by Phil Goss
Compared to the fruitful connections already described between Jungian and other therapeutic concepts and clinical interventions, the integration of Jungian thinking into conventional education, especially university teaching, has a long way to go. There are exceptions, such as the establishment of popular postgraduate programmes in Jungian studies at Essex University (UK) and at Pacifica University, California. As Tacey says, academics and clinicians keen to further this enterprise need to let go of approaches that are too rigid to meet the competitive demands of twenty-first-century higher education:
’we serve Jung best not by turning his work into a fixed ideology, but by playfully deconstructing it for the new era. We have to deconstruct his ideas about the numinous, but we cannot eradicate the numinous to suit the needs of a secular academy.’
Tacey, 2007, p. 69
Key idea: The International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS)
The IAJS was founded in 2002 with the aim of providing a discussion forum for those teaching Jungian ideas in universities, as well as other interested academics, clinicians and students. It has proved to be a robust and flourishing international network debating applications to the arts, humanities, sciences, religious studies, politics and education. For more information see: http://jungianstudies.org
Archetypal figures of psyche
As we have seen, Jung’s ‘map’ of the human psyche contains some key figures which strongly influence how we function: Ego, Persona, Shadow, Anima/Animus and Self. So how have post-Jungian thinkers and practitioners taken forward this model? Most Jungians and post-Jungians still pay considerable heed to the value of these figures as a way of characterizing, and playing with, dynamics within the human psyche and interpersonal relations. There have been some interesting and creative applications to thinking about Shadow, and Anima/Animus in particular.
SHADOW, AND TYPOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Shadow remains a very influential concept, which therapists from other modalities have adopted (e.g. Rogers, 2000) to help make sense of the presence of repressed, hidden and overlooked aspects of the psyche. Identification of shadow in processes arising from difficult early dynamics can be found, for example, in the child analytic work of Sidoli (2000, see Chapter 14). She has theorized about how powerful shadow influences can become rooted in the body in infancy, with long-term consequences, as a result of persecutory, neglectful and chaotic attachment patterns.
In Chapter 9, we explored Jung’s framework for typology. John Beebe (2004b) has further developed this, based on careful observation of the operation of typology and complexes in his practice. From this he has constructed a framework for understanding how different shadow functions, and archetypal influences, influence the individual. This involves a juxtaposition of archetypal figures with their shadow versions, as follows:
(*Note: This takes the opposite attitude to the hero/heroine, e.g. passive rather than heroically ‘active’. Each ‘shadow’ figure takes the opposite attitude to the archetypal figure.)
With this arrangement, it becomes possible to map eight rather than four functions at work in the individual – four in shadow and four not. So, for example, if someone had introverted thinking as their superior function and extraverted sensation as their auxiliary (secondary) function, then they will have extraverted thinking and introverted sensation strongly in shadow. It also then becomes possible to identify possible links to complexes, which may show through their shadow functions (e.g. if introverted feeling was their tertiary (third) shadow function, then a trickster complex is suggested, which could be explored via their introverted feeling). As with all other Jungian frameworks, it is important not to apply this in a formulaic way but, rather, hold the individuality of the analysand/patient in mind at all times. However, as Beebe observes:
‘Recognizing correlations between functions and complexes can be very helpful to the therapist, especially when encountering markedly altered states of mind in patients. At such times the therapist can often help to re-establish ego-strength in the patient by speaking the language of the patient’s superior function rather than mirroring the typological idiom of the possessing complex…’
Beebe, in Papadopoulos, 2006, p. 144
ANIMA AND ANIMUS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Perhaps the archetypal figures of the Jungian psyche that have generated the most critique and attempts to update them are anima and animus. Here, as Polly Young-Eisendrath (2006, p. 136) observes (and as noted in Chapter 7), Jung’s formulation was both a gift and a problem for the post-Jungian field:
‘By recognizing that the experience of being a person consists of multiple subjectivities, Jung has been prescient in providing contemporary psychoanalysis with an understanding of the projection-making factors of oppositeness in sex and gender. Still, Jung’s cultural biases and tendencies to universalize gender differences need to be revised in the light of contemporary findings of developmental and anthropological research on the sexes.’
In her writing on contra-sexuality and gender, she helpfully describes the ways in which this area can be worked with: first, seeing gender as thoroughly flexible so women and men both carry anima and animus as representative of the feminine and masculine in all of us (as subscribed to by some Jungian writers such as Mathers, 2003); second, assuming biological sex is fixed and contra-sexual gender is a substrate of this, thereby assigning anima to men and animus to women as biologically present, or third (which she subscribes to), seeing biological sex as fixed, but seeing anima in men and animus in women as specific complexes of the ‘opposite sex’, which generate versions of contra-sexual ‘otherness’ in us.
These ways of looking at, and working with, anima and animus do not intend to perpetuate unhelpful gender stereotypes but rather challenge them, often by drawing on feminist perspectives (e.g. Rowland, 2002). This is not to say there is no post-Jungian exploration of subtle instinctual and developmental differences between ‘being a woman’ and ‘being a man’. Considering possible distinct influences on how men and women operate, such as early attachment patterns (Goss, 2010), is part of the contemporary post-Jungian debate in this area.
There is also a growing focus on the nature and dynamics of differing sexualities, and valuable explorations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) sexualities through a post-Jungian lens (McKenzie, 2006). Here, applying anima and animus flexibly, and in a way that counters essentialist tendencies, involves drawing on LGBT studies and helping analysts think about how the powerful but fluid nature of sexuality can be worked with. All trainings in this field challenge the risk of homophobic attitudes, however unconsciously based, creeping into practice (as they also do with regard to racist, sexist, disablist and ageist assumptions coming into the work).
Post-Jungian thinking and practice is a fertile arena for original and insightful ideas and practice around gender and sexuality, carrying the potential to influence wider understanding and debate about this important, but sometimes contentious, area.
The therapeutic relationship
The creativity and responsiveness of Jungian practitioners and thinkers continues to deepen and broaden the relevance of analytical psychology. Margaret Wilkinson (see also Chapter 15) is a Jungian analyst with expertise in the impact of neuroscience on attachment patterns and the therapeutic relationship. She describes how this operates in practice, and how the principles arising can be worked with to promote healing and healthy development (Wilkinson, 2012). She refers to the important neuroimaging work carried out within neuroscience, which shows the intimate interconnection of the activity of neurons.
In turn, Wilkinson demonstrates the impact on early experience of trauma or other experiences of disruption or lack; the individual’s attachment, communication and reflective styles will likewise be affected. She advocates the importance of taking care of every aspect of analytic interaction, from the positioning of the chairs (so the analysand can be facilitated into ‘look – look away – look’ sequences which may
have been missed in early life), to the tone or musicality of the analyst’s voice. As she notes:
’These recent imaging studies are of course confirming just why as Jungian analysts we concentrate on the mood and affect that underpin mind as revealed in the consulting room, and the relation of this to the patient’s emotional life and ways of relating.’
Wilkinson, 2007, p. 340
Spotlight: A Story of Jungian analysis
Unusually for this field, Naomi Lloyd’s book The Knife and the Butterfly (2014) tells the detailed story of an analysis. Her analyst gave permission for eight months of their sessions to be audio recorded. This allows for detailed dialogue to be included in the book, and provides valuable insights into how the dynamics of a Jungian analysis unfold, and how principles are applied.
Approaches to supervision from a Jungian perspective have also been developed and these are representative of the archetypal, classical and developmental strands within the field discussed in the previous chapter (Mathers, 2009). There is also ongoing publication of innovative approaches to post-Jungian thinking and practice, such as the Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies series (Samuels, 2013–present), while journals such as the Journal of Analytical Psychology showcase cutting-edge clinical and theoretical insights (see Meredith-Owen et al.). The examples of innovation in Jungian analytic thinking and practice in this chapter underline how post-Jungian ideas continue to extend their relevance for twenty-first-century psychotherapy.
Your reflective journal
In the Introduction to this book it was suggested that you keep some form of reflective journal in which you recorded your responses to the ideas in this book. Have you done this, even partly? If so, you are invited to spend time (in a quiet space by yourself) looking back through your journal, with this book to hand, so that you can check and further reflect on anything that strikes you. If you did not keep a journal, you could use any notes you have made, or even just sit with this book and do this exercise.
Here are some prompt questions to support you in this task, which is designed to help you notice and evaluate what you have learned from this book.
1 Which ideas of Jung’s have had the most impact on you, and why? (What implications does this have for your way of looking at things?)
2 Which ones have had the least impact, and why? (Do you need to revisit them?)
3 Which ideas of Jung’s have been the easiest to understand, and why? (How could you build further on this?)
4 Which ones have been the hardest to understand, and why? (Do you need to revisit them?)
5 Has this book sparked or strengthened your interest in Jung, or not? (Either way, what further reading might be helpful?)
Finally, take a piece of paper and some coloured pens, and spontaneously draw an image reflecting your experience of reading this book. If you want to add words that come up spontaneously, and/or elaborate the image, do so. Either way, when you are ready, spend some time with the picture, have another look at the questions above, and see if anything further springs to mind.
This activity should have helped you notice and consolidate your learning and reflections arising from reading this book. Just as the individuation process never ends, neither does our learning. The creative energy of the unconscious wills us towards self-knowledge, and I hope this book encourages you to keep digging deeper into the insights that Jung, and many others, have made available for this purpose.
The Brazilian Jungian analyst Roberto Gambini summarizes well the lasting value of Jung’s legacy:
‘Jung was an inspiration, a bunch of seeds spread out by a strong wind over the vast land of rational thought. Jung was an attitude… his discoveries and working hypotheses were a gift to culture, were his individual response to the paradoxes of reality, the uncertainties of knowledge and the pain and the glory of life itself.’
Gambini, 2007, p. 362
The individuality of Jung’s response to reality invites the same from each of us.
Dig deeper
Beebe, J., ‘Response to Wolfgang Giegerich’s “The End of Meaning and the Birth of Man”’, Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice, (1) (2004a)
Beebe, J., ‘Understanding consciousness through the theory of psychological types’, in Cambray, J. and Carter, L. (eds.), Analytical Psychology (Hove and New York: Brunner Routledge, 2004b), pp. 83–115
Casement, A. (ed.), Who Owns Jung? (London: Karnac, 2007)
Drob, S., ‘Response to Beebe and Giegerich’, Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice, 7(1) (2005)
Gambini, R., ‘Epilogue – Who owns the air?’ in Casement, A. (ed.), Who Owns Jung? (London: Karnac, 2007)
Giegerich, W., ‘The End of Meaning and the Birth of Man: An essay about the state reached in the history of consciousness and an analysis of C. G. Jung’s psychology project’, Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice, 6(1), 1–66 (2004)
Giegerich, W., What is Soul? (New Orleans: Spring Journal Books, 2012)
Goss, P., Men, Women and Relationships, A post-Jungian Approach: Gender Electrics and Magic Beans (Hove: Routledge, 2010)
Hauke, C., Jung and the Postmodern: The Interpretation of Realities (Hove: Routledge, 2000)
Lloyd, N., The Knife and the Butterfly: A Story of Jungian Analysis (London: Karnac, 2014)
McKenzie, S., ‘Queering gender: anima/animus and the paradigm of emergence’, Journal of Analytical Psychology, vol. 51(3), 401–21 (2006)
Mathers, D., Meaning and Purpose in Analytical Psychology (London: Routledge, 2003)
Mathers, D. (ed.), Vision and Supervision: Jungian and Post-Jungian Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2009)
Mathers, D., Alchemy and Psychotherapy: Post-Jungian Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2014)
Meredith-Owen, W., Wright, S. and Carter, L. (eds.), Journal of Analytical Psychology (London: Society for Analytical Psychology, 1955–present)
Papadopoulos, R., The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications (London: Routledge, 2006)
Rogers, N., The Creative Connection: Expressive Arts as Healing (Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books, 2000)
Rowland, S., Jung, A Feminist Revision (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002)
Samuels, A., Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies (London: Routledge, 2013)
Tacey, D., ‘The Challenge of Teaching Jung in the University’ in Casement, A. (ed.), Who Owns Jung? (London: Karnac, 2007)
Whan, M., ‘Aurum Vulgi: Alchemy in Analysis, A Critique of a Simulated Phenomenon’ in Mathers, D. (ed.), Alchemy and Psychotherapy: Post-Jungian Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2014)
Wilbur, K., The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 2007)
Wilkinson, M., ‘Jung and neuroscience: the making of mind’, in Casement, A. (ed.), Who Owns Jung? (London: Karnac, 2007)
Wilkinson, M., Coming into Mind: The Mind–Brain Relationship: A Jungian Clinical Perspective (Hove: Routledge, 2012)
Young-Eisendrath, P., Subject to Change, Self, Gender Psychoanalysis (London: Brunner-Routledge, 2006)
Fact-check (answers at the back)
1 What is the symbolic function?
a The ways symbols function in cultural and religious imagery
b Another name for the transcendent function
c An inbuilt capacity to generate symbols and work with the meanings they represent
d The main link between the analyst and the analysand
2 With what argument does Giegerich critique Jung’s ideas about meaning and individuation?
a Jung’s ideas are generally not meaningful to individuals
b The search for deeper meaning is futile because humanity has awoken to its absence
c Jung does not clearly enough explain the link between meaning and individuation
d The search for deeper meaning should be left to religious thinkers, not psychologists
3 In what way can Giegerich
’s position be challenged?
a Not being rigorous enough
b Misinterpreting Jung’s ideas
c Overlooking the way some may take Jungian archetypes to be real in a literal sense
d Overlooking the still-present interest in spirituality, and the influence of the numinous
4 What has Whan warned against?
a Using alchemical ideas for our self-development
b Taking alchemy literally
c Using alchemical ideas for self-promotion
d Trying to turn base metal into gold
5 How can Jungian studies at universities make a fuller impact?
a By imposing a Jungian perspective on established academic disciplines
b By trying to fit Jungian ideas into established academic disciplines
c By deconstructing Jungian ideas while allowing the numinous spirit of them into studies
d By offering all academic staff discounted places on courses about Jungian ideas
6 How can shadow work in analysis be linked to typology?
a By identifying shadow typological functions at work in the analysand to build a fuller picture
b By asking the analysand if they inherited any shadow character traits from their parents
c By the analyst telling the analysand all about their shadow development
d By keeping a record of how the analysand talks about their shadow and how that changes
7 Why are anima and animus still relevant to analytic work?
a All analysts subscribe fully to what Jung said about them
b Jungian thinkers have updated this to take into account biology, gender and sexuality