Carl Jung

You may have heard of certain psychological concepts like the collective unconscious and archetypes. If not, you've most certainly heard terms like introversion and extroversion. Did you know that all of these terms and concepts come from one famous thinker? They are all part of Carl Jung's contributions to psychology.

Fig. 1 - Portrait of Carl Jung.

Carl Jung's Theory

Carl Gustav Jung was born in Switzerland in 1875. His childhood was shaped by his rich imagination, vivid dreams, and philosophical interest in god and spirituality. Jung studied psychiatry and medicine at the University of Basel and went on to work at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital in Zürich.

Jung was a student of Sigmund Freud but soon parted from the Freudian tradition, rejecting certain elements of his teaching and expanding upon others.

However, Jung and his contemporaries contrasted with Freud in a couple of important ways.

1. Jung believed that the conscious mind played a bigger role in processing experiences, whereas Freud placed a much stronger emphasis on the unconscious mind in this role.

2. Jung did not believe that aggression or sexual impulses played as important a part in human motivation as Freud did. Jung believed that higher personal aspirations and philosophical concepts fueled our motivations to a large degree.

Archetypes by Carl Jung

Jung gave birth to the concept of the collective unconscious.

The collective unconscious, according to Jung, explains why people, regardless of cultural origin, tend to interpret certain moral, religious, or ethical values in the same way. For example, certain symbols or stories can be found across many cultures. The names and places may be different, but the tales are the same.

Jung called these shared themes and stories archetypes. Archetypes are expressed through art, stories, dreams, or religion. Many archetypes exist in our world and continue to be created as our world evolves. However, Jung emphasized four basic archetypes: the persona, the shadow, the anima/animus, and the self.

The Persona

This archetype gets its name from the Latin word persona, meaning mask. The persona archetype is our social mask, the role that we play in the variety of social situations we experience in life. We have to behave a certain way in certain social situations in order to be functioning members of society. Our social masks allow us to navigate the social sphere successfully, but it also hides our true nature. In this way, the persona has a bit of a double meaning. The mask not only represents the various roles we play but a way of hiding ourselves.

The Shadow

The shadow archetype is sometimes thought of as the dark part of the psyche or unconsciousness. It contains our repressed desires, fears, aggression, and weaknesses. However, the shadow side can also contain certain good qualities that we may have repressed or exiled out of fear or anxiety. We may have been shamed for our passions or creative ambitions. According to Jung, our goal is to reckon with our shadow side. To bring it to light and integrate it into our lives in a healthy way. Considering the nature of the shadow side, this is no easy task, though it is necessary for self-realization.

The Anima/Animus

The anima/animus archetype draws on the traditional notion of the male and female gender. The anima is a personification of traditional female qualities and tendencies, like sensitivity, empathy, creativity, and the capacity for loving relationships. The animus is a personification of traditional male qualities and tendencies, like strength, courage, vitality, and achievement.

According to Jung, inside every man, there is an element of a woman or the feminine, the anima. Likewise, inside every woman, there is an element of man or the masculine, the animus. If these opposing gender identities are integrated successfully and not repressed, we have the best chance of knowing our true selves and experiencing self-realization.

The Self

For Jung, the archetype of self-represented wholeness. Indeed, he often likened it to a circle or mandala. If we are able to successfully integrate our persona, our anima/animus, and our shadow side, we will have access to our totality or self. We reach ourselves through a process called individuation.

Fig. 2 - Writings by Carl Jung.

Carl Jung: Books

Carl Jung wrote prolifically throughout his career. He has authored 14 books, and his writing has been published in countless volumes of collected works. His works have been used in academic settings and have found great acceptance in popular culture as well.

Carl Jung on Personality

Jung is credited for introducing the terms introvert and extrovert into the field of psychology. According to Jung, an extrovert is someone who prefers external stimuli and engages with the outside world. Conversely, an introvert is someone who focuses their energy inwardly with reflective and solitary activities.

Jung's four main personality types are thinking/feeling, sensing/intuiting, and judging/perceiving. Our unique combination of functions and personality types creates our individual personality profiles.

Analytical Psychology Carl Jung

Analytical psychology was a new movement within the field of psychology, started by Jung after he parted ways with Sigmund Freud. It is the name given to Jung's theory of mind, and it is also the name of Jung's particular approach to psychotherapy.

Like Freud, Jung acknowledged the significance that childhood experiences have on shaping the self, and that they are largely stored in the personal unconscious of each individual. However, Jung placed equal emphasis on external factors that shape the self.

The goal of Jungian analysis is individuation, which unites the personal and collective unconscious. Through this process, we can then understand how we can move purposefully into the future.