GCI PAT Reading Seg I.Chap1 - Gifts · PDF filesystole or yin from yang. They are each important aspects of the whole system. ... extraversion and introversion. Like the functions,

Gifts Compass Inc.

SEGMENT I: The Compass of Individuation Chapters 1-3

Reading Professional Advisor Training

Gifts Compass Inc. www.GiftsCompass.com

[email protected]

115 W Front St.

Perrysburg, OH 43551

419.872.7140

Readings

Segment I

Chapter 1: Individuation and the Psyche Chapter 2: The Compass of Consciousness Chapter 3: Attitude and Orientation

Segment II Chapter 4: A Taxonomy of Type

Chapter 5: The Introverted Types

Chapter 6: The Extraverted Types

Segment III Chapter 7: Pairings

Chapter 8: Psychological Types and Individuation

The Compass of Individuation—Chapter 3

Chapter 1

Individuation and Psychological Types

All of the books that I have written are but by-products of an intimate

process of individuation… C.G. Jung

Individuation is a term used in the social and life sciences to identify the

process of uniting disparate elements into an integrated whole; it also refers to

differentiating individual attributes from the attributes of others. For Jung,

individuation is both. An individual acquires unifying balance simultaneously with

developing uniquely differentiated individuality. Virtually the whole constellation of

Jung’s collected works seems to revolve around this central thesis: the full

development of the individual through uniquely unifying differentiation.

Jung’s theory of psychological types cannot be understood apart from its

integral relationship to his larger model of both conscious and unconscious

processes. To consider the conscious processes of psychological types apart

from their relationship to the unconscious would be like disjoining diastole from

systole or yin from yang. They are each important aspects of the whole system.

Consistent with his deeply introverted orientation, Jung seemed to

conceive of the whole system as an initially vague but compelling image. The

various thoughts and connections that had been quietly growing beneath the

surface for many years began to congeal during the restructuring years that he

termed his “confrontation with the unconscious.”

All my works, all my creative activity, has come from those initial

fantasies and dreams [the confrontation with the unconscious] which

began in 1912…Everything that I accomplished in later life was

already contained in them, although at first only in the form of

emotions and images. (MDR, p. 192)

Jung’s book, Psychological Types, published in 1921, was one of the first

consolidated expressions of his conceptual architecture of the psyche. It not only

articulated conscious processes but was also a thoroughly developed reference

to the concepts that would distinguish his model of depth psychology. The


definitions in Chapter XI still serve as a glossary of terms for his entire collected

works.

While Chapters I through IX set the context, Chapter X provides the

substantive content for understanding the mechanics of type theory. Yet, if taken

alone, that chapter presents only an isolated and partial view of the theory as a

whole. Consequently, Chapter X has been too often misinterpreted as a system

for categorizing people by personality type.

Psychological type theory does not refer to personality types. It could

better be thought of as types of mental processes, available to everyone. Type

theory is a “critical apparatus” for sorting out typical processes of consciousness.

[The] fundamental tendency in my work has often been overlooked,

and far too many readers have succumbed to the error of thinking that

Chapter X (“General Description of the Types”) represents the essential

content and purpose of the book, in the sense that it provides a system

of classification and a practical guide to good judgment about human

character. This regrettable misunderstanding completely ignores the

fact that this kind of classification is nothing but a childish parlour

game, every bit as futile as the division of mankind into

brachycephalics and dolichocephalics. My typology is far rather a

critical apparatus serving to sort out and organize the welter of

empirical material, but not in any sense to stick labels on people at first

sight. It is not an anthropological system, but a critical psychology

dealing with the organization and delimitation of psychic processes that

can be shown to be typical. (CW 6, foreword to the Argentine edition)

Certainly Jung did not help to reinforce that distinction through his

chapter on the types, for he offers descriptions of the eight conscious processes

as eight distinct types of people. At the end of those descriptions, however, he

warns that, “In the foregoing descriptions I have no desire to give my readers the

impression that these types occur at all frequently in such pure form in actual life.

They are, as it were, only Galtonesque1 family portraits, which single out the

common and therefore typical features, stressing them disproportionately…”

1 Galtonesque refers to Francis Galton, prolific English anthropologist, eugenicist, explorer,

and statistician. He produced over 340 papers and books on a vast array of subjects including


For our purposes in this book, to clarify the distinction between

personality and ego disposition, when we refer to type, it will be to psychological

type, not personality type. Psychological type, as we will present it here, refers to

the typical processes of the ego’s consciousness. We will see later that

personality, as Jung discusses it, is a unique and transcendent aspect of human

experience and the essential feature of individuation.

The typical processes of consciousness can be depicted as any of four

cognitive “functions:” thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. There would have

been more functions if Jung had been able to empirically discern them. These

were the only four that he observed.

You see, you get your orientation, you get your bearings, in the chaotic

abundance of impressions through the four functions, these four aspects

of total human orientation. If you can tell me any other aspect by which

you get oriented, I am grateful. I haven’t found more and I tried. (Jung

on Elementary Psychology, p. 103, 104)

How those functions are engaged with either the world at large or the

inner life of the unconscious depend on two other orientations to consciousness:

extraversion and introversion. Like the functions, these terms were not intended

to typecast people by categories.

Bismarck once said, “God preserve me from my friends; with my

enemies I can deal alone.” You know how people are. They have a

catchword, and then everything is schematized along that word. There

is no such thing as a pure extrovert or a pure introvert. Such a man

would be in the lunatic asylum.

Those are only terms to designate a certain penchant, a certain

tendency. For instance, the tendency to be more influenced by

environmental influences, or more influenced by the subjective fact—

that’s all. There are people who are fairly well-balanced who are just as

much influenced from within and from without, or just as little. And so

with all the definite classifications, you know, they are only a sort of

statistical methods for studying human differences and psychometrics. He died in 1911 at age 88; his

work would have been both current and readily available to Jung.


point to refer to, points for orientation. There is no such thing as a

schematic classification.

…My whole scheme of typology is merely a sort of orientation. (Jung

on Elementary Psychology, p. 96, 97)

Together, the functional orientations combined with introverted or

extraverted orientations constitute the full orienting apparatus of psychological

types. Jung referred to his theory of psychological types as a psychology of

consciousness. Yet the psychology of consciousness can only be understood in

relation to depth psychology—the psychology of the unconscious. Together

these two modes of psychology constitute the composite model he termed

analytical psychology.

The central thesis of Jung’s analytical psychology is the differentiating

development of the unique individual. The full structure of the individual

personality is both conscious and unconscious. The individual is not the sum total

of a predisposition toward a few conscious processes. Type theory helps to

explain ego orientations; it does not explain the latent personality structure that

lies well beneath the surface of ego-consciousness.

Among the various possible ego orientations, Jung saw no specific

number of “types” that could be formed from their various combinations. Rather,

he relied on the four functions as the fundamental navigating orientations of

consciousness.

So through the study of all sorts of human types, I came to the

conclusion that there must be many different ways of viewing the world

through these type orientations—at least sixteen, and you can just as

well say 360. You can increase the number of guiding or underlying

principles, but I found that the most simple way is the way I told you,

the division by four, the simple and natural division of the circle. I

didn’t know the symbolism of this particular classification. Only when

I studied the archetypes did I become aware that this is a very important

archetypal pattern that plays an enormous role. (Jung on Elementary

Psychology, p. 104)


The growth and development of the unique individual occurs through a

rich cross-fertilization of conscious and unconscious processes. The

predisposition of ego-consciousness toward any of the conscious processes

constitutes only a small fraction of the whole person.

To understand the role of psychological types in Jung’s full model of

analytical psychology, we must set the “stage” on which the story of individuation

is enacted—the psyche.

The Psychic Stage The psyche is the “totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as

unconscious.” Individual growth is stimulated by relationships with the collective

world at large and the collective world within.

The psyche could be thought of as an interactive theatre in which many

psychic actors play their roles. In this theatre, there are two main stages, one

playing to the audience of the world at large and the other to the audience of the

unconscious.

At the apron of the stage of consciousness, we meet the first and most

familiar actor—the persona—the “personality” turned to the audience of social

interaction in the world. The persona serves as a social foil, useful for presenting

a favorable impression to a particular audience.

The persona is a complicated system of relations between the

individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask,

designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others,

and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual. (CW 7,

par. 305)

Behind the persona, we find the central actor on the stage of

consciousness—the ego. The ego has the leading role on this stage and freely

exerts its influence as the lead identity of consciousness. The orientations of

psychological types are all ego orientations and will predetermine the sort of

character that the lead is destined to play.

The ego orientations will influence behavior but do not in themselves

constitute the unique individual. They could be considered expressions of the

developing individual, for those ego-based expressions will change as the


individual differentiates into an increasingly mature and fully balanced person.

Though a person begins life with certain predispositions for ego orientations, the

goal of individuation is to more fully develop all of the orientations of

consciousness.

The conscious audience is not passive in the drama of individuation. It

will directly influence plot development. Like no audience found in a traditional

theatre, the audience of the stage of consciousness—the noisy, tumultuous

audience of the world—will interact with the main characters on stage,

sometimes applauding, sometimes booing, conversing, taunting, rallying,

opposing, or supporting the actors on stage.

Behind the lead actor of consciousness is the vague scrim that conceals

the personal unconscious. A scrim in the theatre is a lightweight transparent

curtain that obstructs the view of what is behind it when not illuminated, but

allows full view if the objects are illuminated. The personal unconscious is

concealed by a kind of psychic scrim. The many images and memories of past

experience are concealed from consciousness, unless they are illuminated.

Those memories will be unexpectedly illuminated and, like the audience of the

world, also interrupt the play of individuation on the conscious stage. The ego

would like to control the interruptions of unexpected memories, but it cannot.

They are thrust upon him and he must adjust his script in response to what

appears.

Behind the scrim, in the darkness of the backstage personal

unconscious, we bump into many “autonomous complexes” that grow in their

number and complexity with experience in the world.

The term [autonomous] is meant to indicate the capacity of the

complexes to resist conscious intentions, and to come and go as they

please. Judging by all we know about them, they are psychic entities

which are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have been

split off from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the dark

realm of the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or reinforce

the conscious functioning.” (CW 6, par. 923)

The ego may be frequently upstaged by these autonomous interventions

in the play. Sometimes the complexes thrust themselves onto the stage of

consciousness, commandeering the action on stage. Irrational fears, intense


attractions to certain people, motivating memories, and personal attachments are

all examples of the unpredictable intervention of complexes. They are as

unpredictable as the rowdy audience in shaping the story of individuation.

As we stumble through the back stage of the personal subconscious,

cluttered over the course of many productions with its many memories and

complexes, we are surprised to step onto yet another stage, this one the

seeming mirror image of the first, but having a much quieter and more ethereal

quality. This is the unconscious stage.

This stage also has its primary actors; in the quiet context of the

unconscious stage, these actors enact a synchronized play that compensates for

the action on the conscious stage. At the center of the unconscious stage, the

shadow counterbalances the conscious ego. What the ego is the shadow is not.

If the ego is strong, the shadow is weak. If the ego is emboldened with pride, the

shadow is timid and incompetent.

If the shadow remains a mysterious phantom on this mirror stage of the

unconscious, it can step into the role of an autonomous complex. The shadow

may be thrust unexpectedly upon the stage of consciousness. If the ego refuses

to acknowledge the shadow as a fellow actor, the shadow will be thrown off the

stage and cast onto members of the audience. If the shadow enters the

performance of consciousness as a rejected complex, the play will be no

comedy. Untamed shadow projections have historically appeared as

discrimination, personal hatred, and cruel persecutions.

Acknowledging the ego identity and also the shadow as dynamic

elements of the maturing individual engenders the humility that enables the fully

balanced individual to emerge. To acknowledge only one side—all ego and no

shadow—would be an obstructive inflation that impedes individuation.

There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without

imperfection. To round itself out, life calls not for perfection but for

completeness; and for this the "thorn in the flesh" is needed, the

suffering of defects without which there is no progress and no ascent.

(CW 12, par. 208)

The persona, too, has its complement in the unconscious. Jung

conceived of a feminine anima compensating for a masculine persona and a

masculine animus compensating for a feminine persona. A phantom,


unconscious anima or animus will also be projected as a complex, intervening in

conscious experience.

Now, everything that is true of the persona and of all autonomous

complexes in general also holds true for the anima. She likewise is a

personality…So long as the anima is unconscious, she is always

projected. (CW 7, par. 314)

The experience of “falling in love” would be a projection of an anima or

animus complex. Unlike the shadow complex that would denigrate members of

the conscious audience, the anima or animus complex usually casts a favorable

projection, creating a dazzlingly, idealized image for some lucky beneficiary.

Like the persona on the conscious stage, the anima or animus assumes

a complementary position at the apron of the unconscious stage, where it plays

to the audience of the collective unconscious—the array of archetypal figures

eager to have their say in the production.

This audience too shapes the drama of individuation. It is the psychic

complement to the collective experience of the world. The world provides people,

events and circumstances that influence the development of the individual. The

collective unconscious audience—the archetypes—provide the deep structure of

predetermined patterns and images that influence the development of the

individual.

Nations, clans, families and individual progenitors—the long trail of

evolutionary experience—have representative archetypes in the audience.

The form of the world into which he is born is already inborn in him as

a virtual image. Likewise parents, wife, children, birth, and death are

inborn in him as virtual images, as psychic aptitudes. These a priori

categories have by nature a collective character; they are images of

parents, wife, and children in general, and are not individual

predestinations. We must therefore think of these images as lacking in

solid content, hence as unconscious. They only acquire solidity,

influence and eventual consciousness in the encounter with empirical

facts, which touch the unconscious aptitude and quicken it to life. They

are, in a sense, the deposits of all our ancestral experiences, but they are

not the experience themselves. (CW 7, par 717)


The archetypes are awakened and engaged in response to the drama

being enacted on the stage of consciousness. As the archetypes are engaged,

complexes are created.

For example, the bond of a child for the mother is evoked by the physical

presence of a female who engages the mother archetype in the child’s

unconscious. The mother’s touch, care, and compassion provide the experiential

substance that activates the archetypal predisposition for a relationship with a

mother. The memories of the experience of that relationship grow as a complex

that will shape and influence the development of the child even into later

adulthood.

Archetypes precondition the individual’s response to environment. Jung

joined Kant in recognizing pre-established frameworks for interpreting and

differentiating the mass of conscious experience.

What Kant demonstrated in respect to logical thinking is true of the

whole range of the psyche. The psyche is no more a tabula rasa to

begin with than is the mind proper (the thinking area). Naturally the

concreted contents are lacking, but the potential contents are given a

priori by the inherited and preformed functional disposition. This is

simply the product of the brain’s functioning throughout the whole

ancestral line, a deposit of phylogenetic experiences and attempts at

adaptation. Hence the new-born brain is an immensely old instrument

fitted out for quite specific purposes, which does not only apperceive

passively but actively arranges the experiences of its own accord and

enforces certain conclusions and judgments…They are…a kind of pre-

existent ground-plan that gives the stuff of experience a specific

configuration, so that we may think of them, as Plato did, as images, as

schemata, or as inherited functional possibilities which, nevertheless,

exclude other possibilities or at any rate limit them to a very great

extent. This explains why fantasy, the freest activity of the mind, can

never roam into the infinite…but remains anchored to these preformed

patterns, these primordial images. (CW 6, par. 512)

Predispositions for psychological types in the ego complex could also be

considered as instinctive expressions of archetypal patterns. A penchant for any


of the typical conscious orientations is not as much a choice as an expression of

an unconscious predisposition. The archetypes structure and shape the ego’s

predispositions to consciousness.

It…might perhaps be compared to the axial system of a crystal, which,

as it were, preforms the crystalline structure in the mother liquid,

although it has no material existence of its own. This first appears

according to the specific way in which the ions and molecules

aggregate…the only thing that remains constant is the axial systems, or

rather, the invariable geometric proportions underlying it. The same is

true of the archetype. (CW 9i, par. 155)

My first conception of libido then was not that it was a formless stream

so to speak, but that it was archetypal in character…Using a form of

speech, the ore brought up from the mine of the unconscious is always

crystallized. (Analytical Psychology, p. 4)

The archetypes of the collective unconscious might be thought of as both

director and producer of the play of individuation, for they perform a directive, yet

invisible offstage role. Yet, the play could not go on without them.

We can see [Man] in a new setting which throws an objective light

upon his existence, namely as being operated and maneuvered by

archetypal forces instead of his “free will,” that is, his arbitrary egoism

and his limited consciousness. He should learn that he is not the master

in his own house and that he should carefully study the other side of his

psychical world, which seems to be the true ruler of this fate. (C.G.

Jung and Herman Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships, p. 86)

With the addition of the archetypal audience, we have constructed the

composite stage of the psyche. It could be thought of as two semicircular stages,

together forming a mirror image theatre-in-the-round. On one side of this theatre

we have the conscious story of individuation being enacted; on the other side, we

have the quiescent but mighty theatre of unconscious complements.


Jung diagrammed these conceptual relationships in a series of lectures

delivered in 1925. Though he did not use the stage as his metaphor, his diagram

(recreated above) depicts a conceptual structure that closely resembles the

psychic stage we have been describing.

But there is at least one actor on this stage we have neglected. Where is

the individual person—the very subject of individuation? We find the unique

individual at the center of Jung’s diagram—at the virtual center of the psyche—

midway between the conscious and unconscious audiences with access to both.

The authentic individual is neither the ego, nor the persona, nor the shadow, nor

the anima or animus. The true self is found at that balanced midpoint with access

to them all.

The destiny of individuation is not fragmented or projected identities and

complexes, but equanimity with one’s authentic position at the center. The

unique individual personality is that deeply imbedded psychic structure that

unifies and consolidates all other identities.


The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the

false wrappings of the persona on the one hand, and of the suggestive

power of primordial images on the other. (CW 7, par. 269)

The ego is the main actor of consciousness and the shadow center stage

in the unconscious, but the individual person has the lead role in individuation.

Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a

living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the

absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most

successful adaptation to the universal conditions of existence coupled

with the greatest possible freedom for self-determination. (CW 17)

The roles of all the formerly independent psychic identities are

transformed as the individuation of the authentic personality proceeds. The

persona presents a less artificial face. The sovereign ego defers to the legitimate

heir at the center of the psyche. Troublesome complexes are tamed. The shadow

is embraced rather than concealed or projected. The anima or animus becomes

an operative function of relationship with the archetypes.

All’s well that ends well.

Yet anyone who has experienced the frequently arduous struggle of

individuation can tell you that this is a highly idealized image of the

transformation. It serves to explain the model, but not the gut-wrenching

experience that can feel like an anguished storm.

One other participant in this production navigates the course through

these psychic storms. Just as all of the other conscious identities have their

complements in the unconscious, so too does the developing individual.

The Self The full potential of the emerging individual is expressed through the

chief orchestrating archetype of the psyche—the self. The self provides the

archetypal structure of wholeness that guides the processes of individuation. Not

depicted on Jung’s diagram of the psyche in 1925, the numinous self would have

consumed both the center and the circumference of the diagram.


Jung’s acknowledgement of the archetypal self (we will capitalize Self to

differentiate it from the individual self) may be his preeminent contribution to

understanding human experience. Jung provided a window of uncanny insight to

the unconscious numinous processes of human experience. His is a picture

window of enormous proportions. Few have had minds capable of synthesizing

religion, philosophy, science, literature, medicine, and psychology into

coordinated, unifying insights. The Self is one of the crowning insights of Jung’s

remarkably versatile mind.

The Self was not an idea that he seemed ready to articulate fully with the

original writing of Psychological Types. Though he makes reference to the Self

as a phenomenon of poetry and eastern religion, he did not include the

archetypal Self in the definitions that accompanied that book until more than

thirty years later. Even then, the definition of the Self is so comprehensive that it

nearly defies explanation.

As an empirical concept, the self designates the whole range of psychic

phenomena in man. It expresses the unity of the personality as a whole.

But in so far as the total personality, on account of its unconscious

component, can be only in part conscious, the concept of the self is, in

part only potentially empirical and is to that extent a postulate. In other

words, it encompasses both the experienceable and the

inexperienceable (or the not yet experienced). (CW 6, par. 789)

The evolving individual actualizes what the archetypal Self holds in

potential; the unique personality of the individual is an experiential expression of

the Self. The process of becoming an increasingly whole expression of the Self is

life’s preeminent goal. The actualization of full and unique individuality is the

destiny to which the Self, as the center and circumference of the psyche, draws

the evolving individual.

I have called this center the self. Intellectually the self is no more than a

psychological concept, a construct that serves to express the

unknowable essence which we cannot grasp as such, since by definition

it transcends our powers of comprehension. It might equally be called

the "God within us." The beginnings of our whole psychic life seem to


be inextricably rooted in this point, and all our highest and ultimate

purposes seem to be striving towards it. (CW 7, par. 399)

Though Jung referred to the Self as an Imago Dei—literally the image of

God—he was careful not to cross the line from psychology to religion. The Imago

Dei for Jung does not by itself prove the actual presence of God, only that

psychologically there is an image of perfected wholeness deep within the psychic

structure to which the developing individual is drawn. Jung joined Kant in

affirming that all he could verify through experience was that such a primordial

image was present; he would not presume to postulate what that image was in

itself.

It would be a regrettable mistake if anybody should understand my

observations to be a kind of proof of the existence of God. They prove

the existence of an archetypal image of the Deity, which to my mind is

the most we can assert psychologically about God. But as it is a very

important and influential archetype, its relatively frequent occurrence

seems to be a noteworthy fact for any theologia naturalis. Since the

experience of it has the quality of numinosity, often to a high degree, it

ranks among religious experiences. (Psychology and Religion, p. 73)

The fact that I content myself with what can be psychically

experienced, and reject the metaphysical, does not mean, as anyone

with insight can understand, a skeptic or agnostic gesture against faith

or trust in higher powers; what I am saying is approximately the same

thing Kant meant when he called 'the thing in itself' a 'merely negative

boundary-concept' [Grenzbegriff]. Every statement about the

transcendental is to be avoided because it is invariably only a laughable

presumption on the part of the human mind, which is unconscious of its

limitations. Therefore, when God or the Tao is termed an impulse of

the soul, or a state of the soul, something has been said about the

knowable only, but nothing about the unknowable, about which

nothing can be determined. (Secret of the Golden Flower, p. 135)

Individuation Individuation is self-actualization of the unique individual. At the turn of

the nineteenth century, the idea seemed to be “in the air.” Emerson and the


American Transcendentalists had promoted the value of the individual. Nietsche

had been inspired by Emerson. The American Transcendentalists taken their

name from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and his term transcendental

idealism. The philosophy known as German idealism had the same Kantian

source. Jung drew freely from the German idealists, Kant, Nietsche and with him

Emerson. Later in the century, humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow would

also pick up the standard of individuation with the new language of the human

potential movement.

Some of the fundamental precepts advocated by Emerson, Jung and

Maslow are so congruent that one can scarcely tell them apart.

What man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.

It refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for

him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency

might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is,

to become everything that one is capable of becoming. (Theory of

Human Motivation, Abraham Maslow; Chap. 7, p. 383)

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the

conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must

take himself for better or for worse, as his portion; that though the wide

universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him

but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to

him to till….Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes

much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the

memory is not without preestablished harmony….Trust thyself: every

heart vibrates to that iron string. (Essay on “Self Reliance,” Ralph

Waldo Emerson)

Man should live according to his own nature; he should concentrate on

self-knowledge and then live in accordance with the truth about

himself….And so one must be what one is; one must discover one’s

individuality, that center of personality which is equidistant between

the conscious and the unconscious; we must aim for that ideal point

towards which nature appears to be directing us. Only from that point

can one satisfy one’s needs. (C.G. Jung and Herman Hesse: A Record

of Two Friendships, p. 91)


Though all three advocated the development of the unique individual,

Jung, more than anyone in history, delineated the psychological depth and

breadth of self-actualization.

In Jung’s model, a dynamic interplay between the individual and the

world generates productive, growth-producing oppositions in the psyche: ego and

shadow, persona and anima/animus, images of the archetypes and

representations of objective experience, individual and culture. The tension of

oppositions generates the necessary systole and diastole of psychic energies

forever seeking the next resolution—some new place of rest beyond the tension

of opposing energies.

But the determining of the will has repercussions on both sides, so that

after a while the opposites recover their strength. The renewed conflict

again demands the same treatment, and each time a further step along

the way is made possible. (CW 6, par. 184)

A tension of compensatory opposites is the stuff of individuation—the

steadfast struggle for authentic individuality. Without that evolutionary struggle,

one would not forge the strength of authentic individuality.

This something is the desired “mid-point” of the personality, that

ineffable something betwixt the opposites, or else that which unites

them, or the result of conflict, or the product of energetic tension: the

coming to birth of personality, a profoundly individual step forward,

the next stage. (CW 7, 382)

In the “coming to birth of personality” a function of transformation plays a

vital role. Jung termed it the transcendent function for it bridges and resolves the

tension of conflicting opposites. We might think of the transcendent function as

the midwife of individuation, for it perpetually induces the coming to birth of

personality.

The tension of opposing energies can paralyze the ego’s conscious will.

When frustration with the conflict has reached its intolerable peak, when the ego

seems stretched thin and unable to resolve the tension, then the transcendent

function often arrives to introduce the tertium non datur—“the third not given.”


The third way not given is the middle way, that successfully bridges, resolves and

transcends the tension.

The relentless, interminable process of finding the middle way slowly but

steadily actualizes the unique personality held in potential in the archetypal Self.

The transcendent function does not proceed without aim and purpose,

but leads to the revelation of the essential man. It is in the first place a

purely natural process, which may in some cases pursue its course

without the knowledge or assistance of the individual, and can

sometimes forcibly accomplish itself in the face of opposition. The

meaning and purpose of the process is the realization, in all aspects, of

the personality originally hidden away in the embryonic germ-plasm;

the production and unfolding of the original, potential wholeness.

(CW 7, par. 186)

The struggle for individuation is no small undertaking; few boldly chose it

for it can be fraught with trouble. One’s ego may be stretched to the limits and

one’s persona shaken. The life “energy” of the individual—the libido—is

withdrawn away from a conscious attitude into the seeming crucible of the

unconscious.

Consequently, something happens which, as I pointed out earlier, is a

typical and regular occurrence: when a man meets a difficult task which

he cannot master with the means at his disposal, a retrograde movement

of libido automatically sets in, i.e., a regression. The libido draws away

from the problem of the moment, becomes introverted, and reactivates

in the unconscious a more or less primitive analogue of the conscious

situation. (CW 6, par. 314)

The resulting loss of balance is purposeful. It is the process of

individuation taking hold in the psyche. A unique individual is being fashioned.

Hence I regard the loss of balance as purposive, since it replaces a

defective consciousness by the automatic and instinctive activity of the

unconscious, which is aiming all the time at the creation of a new

balance and will moreover achieve this aim, provided that the


conscious mind is capable of assimilating the contents produced by the

unconscious, i.e., of understanding and digesting them. (CW 7, par.

253)

The disconcerting movement of the psychic tides perpetually washes up

a more whole and fully expressed individual; each time the lapping of those

psychic waves occurs, the individual is reborn into a more attuned grasp of the

archetypal Self and the contents of the collective unconscious. As the symbolic

images of the unconscious become increasingly available, life gets richer.

If we can successfully develop that function which I have called

transcendent, the disharmony ceases and we can then enjoy the

favorable side of the unconscious. The unconscious then gives us all

the encouragement and help that a bountiful nature can shower upon

man. It holds possibilities which are locked away from the conscious

mind, for it has at its disposal all subliminal psychic contents, as well

as the wisdom and experience of uncounted centuries which are laid

down in its archetypal organs. (CW 7, par. 196)

The birth of the unique individual personality is the object of this intense

and relentless developmental struggle. As that personality emerges, all of the

energies of life seem to converge toward a common end as the individual

discovers the compelling experience of self-actualization.

Just as the great personality acts upon society to liberate, to redeem, to

transform, and to heal, so the birth of personality in oneself has a

therapeutic effect. It is as if a river that had run to waste in sluggish

side-streams and marshes suddenly found its way back to its proper

bed, or as if a stone lying on a germinating seed were lifted away so

that the shoot could begin its natural growth. (CW 17, par. 317)

With individuation, the persona and ego hold less influence as centers of

the identity. The emerging individual increasingly discovers the midpoint of the

psyche that embraces the collective orientation of the archetypes. Complexes

have less influence and the collective unconscious becomes more accessible.


A more unified, less egocentric individual emerges. The culmination of

individuation is not self-absorption but a more purposeful life. In the process of

relinquishing an ego-centered identity, the individual discovers that the collective

unconscious has drawn him into a purposeful and substantial life increasingly

attuned to contribution.

Individuation and the World at Large The culture of organizations and the state often resist the development of

individuality and press for the conventions of the herd. Yet the tenacious strength

of the social fabric depends on the strength of the individuals that comprise its

social warp and woof. The remarkable transformations of civilization occur out of

the efforts of highly evolved individuals.

The great events of world history are, at bottom, profoundly

unimportant. In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of the

individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great

transformations take place, and the whole future, the whole history of

the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from these

hidden sources in individuals. (CW 10, par. 149)

The family, the group, the organization, the city, the nation flower fully, to

the degree that individuation is embraced and promoted as a way of life.

So too the self is our life's goal, for it is the completest expression of

that fateful combination we call individuality, the full flowering not

only of the single individual, but of the group, in which each adds his

portion to the whole. (CW 7, par. 404)

Individuation steps aside from egocentricity to a richer life that more fully

expresses the archetypal Self and the collective unconscious. The further that

one actualizes the potential of personality held within the Self, the more oriented

to the collective one’s life becomes. The ultimate focus of the individual is neither

personal isolation nor egocentric ambition; it is the wellbeing of the collective

community.


But the more we become conscious of ourselves through self-

knowledge, and act accordingly, the more the layer of the personal

unconscious that is superimposed on the collective unconscious will be

diminished. In this way there arises a consciousness which is no longer

imprisoned in the petty, oversensitive, personal world of the ego, but

participates freely in the wider world of objective interests. This

widened consciousness is no longer the touchy, egotistical bundle of

personal wishes, fears, hopes, and ambitions which always has to be

compensated or corrected by unconscious counter-tendencies; instead,

it is a function of relationship…bringing the individual into absolute,

binding, and indissoluble communion with the world at large. (CW 7,

par. 275)

Individuation does not occur alone, but rather in the company of many

others. “One does not individuate,” as Jung was fond of saying, “on Mount

Everest.”

As nobody can become aware of his individuality unless he is closely

and responsibly related to his fellow beings, he is not withdrawing to

an egoistic desert when he tries to find himself. He only can discover

himself when he is deeply and unconditionally related to some, and

generally related to a great many, individuals with whom he has a

chance to compare, and from whom is able to discriminate himself.

(C.G. Jung and Herman Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships, p. 83-

84)

The archetypal influences of the unconscious seem determined to

navigate the individual via trial, serendipity, storm, struggle, joy, contentment,

ambition, patience, generosity, good and hard luck, to the ultimate destination of

a consummate, uniquely differentiated life in community. The goal for the

developing individual is to invest the human identity neither in the ego, nor

shadow, nor persona, nor anima, but in the unique personality capable of uniting

them all.


Psychological Types as the Compass of Individuation Though we may be predisposed earlier in life toward a few of the many

possible orientations of consciousness, with individuation all of the orientations

become more accessible. This is the great paradox of individuation: we grow to a

uniquely differentiated individual by becoming more balanced and whole.

Just as the various identities and energies of the psyche are unified

through individuation, so too are the various orientations of consciousness. The

term “psychological types” only refers to one’s habitual cognitive predisposition

toward a few of the orientations of consciousness. That early predisposition is

merely the starting point. In the course of individuation, all of the cognitive types

become more accessible.

We could think of this growth using our theatrical metaphor for the

psyche. The ego is born with a predisposition to one of the functions; let’s say the

sensation function. It is also born with a predisposition to direct that function to

one of our two audiences; let’s say the conscious audience of the world. Jung

would call this typical orientation: extraverted sensation.

Extraverted sensation becomes part of the ego’s identity as it enacts the

play of individuation on the stage of consciousness. We find the individual drawn

by this ego orientation to lively interaction with the audience of the world. The

ego thrives there, and plays its part well. From the ego’s perspective, the whole

play could be enacted from this one conscious role.

But the producer of the play, the Self, will not have it. The play has been

written for individuation, not egocentricity. The ego will get comfortable in its

predisposed role and find its strength there, but the aim is to have that one

leading actor play many roles. For only in developing all of the other

psychological types—the other orientations of consciousness—can the individual

personality fully flower.

In the course of the lifetime play, the supporting orientations of the ego

begin to play their parts. The extraverted orientations of extraverted thinking and

feeling bring new abilities to adapt to the interactive relationship with the

audience of consciousness. Introverted feeling and thinking also bring new

abilities; their role is to interact with the audience of the archetypes and the stage

of the unconscious. With the development of each new orientation in the ego’s

repertoire, new capabilities are born that aid in differentiating the emerging

individual.


The point of the drama is to press forward, to engage all of life’s many

synchronous experiences and relationships in a continual and progressive

journey to wholeness—the integrated expression of all the types in one

individual.

The psychological types could be thought of as a composite compass,

useful for tracking the conscious processes of individuation. We know the ego’s

initial position—its habitual orientation to one of the functions, coupled with an

orientation to the conscious or unconscious audience. We know where the

individual will be headed during the course of individuation—to the fuller

development of the remaining orientations. In Chapter Eight, we will see that the

compass is also useful for discerning the shadow’s predispositions.

Development on the compass of psychological types expresses the

growth and unification occurring at deeper levels of the psyche. As ego

consciousness evolves, the unique individual becomes more whole. For its

usefulness in charting the direction of individuation, we will examine more closely

the compass of consciousness that Jung referred to as psychological types.

Documents

GCI PAT Reading Seg I.Chap1 - Gifts · PDF filesystole or yin from yang. They are each important aspects of the whole system. ... extraversion and introversion. Like the functions,