Carl Jungs Theory - Essay Example

Introduction Self-realization is one of the most desired s of every human being. It not only helps a person to lead a satisfied and fulfilled life but also helps in gaining internal harmony. Many psychologists have developed different theories to explain how self-realization can be achieved. These theories are known as the individuation theories. However, the theory that has gone to the deepest cores of human mind to explain the process of self-realization and individuation is the theory of individuation by Carl Jung. In his theory, Carl Jung has explored not just the emotional and psychological aspects of human beings, but also the religious and spiritual mysteries of their existence. His theory is complete and provides deep insights into the mysterious ways in which human psyche works. Hence, it will not be wrong to say that Carl Jung’s theory is most profound and complete, and should be followed if one aims at attaining self-realization and individuation successfully. Definition Carl Jung (1916/1928) defined individuation as “the process by which a person becomes a psychological individual, a separate indivisible unity or whole, recognizing his innermost uniqueness” (Schlamm 430). Carl Jung distinguished this process from “ego-centeredness” and individualism by identifying this process with becoming one’s own ‘self’ or ‘self-realization’ (Schlamm 430). According to Jung, the self, which embraces the conscious and the unconscious, is higher to the ego and represents the totality or personality and archetype of order (Schlamm 430). Self is the most complete expression of individuality as it encompasses the centre and the circumference of the whole psyche (Schlamm 430). However, Jung stressed that individuation should not be confuse d with individualism (Jacoby 95). According to him, “as the individual is not just a single separate being, but by his very existence presupposes a collective relationship, it follows that the process of individuation must lead to more intense and broader collective relationships and not to isolation” (Jacoby 95). At the same time, Jung (1992) also states that the vitality and the moral development of the individual can be injured and harmed by stunting of the individuation process by adhering to the social norms (Schlamm 430). In this way, he also warns about the dangers in going to the extreme in social relationship. According to Jung, almost all the psychic disturbances in human beings are caused by the ‘artificial stunting’ of the individuation process inflicted by the blocked self-development (Jacoby 95). This shows that ‘individuation’ is the process that marks the balance between the inner and the outer world of a person. The individuation age The psychoanalytical theories of individuation equate the successful individuation with the separation of self from others (Shapiro 160). The process of increasing separation of self from others is emphasized by the psychoanalytical theories to see if the individuation is successful or not (Shapiro 160). This shows that psychoanalytical theories believe that a person is individuated when he is successful in separating self from others. However, study by Lewis (1974) has found that psychoanalytical writings have emphasized that it is throughout the life that the balance between autonomy and intimacy development takes place (Shapiro 160). That is, the process of individuation does not happen during one particular stage of life, or is not dependent on one particular change, but is an ongoing process. Hence, according to psychoanalytical theories, there is no particular age when a person gets individuated. In fact, it is right from the infant stage that the process of individuation begins. In this regards, it is important to understand Jung’s views. It has been found that as the family’s cohesive self-definition experiences threat by the individual’s attempts at the spontaneous independent actions, they are systematically restricted by the family (Shapiro 161). The child development theories have given an insight on the stages where a person gets individuated. Some of the child development theories that help in deepening the understanding of the self-other differentiation process are the work by Mahler (1979; Mahler et al 1975) and the cognitive developmental research by Piaget (1954; Piaget and Inhelder, 1969) (Shapiro 161). “According to both Mahler and Piaget, the undifferentiated sense of the physical boundaries between self and others” is present in human beings when they are born (Shapiro 161). According to Mahler and her co-workers (1975), the awareness of self and others as having separate physical boundaries emerges gradually during the first year of life (Shapiro 161). Mahler and her co-workers (1975) have used the phrase “the psychological birth of the infant” to describe this process of gradual awareness (Shapiro 161). On the other hand, the phrase “the child’s construction of reality,” was used by Piaget (1954) “to describe the cognitive process by which the infant discovers the principles of science” (Shapiro 161). According to Piaget, it is during this process that infants realize that “people and objects have constancy beyond their perception and action” and that the laws of causal, temporal and spatial organization govern the objects (Shapiro 162). In this way, Mahler and Piaget describe how the individual gets individuated in the infancy. However, it is important to note that even though the developmental time period for the description of the individuation during infancy is same in both cognitive and psychoanalytical approach, there is a strong distinction in the emphases (Shapiro 162). According to Piaget, the laws of physical world are investigated by infants in a systematic and enthusiastic way through complex hypothesis testing (Shapiro 162). Piaget describes the infants as creative scientists as he believes that they explore their surrounding and draw inferences in systematic way (Shapiro 162). On the other hand, Mahler and her colleagues focus more on the emotional aspects of the infant rather than the analytical or mental (Shapiro 162). According to them, when the infant realize the mother as a separate being and therefore capable of abandonment, they feel anguish and express it strongly (Shapiro 162). The anguish happens “at the developmental point when the cognitive realization of separate body boundaries becomes possible,” and it is at this point that individuation takes place. Hence, even though the time period of individuation is same in Mahler’s and Piaget’s work, the emphasis is on different aspects of infant’s behavior. That is, while Piaget considers the successful individuation in the analytical conclusions drawn by the infant, Mahler and her colleagues consider the emotional anguish of separation as the successful individuation in infants. From the study of cognitive and psychoanalytical theories, one can say that people get individuated during their infancy or in their early childhood. However, it has been found that not all the individuation occurs in childhood. Carl Jung, who is one of the main founders of the individuation theory, views individuation as an ongoing process. In fact, it can be said that his views differ from the cognitive and psychoanalytical views that people get individuated in their infant stage. From the Jung’s definition of ‘individuation,’ it is quite clear that he does not perceive individuation as merely a realization of self as different from others. According to him, it involves recognition of uniqueness of self and self-actualization. Hence, Jung (1933) has discussed the process of individuation in adulthood (Shapiro 164). Recent research and writing on adult development by Levinson (1978), Lowenthal, Thurnher and Chiriboga (1975), and Neugarten (1968) have supported Jung’s clinical description of adult growth (Shapiro 164). Few provocative themes in the development of consciousness from childhood through youth to middle and old age were utilized to explain clearly the link between the different aspects in different age that leads to individuation (Shapiro 164). According to Jung, the first actual step in individuation takes place when the adolescent gives up the ‘monarchic,’ or self-centered, consciousness for a dualistic consciousness, during his crucial transition from childhood to youth (Shapiro 164). Jung believes that the conflicts that children experience due to external limitation that oppose their impulses are viewed by them as “exclusively between self and others” (Shapiro 164). They are not able to perceive the conflict within them. However, they become aware not only of the division of self from others but also of the division within the self once they reach their youth after they attain dualistic consciousness (Shapiro 164). Jung views that it is only when a person reaches the advanced consciousness of youth that it becomes possible for him to experience the inner tension when one desire, or impulse, internally opposes another (Shapiro 164). Sadly, society does not reward the attempts of fully exploring and integrating the opposing forces, and as it is an extremely difficult process, the young person ends up making “socially prescribed choices at the expense of the potential expansion of the self” (Shapiro 164). Jung believes that these ignored aspects of the self, which are often consisting of opposite sex characters, surfaces once again in the midlife and become available for exploration (Shapiro 164). The reemergence and the more complete exploration of the aspects of the self which were previously denied, is permitted only in adulthood as it is only during that time that a person has greater sense of security and greater tolerance of complexity (Shapiro 164). These aspects get fully integrated into the adult personality once they are explored and resolved by the person (Shapiro 164). It is this process of resolving the internal conflict, along with the realization of separation of self from others, which Jung calls as individuation. Hence, according to Jung, a person gets individuated in his adulthood. Individuation on spiritual level The definition of individuation makes it clear that Jung’s idea of individuation includes the ultimate harmony between the self and the collective consciousness. This shows that he has given great importance to the spiritual aspect of human life. Jung believed that as individuation means uniting instinctual experience with the religious experience, it is as much a spiritual as a psychological process (Schlamm 431). Jung conjoined the psychological development with the spiritual development by identifying the mysterious symbols of the self with the deity (Schlamm 431). Jung insisted that life cannot be whole without God and affirmed that individuation is the life in God (Schlamm 431). By giving psychology a sacral touch, and by explaining religion in psychological terms, Jung’s writing on individuation celebrated the “union of man and God and matter and spirit within human consciousness” (Schlamm 431). Jung says that as individuation helps a person to overcome the psychological disequilibrium and initiates the experience of “wholeness” of the personality by mediating or uniting the conflicting psychic opposites, it can be associated with the transcendent function of spirituality (Schlamm 431). Hence, he also considers individuation as a “teleological” or synthetic healing process underlying all the psychic opposites (Schlamm 431). Jung stated that there was a difference between consciously realized individuation process and the natural one that runs its course unconsciously (Schlamm 431). This is because integrating the projected, mysterious, archetypal, unconscious contents, into the conscious, is a difficult thing to achieve during the conscious individuation process (Schlamm 431). According to Jung (1931/1962, 1963), the clarity of consciousness is intensified only when there is a union between the opposites of consciousness and the unconscious, which are frequently triggered by his dissociative techniques of active imagination (Schlamm 431). Through the union of opposites, the individual gets free from the emotional attachment to the outer world and materialistic values, as he realizes the unity in his being, and also recognizes that it is a true objective of his life (Schlamm 431). Later, the understanding that it is not that something different is seen, but that one sees differently, enriches the ego of the individual (Schlamm 431). This enrichment of the ego also brings him closer to God and takes him to the spiritual domain. Jung views that it is after reaching this spiritual domain that individuals understand the true nature of self. He views that after reaching the spiritual domain, individuated ego senses itself as ‘the self,’ which is an unknown and superordinate subject, and which is beyond the normal human understanding (Schlamm 431). He considers the self as God within us, which is near to us even if it appears strange, and is the representation of the our ‘whole self’ while still “unknowable essence transcending our powers of comprehension” (Schlamm 431). According to Jung (1916/1928, 1963), the function of the transcendental postulate of ‘self,’ is to make the individuals aware of God by pointing to this experience of incarnation of God in human consciousness, which is “encountered so frequently in the empirical research” (Schlamm 431). Jung feels that this experience does not need any scientific proof for its existence (Schlamm 431). Jung’s explanation of shift in individual’s consciousness from ego to self proves that individuation helps the individuals to go beyond the feeling of isolation of the ego (Schlamm 431). In this way, by transforming the understanding of ‘self as a whole’ from the ‘self as isolated being,’ an individual gets individuated on the spiritual level. Individuation on social level Even though individuation process leads to the realization that a person is separate from others, Jung understood individuation not as something that is wholly intra-psychic experience divorced from the world of human relationships (Schlamm 431). In fact, he understood it as a process which makes an individual realize his unity with the outer world. By identifying the experiences of meaningful, mysterious, archetypal, acausal connections or correspondences between the inner psychic and the outer physical events, his meta-psychological concept of individuation was broadened and enriched by his theory of synchronicity (Schlamm 431). From these experiences Jung was confirmed that “individuation does not shut one out from the world, but gathers the world to oneself” (Schlamm 43). This shows that Jung understood the importance of harmonious relation with the society in the process of individuation. Jung was aware of the fact that individuation “involves not only the psychological development and being of the individual subject, but does so within the context of collective society” (Hauke 169). The dual struggle that an individual goes through is represented through the process of individuation (Hauke 169). On one hand, the individual struggles with the ‘inner world’ of the unconscious in all its infantile personal and collective aspects, and on the other hand, he struggles with “the outer world of collective society” (Hauke 169). According to Jung, the fate of the individual under the State and its leveling effects are decided by his struggle with the ‘outer world’ of collective society (Hauke 169). However, in the sixties, the post-Jungians became sensitive to the other equally powerful forces, emerging through the interface between the culture and the individual, which are limiting the individual (Hauke 169). This conflict between the individual and the society marks the obstacle in individuation of an individual on a social level. The social and cultural influence and effects of global economy, mass media representation, and the homogenization of styles and values poses a strong threat to “the potential for subjects to become individual men and women” (Hauke 169). Jung was aware of the developments that were going to take place in the post modern era and hence, knew the importance of clearly defining the terms like identity, individuality, individualism, individuation, and society, which were related to the social aspect of the individuals (Hauke 169). He has written extensively on how a modern human being can attain development (Hauke 169). He knew that the postmodern social conditions can lead an ego-subject either to social conformity or to inflation by overwhelming material stemming from the unconscious, and hence, he also described the alternatives for these threats (Hauke 169). These alternatives provide a path through which an individual can get individuated on the social level. Jung believed that an individual has the potential to overcome the threats of the postmodern social conditions. He believed that human subject has the possibility of overcoming the tendencies and temptations of both, to become absorbed in mass social values, or in world-denying primordial imagery (Hauke 169). According to him, human subject can produce a different outcome and a different subject by adopting the alternative to succumbing to these temptations and that is, ‘over-growing’ these tendencies (Hauke 169). However, it is important to note that Jung’s idea of self-realization does not imply an apolitical path of abandoning the collective in favor of self-gratification that displays narcissism (Hauke 169). He said that “self-realization seems to stand in opposition to self-alienation” (Hauke 170). From his statement, it becomes clear that self-alienation inclines towards ‘individualism’ while self-realization inclines towards ‘individuation’. To demonstrate his point, Jung has clearly explained the difference between individualism and individuation. In Jung’s words, “individualism means deliberately stressing and giving prominence to some supposed peculiarity rather than to collective considerations and obligations” (Hauke 170). “But individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfillment of the collective qualities of the human being, since inadequate consideration of the peculiarity of the individual is more conducive to a better social performance than when the peculiarity is neglected or suppressed” (Hauke 170). He stated that idiosyncrasy of an individual is universal in nature and hence, should not be understood as strangeness in his substance, but should be appreciated and accepted as a combination of his function and faculties representing his uniqueness in the society (Hauke 170). This means that a society should be formed on the foundation of freedom of individual expression in order to allow the potential of human subject to flower into its complete developed being. An individual cannot attain individuation in a society which suppresses his uniqueness and individual talents. Hence, Jung believes that when an individual expresses his unique qualities and explores his individual self in harmony with the social needs and collective social values, then he gets individuated on social level. Individuation of personal level Individuation is not an easy process. Even when a person realizes that he is a separate being from the others in his family and society, he still remains bonded to them emotionally and psychologically. The more the influence of people and environment, the more difficult it becomes for a human subject to attain individuation. There are various social and family factors that work against the attainment of individuation by an individual. Due to the dictates of their subculture, many families find it problematic to letting their children become independent (Berg-Cross 45). Bowen (1978) and Minuchin (1974) describe the families that have great difficulties in developing autonomy among the family members as “emotionally fused” and “enmeshed” respectively (Berg-Cross 45). Bowen developed a theory to explain how a person gets independent from the family and begins his journey towards individuation. Theory of differentiation of self Murray Bowen (1971, 1972, 1976) has used the term “differentiation of self” to describe the process of becoming independent of the family’s authority and expectations (Berg-Cross 45). Both, a qualitative and a quantitative “measure of the extent to which people differentiate between their emotional bonding to the family and their personal, intellectual judgments,” are provided by differentiation of self (Berg-Cross 45). According to Bowen, when a person, unimpeded by the conflicting pressures of family sanctioning mechanisms, is able to use his intellectual capacity as fully as possible, then he can be said to have achieved the goal of development (Berg-Cross 45). Bowen calls the individuals whose intellects are completely driven by emotional systems as ‘highly fused’ (Berg-Cross 45). The important others in their life, whom they feel they must keep happy, direct their thinking (Berg-Cross 45). They try to shield themselves from guilt and ridicule by behaving very compliantly and hence, are highly dependent on others (Berg-Cross 45). This leads to a tendency towards development of many psychological problems (Berg-Cross 45). On the other hand, there is a person, known as ‘highly differentiated,’ who displays extreme differentiation through a “high degree of autonomy between personal intellectual functioning and emotional bonding to the family” (Berg-Cross 45). The behavior of highly differentiated people is driven by the facts and their personal beliefs, and is often rational, goal oriented and lacking in emotional influence (Berg-Cross 45). The advantage of this behavior is that it reduces the chances of development of psychological problems but at the same time, it annoys the family members (Berg-Cross 45). Hence, to find the healthy balance of individuation in a person, Bowen measured the differentiation on a scale of 0-100 (Berg-Cross 45). According to him, people who fall in third quartile (50-74) can be called as well differenced as their development into independent adults is successful and healthy (Berg-Cross 46). These people know how to control their emotional impulses, and are capable of expressing their values and beliefs even when they know that it will be disapproved by others (Berg-Cross 45). However, the most successful stage in individuation is seen on the fourth quartile (75-100), which is reached by very few people (Berg-Cross 46). This state, where an individual attains healthy differentiation and great personal development, is rarely achieved (Berg-Cross 47). Individuals who function at the fourth quartile of differentiation live their lives with more personal freedom and self-direction as they have a deep understanding of the relationship between separation and bonding (Berg-Cross 47). Hence, it can be said that when a person is able to nurture his self, without getting negatively influenced by the disapproval or emotional pull from others, then he individuates on a personal level. Jung’s view Jung (1953) describes individuation as “coming to selfhood or self-realization” (Hauke 169). By this, Jung meant that there should be a harmony within the individual and only then can he attain individuation. Jung realized that individuals experience great internal conflict due to the disharmony between their ‘true self’ and their ‘ego driven wishes’ regarding self (Jacoby 95). Jung understood that each person can discover his/her own path towards self-realization only when the consciousness and the powerful contents of the unconscious work in mutual co-operation with each other (Jacoby 95). If there is a conflict and strain, then individuation becomes difficult. Sadly, as people often strive towards becoming what they want and not who they are, they experience conflict (Jacoby 95). People fail to understand that it is the aspirations and ego ideals, which do not necessarily stand in harmony with the totality of their personality, which influences the image of how they want to be (Jacoby 95). Jung believes that individuals achieve self-realization when they understand and accept their true self and resolve the internal conflicts regarding their true identity. Hence, according to Jung, the individual becomes individuated on personal level when he realizes his true self. Conclusion The discussion above proves that Carl Jung’s theory has studied the human mind to its deepest cores. Through the insights on spiritual and religious aspects of human beings, he has reached the deepest aspects of human psyche. Hence, his theory offers not just the intellectual insights on individuation, but also shows a practical path towards its attainment. Hence, it can be rightly said that his theory is most profound and beneficial for a person who wants to attain individuation. Works Cited Berg-Cross, Linda. Basic concepts in family therapy: An introductory text. 2nd ed. Binghamton: The Haworth Press, Inc., 2000. Print. Hauke, Christopher. Jung and the postmodern: The interpretation of realities. London: Routledge, 2000. Print. Jacoby, Mario. Individuation and narcissism: The psychology of self in Jung and Kohut. London: Routledge, 1985. Print. Schlamm, Leon. Encyclopedia of psychology and religion. Ed. David Leeming, Kathryn Madden and Stanton Marlan. New York: Springer, 2010. Print. Shapiro, Ester, R. Family transitions: Continuity and change over the life cycle. Ed. Celia Falicov. New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 1988. Print. Read More