Jung

by Phil Goss

  Also, as highlighted, the ‘outcome’ of the process is very difficult to call, as an analysand may withdraw from the analysis at any point (especially at the nigredo, or ‘death’ stage) and the work can get stuck or snarled up by the power of the complexes at work, or by difficult dynamics in the transference–countertransference. Finally, there is rarely a ‘complete’ resolution as portrayed in the new birth stage. Rather, the analysand may arrive at a powerful awareness of who they are, flaws and all, and have something valuable to take with them from the analysis.

  We are all ‘works in progress’, as Jung would agree, so regarding the archetypal transference as a valuable archetypal template but acknowledging the uncertainties of therapeutic work is often best. However, the alchemical framework Jung discovered is clearly germane to personal development and long-term therapy. Despite its apparent irrelevance at first sight, it is now something which Jungian analytic practice and related academic and clinical studies value and take very seriously.

  Key terms

  Alchemy: The long tradition of mystical–philosophical thinking and practice which aims at transmuting base metal into gold; the mystery or ‘magic’ of this process, which is sometimes applied to other cultural settings.

  Archetypal transference: Refers specifically to Jung’s application of the Rosarium to analysis, but can also refer to where archetypes come up in projections in analysis, as well as to inner relationships ubiquitous in depth psychological work.

  Vas: The container in which the alchemists mixed their ‘materials’, also sometimes called the crucible or retort. A metaphor for the ‘container’ of analysis.

  Dig deeper

  Casement, A., Carl Gustav Jung (London: Sage, 2001)

  Goss, P., ‘Masculinity and Claustrum as Shadow Vas’, Ch. 13 in Mathers, D. (ed.), Alchemy and Psychotherapy: Post-Jungian Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2014)

  Greenberg, L., Rice, L. and Elliot, R., Facilitating Emotional Change (New York: Guilford Press, 1993)

  Jung, C. G., ‘Psychology of the Transference’ in The Practice of Psychotherapy, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1966)

  Jung, C. G., ‘The Psychic Nature of the Alchemical Work’ in Psychology and Alchemy, CW12, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1980)

  Martin, S., Alchemy and Alchemists (Harpenden: Pocket Essentials, 2006)

  Mathers, D. (ed.), ‘Introduction’ in Alchemy and Psychotherapy: Post-Jungian Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2014)

  Rowling, J. K., Harry Potter Box Set: The Complete Collection (New York: Levine Books, 2007)

  Shwartz-Salant, N., Jung on Alchemy (London: Routledge, 1995)

  Fact-check (answers at the back)

  1 What did alchemists try to do with metals?

  a Turn base metal into silver

  b Turn silver into gold

  c Turn base metal into gold

  d Turn gold into base metal

  2 Why did Jung think alchemy was relevant to his ‘creative illness’ of 1913–17?

  a He had dialogued with a number of alchemists in his encounter with the unconscious

  b The unconscious is like an alchemical ‘crucible’ to mix ideas in

  c His experiences were an alchemy of illness and sanity

  d His ‘base’ experiences made it possible for him to extract theoretical and clinical ‘gold’

  3 Following his studies of Paracelsus, what did Jung see that the alchemists had done?

  a Come up with an explicit formula for working with the unconscious

  b Projected the unconscious, collective and personal, into matter

  c Deliberately connected the numinous and personal unconscious

  d Deliberately tried to trap spirit in matter

  4 Why is the therapeutic process like alchemy?

  a It involves work with difficult material that can produce valuable psychological outcomes

  b It does not always work and is often futile and fanciful

  c It involves working with changes in the ‘psychic temperature’ of the analysis

  d It works best where both participants are familiar with alchemical principles

  5 Why is the ‘analytic container’ like the alchemical vas?

  a It needs to take place in an environment with lots of old artefacts around

  b It provides a safe and consistent space in which the process can take place

  c It generates a lot of heat which can get out of control

  d It provides opportunities for mystical experiences

  6 Why is the ‘seeding’ of gold in the alchemical process like analysis?

  a The analyst is paid to provide the process for the analysand

  b Analysis sometimes has ‘golden’ breakthrough moments

  c The analyst and the analysand generate gold from the start

  d The analyst needs to be open to the potential for change and growth from the start

  7 What does the archetypal transference between analyst and analysand refer to?

  a The fact there is always a transference between them

  b The unconscious connection between them, and archetypal projections arising

  c The unconscious projection of parental figures on to the analyst

  d The awareness of transference cropping up in the analysis at key points

  8 Why does the Rosarium provide a template for the archetypal transference?

  a It portrays the relationship between opposites through a natural cycle of change

  b It portrays the erotic relationship between the masculine and feminine in the psyche

  c It portrays the alchemical process, which is archetypal

  d It portrays the archetype of the masculine and feminine syzygy

  9 Between the mercurial fountain and nigredo (‘death’), what happens?

  a The analysand disappears into their unconscious

  b The analysand and analysts share difficult experiences until the work gets stuck

  c The analysand explores their shadow, then there is deeper union with the analyst until the work deadens

  d The analyst helps the analysand explore what gets them stuck in life, and so that is what happens

  10 Between the ascent of the soul and new birth, what happens?

  a The analysand is first vulnerable to the unconscious but eventually integrates it

  b The analyst looks at the analysand’s spiritual beliefs to help their soul develop

  c The analysand ‘ascends’ in a transcendent way and the analyst helps the ‘new birth’

  d The analyst is also affected and ‘ascends’ and has a new psychological birth

  14

  Working with children and lifespan development

  Jung proposed four life stages, each of which has a particular purpose within the individuation journey of the human being. The task, according to Jung, is for each of us to recognize what ‘belongs’ in each life stage and attend to this as best we can, in order to become as fully ‘who we are’ as we can manage in our lifetime.

  All these stages, including childhood, have significance for Jung in terms of psychological development and therapeutic approaches. In this chapter exploring Jung’s archetypal model of the life stages, the importance of the child archetype for Jung, and his perspective on childhood, will be contrasted with Michael Fordham’s developmental model and the nature of Jungian child analysis. A case study will illuminate the practice of Jungian child analysis and address the question of lifespan development.

  Jung and the ‘child’ archetype

  Jung took the view that childhood was not the right stage of life to concentrate our efforts to understand the individuation process. He thought the child’s unconscious was dominated by the unconscious of the parents, and therefore children did not become properly self-aware, and therefore able to begin to individuate, until puberty (at the earliest). This principle may ring true where a child finds themselves living out what a parent did not achieve (e.g. someone realizing that their career choice was actually what their moth
er or father had wanted to do but had not) but, as we shall see, Jung’s proposition has not held up as an overarching principle.

  Spotlight: The child and the collective unconscious

  Jung proposed that the child is ‘nearer’ the collective unconscious than the adult. This idea seems to be supported by children reporting vivid fantasies and dreams, or becoming thoroughly identified with a character from a story – a Snow White or a Harry Potter – who enthrals them.

  Imagination can be so vivid it is not uncommon for a child to experience a real sense of the presence of monsters or ghosts in their darkened bedroom. However, was Jung making assumptions based on his unusually active imagination and openness to dreams as a child?

  The child archetype is not to be exclusively identified with childhood. This can be seen as an archetypal influence which enables us all, at whatever stage in life, to get in touch with our capacity for childlike play and creativity. It also has its problematic side, wherein the linked archetype of the ‘eternal child’ (puer aeternus: male; puella aeturnus: female) can come to dominate an adult’s psyche. This is characterized by a deep (often hidden) longing to still be a child and not wanting to grow up (‘Peter Pan’), with all the attendant implications of taking responsibility and leaving the ‘safety’ and ‘magic’ of childhood behind. The positive side to this is where the eternal child archetype facilitates access to extensive resources of imagination, play and creativity, enabling the adult to produce, for example, a powerful piece of art or music.

  For Jung, the child archetype also represents important dimensions of the developments of collective consciousness, reflecting the struggle for integration and completion which has hallmarked human evolution. As he puts it:

  ‘The “child” is all that is abandoned and exposed and at the same time divinely powerful: the insignificant, dubious beginning, and the triumphal end. The “eternal child” in man is an indescribable experience… an imponderable that determines the ultimate worth or worthlessness of a personality.’

  Jung, 1968, para. 300

  As Shiho Main (2008) argues, the child archetype represents an important collective influence around the evolution of human consciousness. It challenges the overly ‘grown-up’ rational aspects of the scientific empiricism and positivism that are the basis of the modern world.

  Jung’s model of the life stages

  Before outlining Jung’s model of archetypal life stages, within which a Jungian approach to working therapeutically with children can be set, a couple of contextual points. First, why did Jung propose such a framework? The answer lies with his notion of a prospective individuating process that we can all engage with, and succeed in doing to varying degrees.

  Likewise, there is a purpose to the division he made between the first and second half of life, something we explored in relation to typology in Chapter 9. He used the metaphor of the sun’s trajectory across the sky over a day to provide a metaphor for this. The first half of our life is the ‘morning’, when the sun dawns in the eastern sky and rises up to its highest place at midday. This, for Jung represents our fundamental task in the first half of life: to find our place in the world and fulfil our ‘outer’ potential.

  Then, once we reach mid-life, we change direction. Like the sun, once it arrives at the zenith of its ascent, we begin our ‘descent’ towards the end of our lives, a shift that can be imperceptible, but irrevocable once it is begun. This movement inwards implies a need to come back to who we are in a fundamental sense, and includes spiritual aspects of our sense of self. This is a time when we are being called to work on our self-development and consolidation rather than our responsibilities for others or our persona in the world. Finally, we ready ourselves for death (and beyond?).

  Although linear and clear-cut, the Jung’s life-stage model recognizes that each person will experience and ‘perform’ their path through life in their own unique way, so any generalizations like these need to be seen as archetypal but not fixed templates to describe life’s patterns. He would accept the evidence of people bursting into extroverted life in the second half of life through a new work or creative venture, or following a deeply introverted path, as say a solitary researcher or religious contemplative, in the first half. These principles are there to help us get an overall sense of the shape of archetypal influences on our passage through life, not to prescribe and limit how this might be lived out by individuals. Rather, it can be argued that the idea of lifespan development being a movement first ‘out into the world’, then ‘back into self’, is a valuable one.

  The four specific life stages Jung proposed are:

  1 Childhood

  2 Adolescence and early adulthood

  3 Full adulthood and mid-life

  4 Old age

  Each stage is described below, with particular thought given to the particular purpose of each one in relation to the individuation process.

  LIFE STAGE 1: CHILDHOOD

  Jung thought the child did not really have an identity separate from its parents because their unconscious, and the collective unconscious more generally, was the dominant influence. For Jung, the child’s ego has not properly separated from the self. This means that she or he, up until puberty, is not properly aware of themselves (we can compare this to Jung’s personal experience of ‘stepping out of the mist’ at the age of 11, described in Chapter 2, and possibly critique this aspect of his model as too closely influenced by his own subjective experience).

  This perspective has been amended significantly by post-Jungian thinkers. In particular, Michael Fordham (1994), has proposed a model for understanding child development from a post-Jungian perspective. He based this on rigorous and extensive infant observation, and it is more in accord with psychodynamic theorists such as Klein (in particular), Winnicott, Fairburn and Guntrip (see Gomez, 1997), who recognized the autonomous development of the child from the very beginning of her or his life. (The model and its influence on child analysis are described further below.)

  LIFE STAGE 2: ADOLESCENCE AND EARLY ADULTHOOD

  This stage carries archetypal connotations of ‘the hero’s journey’ (Campbell, 2012), since it first involves the young person trying to break free from the overarching influence of parents and other authority figures. For Jung, this is where the individuation process ‘proper’ begins, and this has a prospective purpose (Frankel, 1998). The extroverting impulse to get out into the world and find one’s place in terms of work and relationships (possibly starting a family) then continues to hallmark the period through to the late twenties, when for Jung, the person becomes properly ‘adult’ (rather than as early as 18, or even 16, as current convention puts it).

  LIFE STAGE 3: FULL ADULTHOOD AND MID-LIFE

  The thirties, forties and beyond should see the individual consolidate their persona place in the world and fulfil their personal and professional aspirations – although learning to deal with the disappointments and broken dreams of adulthood are also part of the individuation process. At mid-life, as highlighted above, Jung proposed that psyche makes a turn inwards and the introverted function usually takes precedence. This can take the dramatic form of a mid-life crisis (new relationship, job or way of life) or show itself in a more subtle but real shift towards self-reflection and the spiritual side of life.

  LIFE STAGE 4: OLD AGE

  Here, the introverting impulse moves the individual further towards reflection and contemplation about the meaning of their lives – what they have achieved or have regrets about, as well as underlying themes pointing towards deeper purpose or spiritual connections. Sometimes this may be about an existential struggle with life’s ‘meaninglessness’; sometimes it may have a clear root in a religious tradition or spiritual search. Either way, the task of reconciling oneself to who one is, as well as preparing for the end of life and what may or may not lie beyond it, is central to this period of life.

  APPLYING THE MODEL TO ANALYSIS

  It should be clear, from the discussion so far,
that this framework has implications for the therapeutic setting. The analyst takes carefully into account the ‘life stage’ of their analysand, alongside all other factors described in previous chapters, such as complexes, transference–countertransference and typology. Jolanta, our fictional analysand, for example, is 28 and therefore crossing the stages between early and full adulthood. Using Jung’s formulation for this, it does seem as if she is wrestling with questions of belonging as well as the struggle to find and sustain a rewarding long-term relationship.

  MICHAEL FORDHAM AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

  Michael Fordham radically reshaped Jung’s initial thinking on the nature of childhood and therapeutic work with children (Astor, 1995). Jung showed no interest in applying analytic principles to children – because of his conviction the child was not a proper ‘individual’ but dominated by parental and collective influences. Fordham, on the other hand, though analysed by Jung, was also strongly influenced by the thinking emerging from Object Relations theorists. In particular, the ground-breaking play-therapy-based approach of Melanie Klein (e.g. 1946) made a deep impact on him, while he developed his interests in paediatrics and in psychoanalysis with children.