Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)
Biography
Carl Gustav Jung was born July 26, 1875, in the small Swiss village
of Kessewil. Starting at a young age, he took a strong interest in ancient languages. Besides most modern western European languages, Jung
could read several ancient ones, including Sanskrit, the language of the
original Hindu holy books.
His first career choice was archeology, but changed direction and went on to study
medicine at the University of Basel. After graduating, he took a position at the Burghoeltzli Mental Hospital
in Zurich.
In 1903, he married Emma Rauschenbach. He also taught classes at the University
of Zurich and had a private practice. Soon after he began his friendship with Freud.
Though Jung was Freud's protege, Jung had never been entirely sold on Freud's theory, with the result being detrimental to their relationship.
Theory
Jung's theory divides the psyche into three parts: Ego, Personal Unconscious, and the Collective Unconscious. The first two parts are similar to Freud's conceptions of them. However, the collective unconscious is something very different; Jung defined it as a reservoir of the experiences of our species.
Archetypes
The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes, or primordial images. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain
way.
The archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an "organizing
principle" on the things we see or do. It works in a manner similar to the way that instincts
work in Freud's theory.
Examples of archetypes include the mother, the anima (a feminine archetype), the animus (a masculine archetype), the shadow, and the Self (which Jung relates to God), which is
the ultimate unity of the personality and is symbolized by the circle,
the cross, and the mandala.
Dynamics of the psyche
According to Jung, opposites generate the power of the psyche (sometimes referred to as libido). An oft-used analogy is the two poles of a battery, or the oft-used phrase that you cannot have light without darkness, or joy without sadness, or health without sickness. The generation and experience of opposites in our psyche are what is responsible for its dynamics.
The process of rising above or reconciling our opposites Jung denoted transcendence.
According to Jung, the goal of life is to realize the Self, which is the archetype that represents God (i.e., our higher Self) and the transcendence of all opposites.
Synchronicity
Jung defined synchronicity as the occurrence of two events that are not linked causally, but nonetheless are meaningfully related. He believed such coincidences were
instructive with regard to how we are connected with fellow man and nature
in general; a connection mediated, at least in part, by the collective unconscious.
Introversion and extroversion
Jung developed the popular personality typology involving the distinction of introversion versus extraversion. According to Jung, the Ego of extraverts was
faced more toward the persona and outer reality, and that of introverts was faced more toward the collective unconscious
and its archetypes.
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