Self Realization - Individuation Process

This is a continuation of the previous post, “Archetypes – The formation of the Collective Unconscious”. This post will explain the “Steps” of the “individuation process”, or the process of “self realization”. I will include quotes from C. G. Jung, Archetype and the Collective Unconscious as well as quotes from other sites I’ve found on my research path of the psychology of the self.

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“Once he comes to grips with the anima, her chaotic capriciousness will give him cause to suspect a secret order, to sense a plan, a meaning, a purpose over and above her nature, or even to “postulate” such a thing, though this would not be in accord with the truth. For in actual reality we do not have at our command any power of cool reflection, nor does any science or philosophy help us, and the traditional teachings of religion do so only to a limited degree… It is a moment of collapse. We sink into a final depth. Only when all props and crutches are broken and no cover from the rear offers even the slightest hope of security, does it become possible for us to experience an archetype that up till then had lain hidden behind the meaningful nonsense played out by the anima. This is the archetype of meaning, just as the anima is the archetype of life itself.” (Jung, C.G, pg 32 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, second edition)

Individuation Process

Individuation is a self analysis, a self discovery, in analyzing your own psyche (inner world) and life (external world), and also discovering what truths lie underneath the conscious ego-centric personality. In this search of the unconscious one will confront different aspects of the psyche that influence our human fabric, our behavior and reasons for those behaviors. Beginning with the 'Shadow', the following passages will introduce you to the four different aspects of the psyche that influence, often unconsciously, who we are as individuals and who we are collectively.

Stages of the Individuation Process

I.                Meeting the Shadow Self

The first step taken towards self-realization (individuation) is when one meets their Shadow self: the part of one’s self (psyche) that they have not previously brought into the light of consciousness. It is, for this reason, the “primitive” (undeveloped or underdeveloped) side of one’s personality, and is also known as the so-called 'negative' side of one’s personality. The shadow is the opposition to whatever one has so far regarded as “making a positive contribution to my well-being.”

In dreams one’s shadow may be represented either by some type of figure (human or non) of the same sex as one’s self (even an elder brother or sister, a best friend, or some alien or primitive person) or by a person who represents one’s opposite (i.e. someone one wishes to be like that is of the same sex).

An example of the shadow self from a literature perspective is Robert Lousis Stevenson’s 'The StrangeCase of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' in which Mr. Hyde may be seen as Dr Jekyll's unconscious shadow, leading a separate and altogether different life from the conscious part of the personality. The werewolf motif features in the same way in literature (e.g. Hermann Hesse's 'Steppenwolf') and in folklore.

(Pic 1) Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and (pic 2) Steppenwolf

In a Disney/fairy tale perspective, Cinderella is a shadow figure. She is ignored and neglected by her elder sisters. They go out into the world, but Cinderella is shut up indoors. This represents the contrast between the conscious ego (which relates to the outside world) and those parts of the unconscious that have not been allowed any part in one's conscious activity. However, Cinderella eventually escapes from her imprisonment and marries the Prince. This marriage symbolizes the joining together of conscious ego (Prince) and shadow (Cinderella), which is the end result of the “penetration” of the conscious mind by the unconscious and/or the “penetration” of the unconscious by consciousness.

(found from google images)

Symbolically - in myths and in dreams - consciousness is usually represented as male, the unconscious as female; and the “sexual penetration of female” by male is therefore a common symbol of the descent of consciousness into the dark “cave-like depths” of the unconscious. (Here it is important to note the difference between Freud and Jung: Freud is said to have believed that nearly all dream images were symbols of sexuality, while Jung is said to believe to the possibility that the sexual act itself may be a symbol pointing to something BEYOND itself.)

Other symbols of the encounter with the shadow include the conversion motif. In the New Testament the Greek word that is translated as 'conversion' means literally 'a turning about'. This “conversion” is precisely what happens in the first stage of the individuation process: one looks in the opposite direction – within (internally) instead of without (externally) - and this leads to the discovery and unfolding of a new ‘dimension’ of one’s self; new “powers” begin to work for you and you begin to experience “newness of life”, a dying of an old view and a rebirth of another, so-to-speak.

Both the ritual of baptism and the many Flood myths may be seen as the first stage of the individuation process as well. Water is a common symbol of the unconscious. In baptism a person is plunged into water and is said to be 'born again' when he or she rises out of the water. This symbolizes the descent of consciousness into the unconscious and the resulting new and fuller life.

The same applies to stories of a great flood which destroys the face of the earth and then recedes, leaving one “pure human being”. If taken as a symbol of individuation, what is destroyed by the flood-waters (the unconscious) is the persona, that makeshift self-image with which one starts their adult life. This partial self must be dissolved to make way for the appearance of the whole self (e.g. “Pure human being” represented by Noah or Markandeya).

In some cultures there are myths of a diver who plunges to the bottom of the sea and brings up treasure. The water, again, may be seen as a symbol for the unconscious and the treasure as the new self one finds when previously used psychic resources are given appropriate expression in one's conscious life.

(found on Google images)

The story of the Frog Prince tells of a young woman who is visited on three consecutive nights by a frog. On the first and second night she is horrified, but on the third night she relents and lets the frog into her bed, and in the moment that she kisses him the frog turns into a handsome prince. For Ernest Jones (a follower and biographer of Freud) the story is an allegorical account of a young woman overcoming her fear of sex. For Joseph Campbell (a disciple of Jung) the frog is just another example of the “dragons and other frightening monsters” whose role in mythology is to guard treasure. The frog, like the dragons and monsters, represent the dark and frightening shadow; the treasure is the true self. The kiss symbolizes a person's acceptance of the shadow. Thus, the result is the manifestation of the true nature of the shadow, as a bearer of one's true self-hood.

(found in Google images) 

So to speak, In Jung’s words, the shadow is a “tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well.” One must learn to know oneself in order to know who one is, because what comes after the door is a “boundless expanse full of unprecedented uncertainty, with apparently no inside and no outside, no above and no below, no here and no there, no mine and no thine, no good and no bad. It is the world of water, where all life floats in suspension; where the realm of the sympathetic system, the soul of everything living, begins; where I am indivisibly this and that; where I experience the other in myself and the other than myself experiences me.”

(tight passage, narrow door found on Google images)

Overcoming the temptations: Projection and Suppression

In order to reach the second stage of individuation one must resist two temptations. First, one must avoid projecting their shadow on to other people. One’s shadow, because it is their “dark” side, may be quite frightening and one may even see it as something evil. One may therefore want to disown it, and one way of doing this is to make believe it is the property of someone else. On a collective level this is what leads to racism and the persecution of “non-believers” (people whose beliefs are different from one’s own).

The racist and persecutors of the “non-believers” are both examples of the 'them-and-us' syndrome, where we unload our “dark” side on to some other group, which then becomes the scapegoat that carries the blame for everything that is wrong in our lives or our society. Commenting on Jesus's command to 'Love your enemy', Jung remarks: “But what if I should discover that that very enemy himself is within me, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved - what then?” The answer is that one must learn to integrate the “dark” side of one’s self, which means accepting it and allowing it to proper expression under the control of one’s conscious mind. It will then cease to be dark, terrifying and hostile and it will enhance the quality of one’s life, advance one’s personal development and increase one’s happiness.

The second temptation to be resisted is suppressing the shadow, which means ignoring it all together and letting it sink back into the unconscious mind (e.g. if Cinderella never realized her shadow, she would still be locked behind the closed doors which represents her unconscious desires to be free). Whatever pain or unease of one’s shadow may cause them, it consists of precisely those parts of one’s total self that one needs to utilize if they are to achieve full personal growth. To suppress the shadow is merely to go back to the beginning, and sooner or later one will be FORCED to come to terms with this “dark” side of one’s self.

Usually, the first encounter with the shadow leads only to a partial acceptance of it, a mere acknowledgement of its existence. It is best to be aware of what appears as the less desirable – the “dark” aspects of one's personality - because no further progress can be made unless one acknowledges their shadow self. Acknowledgement (awareness) is only the first step. 

(above information related to individuation process, phase I "Finding the Shadow Self" was gathered from here: shadow self)

II.              Encountering the “soul image” Anima/Animus – Masculine/Feminine Qualities Within the Psyche

The second stage of the individuation process means encountering what Jung calls the 'soul-image', which is one of the archetypal images. For a man this is the anima; for a woman, the animus. The anima is the feminine aspects of a male psyche: e.g. gentleness, tenderness, patience, receptiveness, closeness to nature, readiness to forgive, and so on. The animus is the male side of a female psyche: assertiveness, the will to control and take charge, fighting spirit, and so on.

One’s soul-image (anima/animus) will lead their conscious ego safely into the unconscious and safely out again. A mythological example could be this: When Theseus needed to enter the labyrinth in Crete in order to slay the monstrous Minotaur, the fair Ariadne, with her thread, enabled him to go in and find his way out again. According to Jung’s theory of archetypes (in psychological terms), the labyrinth is a symbol of the unconscious, the monster is the frightening and threatening neglected aspect of unconscious and that has “gone wild”; the slaying of the monster means “taming” that wild, unruly force and bringing it under conscious control. The slaying can be accomplished, however, only by love (Ariadne - the feminine) - only by accepting the neglected thing, and welcoming it into our unconscious.

(Minotaur)

The soul-image, then, is a mediator - a go-between or middle-man (or middle-woman) - who establishes communication between the conscious ego and the unconscious and reconciles the two. An example of this could be in religion. In the realm of religion there is the psychopomp, the one who guides human souls safely into the underworld; or - in some cultures - the shaman, who not only leads the souls of the dead to the spirit-world and makes the necessary introductions to spirits who will take proper care of the newcomers and get them ready for rebirth, but also carries the souls of sick people to the spirit-world for healing. The underworld or spirit-world is the unconscious. The unconscious has healing powers and by descending into it the conscious self can attain new life.

Dream significance and archetypes of animus/anima

In dreams Jung said that the animus is more likely to be personified by multiple male figures, while the anima is frequently a single female. One might look on the concept of anima-animus as a kind of yin/yang solution to the duality of human sexuality. Anima/animus are products of the long human experience of man with woman and woman with man: as man has opened to his feminine nature, so has woman as a corresponding male side. Anima/animus also act as collective images which motivate each sex to respond to and understand members of the other gender.

With the exception of the mother figure, the dream symbols that represent the soul-image are always of the opposite sex to the dreamer. Thus, a man's anima may be represented in his dreams by his sister; a woman's animus by her brother. Some other symbols of the animus are an eagle, a bull, a lion, and a phallus (erect penis) or other phallic figure such as a tower or spear. The eagle is associated with high altitudes and in mythology the sky is usually (ancient Egyptian mythology is the exception) regarded as a male and symbolizes pure reason or spirituality. The earth is seen as female (Mother Earth) and symbolizes sensuous existence - that is, existence confined within the limits of the senses - plus intuition.

Some symbols of the anima are the cow, a cat, a tiger or large feline, a cave and a ship. All of those are more or less female figures. Ships are associated with the sea, which is a common symbol for the feminine, and are womb-like insofar as they are hollow. Caves are hollow and womb-like. Sometimes they are filled with water, which - as we have seen - is a symbol of the feminine, and are the womb of the Mother Earth or vaginal entrances to her womb.

One common representation of the anima is the figure of the damsel in distress, frequently appearing in so called 'hero' myth. Here a recurring theme is that of the hero rescuing a beautiful young woman and some cases marrying her (e.g. the Greek hero Perseus saves the Ethiopian princess Andromeda from a sea-monster and later marries her). In a folktale variant of the same theme, the hero wakes a maiden from the sleep of death with a kiss (Sleeping Beauty).

(Sleeping beauty)

In logical terms, the damsel in distress is the man's anima, which, because of neglect or repression, is - metaphorically speaking - either 'dead' or in danger of 'dying'. The rescue or kiss of life means that the man has now lifted his femininity out of its dark imprisonment and welcomed it and submitted to it as an indispensable factor in his life and happiness.

After the prince has succeeded in waking Sleeping Beauty, all the other people in the palace - who have also been asleep for a hundred years - wake from their sleep. This may be seen as a symbol of how the 'waking ' of a man's anima is the first step towards the 'waking' of all the 'sleeping' (repressed, neglected) aspects of his psyche

Another anima figure is the seductive nymph. Ondine (Undine in alchemy) is one such nymph. Ondine has no soul, and can gain one only if she can get a man to embrace her. There are many stories of mermaids who lure sailors to their underwater beds. Here we have a two fold message: Man, give life to your anima; but take care you do not drown in your unconscious depths. Find the treasure that is there, then surface again. In other words, maintain conscious control.

(nymph)

A folktale animus figure is the dwarf. Dwarfs and other 'little people' work underground in mines, out of which they bring forth gold and other precious substances. This illustrates the way the animus, if cared for and nurtured by a woman (as Snow White looked after the Seven Dwarfs), will bring up from her unconscious many valuable things that will serve her well in her daily life and her quest for self-realization.

(found in Google images)

Incidentally, marriage or sexual intercourse (or a kiss or embrace) symbolizes the union and intermingling of conscious ego and unconscious soul-image. It may also symbolize that complete union of the conscious and the unconscious which is the final stage of individuation. (A third possibility is that, where the anima or animus has not yet been distinguished -'rescued' - from the shadow, soul-image and shadow may be symbolized by bride and bridegroom.

Soul-image characteristics

One’s soul-image has characteristics which are the opposite of those possessed by their persona (the self-image one has constructed for the specific purpose of relating to the external world and for 'making their mark' in that world). For instance, if one’s persona is an intellectual one, their soul-image will be characterized by sentiment and emotion; and if one is an intuitive type, their soul-image will be earthly and sensual. This means that if, instead of acknowledging and becoming acquainted with their own soul-image, one will project it on to members of the opposite sex, and then may be led into disastrous relationships. For example, an emotional man may choose a blue-stocking for his partner; or a sensitive woman may be irresistibly attracted by bearded intellectuals. If, however, one accepts and integrates their soul-image, it will make up deficiencies of their persona and will help one become a fuller and more balanced person. 

(information on Individuation Process, Phase II, gathered here: Anima/animus 

III.            Mana Personalities

Stage three is where man meets the Wise Old Man and a woman meets the Great Mother. These archetypal images are symbols of power and wisdom. Jung calls them 'mana personalities', because in primitive communities anyone with extraordinary power or wisdom was said to be filled with 'mana' (a Melanesian word meaning 'holiness' or 'the divine').

Mana – is the impersonal supernatural force which certain primitive cultures attribute good fortune, magical powers, etc. Best applied here as intuitive powers or symbols of power and wisdom that reside in the depths of our psyche. Mana can attract or repel, wreak destruction or heal, confronting the EGO with a “supraordinate force”. To be 'possessed' by these 'mana' personalities is dangerous and can result in megalomania. When properly integrated the conscious and unconscious complement each other and unfolding of the wise self arises harmoniously.

Jung warns us to be 'possessed' by these 'mana' personalities is dangerous (possession meaning letting these powers subdue the conscious mind and ignore all reason). For example, a woman who allows her conscious mind to be invaded and subdued by the Great Mother will begin to believe herself able and destined to protect and nurture the whole world. Similarly, a man who allows himself to be taken over by the Wise Old Man (same as the Great Mother but in masculine form) is likely to become convinced that he is some sort of superman or great guru, filled with heroic power or with superior insight into the meaning of things.

These 'mana' personalities are symbols of the power and wisdom that lie deep within parts of our own psyche. Like the shadow and our anima/animus, other aspects of one’s unconscious, the Wise Old Man and Great Mother may be projected. For example, instead of making contact with this inner store of power and wisdom, one may choose to disown it and see it as the property of someone else, some national leader or some superman figure from modern mythology.

The right thing to do with the 'mana' personality, however, is to neither project it nor keep it suppressed, but to integrate it into consciousness. This means one enriching their life with a wisdom that is not accessible to intellect but comes from the unconscious. It also means that from now on, conscious and unconscious are no longer seen as opposites, but as two cooperating and complementary parts of one and the same psyche.

Jung speaks of stage three as the second liberation from the mother (the first liberation from mother being stage two, when anima or animus is integrated into conscious life). This second and fuller liberation means achieving a genuine sense of one's true individuality.

Common symbols of the Wise Old Man include the king, magician, prophet or guru and guide. Common symbols for the Great Mother include a goddess or other female figure associated with fertility (e.g. a nude female figure with large breasts, or many breasts, or broad buttocks, or prominent vagina), priestess and prophetess. The words 'prophet' and 'prophetess' are used here in the sense of someone through whom a god or goddess speaks.

(information for Individuation Process, phase III, found here: mana personalities )

IV.            The Self

In Jungian theory, the Self is an archetype that signifies the coherent whole, unified consciousness and unconscious of a person. The Self, according to Jung, is realized as the product of individuation, which in Jungian view is the process of integrating one's personality. For Jung, the self is symbolized by the circle (especially when divided in four quadrants), the square, or the mandala.

What distinguishes Jungian psychology is the idea that there are two centers of the personality. The ego is the center of consciousness, whereas the Self is the center of the total personality, which includes consciousness, the unconscious, and the ego. The Self is both the whole and the center, while the ego is a self-contained little circle off the center contained within the whole, the Self can be understood as the greater circle.

The Self draws its power exclusively from the collective unconscious; it is trans-personal rather than personal and is not conditioned by a person's individual experiences. The Self is both: the "guide" of the process of individuation, the regulating center of the personality, and the "goal" of the process of individuation, the symbol of perfect fulfillment of all potential (this is an unconscious goal, not the goal of the conscious ego).

Self Projection: Because the Self is so powerful, it contains both the concepts of Good and Evil. It is only projected onto transcendental figures, either images of God or the Devil, or religious leaders who are divined by their followers.

Possession by the Self: Because the Self is associated with the deepest levels of the collective unconscious, it is extremely powerful. When possessed by the Self, the ego loses control of the personality through positive or negative inflation (literally meaning "blown into"). Positive inflation results in megalomania as the ego identifies with the power of the Self and is carried away by the unconscious.

In myths, this can be symbolized as deification; Herakles, for example, loses his mortal body in the funeral pyre but his spirit is carried up to Olympus by Athena. Negative inflation results in annihilation of the ego, which is completely overpowered by the Self, resulting in a state of complete withdrawal or catatonia (in myths, this can be symbolized as being swallowed up by a monster, turned to stone, etc.).

Integration of the Self: Because of its unconscious, trans-personal nature, the Self can never be truly integrated by the ego. What the ego must learn to do is to surrender its need to always be in control by recognizing the value of the Self's guidance and deferring to its superior wisdom. In myths this is often symbolized by the ego-bearer's learning to trust the mystical figures who are directing him/her even when their advice seems dangerous and contradictory. On the other hand, the ego must always maintain a safe distance from the unconscious, recognizing the dangerous power that can never be defeated or controlled.

Symbolism in Dreams and Narratives: Because the Self is the most complex of the archetypes of individuation, its symbolism is the most rich and varied. All symbols of the Self include the characteristics of power and impersonality; symbols of the Self are never peer figures, nor are they strongly individualized, vividly personal, or strikingly sexual beings. The Self may be symbolized by:

• Persons: an aged seer or priestess, a wise old man or woman, a young child (i.e., the goal/end, or the beginning); the Cosmic Man, hermaphrodite, or Royal Couple; an inner voice, guardian spirit, demon, or genius

 (found in Google images)

• Animals: Phoenix (bird consumed in flames and reborn from its own ashes); Uroboros (snake biting its own tail); Totem

(uroboros)

• Things: items that serve as the guide or goal of a quest—the Holy Grail, the Elixir of Immortality, the Star of Bethlehem, the Philosopher's Stone

(philosopherstone) 

• Geometric Figures: especially counterbalanced and concentric geometric figures, such as the Hindu mandala, or the peace sign.

(information gathered on Individuation process, Phase IV, found here: The Self )

(Winter Solice Mandala by Kristy Gjesme)

Archetype - Formation of the Collective Unconscious

A lot has happened in my life the past two years: I now have a bachelors in Social Work, my nephew who I feel at times is my son (he’s 4 years old) has joined preschool, I’ve been in and two intimate relationships that have helped me grow as a person and realize what I truly want in life. Through the ending of those relations I have found an understanding and acceptance of solitude and a blessing it can be to be “single” and independent. I have truly grown into my own self, and I have developed an understanding, awareness, and acceptance of my inner “gifts”. I also have developed a clearer picture of what I want to do career wise, internally and showing in my external reality. I see the sun over the horizon, and clarity is forming. Serenity is entering my being. 

 (pic taken by me in August 2013)

It has taken a lot of time, dedication, and analyzing for me to prepare this post, which is why I haven’t posted since July of ’12. I had to be in the right frame of mind to be able to prepare a post on such a complex, broad, topic. I have finally decided to though, and after weeks of editing and rearranging, I have decided to finally publish the Archetype post, relating to the works of C.G. Jung.

Introduction

C.G. Jung’s concept of collective unconscious is based on his experiences with schizophrenic individuals while he worked in the Burgholzli psychiatric hospital. Initially, Jung followed the Freudian theory of unconscious as the psychic stratification system (Bottom layer unconscious (instinct/drive, home for the ID), middle layer pre-consciousness (ego), top layer consciousness (super-ego)) formed by repressed drives (i.e. wishes or intentions)). Jung later developed his own theory on the unconscious to include some new concepts, and the most important of them is the archetype. Archetypes form the structure of the collective unconscious – the home for psychic innate dispositions to experience and represent basic human behavior and situations.

An Archetype is an innate (i.e. existing from birth) tendency that molds and transforms the individual consciousness. Archetypes are defined more through a drive than through specific inherited contents (i.e. not formed from genetics alone). Archetypes are a matrix which influences the human behavior as well as his/her ideas and concepts on the ethical, moral, religious and cultural levels. Jung talks about the archetype (also called "primordial image") as of biologists' patterns of behavior (inborn behavior patterns). In short, “archetypes are natural tendencies which shape the human behavior."

In Jung’s words, archetype concept derives from the observation that myths and universal literature stories contain well defined themes. People often meet these themes in the fantasies, dreams, delirious ideas and illusions of individuals living in contemporary time. These themes impress, influence and fascinate the conscious mind (the ego). The fascination of the archetype (thought patterns that affect behavior) is what Jung calls numinous - that is, able to arise deep and intense emotions.

It can also be stated that Archetypes resemble the instincts in that that they cannot be recognized as such until they manifest in intention or action, i.e until a conscious thought and/or action takes place. The archetype is psychoid (psychic-like), meaning it shares both psychic (internal) and material (external) aspects and acts on both a psychic and material plane (i.e. internal and external plane) of the individual.

Simply put, the archetype is essentially an unconscious content (internal perception/understanding) that is altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes form (image, color, description) from the individual consciousness (perception of external reality) in which it happens to appear (based on our own interpretation and perception of our external reality).

(above information found at: http://www.carl-jung.net/archetypes.html) 

Historical Origin of the Term "Archetype"

The term archetype has been documented as early as PhiloJudaeus with its reference to the Imago Dei (God-image) in man. Archetype can also be noted by Irenaeus, who once said “The creator of the world did not fashion these images directly from himself but copied them from archetypes outside himself.” In the Corpus Hermeticum God is called Archetypal Light. The earliest known documentation of Archetype and its meaning was through Platonic teachings. According to the Platonic view, archetype is archaic (primordial) types of the collective unconscious contents, i.e. “universal images that have existed since the remotest times”.

 

In fact, the word “idea” traces back to the concept of Plato, and the eternal ideas are primordial images stored up as external, transcendent forms. E.g. the eye of the seer perceives them as images in dreams and revelatory visions. Another example is the concept of “energy”, which is an interpretation of physical events. In earlier times it was the “secret fire of the alchemists, or phlogiston, or the heat force in adherent in matter, like the “primal  warmth” of the Stoics or the Heraclitean (ever living fire), which borders on the primitive notion of an all pervading vital force, a power of growth and magic healing that is generally called mana.”

There is not a single important idea or view that does not possess historical antecedents. Ultimately they are all founded on primordial archetypal forms whose concreteness dates from a time when consciousness did not think but only perceived. “Thoughts” were objects of inner perception, not thought at all, but sensed as external phenomena, seen or heard, so-to-speak. Thought was revelation, not invented but forced upon us or bringing convicting through its immediacy and actuality. Thinking of this kind precedes the primitive ego consciousness, and the latter is more its object than its subject.

Patterns of Behavior and archetype

According to Jung, behaviors result from patterns of functioning, which are described as images. The term ‘image’ is intended to express not only the form of the activity taking place, but the typical situation in which the activity is released. These images are primordial images in so far as they are peculiar to whole species and if they ever ‘originated’ their origin must have coincided at least with the beginning of the species. They are the ‘human quality’ of the human being, the specifically human form his activities take. This specific form is hereditary and is already present in the germ-plasm.

Related to patterns of behavior is Individuation: statement of a fact observed and experienced in numerable times throughout one's life (part of "growth" and getting in touch with all functions as one grows up and experiences throughout their life). Functions and attitude types of individuation make up the psychology of the spirit. Growth at all levels includes spiritual development. Life of the spirit resides in the psyche (unconscious) and evolves through all levels of existence (thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition), evolves in certain principles and forms called archetypes. The individuation process lies at the core of all spiritual experience because it's part of a creative transformation of inner self, and reflects the 'archetypal' experience of an "inner birth" (awakening). The impact of symbol (alchemy) become the experience of meaning, and the archetypal image become "psychic truth" and reality. This is where the connection between psychology and religion lies.

[information found in Intro of The Basic Writings of C.G. Jung]

Archetype and Instincts

Instinct and the archaic mode meet in the illogical conception of the "pattern of behavior". Every instinct bears in itself the pattern of its situation. Instinct always fulfills an image that has fixed qualities. E.g. instincts of the leave cutter fulfill the image of: ant, tree, leaf, cutting transport, and the little fungi garden. All instincts are inborn in every species that affect the "pattern of behavior".

Archetypes act as instincts in dreams - regulating, modifying, and motivating content of dreams. Archetypes are "spiritual" or "magical" and come in the form of spirits or ghosts in dreams, also as fantasies that have some sort of effect on the dreamer.

The underlining of all psychic energy is archetypical and instinct. Psychic processes behave like a scale - at one minute it finds in instinct and falls under its influences and at another it slides to the other end where spirit predominates and assimilates the instinctual processes, which is the opposite of it. Spiritual is opposite of instinct. Spiritual and instinct make up the psyche.

First, instinctual includes natural impulses. Second, archetype, dominates what emerge into consciousness and universal ideas. “Archetype: is an unconscious content that is altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes it's color from the individual consciousness in which it happens to appear.”

Some Examples of Archetypes

There are an innumerable amount of archetypes that affect patterns of behavior in individuals worldwide, and none should be memorized by heart, unless it pertains to the individual’s current situation. A few universal archetypes are the shadow, Anima (the archetype of female in man), Animus (the archetype of male in woman), and Wise old Man (Archetypal image that embodies wisdom and, in the individuation process, embodies the collective unconscious (A guide to “wholeness”, a perceiver of light)), the Great Mother is the female archetype of the Wise Old man.

Shadow, Anima/Animus, Mana Personality: wise old man, the great mother, and the Self
When there is a necessary need for reaction from the collective unconscious, it expresses itself in archetypal formed ideas. For example, the meeting with one self in dreams by first meeting with one’s own shadows self.

In Jung’s words, the three archetypes – the shadow, the anima, and the wise old man – can be directly experienced in personified form. In course of immediate experience the process of the archetypes appear as active personalities in dreams and fantasies. These archetypes are a class of archetypes that can be called the archetypes of transformation (part of the individuation process). They are not personalities, but are typical situations, plays, ways and means, that symbolize the kind of transformation in question. Like the personalities, these archetypes are true and genuine symbols that cannot be exhaustively interpreted, either as signs or as allegories. They are genuine symbols precisely because they are ambiguous, full of half glimpsed meanings. The ground principles of the unconscious are indescribable because of their wealth of reference, although in themselves recognizable. The one thing consistent with their nature is their manifold meaning, their almost limitless wealth of reference.

Some extra archetypes, connected with “The great mother”

Mother archetype: the goddess, mother of god, the virgin, and Sophia. Mythology offers many variations of the mother archetype, as for instance the mother who reappears as the maiden in the myth of Demeter and Kore, or the mother who is also beloved as in the Cybele-Attis myth. The archetype is often associated with things and places standing for fertility and fruitfulness: the cornucopia, a plowed field, a garden. It can be attached to a rock, a cave, a tree, a spring, a deep well, or to various vessels such as the baptismal font, or the vessel shaped flowers like the rose or the lotus. Because of the protection it implies, the magic circle or mandala can be a form of mother archetype. Hollow objects such as ovens and cooking vessels are associated with the mother archetype, and of course the uterus, yoni, and anything of a like shape. Added to this list there are many animals, such as the cow, hare, and helpful animals in general.

Child motif: is a small remnant of memory from one’s own childhood. The child motif is a picture of certain forgotten things in one’s childhood. The individual is getting closer to the truth. The child motif represents the preconscious, childhood aspect of the collective psyche. The child motif represents not only something that existed in the distant past, but also something that exists now; that is to say it is not just a vestige but a system functioning in the present whose purpose is to compensator correct in a meaningful manner the inevitable one sidedness and extravagances of the conscious mind. The child is also potential future. The occurrence of the child motif in psychology of the individual signifies an anticipation of future developments, even though at first sight it may seem like a retrospective configuration. “The child paves the way for a future change of personality”. It is a symbol that which unites the opposites; a mediator, bringer of healing, one who makes whole.

The Self is the archetype of the Center of the psychic person, his/her totality or wholeness. The Center is made of the unity of conscious and unconscious reached through the individuation process.

The shadow self, wise old man and great mother, and Self will be spoken about more in-depth in my following post, on the Individuation process.

[Information found in his book: C.G. Jung, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious]

Some examples of Archetypes in short:

• The father: Authority figure; stern; powerful.
• The mother: Nurturing; comforting.
• The child: Longing for innocence; rebirth; salvation.
• The wise old man: Guidance; knowledge; wisdom.
• The hero: Champion; defender; rescuer.
• The maiden: Innocence; desire; purity.
• The trickster: Deceiver; liar; trouble-maker.

These are the characteristics of some archetypes that may be visible in dreams, fantasies, and other situations in life based off our interpretation and how we interact in the world around us.

Reference list

(NOTE: the bold texts in paragraphs have hyperlinks that have not been cited below)

1. (2014), “Concept of Archetypes at Carl Jung”, Copyright Carl Jung Resources, retrieved http://www.carl-jung.net/archetypes.html

2. de Laszlo, Violet (1993), The basic writings of C.G. Jung, The Modern Library trademark of Random House, Inc, New York, NY, Copyright 1953, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1987 by Bollingen Foundation, Copyright 1943 by The Analytical Psychology Club of New York City, Copyright 1938 by Yale University Press.

 

3. Jung, C.G (1959),  The archetypes and the collective unconscious, copyright by Bollingen Foundation, New York, N,Y, New Material Copyright (1969) by Princeton University Press, Library of Congress Catalog Card #: 75-156, ISBN 0-691-09761-5, ISBN 0-691-01833-2 PBK

  

4. Cherry, Kendra (2014), “Jung’s Archetypes”, copyright about.com, Retrieved http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/tp/archetypes.htm

I have Returned

I have returned to preparing posts for my blogs. Currently, my blogs are "under construction", so-to-speak, because I am figuring out what exactly I want to do with this blog, Finding Your Self, and Tales and insights

So, for this blog, Finding Your Self, I will be posting a lot related to Psychology, Philosophy, and mysticism, all related to the conscious and unconscious mind. I have had a strong interest in the works of C. G. Jung and his concept of the Archetype and Analytical Psychology, as well as Carlos Castenda's Don Juan series.

I am sort of just "going with the flow" of things, but I feel this blog will be more of a "information" type blog, related to "Self exploration" through the unconscious. Please stay tuned and lets see where this blog will go! I'm still in my beginnings, despite this blog being a couple years old now... inspiration doesn't always happen over night!

Stay well and prosper, spiritually and beyond. :)

Transference - The Make Up of Our Lives

The following information will be from The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker.

Transference is the “complete control over external circumstances… in all its variety and multiplicity of manifestation.” This is William V. Silverberg’s definition of it, found in The Denial of Death. I agree to this definition. I have had an urge to make a post that gives great detail and a variety of definitions to this term, but it all comes down to the same thing. We project our own emotions and thoughts onto others so that we can control the circumstance that we are in – we create our own illusion of reality. This is why I call Transference the make up of our lives – it is the make up of our external “illusionary” life that we present to the world daily. This means we resist reality daily – a true reality that is – that we do not want to see. So we create what we want by following leaders, or being the leader ourselves.

This brings on the question of ignorance. “We ask each other, why are most men blind and stupid?” Freud’s response to this question is as follows: “Because they demand illusions… they constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real.” Becker’s view on why we create our illusion of reality is because we are in the denial of our true nature – which is animal like. The world tells us that we aren’t as strong as we appear to be, and that there is death and decay. Most men fear these two objects because they know one day they will have to become them. First: death, Second: decay. This illusion of our reality helps us to think of our bodies as immortal, that we are important here on earth and have a purpose beyond other animals.

This illusion may be presented by our parents, but perfected once we interact with society beyond our families. This is where the creation of “groups” comes about, and every group has a leader: “The masses look to the leaders to give them just the untruth that they need; the leader continues the illusions that triumph over the castration complex and magnifies them into a truly heroic victory. Furthermore, he makes possible a new experience, the expression of forbidden impulses, secret wishes, and fantasies. In group behavior anything goes because the leader Okays it. It is like being an omnipotent infant again, encouraged by the parent to indulge oneself plentifully, or like being in psychoanalytic therapy where the analyst doesn’t censure you for anything you feel or think. In the group each man seems an omnipotent hero who can give full vent to his appetites under the approving eye of the father.” This shows the vulnerability of the human character.

We are vulnerable, the majority of us, because we “pull the world around our shoulders” as we try to grasp for protection and support, and at the same time trying to understand the little power we know we have. So, we project our problems onto a leader, someone who can take control and “resolve these matters” in a way that we, so we tell ourselves, could not. At the same time we do this the leader projects his own vulnerability: the inability to stand alone, his own fear of isolation. The same fear we all have. Becker states, “We must say that if there were not natural leaders possessing the magic of charisma, men would have to invent them, just as leaders must create followers if there are none available.” I will post more on this in a later post.

Inside we feel, at some point, a ping of emptiness and loneliness. This “alienation” is reflected through our projections: “In order to overcome his sense of inner emptiness and impotence, [man]… chooses an object onto whom he projects all his own human qualities: his love, intelligence, courage, etc. by submitting to this object, he feels in touch with his own qualities; he feels strong, wise, courageous, and secure. To lose the object means the danger of losing himself,” this is Erich Fromm’s point of view of transference. The Adlerian view: “[transference]… is basically a maneuver of tactic by which the patient seeks to perpetuate his familiar mode of existence that depends on a continuing attempt to divest himself of power and place it in the hands of the “Other.”” These three similar yet different points of view come down to the same thing: transference is “the basic problems of an organismic life, problems of power and control”. That is Becker’s way of saying the controlling (and opposing) the reality we see for our own fulfillment and expansion.

Transference of Hate, Illness, and fetishism

Transference helps us fix ourselves into the world and create targets for our emotions, even if they are negative and destructive. Hate and submission are ways we can establish our own “organismic footing”. Hate is a strong negative emotion that enlivens us more, which is why it is stronger in the weaker ego states (what some call the “weak minded” individual). Hate is a strong negative emotion – loves counter part. Once one accepts this emotion inside them, it is hard to get rid of because it creates archetypes (I’ll mention in another post) that have their own personalities that can easily control an individual if one lets them. I’ll expand on this at another time. Hate makes the object it is projected toward larger than it is; hate gives this object power. We need our own object to control, even if it is our own bodies.

The pains we feel, and the illnesses that are real or imaginary, gives us something to relate to, they keep us from slipping out of the world, from “bogging down in the desperation of complete loneliness and emptiness. In a word, illness is an object,” states Becker. “We transfer illness to our own body as if it were a friend on whom we can lean for strength or an enemy who threatens us with danger.” This makes us feel more real, gives us a purpose for being here on Earth in a body that doesn’t truly belong to us, but just a machine that we have to figure out how it works with the soul – it gives “a little purchase on our fate.”

Transference is a form of fetishism. We take our helplessness, guilt, and our conflicts and we “fix them to a spot in the environment.” By doing this we can create anything by projecting our cares onto the world. It’s our own cares that we focus on, that we form and mold into something of our created external reality. Carl Jung puts it this way, “…unless we prefer to be made fools of by our illusions, we shall, by carefully analyzing every fascination, extract from it a portion of our own personality, like a quintessence, and slowly come to recognize that we meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.” This statement is true because by projecting our cares to the world, we are projecting parts of ourselves, which we meet in the people we interact with daily – we attract what we project.

Art of Control

The transference object, according to Otto Rank, represents “the great biological forces of nature, to which the ego binds itself emotionally and which then form the essence of the human and his fate.” The child, according to this definition, then can control his fate. Power means power over life and death, and as a child we learn this “art of control”. This art of control is to conform in ways that one learns from childhood; we learn how to control the emotions we project. Some ways we do this are as such: “conciliate it if it becomes terrible; use it serenely for automatic daily activities. For this reason Andras Angyal could well say that transference is not an “emotional mistake” but the experience of the other as one’s whole world – just as the home actually is, for the child, his whole world.”

The above paragraph points out the many problems that the transference object poses. One, the child partly controls his fate in the larger picture, but that then becomes his new fate. This is done by the projection of our emotions. The child binds himself to one person to control his terror, “mediate wonder, and defeat the thought of death by the person’s strength.” This person (the parent or caregiver) then becomes his safety. On the other hand, he experiences the “Transference Terror”, the terror of losing the object, of not being able to live without it. He then becomes torn because “the terror of his own finitude and impotence still haunts him, but now in the precise form of the transference object.”

Since the transference object represents all of life, it also represents one’s fate. Since it controls our reality, it also hinders our freedom, which is why it becomes “the focus of the problem of one’s freedom.” It does this both in the positive and negative transference. In the negative transference, “the object becomes the focalization of terror.” It is also the source of much of our bitter memories of childhood and “our accusations of our parents.” This is why we blame them for our unhappiness; they were the ones who first introduced the art of control to us by conforming us to society and the reality they wanted us to be in. This is why we then “attempt to control our fate in an automatic way.”

The Neurotic and Schizophrenic Transference

Transference shows that we are all neurotic. Being neurotic is a distortion of reality by the “artificial fixation of it”. The more fear one has, and less power over the ego, the stronger the transference. This is how one becomes schizophrenic. In the schizophrenic transference the images of the unconscious come to the conscious mind, this happens to us all, but in the so-called schizophrenic these images take total control of the person’s life; the protective veil we place between the conscious and unconscious out of protection of our so-called sanity is lifted in the schizophrenic, and they have no way of controlling what they perceive. Even in “normal transference” we remain uncontrollably “glued to an object” such as: “all the power to cure the diseases of life, the ills of the world.” We all have our own illusions we follow, our own fantasy world we create for our own, just like the so-called neurotics and schizophrenics.

Transference of Immortality

It seems the more others have, the more it rubs off on us. Either we want what they have, and get it, or we just dream of it. We place certain people on pedestals, like celebrities, and aspire to be like them. This is part of us trying to be immortal by taking all we can from the material external world so that we can form and mold it the way we wish to. Rank says that “man is always hungry for his own immortalization.” This is seen in groups as well, which is why there is the “constant hung for heroes: Every group, however small or great, has, as such, an “individual” impulse for externalization, which manifests itself in the creation of and care for national, religious, and artistic heroes… the individual paves the way for this collective eternity impulse…”

Conclusion

The only way most of us have to overcome “the sense of helpless limitation inherent” in our real situation is to torture ourselves with dissatisfaction and constant self-criticism. “Dictators, revivalists, and sadists know that people like to be lashed with accusations of their own basic unworthiness because it reflects how they truly feel about themselves. The sadist doesn’t create a masochist; he finds him ready-made.” There is one way, though, to overcome “unworthiness” and that is to “idealize the self.” This is where the “complementary dialogue” with our selves comes about. According to Becker, we criticize ourselves because we “fall short of the heroic ideals [we] need to meet in order to be a really imposing creation.” This means, to me, that we fall short of the importance we create for ourselves and the obligations we think we should fulfill in our created reality.

We want the impossible: we want to lose our isolation and keep it at the same time; we cant stand “the sense of separateness” and yet we can’t allow the “complete suffocation of our vitality”; we want to expand by merging with “the powerful beyond” that transcends us, and yet we want, while merging with it, to remain “individual and aloof”, working out our own private and “small-scale self-expansion.” This is impossible to do, because we can’t merge in “the power of another thing” and develop our own personal power at the same time. It is one, or the other. One way we can get around this problem is this: “control the kind of beyond, the one in which you find it most natural to practice self-criticism and self-idealization. In other words, you try to keep your beyond safe.” This is the “fundamental use of transference” that Becker calls “transferences heroics” which is the practice of a “safe heroism.” In this we see the problem of transference and heroism. There is no one way of control. In order to “reach the great beyond” inside our selves, we have to let go of our control of this physical world, and that means getting rid of attachments.

 

Here is a video on attachments and why we should get rid of them, posted by TheSpiritScience on Youtube: 

The above was information from Ernest Becker’s book The Denial of Death. Below will be information I collected from Carl Jung’s autobiography, Dreams, Reflections, Memories.

Jung’s View of Transference

“In The Psychology of the Transference, Carl Jung states that within the transference ,a dyad both participants typically experience a variety of opposites, that in love and in psychological growth, the key to success is the ability to endure the tension of the opposites without abandoning the process, and that this tension allows one to grow and to transform.^”

The above quote was taken from Wikipedia, and it is only just a slim explanation of Jung’s view of the transference. It is a good explanation, sure, but there’s more to transference than just that.

The Make up of Transference.

Jung spoke in great description of the make up of the psyche, which is the make up of transference. He is the one who defined analytical psychology, which is the study of the unconscious mind and how the forces that make up it interacts with us on a daily bases; these very forces are what create our personalities.

Loss of Connection with the Past

Our ancestors helped build the functioning process of the unconscious mind; what they knew resides in us still, we just have to know how to unlock it again. They left it open to us, and some of our ancestors are around us still, guiding us to uncover the knowledge that only appears to be hidden, but really is not.

There is no “newness” in our psyche; it is just “an endlessly varied recombination of age-old components.” This gives it a “historical character and finds no proper place in what is new, in things that have just come into being.” Our bodies and souls are “composed of individual elements which were all already present in the ranks of our ancestors.” Meaning, has always been present. Our so-called “modern psyches” is still composed of components from “the Middle Ages, classical antiquity, and primitively.” Our “Modern psyches” like to pretend we are done with these eras and that they are no longer part of us, but this is wrong. Yet, on the outside, it appears that “we have plunged down a cataract of progress which sweeps us on into the future.” This only brings us “ever wilder violence the farther it takes us from our roots.” This “loss of connection with the past, our up rootedness” has caused more violence and destruction than progress. It has “given rise to the “discontents” of civilization.” We live more in the future than in the present, we aren’t looking at what is happening before our eyes, but what is happening beyond. We are looking at the “promises of a golden age” than in the present, and haven’t given “our whole evolutionary background” a chance to catch up. Many of us don’t realize that “everything better is purchased at the price of something worse.” For example, “the hope of greater freedom is canceled out by increased enslavement to the state, not to speak of the terrible perils to which the most brilliant discoveries of science expose us.” The less we understand the history of our ancestors, what our “fathers and forefathers sought” the less we understand ourselves, because they are a part of our unconscious minds. By not understanding our past histories, our ancestors past histories as well, the more we rob ourselves of our roots and our “guiding instincts”. By doing this we become “a particle in the mass, ruled only by what Nietzsche called “the spirit of gravity”,” meaning we become the object society forms us to become, ruled only by what others keep us rooted to the ground; rooted to the spot with no room to grow.

“If our impressions are too distinct, we are held to the hour and minute of the present and have no way of knowing how our ancestral psyches listen to and understand the present – in other words, how our unconscious is responding to it. Thus we remain ignorant of whether our ancestral components find an elementary gratification in our lives, or whether they are repelled. Inner peace and contentment depend in large measure upon whether or not the historical family which is inherent in the individual can be harmonized with the ephemeral conditions of the present.”

We have to find the balance between the present, and the past that still is inside us. We can not move forward without knowing what went on in the past, and we have to focus on what is happening in the present before we can focus on the coming future. Today is yesterday’s future, we can not look passed today for a future we are to create. We create the future in the present.

Characteristic of Childhood

“The emotional nature of these unreflective people (Arabs/Eastern world) who are so much closer to life than we are exerts a strong suggestive influence upon those historical layers in ourselves which we have just overcome and left behind, or which we think we have overcome. It is like the paradise of childhood from which we imagine we have emerged, but which at the slightest provocation imposes fresh defeats upon us. Indeed, our cult of progress is in danger of imposing on us even more childish dreams of the future, the harder it presses us to escape from the past.”

A “characteristic of childhood” is that it “sketches a more complete picture of the self, of the whole man in his pure individuality” than does adulthood. It is this way in childhood because of “naïveté and unconsciousness.” On one hand it is good to be naïve because then we know to look at the images of the unconsciousness as real, not imaginary. On the other hand it’s not good to be too naïve because then the unconscious images (archetypes) will take total control and we then no longer have control of our life or reality. Then again, there is bliss into this too, because we need the heart of a child to be able to accept the archetypes of the unconscious so that we can interact with them in our lives, but without letting them have complete control. Because of this characteristic of childhood – “naïveté and unconsciousness” – the sight of a child “or a primitive will arouse certain longings in adult, civilized persons – longings which relate to the unfulfilled desires and needs of those parts of the personality which have been blotted out of the total picture in favor of the adapted persona.” We need to let these personalities come to life, and accept that they are there, so that they won’t come out at random in an uncontrolled matter that may cause catastrophe.

The Question of Immortality

“In the majority of cases the question of immortality is so urgent, so immediate, and also so ineradicable that we must make an effort to form some sort of view about it. But how? My hypothesis is that we can do so with the aid of things sent to us from the unconscious – in dreams, for example.”

In Jung’s view we can find answers to everyday life through our dreams, and also through our dreams can we find bits and pieces that help us understand our true self our “higher Self”. We usually dismiss these hints from our dreams because “we are convinced that the question is not susceptible to answer.” In response to this Jung suggests the following considerations:

1. If there is something we cannot know, we must abandon it as an intellectual problem. An example of this is: “I do not know for what reason the universe has come into being, and shall never know. Therefore I must drop this question as a scientific or intellectual problem.”
2. If an idea about it (i.e. universe) is offered to me – in dreams or in mythic traditions – I ought to take note of it. “I even ought to build up a conception on the basis of such hints, even though it will forever remain a hypothesis which I know cannot be proved

Our unconscious presents what we are to learn, what we chose to learn for our selves before we entered our mother’s womb and was birthed to this earth. The unconscious interacts with us through our dreams because that is when our conscious mind is shut off; we have to be awake for our conscious mind to work. The bits and pieces that our unconscious presents to us in our dreams, if written down or described in some way, can add up to a hypothesis that will help answer those “mysteries” of the world that we have never completely understood.

Neurotic Myth

Many of the “so-called neurotics of our day” in other ages would not have been neurotic “that is, divided against themselves.” If they had lived in a time in which man was still “linked by myth with the world of the ancestors, and thus with nature truly experienced and not merely seen from outside,” they wouldn’t have this division with themselves that we have today. This means, those who experience the world through their interior world versus “merely exterior world, to the world as seen by science, nor rest satisfied with an intellectual juggling with words, which has nothing whatsoever to do with wisdom.” We call such people who live inside themselves, and projecting what’s inside them unchanged, neurotic. To me, they are the only ones who truly see the world as it, not in the transference version most of us see it.

Wherever the psyche is moved by a “divine” experience, there is a danger that one may be torn between what they find true and the belief system that was created for them by society, the object of transference. When this torn happens, when one is in the middle of believing the truth of reality or the illusion of it, they are in an “in-between-state”. The Orient’s remedy for this is “Nirdvandva [nirvana] (freedom of the opposites)”. The mind becomes then a pendulum, which goes between sense and nonsense. This <a numinosum (or divine experience as I call it) “lures men to extremes” which can be very dangerous, because only a “partial truth” tends to be believed as the truth, and that “partial truth” becomes set in stone when it should not be. This can cause a “fatal error, not only in the individual, but also in the society the individual may present this “partial truth”.

“Yesterday may be tomorrow’s revelation. This is particularly so in psychological matters, of which, if truth were told, we still know very little. We are still a long way from understanding what signifies that nothing has any existence unless some small – and oh, so transitory – consciousness has become aware of it.”

Conclusion – How to Help the Undiscovered Self

According to Jung, for psychotherapists to truly help their patients, they must not “shut [their] eyes to the heights and depths of human suffering. The rapport consists, after all, in a constant comparison and mutual comprehension, in the dialectical confrontation of two opposing psychic realities.” If, for what ever reason, these “mutual impressions” don’t have an effect on each other, the psychotherapeutic process remains ineffective, and no change is produced. “Unless both doctor and patient become a problem to each other, no solution is found.”

The doctor has to have a different view as the patient, in order to fully help guide the patient. This holds true to anyone who is trying to help any other human being with the problem of their self – like say, dealing with an emotion or a traumatic event – you have to have a different view than the other person. We all have our different views on reality, and one can not have the same view as the other when one is helping with the Self. In order to truly help someone, one must be ok with going into their unconscious minds and facing the images and listening to the words that come to them. Only then can they understand the other person enough to help them through the problem of the self.

This video was posted by obiwan1947 on Youtube. It is a piece of 2 interviews from Carl Jung on Transference and the Archetype. There are subtitles so that you can have a better idea of what he is saying. I suggest watching it somewhere quiet so you can better understand the words.

I put a variety of examples and explanations of this broad term into this post to help one understand, somewhat, why we view the reality the way we do and what may cause it. Knowing the images that control our world, that we project from our unconscious, is a step closer to knowing our selves – all sides – including the shadow self - that demands to be noticed.

Click the words underlined in bold if you want to learn more about them.