by Phil Goss
The theoretical base for Klein’s work arose from Freud’s psychosexual formulations, but she condensed these – believing that all fundamental aspects of Freud’s model, including the Oedipal complex, were present from birth, and so even the play of very young children conveyed unconscious patterns which portrayed desire, envy and greed, for example.
Fordham was taken with these insights, and thought Klein had understood some very important psychic processes, such as splitting – a universal human tendency to split experience into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – as well as her powerful insights into projection and introjection (Klein, 1946). He also appreciated the work of Donald Winnicott in identifying pivotal ideas about stages of development in infancy and beyond. Winnicott also highlighted how crucial the quality of care provided by the primary carer is for healthy child development (and the corresponding need for ‘good enough mothering’ (Winnicott, 1965)). These ideas were also developing in the context of Bowlby’s (1999) research into attachment and separation, which reinforced the critical role of early relationships in shaping the inner life of the young child, as well as the patterns of relationship that could come pervasively to influence adolescence and adulthood.
Fordham conducted extensive observations of very young children, carefully noting their responses to the world around them. He was particularly struck by the capacity of babies, right from their entry into the world, to make their needs known – crying repeatedly, for example, until they got the soothing sensation of mother’s nipple in their mouth, and her milk filling their stomach, to assuage their hunger. Slightly older infants, he noticed, could both physically reach out for what took their interest, and catch their mother’s attention with a sound or a smile. It became clear to Fordham that Jung’s notions about children having a passive relationship to inner and outer influences were not borne out by how they operated. While they might be strongly influenced by parental and collective influences, it was also clear that deeply psychological and relational forces were at work in them.
From these insights, Fordham constructed his own theoretical model for understanding early child development, which in turn enabled him to evolve a clinical framework for child analysis. Fordham proposed that at birth the self was whole, but as soon as the baby comes into contact with reality, beyond her or his own skin and mother’s womb (which had been the whole of their prenatal ‘world’), the self begins to ‘de-integrate’. What Fordham meant by this is a healthy process whereby, as the baby engages with the sight, sound, smell and touch of their environment, they find themselves psychologically having to let go of the sense of being completely contained within their own skin (fused to mother) and instead ‘reach out’ or ‘towards’ their environment, in order to get their needs met.
Thus, when an infant cries because it is hungry – to get a response from mother – it is de-integrating (and their cry is a de-integrate). They are letting go of their basic integration of self, in order to reach out and get what they need. If the mother hears and responds to this by picking the baby up and giving them the milk they are craving, this enables re-integration for the infant, whereby the de-integration by the infant has been satisfactorily met. Fordham proposed this as the basis of ego formation: the cycle’s promotion of the child’s autonomy enabled ego to separate from self and establish the ego–self axis (described in Chapter 5).
This process, Fordham believed, enabled the child to develop the necessary reflective capacity to develop a sense of self, which could then be expressed through their play, behaviour, creativity or explicit use of language. Where the infant is not provided with the responses she or he seeks, and where this happens regularly – or the primary carer responds in an inconsistent way – then there is a risk of dis-integration rather than de-integration–re-integration. If the infant’s efforts to be heard and seen and get the need for a cuddle or a feed are not met, she or he may slowly give up trying, or their behaviour may become uncontained and reactive. If the re-integrates are offered inconsistently by mother or other carers, the child may desperately try to control the situation by becoming very rigid in its responses. All these responses reflect the efforts of psyche not to disintegrate and thus generate significant mental health problems which remain into adulthood.
Spotlight: Child observation
The training organization Michael Fordham was instrumental in establishing, the Society for Analytical Psychology in London, is one of a number that place strong emphasis on the value of infant observation as a precursor to training as a Jungian analyst. Trainees are encouraged to visit a volunteer family once a week for two years to observe closely and meticulously record what they observe happening between the infant and mother for one hour. They then present their observations to the student group. This is a very good way to promote observational skills and tease out unconscious dynamics inherent in early relational patterns, including those of de-integration–re-integration.
Post-Jungian theory and practice
Valuable work continues to build on Fordham’s thinking. Maria Sidoli (2000) places emphasis on the constellation of archetypal figures in the psyche of the child which represent bodily experienced suffering and sometimes trauma. She uses the example of the child producing an image of a witch in their spontaneous drawings, which comes to stand for acute disruptions to the de-integration–re-integration cycle. Jean Knox (2003) has elucidated the strong links between attachment patterns and archetypal process, while Margaret Wilkinson (2006) has provided important insights into the impact of these influences, from a neuroscientific perspective, on child development and adult experience and relationships. In this respect, post-Jungian thinkers are making valuable contributions to this area.
The boy who couldn’t find the top
Mahmut, a four-year-old boy, was referred for Jungian child analysis after his family and the staff at his day nursery reported his lack of verbal communication. His vocabulary was limited to under 40 words (which he could use in both Turkish and English), and there was one word, ‘top’, which he repeated regularly, especially when he was distressed. He would sometimes accompany this word by pointing up above his head, or putting both his hands on the top of it. His formal developmental assessment by an educational psychologist had confirmed there was no developmental delay that might have affected his speech.
The analyst spent a number of sessions mainly observing his play. Mahmut seemed to be particularly interested in building towers and then pushing down on them from the top until they were broken into lots of separate bricks on the floor. His drawings often involved shapes without a top to them – for example, he would draw a house or a car without a roof. When the analyst asked him about this, he would usually say ‘top’ and point at the picture.
From information the parents and others had given about the boy’s early life, the analyst wondered how much disruption there might have been to the de-integration–re-integration process. Mahmut had been affected by a lengthy period when his parents visited ill relatives in Turkey, so his grandparents had looked after him; they had been having major building work done while he was staying with them. While it was unclear how directly the latter factors related to how Mahmut presented in analysis, they seemed to have a bearing on his capacity to express himself and relate to others. The lack of a ‘roof’ in his drawing suggested this, too – Fordham had noticed a child’s natural tendency to move towards drawing complete circular shapes after their formative use of individual straight lines – and the analyst wondered whether the incomplete houses and cars reflected where re-integration in response to his de-integrates had not been consistently offered.
In the light of this hypothesis, the analyst focused on engaging in reciprocal play and verbalization with Mahmud, to offer him a reparative experience of de-integration–re-integration. Over 18 months of analysis (twice a week), Mahmut came to develop further spoken language and to express unconscious Influences through a fuller range of play as well as some ‘complete’ drawing of houses, cars
, etc. The nursery and Mahmut’s parents agreed to take a similarly responsive approach to Mahmut’s communications of feelings and thoughts, and gradually he became more settled and engaged in his relationships with others.
Key idea: Jungian play therapy
Play therapy lends itself well to a Jungian approach, with its emphasis on working symbolically and creatively. Eric Green (2014) has provided a clear overview of the ways in which this can be implemented, e.g. via sand play or drawing, to work in a variety of applications including abuse and bereavement, as well as presenting conditions such as ADHD and autism. Jungian approaches to counselling children are also influential (Allen, 1989).
Key terms
Child archetype: The constellation in the human psyche of collective representations of wholeness, as well as the past and future of human consciousness. In individuals this represents these influences of past development and future potential in the individuation process.
De-integration–re-integration: Fordhams’ ego-formation process whereby the infant engages with their environment and lets go of the sense of being completely contained and instead ‘reaches out’ or de-integrates in order to get their needs met. When the primary carer(s) respond to this need, the child can re-integrate a new experience securely.
Good enough mothering: Winnicott’s term to describe what the infant requires to develop ego strength, independence and capacity for relationship.
Introjection: Klein’s term for the way the infant unconsciously ‘takes in’ versions of part-objects (e.g. mother’s breast or face) and in healthy development this eventually becomes a full version of ‘mother’ (whole object).
Projection: Where we put unconscious aspects of ourselves onto the other person.
Puer and Puella aeternus: The eternal child archetype (eternal boy – puer; girl – puella) which Jung proposed could affect a person’s capacity to fully ‘grow up’ and accept responsibility, but which could also be a source of creativity.
Splitting: Klein’s term to describe the fundamental tendency of the infant to split experience into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in an all-or-nothing way. This gets resolved when the infant realizes that mother, like themselves, is a mix of good and bad.
Dig deeper
Allen, J., Inscapes of the Child’s World: Jungian Counselling in Schools and Clinics (New York: Spring Publications, 1989)
Astor, J., Michael Fordham: Innovations in Analytical Psychology (London: Routledge, 1995)
Bowlby, J., ‘Attachment’ in Attachment and Loss, (vol. 1), 2nd ed. (New York: Basic Books, 1999)
Campbell, J., The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 3rd ed. (San Francisco: New World Library, 2012)
Fordham, M., Children as Individuals (London: Karnac, 1994)
Frankel, R., The Adolescent Psyche: Jungian and Winnicottian Perspectives (Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 1998)
Gomez, L., An Introduction to Object Relations (New York: New York University Press, 1997)
Green, E., The Handbook of Jungian Play Therapy with Children and Adolescents (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014)
Jung, C. G., ‘The Child Archetype’ in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1968)
Klein, M., The Writings of Melanie Klein, vol. 3. (New York: Free Press, 1946)
Knox, J., Archetypes, Attachment, Analysis: Jungian Psychology and the Emergent Mind (Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 2003)
Main, S., Childhood Re-imagined: Images and Narratives of Development in Analytical Psychology (London: Routledge, 2008)
Sidoli, M., When the Body Speaks: The Archetypes in the Body (London: Routledge, 2000)
Wilkinson, M., Coming into Mind: The mind–brain relationship: a Jungian clinical perspective (London: Routledge, 2006)
Winnicott, D., The Maturational Process and Facilitative Environment (London: Karnac, 1965)
Fact-check (answers at the back)
1 Why did Jung not see child analysis as worthwhile?
a Children could not understand therapeutic language
b The unconscious of a child was dominated by parental and collective influences
c Children found it hard to concentrate
d The unconscious of a child is flooded with childish, not mature, things
2 What does the child archetype do, according to Jung?
a It always tries to stop us growing up
b It represents the regressions and fragmentation of the psyche
c It shows us what we were like as a child
d It represents wholeness, and humanity’s past and future
3 What can be problematic about the ‘eternal child’ archetype?
a It can lead us to avoid adult responsibility and regress to an unrealistic ‘childishness’
b It can make us obsessively religious
c It can stop us treating our own children in a caring and respectful way
d It can make us wish it could be Christmas every day
4 What influence does the archetype of senex (wise old man) have?
a It encourages us to pass through the life stages quickly
b It stops us from grounding our creativity in something real
c It generates wisdom and order but is sometimes too impatient and excitable
d It generates wisdom and order but sometimes is too conservative and reactionary
5 What is the correct order of Jung’s four life stages?
a Childhood and adolescence; early adulthood; full adulthood and mid-life; old age
b Childhood; adolescence and early adulthood; full adulthood and mid-life; old age
c Childhood; adolescence and early adulthood; full adulthood; mid-life and Old Age
d Childhood and adolescence; early adulthood; full adulthood; mid-life and old age
6 What is the emphasis/task of adolescence and early adulthood?
a To be introverted while still establishing our identity
b To establish who we want to be when we grow up
c To be extroverted in establishing our identity in the world
d To extrovert completely so we become totally identified with our personas
7 What is the emphasis/task in old age?
a To reflect in an introverted way on our life’s meaning, and prepare for death
b To try and push our regrets away from consciousness
c To rest and look after our physical health
d To keep working and remain extroverted for as long as we can
8 How are the life stages relevant to analysis?
a They provide a metaphor for the process of analysis
b They help work with the age difference between analyst and analysand
c They provide a framework for understanding challenges the analysand may be facing
d They provide a way to help get the analysand to focus specifically on the ‘here and now’
9 For what reason was Fordham influenced by object relations theory on child development?
a It could explain observable autonomous behaviour and unconscious processes
b It offered a way of describing why a child could not make use of analysis
c It provided an updated rationale that supported Jung’s views on childhood
d It helped Fordham interpret his own relationships to his parents
10 How does understanding de-integration–re-integration help the child analyst?
a It helps them notice where the child is too influenced by their parents’ unconscious
b It provides ways to understand where the child’s development may have got disrupted
c It allows the analyst to re-integrate what they have forgotten about the child
d It offers a specific model for analysing the child’s dreams
15
Working with mental health difficulties
Through his work on schizophrenia (see Chapter 3), Jung was able to identify underlying psychological processes that demonstrated unconscious influences on mood and behaviour and establ
ish an approach to the workings of the human psyche which could facilitate resolution, or at least partial resolution, of presenting obstacles to mental health (e.g. complexes). The template Jung established in this respect hallmarked his later work in a number of areas which remain highly relevant today. Specific themes such as addiction and depression continue to be explored from a Jungian perspective and to benefit from the application of Jung’s key principles regarding self-regulation and the capacity of the unconscious to facilitate healing.
This chapter explores the origins of Jungian approaches and how they are applied today to therapeutic work with people experiencing mental health difficulties. Theory and clinical applications of work with depression trauma, addiction and personality disorders are also discussed.
Jung and the mind–body connection
What motivated Jung’s early work in psychiatry was his desire to understand the workings of the unwell psyche so as to alleviate the suffering of the individual patient, which, in the case of those at the Burgholzi, was generally pervasive and debilitating. Jung would move away from the Freudian notion of ‘cure’ and towards the principle of ‘healing’, which he thought better captured the need for a more holistic approach to addressing influences in the mind–body (or psyche–soma) dynamic which perpetuated discomforting and harmful effects on health and well-being.
Other Jungian writers have built on his emphasis on the importance of the body–mind connection, in influencing the well-being of psyche. Melanie Costello in her book Imagination, Illness And Injury: Jungian Psychology and the Somatic Dimensions of Perception (2006), illustrates with case studies how cognitive and affective processes can create bodily (‘somatic’) manifestations, e.g. where depressive, anxious or self-critical states contribute to illness. This is located within an archetypal framework for understanding how our perception of ourselves (influenced by our complexes) can create the conditions for this.