all organized have special rites of initiation to mark puberty. These are very important in the social and religious life of the tribe. For both sexes, the chief aim of these rites of puberty is to separate the young person from the parents and mark a definite end to childhood.
In the childish stage of consciousness there are usually few p
roblems for the psyche, because everything is taken care of by the parents. For Jung, puberty marks psychic birth, bringing with it a conscious distinction of the ego from the parents – the birth of the hero. From then onwards the demands of life put an end to the dreams of childhood and, if all goes well, the person will be able to make the transition to adulthood and independence. For others, this stage is not easy and they soon run into problems, usually connected with sexual issues or a sense of inferiority. Unfortunately, in the modern world initiation rites have either vanished or turned into shadowy imitations, so that many people do not get any help in reaching maturity. Jung says that, because of the archetypal roots deep in our psyche, we still need and crave ritual.
MIDLIFE CRISIS
As we approach middle age, it often seems that we have got everything sorted out at last. Hopefully by now we have established our personal views and social positions, our careers and so on. But many people get stuck at this point. We have to concentrate on certain aspects of interest and push others away: there simply is not time or scope to do everything we would like to do!
Suddenly, at the mid-point of our lives, it dawns on us that time is beginning to run out. This is the time of the midlife crisis, which Jung says is frequently marked by a period of depression. Once again, a significant change is being prepared for in the human psyche. It may appear as a slow change in a person’s personality or interests, or certain traits from childhood may re-emerge. This marks an attempt on the part of the psyche to rebalance itself. Jung says that this stage is very important, because otherwise we risk developing the kind of personality that attempts always to recreate the psychic disposition of youth. Such a personality becomes wooden, boring and stereotyped.
AGEING
Jung says that the second half of life should have a very different quality from the first half. He compares the journey of the psyche to the daily journey of the sun, rising towards the zenith and then falling again. In the first half of life we are concerned with achievement, establishing ourselves in the world, earning a living, raising a family and so on. The problems we encounter are mainly biological and social. Later in life we can hopefully afford to become more inward looking and reflective. The problems we are involved with become more cultural and spiritual in nature. Confronting and integrating the repressed aspects of the personality may lead eventually to the individuation of the psyche.