Analytical Psychology - Essay Example

? Carl Jung’s Theory: Synthesis Of Psychology With The Divine of the of the Background Carl Jung was born in Switzerlandin year 1875 (Engler, 2009, p. 69). Jung’s father, who was a pastor and scholar of reformed church, was a kind, but conventional and weak man by nature (Engler, 2009, p. 69). Jung’s mother was powerful woman but suffered from emotional disturbances (Engler, 2009, p. 69). Jung had developed interest in religion and spiritual matters right from childhood but never discussed it with his father due to difficulty in communication between them (Engler, 2009, p. 69). According to Jung (1963), it was from the age of seven or eight that he began to experience the paranormal (Jung & Main, 1997, p.2). As a child, Jung experienced lot of loneliness as his sister was born when he was nine and till then, he had to play by himself (Engler, 2009, p. 69). According to Jung (`963), the long period of solitude and the experience of paranormal by him and his family members, were as if destined, as it had a profound influence on him and pushed him towards the creation of his theory of analytical psychology (Jung & Main, 1997, p.3). His childhood experiences encouraged him to explore the uncharted domain of spirituality and hidden aspects of the unconscious mind. However, what really became a landmark point in his life was his decision to study psychiatry, which was made after reading a text book by German neurologist Kraft-Ebing (Engler, 2009, p. 69). He thought that psychology might have answers to his questions regarding the mysteries, dreams and paranormal experiences that he had during his childhood (Engler, 2009, p. 69). However, it was his work that introduced the world of psychology to the hidden dimensions of human mind, which psychology had never explored before. Key Concepts Of Theory Central to Jung’s theory of analytical psychology is the concept of collective unconscious (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2011). As per Schultz and Schultz (2005), Jung defined the collective unconscious as “the deepest level of the psyche containing the accumulation of inherited experiences of human and prehuman species” (Corey, 2009, p. 80). According to Jung, the collective unconscious is a source of creativity and inborn qualities (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Not only that, but Jung viewed the collective unconsciousness as a connection of personal self with the family and humanity as a whole (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Jung’s theory focused on the messages that universe tries to give to man through his collective unconscious. Jung realized that the universal experiences are provided to human beings through the images which he called ‘Archetypes’ (Corey, 2009, p. 80). It is through different Archetypes representing different aspects of existence that human being encounters the truth about his own personality (Corey, 2009, p. 80). For example, the ‘mask’ or the social face that person wears to protect himself in the society, is represented through the archetype known as ‘persona’ (Corey, 2009, p. 80). The biological and the psychological aspects of masculinity and femininity that co-exist in both, males and females, is represented through archetypes of animus and anima (Corey, 2009, p. 80). However, the archetype that is most powerful is known as ‘shadow’ as it is rooted deeply in human unconsciousness and represents the “dark side, the thoughts, feelings and actions” that human being refuses to encounter and project them outward to run away from it (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Jung states that the ‘reality’ and the truth of human being, which is ignored by the conscious mind, are manifested in dreams through the medium of these archetypes. Hence, Jung also strongly emphasized the importance of understanding dreams as he believed that dreams were the path to human evolution. Dreams were given strong importance in Jung’s idea of collective unconscious. Even though Freud had also given importance to interpretation of dreams in understanding the personality, Jung’s idea of dreams and its functions were different from him (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Jung believed that the contradiction, complexity and confusion experienced by people in their personal life are resolved through their dreams (Corey, 2009, p. 80). According to Jung, dreams are also doorway to future as they help people prepare for the future events by giving them the hints about those future events (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Hence, Jung viewed dreams as performing the function of creativity and expression and by doing that, displaying the presence of divinity in human life (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Jung believed that collective unconscious was a pathway to fulfillment as it also helped human being in merging with the ‘whole,’ which, according to him, is the ultimate goal of human being. Jung described human ‘maturity’ as an integration and balance within oneself (Engler, 2009, p. 69). While Freud defined maturity in terms of interpersonal relations, Jung defined it in terms of integration of man with his ‘self’ and achievement of ‘wholeness’ in his own personality (Engler, 2009, p. 69). Hence, Jung stressed more on finding harmony through integration and understanding the messages from unconscious as a path to happiness. Jung was of opinion that people experience panic and disturbances in their unconscious mind, when they think that their conscious life has become meaningless and holds no promise (Jung, 2001, p. 238). Hence, Jung differs from Freud as he feels that it is the meaninglessness of conscious life that leads to disturbance in unconscious mind and not the other way round, as proposed by Freud. The pain repressed and stored in the unconscious mind is provoked and brought to the surface only when the conscious life of a person becomes pessimistic and meaningless (Jung, 2001, p. 238). Jung feels that this happens because of man’s selfish attitude and ‘separation’ from the ‘whole’. Idea Of Healthy And Unhealthy Personality Carl Jung viewed human being as an integral part of the universe and not as a separate entity. According to Jung, mental disorders and mental problems in human beings are caused due to the presence of contradictory aspects of personality in their being (Engler, 2009, p. 83). When human beings try to create harmony between the contradictory aspects in their personality, their conscious mind tries to resist it and this causes emotional disturbances in their lives (Engler, 2009, p. 83). Jung’s idea of causes of psychological problems was different from Freud’s idea. Freud believed that people suffer from neurosis when the repressed part of personality comes on a surface (Engler, 2009, p. 83). However, Jung was of opinion that psychological and emotional disturbances occur when human beings fail to recognize the undeveloped part of their personality, and fail to hear or respond to its warnings and cries (Engler, 2009, p. 83). Hence, people who fail to attain harmony develop unhealthy personalities. On the contrary are the people who have healthy personalities. For Carl Jung, a healthy personality meant integration. According to Jung, a person who lives a ‘whole’ life by attaining his ‘complete’ self was a healthy person (Dunne, 2000, p. 3). Jung believed that man can become whole and complete only when he allows God to enter his life and to become a co-creator (Dunne, 2000, p. 3). He was of opinion that for evolution, man needs to surrender himself to God as man is an instrument through which God creates (Dunne, 2000, p. 3). Hence, healthy people are those who allow spirituality in their life and find harmony between the ‘opposites’ in life. He believed that people who achieve their innate and primary goal, which is to attain individuation by harmoniously integrating the conscious and the unconscious aspects of personality, gain healthy personalities (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Healthy personality development for Jung was the attainment of integration of self and the universe. Hence, his theory was based not only on psychology but also on spirituality.. Similarity And Differences In Human Nature The central idea of Carl Jung’s work was the existence of ‘whole.’ Jung believed that in spite of having an individual identity, human being is an inseparable part of the ‘whole’ and hence, his happiness depends on the balance that he attains between the self and the ‘whole’. According to Jung, all human beings are alike through a source that he described as the ‘collective unconscious’ (Corey, 2009, p. 79). Jung says that dreams, archetypes and synchronicities are the contents of this collective unconscious (Jung, 2001, p. 247). Human being’s personality is shaped by the past of his family and human kind, and not only by his own past, i.e. his childhood (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Jung says that the mythological symbols, archetypes, dreams and spirits are present, always and everywhere, in the psyche of human beings even when they have never been in their consciousness (Jung, 1959, p. 42). Hence, all human beings are alike in their experience of collective unconscious. Human beings are like some others in their similarity of background, cultural heritage, ancestry etc (Corey, 2009, p. 80). Some people are like others in their approach towards life where some accept spirituality and existence of God through symbolism, dreams, paranormal phenomena etc., while others do not (Corey, 2009, p. 80). However, human being is also endowed with inborn qualities which are unique to him and they are expressed only when he achieves the completeness of his being (Engler, 2009, p. 88). Jung’s theory states that every human being is driven not only by his past but also by his aspirations about his future (Corey, 2009, p. 79). Every human being has his own aspirations,, and his growth and development is shaped by these aspirations (Corey, 2009, p. 79). Hence, the future aspirations drive human being towards developing an ‘individual’ identity in the society (Corey, 2009, p. 79). Through the process of individuation, through which he tries to explore and express his hidden potential, human being displays that in spite of being a part of the ‘whole,’ he also has qualities that are unique to him and in this aspect, he is like no other human being. Reception Of Jung’s Theory Carl Jung’s contribution to the world of psychology is phenomenal. Through his theory, which is known as analytical psychology, Jung exposed the world of psychology to the realm of spirituality and the idea of collective unconscious. He had a profound influence on people from different fields like psychology, theology and religion. His work has influenced many experts from the field of psychology. Current psychological research and clinical practices use the assessment test developed by Jung, called as ‘word-association test,’ extensively (Engler, 2009, p. 85). In fact, many of different personality tests created by psychologists later were influenced by works of Jung. The projective techniques and personality assessment techniques like free association, sentence completion and psycho-physiological monitoring like polygraph and lie-detector, are considered to be developed on the foundation of Jung’s technique of word-association (Engler, 2009, p. 85). Jung’s word association test is an excellent technique to bring forth the hidden emotional processes of a client as during the test, the participant is made to ‘respond to list of stimulus words designed to evoke emotions’ (Engler, 2009, p. 85). From the nature of the response, the counselor can assess the emotional pattern of a person and hence, this word-association test proved to be a huge motivating factor in creation of other personality tests in the future (Engler, 2009, p. 85). However, it was not the only work of Jung that influenced other psychologists. The wide and in depth variety of Jung’s ideas and theories were highly appreciated by people from different fields and inspired many psychologists to create different techniques in psychology. Jung’s concept of introversion and extroversion had heavily influenced the development of Rorschach inkblot by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (Engler, 2009, p. 85). The development of Thematic Apperception Test by Henry Murray was a result of Jung’s influence on Murray (Engler, 2009, p. 85). The development assessment and research in the field of personality type assessment is highly influenced by Jung’s idea and concept of typology (Engler, 2009, p. 85). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs, designed with an intention of implementing Jung’s theory of type, is the most popular tool used by people in non-psychiatric field for clinical assessment, counseling, and personality assessment (Engler, 2009, p. 685). The test helps in sorting people into four types of personalities (indices) proposed by Jung which is extroversion-introversion (EI), sensing-intuition (SN), thinking-feeling (TF), and judgment-perception (JP) (Engler, 2009, p. 85). This shows that Jung’s work had influenced the development of many assessment tools and the thinking of many prominent psychologists. However, Jung’s influence was not limited to the field of psychology but reached beyond it. Jung’s theories of symbolism, collective unconscious, dreams, archetypes, psychic energy etc., have attracted the attention of theologians on large scale (Engler, 2009, p. 88). People who believe in traditional religious concepts, and also those in twenty first century who are seeking spirituality, are highly attracted to Jung’s idea that collective unconscious is a medium through which God expresses himself (Engler, 2009, p. 88). Moreover, in spite of being complex, the coherence of Jung’s theory has made it accessible to the common man of today whose interest in spirituality and deeper meaning of life is growing with passing time (Engler, 2009, p. 88). Major American cities are providing training in Jungian analysis and Jungian therapy due to its profound implications and goals (Engler, 2009, p. 88). According to Stevens (a994), people from West, who are highly influenced by the barren materialism prevailing in the Western world, were able to change their attitude through alternative set of vales which were introduced to the Western world by Carl Jung through his visionary powers and deep spirituality (Engler, 2009, p. 88). According to Bill W. (1988), cofounder of Alcohol Anonymous, he was able to understand the role of spirituality in recovery from addiction with the help of Jung (Engler, 2009, p. 88). Moraglia (1994) states that social scientists who are concerned about the needs and growth of our elder generation have gained a deeper insight and knowledge into developmental process through Jung’s work on developmental process and the attention given by him to the importance of second half of human life span (Engler, 2009, p. 88). The psychological changes associated with midlife are given central importance in Jung’s pioneering work (Corey, 2009, p. 79). He has emphasized the importance of acceptance of the changes that are expressed by the unconscious and broadening of value system. This has helped people to enhance and enrich their lives irrespective of their age or stage of lifespan development. In this way, Jung’s work, in spite of getting criticized initially, is accepted, applauded and implemented by people from different fields. References Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/ Cole Dunne, C. (2000). Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the soul. London, UK: Continuum. Engler, B. (2009). Personality theories: An Introduction (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Hergenhahn, B. & Olson, M. (2011). An introduction to theories of personality (8th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall Jung, C. (2001). Modern Man in search of a soul. Oxon, UK : Routledge Jung, C. (1959). The Archetypes And The Collective Unconscious. ( R.C. Hull, Trans.). New York, NY: Bollingen Foundation Inc. Jung, C. & Main, R. (1997). Jung On Synchronicity And The Paranormal. London, UK: Routledge. Read More