Carl Jung based his theories on the need of each individual to reach wholeness and self-fulfillment. His phrase was "individuation". Each individual is capable of using energy in a creatively purposeful way as they search for balance among body, mind, and spirit. Unlike Freud, Jung believed that the individual's driving force for motivation was more than sexual or survival based. Although Jung did not deny these were driving forces of an individual, Jung and Freud eventually parted their peer friendship due to Freud's insistence that sexual and survival energies were the sole energy behind motivation. A split also occurred between Freud and Adler regarding this same issue, with Adler refusing to put aside his theory of a psycho-social basis for personality development which added the inferiority complex as a driving force. In Alder's theory he emphasized the social determinants of personality and focused "more on the conscious than on the unconscious, more on the future than on the past, and on the individual's power to control their own destinies." (Okun, 1922). Unlike Adler, Jung branched his theory in the direction of the need for individuals to find balance and purpose, often referred to as self actualization. In this process Jung used the unconscious and the past to try to determine where along the path of self determination the client was stuck. It is interesting to note that when the split between Freud, Jung and Adler (a group known as the inner circle) occurred, Adler focused on conscious manifestations to derive his therapeutic model while Jung focused on the unconscious. We will now examine the structure of Jung's theory. As mentioned above, Jung explored the psyche in terms of the unconscious elements of humankind. He differentiated between what he called the personal unconscious which included painful, threatening experiences whether repressed or ignored, and the collective unconscious consisting of buried memories based in the ancestral past. The personal unconscious would contain repressed thoughts or feeling surrounding childhood fears, abuse or unwanted emotions such as shame or quilt. In the collective unconscious you find the instincts and archetypes which we will examine later. The differentiation between the two type of unconscious helps in understanding and interpreting unconscious material. Other Jungian concepts include the persona which is the public mask or facade we put on in various social situations. The persona is made up of two forces, the animus which is the masculine characteristics of a female individual, and the anima, the feminine characteristics of a male. The duality of the persona must come into balance with the gender of the individual in order for the eventual goal of self realization to occur. Jung also gave more consideration to the influence of culture in the development of personality than did Freud. Within our society there is a tendency to exalt, in our females, only those traits which portray the epitemy of our feminine nature and within the males only that which is considered macho and masculine. We have tended to discount, deny, or fear the duality of our nature. Biologically, humans do carry both sex genes, and we do carry varying degrees of the minority gender gene pool, within us. In this respect the duality of our nature, the coming together of the anima or the animus, depending on our gender, often presents itself as what is termed a shadow. The term shadow refers to that which we need to confront within ourselves, which is not currently accepted into or by our consciousness. The shadow can occur within the personal unconscious or the collective unconscious. It is below the level of the conscious awareness and is brought into consciousness in the form of symbols. The shadow within ourselves always takes courage to confront and integrate. The collective unconscious content is more universal in character. If one could imagine the autonomic nervous system and perceive it's operation of unconscious efforts of the heart to beat, or cause a natural reflex action, you would have one understanding of Jung's concept of the relationship of the collective unconscious. As Jung repeatedly stated, "the unconscious is truly unconscious (Jung on Film, 1957). This differentiation helps in understanding and interpreting unconscious material, once again, it is often in the form of symbols. Jung identified within the unconscious, constellations of repeated behavior patterns which he called archetypes. He discovered through his research that the repeated behavior patterns could be traced back through history and identified in the writings and storytelling capabilities of civilizations and cultures. Archetypes are universal symbols which display ways of behavior in response to circumstances in our world. These constellations of behavior can often be observed in the individual themes within fairy tales, myths, religions, dreams and delusions. They often speak of birth and death, unity of opposites, rebirth, and power. Within story lines they are portrayed by a child, God, the Goddess, the demon, the hero, an animal, wise old man, and by the elements, earth, fire, water. Jung explained, "an archetype is built in such a way to solve certain conditions and results in a particular end. A person can become stuck in one archetype even throughout his life resulting in a type of no exit play." (Jung on Film) Jung saw the collective unconscious at work within society during the raise of Hitler. In the context of therapeutic intervention with clients during that period of time he became aware of what appeared to be a mass preawareness of the upcoming war. Not only was this awareness manifested in the dream world of his clients but it could also be seen within the culture at that time. An example can be seen within the art movement during that era which was responding in major ways to the subconscious of the society. There was the break away movements of the Impressionists and was further evidenced in the paintings of such artists as Duchamp, Picasso, Matisse, Mattes and others of the modern art period. Our society is not exempt from similar movement of the collective unconscious. Within our era we have seen an increase of cultural violence, along with greater acceptance of physical and sexual violence in our news and entertainment media. Projection is one tool of the unconscious to bring forward material into the consciousness of individuals and society. Within the individual, it brings forward elements that signal the internal messages of discomfort, in varying degrees, into the psyche. The higher the degree of discomfort, the greater the need to externalize the fear or danger. If we use here the example of our more recent enlightenment of the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse trauma, we see that along with the gradual seeking of self awareness, there has been a willingness by many to attempt to look deeper into themselves. They have begun to express discomforts which were often not discussed or had been repressed by both families and individuals. It is interesting that it is these forms of violence, which renders an individual helpless, not only sexual or physical violence but also emotional, that has been, and is, demanded by media audiences. Violence, not dealt with on a personal level, must be projected elsewhere. Another uniquely Jungian concept was that of personality identification. It is through the concepts of introversion (orientation toward the inner, subjective world) and extroversion (orientation toward the outer objective world), that Jung developed his theory of the four types of functions operating within each individual. The four functions were thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting. These concepts became known as Jungian typology. A popular scale for typology based on Jung's theory was the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator. "The indicator is a forced-choice inventory with two options per item. It is scored on four bipolar scales: Introversion-Extroversion, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking - Feeling and Judging-Perception. The result is sixteen personality types that are described from the combination of these four scores. An example would be ENFP and ISTJ Types" (Aiken, 1993). Today it has become quite popular to type individuals in such a way that an individual can be "typed" to rather minute degrees. Jung saw the terms and subsequent patterns of functioning as simply a means for two psychologists to discuss empirical findings or perhaps to be able to explain to a husband why a wife may view life differently than he. (Jung, 1957) Jung pointed out that different types communicate with great difficulty. For example an intuit person may be impatient with the every day practicality of the sensation type person. A person is neither totally introvert or extrovert but both types exist within each individual. An individual will tend to predominate within one area. Jung observed empirically that individuals tend to fall into two types, or ways of relating to the world around them, introversion or extroversion. The methods of functioning, as stated above, are thinking, sensation, feeling and intuition. When an individual experiences conflict which requires resolution, that person uses one of the four functions in an effort to resolve the problem. Initially the individual will instinctively fall into the function which is most comfortable. It is when an individual repeatedly only uses one function, that may have been normal during early developmental stages, that imbalance occurs and blocks further self growth. Marie-Louis von Franz relates that differentiation of types can be observed in early childhood. "For instance, the two attitudes-extrovert and introvert-can actually be seen in a child of one or one and a half, though perhaps not always very clearly. Jung once told of the case of a child who would not enter a room before she had been told the names of the pieces of furniture there - table, chair, etc. That is typical of a definitely introverted attitude, where the object is terrifying and has to be banished or put in it's place by a word, a propitiating gesture by which the object is made known and cannot misbehave. In such little details, if you know-how to look for them, you can observe the tendency toward introversion or extroversion." (von Franz, 1971) In the example of function, initially a child relates to her environment through the sensation function. i.e. her awareness of hunger, comfort with touch, her reactions to the sensation of her own body. The next function with which the child relates to herself and others is the realm of feeling or emotion. These are developmental tasks. She will react quite emotionally to her perceived likes and dislikes in an effort to, again, bring her world into balance. Next is the development of her intellectual function as she seeks balance between her subjective and objective experience. Finally as the child matures she becomes capable of abstract thinking which is part of her intuiting function. Although each individual is born with a predisposition to a certain type, these developmental stages will assist them in balancing the fluctuation of the types within themselves. No one is entirely an introvert or extrovert and this was stressed by Jung. The ultimate goal of individuation requires that an individual be relating to themselves and others through each of the four functions. For argument sake, we will use as an example a child who has been physically or sexually abused during the initial stage of relating to herself and her environment through the sensation function. She could instinctively shut down this function, with varying degrees depending on the degree of abuse. Instead of integrating this function the child could suppress her ability to use the function in a normal healthy way. The next stage the child encounters is the feeling function. Her inability to operate freely within the first developmental function could cause a distortion in her feeling or emotional development, moreover, early in her life she does not have a healthy normal developmental access to two areas of her personality development. Jung focused his therapeutic interventions primarily toward those seeking assistance during their mid to late life. He did not place much emphasis on the stages of development like Freud or Erickson, although he did discuss the conflicts of the earlier developmental processes. He felt that middle and later life was particularly important for the development of spiritual or philosophical values within the context of self fulfillment and the individuation process. Interestingly, Freud was pessimistic in his outlook of psychotherapy with older adults. In contrast, Jung was a pioneer in applying therapeutic techniques in the treatment of mid to late life people with psychological problems. Jung's form of psychotherapy was eclectic not only in that he applied theories of Bleuler, Freud and Adler, but also in approach when confronted with varying types of clients. Overall, Jung's aim was to assist people in obtaining self-realization. Jung's therapy consisted of stages of therapeutic process. 1. The client's confession of a secret which allows the client to release the tension held within which resulted in negative energy. This he took from Bleuler's therapeutic approach. 2. He placed emphasis on interpretation, explanation and insight. A Freudian approach. 3. He used the psycho-social education of his client which he attributed to Adler. 4. He assisted the patient in understanding their inner self which he believed would help facilitate the transformation of the client into self-realization. This approach was uniquely Jung. Jung respected the developmental stages of humankind personality formation. Younger patients, who were experiencing conflicts of power or sexual conflicts were often treated with Freudian and Adlerian therapeutic techniques and concepts. Persons in their mid to later life, however, who were dealing with loss, aimlessness and fear of death received therapeutic intervention geared to find new meanings and self actualization in an effort to bring the client to a sense of balance and wholeness. In this Jung used discussion, dream analysis, understanding of the doctor-patient relationships (transference/countertransference) and encouraging the patient to experiment with his or her life. (Aiken, 1993) In his approach to individuation, Jung concentrated in defining the Self in it's path to self fulfillment. This was accomplished by mainly focusing on the individual's unconscious. Accessing the unconscious could be accomplished in several ways. A modal attributed to Freud were word association and dream analysis. Although the technique itself was attributed to Freud, the interpretation of the material was strictly Jungian and in terms of Jung's concept of the personal and collective unconscious. Jung developed his theory of the unconscious further than did Freud. His theory contained the collective unconscious. Again, it should be stressed that the collective unconscious was and is truly not conscious to us in it's totality, but consists of the deeper part of the mind shared by all humanity. As stated earlier an example, within man's physical realm, would be akin to those functions which biologically perform without the conscious willing of an individual. The collective unconscious is revealed though symbols. The symbols are most easily accessed though the analysis of our own dreams, drawings and within literature. It is the symbol of the circle which Jung felt displayed the condition or movement of the Self toward individuation. Jung "adopted the Sanskrit word mandala to describe the circle drawings he and his patients did. Mandala means center, circumference, or magic circle. Jung associated the mandala with the Self, the center of the total personality. The mandala of the Self represents the efforts of the individual to become unified or whole. The self unites opposing forces such as introversion and extroversion or the anima and the animus. Jung suggested that the mandala shows the natural urge to live out our potential, to fulfill the pattern of our whole personality." (Fincher, 1991) Jung noted "Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: 'Formation, Transformation, Eternal Mind's eternal recreation.' And that is the Self, the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well is harmonious, but which cannot tolerate self-deception." (Jung 1965). Within the field of Art Therapy mandala drawings map the healing journey of the client. The actual drawing itself indicates an active commitment to therapy, whether or not the drawing is mandala based or a free form piece. The act of drawing is also a subjective experience and within this framework it is hared to deceive. "The activity of painting can be cathartic, and therefore therapeutic, if some emotions are released and worked through in the therapeutic relationship." (Fincher, 1991). It is a powerful tool in the individuation process of which the unconscious plays such a vital part. Jung 's view of the world in 1933 which is still relevant today. Jung stated "In my picture of the world there is a vast outer realm and an equally vast inner realm; between these two stands man, facing now one and now the other, and, according to his mood or disposition, taking the one for the absolute truth by denying or sacrificing the other. [Jung, 1933] (Fincher, 1991)
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