C. G. JungMAJOR IDEAS & BACKGROUND

1875–1961

• Jung was born in Switzerland, the son of a Protestant minister.

• Intellectual household.• Went to boarding school; “nervous” there. Develops

psychosomatic symptoms.• Ends up studying medicine in Basel under famous

neurologist Krafft-Ebing. Moves into psychiatry.• Meets Freud in 1907. Freud immediately is drawn to Jung

and quickly comes to consider him his heir.• In 1909 they are traveling together to the U.S. They analyze

each other’s dreams. As Jung probes Freud’s dreams, Freud becomes resistant and says they will ruin their relationship. (Freud fears a loss of authority.) The relationship cools after this.

• Jung is the first of Freud’s circle to clearly break with him, thereafter.

Jung’s theory of Personality (Psyche)

• Tripartite: Consciousness (Ego), Individual Unconscious, Collective (Universal) Unconscious• The Ego (Conscious) is everything of which you are

presently aware and can manipulate.• The Individual Unconscious is like Freud’s

Preconscious and Subconscious—but it does not include the instincts and urges that Freud puts in the Subconscious.• The Collective Unconscious contains a universal

human psychic inheritance. It provides psychic energy and influences all we do, but we are never able to be directly aware of it.

Organization of the Collective Unconscious• Archetypes: The collective unconscious

contains archetypes that correspond to an unlearned (instinctual) way of interfacing with the world.• Archetypes function like instincts in Freud’s

theory.• Archetypes are organizing principles for an

elemental force.• Archetypes can only be “known” by seeing

how people “invest them” in order to deal with the world.

Major Archetypes• Mother• Mana• The Shadow• Anima/animus• Father• Child• Family• Hero• Wise old man/woman• Maiden• Hermaphrodite• Trickster, etc.

What is the “self”•The “self” is the full realization of

consciousness. It is the integration of all levels of consciousness without the need for a mask to the outside world, since the “self” is one with the collective and cannot be destroyed by the world’s realization of the self. Two examples of people who have fully realized their “selves” are Buddha and Jesus Christ.

Psychodynamics -1(action of the psyche)

•Principle of Opposites• No interior impulse exists without its

opposite. To deny the opposite impulse is to create the potential for deformation of the self. The tension between psychic opposites creates a tension called libido or the essential force of the psyche.

Psychodynamics - 2(action of the psyche)

•Principle of Equivalence• Both the positive and negative poles

in the psyche receive equal energy from the principle of opposition.

Psychodynamics - 3(action of the psyche)

•Principle of Entropy• Libido decreases over time, as the

internal oppositions tend to blend and take on each other’s characteristics.

Typology of Personality (1)• Introversion and Extroversion• Extroversion is an orientation

outward toward the Persona and the External World• Introversion is an orientation inward

toward the Collective Unconscious and its Archetypes

Typology of Personality (2)•Functions• Sensing• Thinking• Intuiting• Feeling

• Each of us has one of these as the superior function, then a secondary, tertiary, and inferior function for the rest

Typology of Personality (3)•Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Meyers adapt Jung’s theory of personality into what is now the most popular of the psychometric personality tests, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator

MBTI•The Myers Briggs Type Indicator has four oppositions:• Extroversion – Introversion (E-I)•Sensing – Intuiting (S-N)•Thinking – Feeling (T-F)•Judging – Perceiving (J-P)•The last category is new; it is not directly from Jung’s typology.