". . . the psyche is the most tremendous fact of human life. Indeed, it is the mother of all human facts, of civilization and of its destroyer, war." [C.G. Jung COLLECTED WORKS, Vol. 9i., Para 206]

Never in modern life has an understanding of psyche and of one's relationship to psyche been more important. It is a hubris of ego-consciousness that it believes it is self-made. All evidence indicates that ego-consciousness arises from psyche to which it owes its existence and on-going life. An ego that ignores the fact of its psychic roots is in peril. Like the individual, a world too unconsciously under the sway of psychic processes can easily succumb to barbaric behaviors, untempered by conscious understanding and correction.

One of C.G. Jung's fundamental contributions to the fields of psychology and epistemology is his concept of archetypes. For Jung, an archetype is a pattern of behavior. You can liken this concept to that of the structure of a crystal. While the crystalline structure predetermines the architecture of the actual crystal, until the crystal is given real form in matter, the pattern exists only as a concept. The archetype, then, is an abstract concept that has real lived meaning only when filled in with actual human experience. Like Kant's categories, an archetype is an a priori structure of cognition.

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability
And that it may take a very long time. [PierreTeilhard de Chardin]



Jung believed that the individual has to adapt to some degree to external realities, but he also believed that adaptation to the realities of one's own inner life is just as essential. About his therapeutic goals, he says: "My aim is to bring about a psychic state in which my patient begins to experiment with his own nature--a state of fluidity, change, and growth where nothing is eternally fixed and hopelessly petrified." [COLLECTED WORKS, Vol. 7, P. 46]

Paraphrasing Ignatius Loyola, Jung describes the role and function of consciousness: "Man's (sic) consciousness was created to the end that it may (1) recognize (laudet its descent from a higher unity (Deum); (2) pay due and careful regard to this source (reverentiam exhibeat); (3) execute its commands intelligently and responsibly (serviat); and (4) thereby afford the psyche as a whole the optimum degree of life and development (salvet animan suam). [COLLECTED WORKS, Vol. 9ii, p. 165]



THE EFFECT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS UPON CONSCIOUSNESS

Unconscious contents, especially those that belong to the personal unconscious, make themselves felt through symptoms, actions, affects, opinions, fantasies, and dreams. The general relationship that exists between ego consciousness and the unconscious is compensatory. When the relationship works, i.e., when there is a balance and harmony between them, there is self-regulation of the psyche. When the relationship goes awry, when there is too great a deviation between the ego attitude and an unconscious process, then an imbalance sets in.

An example of this compensatory mechanism occurs when, for example, we hold a low opinion of someone--too low and not reality based. We might have a dream of that person in an exalted position. Or perhaps we work too hard, are too ego-driven, overly-ambitious and too goal-oriented. The unconscious may compensate such an ego state by withdrawing psychic libido. Depression or lethargy sets in. We might dream our car is stalled, or we are trying to run and our legs won't move, we can't get to the airport on time, etc. The unconscious has withdrawn its cooperation.

A solid working alliance with the unconscious is of great importance to the well-being and functioning of an individual. Complexes interfere with our everydfay functioning, a clear sign that unconscious material is pressing for admission to ego consciousness. When unconscious material is placing pressure on our ego consciousness, we may have dreams of unwelcome intruders or upsetting and troublesome visitors.

No one has any obligations to a concept; that is what is so agreeable about conceptuality--it promises protection from experience. The spirit does not dwell in concepts, but in deeds and in facts. [MDR, p. 144]

Certainly the ego and its will have a great part to play in life; but what the ego wills is subject in the highest degree to the interference, in ways of which the ego is usually unaware, of the autonomy and numinosity of archetypal processes. Practical consideration of these processes is the essence of religion, insofar as religion can be approached from a psychological point of view. [C.G. Jung, MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS, p. 353]

This (the unification of the divided components of the personality within the psyche of the individual) would form a counterbalance to the progressive dichotomy and psychic dissociation of collective man.

It is of supreme importance that this (unification) process should take place consciously, otherwise the psychic consequences of mass-mindedness will harden and become permanent. For, if the inner consolidation of the individual is not a conscious achievement, it will occur spontaneously and will then take the well-known form of that incredible hard-heartedness which collective man displays towards his fellow men. He becomes a soulless herd animal governed only by panic and lust: his soul, which can live only in and from human relationships, is irretrievably lost. But the conscious achievement of inner unity clings to human relationships as to an indispensable condition, for without the conscious acknowledgment and acceptance of our fellowship with those around us there can be no synthesis of personality. [COLLECTED WORKS, Vol. 16, Para. 443-44]

When you work with your dreams, "it's amazing the information you get that is different from your everyday perception, information that gives you a different way of walking through life. You don't have to go on in the same old way any more. I used to go strictly with my feelings that were raging around, would get stuck in them. Now I find that if I cann go over them, process them those feelings don't hang around for days. I am unstuck then. It's that old thing--the truth will set you free. So my perception is not always the truth of me or of my situation. I don't have to be stuck in my perception." [Cheryl]


"It is always as if we were observing through a slit so that we only see a particular moment; all the rest is dark and we are not aware of it at that moment. The area of the unconscious is enormous and always continuous, while the area of consciousness is a restricted field of momentary vision." [C.G. Jung, ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY: ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE, p. 8]

ROSE F. HOLT, Jungian Analyst

Offices:

Chicago (773) 293 -4606
St. Louis (314) 726-2032
]
Voice Mail: [314 740-6207]
e-mail: roseholt@aol.com

For a fictional account of a Jungian analysis, see Robertson Davies' THE MANTICORE.

C.G. Jung: The Self is the principle and archetype of orientation and meaning. Therein lies its healing function.

C.G. JUNG "The energy of the central point, (the Self), is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances." [COLLECTED WORKS, Vol. 9i, Para. 634]

Complex - An unconscious psychic content made up of associated ideas and images clustered around a central core. The core is an archetypal image. When constellated, affects emerge which upset the psychic balance and interfere with the customary functioning of the ego. Every complex has an archetypal core, and the core consists of a pair of opposites. If we identify with one part of the complex, one of the pair, the other is unconscious and we will know it only in projection, i.e., it truly belongs in our own personality but, for various reasons, we cannot own it and so it will land on some thing, place, or person. An example of this identification/projection mechanism could be in a mother-complex. If the personal mother was a too-good, always available, always a giving mother for us, that is the kind of mother we most probably will introject. The negative mother, the other part of the archetypal mother, we will find in the world, perhaps in a person, an institution, or even in the matrix of our lives (interestingly enough, mother and matrix derive from the same root word.) We could speculate in a similar way on the father-complex. You can see how important, how vital, it is for each of us to reconcile, to the degree that we are able, the opposites that belong to the archetypal core of our complexes.

ROSE F. HOLT, Jungian Analyst

Offices:

St. Louis, MO (314) 740-6207 

Voice Mail: [314 740-6207]
e-mail: rosefholt@gmail.com




Unconscious - The source of those factors that influence and impact our lives in unknown ways. Jung distinguished between the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The former consists of those behaviors, attitudes, personal characteristics, experiences that we have repressed because they were too painful or too embarrassing for us to acknowledge as belonging to us and to our history. The latter, the collective unconscious, is the repository of human heritage and of things that have never been conscious. Under certain conditions, contents of the unconscious, both the personal and the collective aspects, can become conscious, i.e., can make themselves known to an ego.

Jungian Analysis is a particular approach to psychotherapy that works to harmonize conscious and unconscious factors so that the individual becomes more or less reconciled to his/her own complexities. Jung's view of the psyche is that beyond the personal levels of the psyche, there are active factors that seek recognition by ego consciousness. Unrecognized and split off, these factors cause unpleasant neurotic symptoms. These symptoms can result in a conscious situation of distress that may serve to activate the reconciliation process, a process Jung calls "individuation."

Jungian psychoanalysis is a journey of self-discovery. Dream themes and symbols as well as life patterns are the guides we follow. Dream images and symbols compensate one-sided or too-restrictive conscious attitudes, and thus serve as an "inner teacher" that can round out and complete the personality.

C.G. Jung: The Self is the principle and archetype of orientation and meaning. Therein lies its healing function.

ROSE F. HOLT, Jungian Analyst

Offices:


St. Louis, MO (314) 740-6207

Voice Mail: [314 740-6207]
e-mail: rosefholt@gmail.com


Analytical (Jungian) Psychology is based upon the work of C.G. Jung (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist who spent his life working to understand and to "map" the human psyche. He demonstrated that the psyche, like the body, is fairly uniform in fundamental ways, manifesting itself in people's lives in universal patterns which he called archetypes, or "ancient imprints." Just as a bird has an inate pattern of a nest which serves as a guide, Jung saw that human beings also have inate characteristic and repeating patterns which inform our existence. Central to the archetypes is Jung's notion of the Self, the architect of order and meaning. The Self, according to Jung, envelops and surrounds the individual ego, influencing and guiding while also seeking its own fulfillment in the ego. If ego consciousness strays dangerously far from the Self, the ground of being of the ego, disastrous consequences can result. Important and impressive dreams, emotions and affects, as well as significant life events/patterns are the primary ways the Self communicates with the ego

In the Jungian approach to psychotherapy/psychoanalysis, analyst and client work together to facilitate better relations between the ego and the Self. Through careful attention to the client's history, early traumas, relationships, significant events, and through examination and discussion of the client's dreams, analyst and client may establish this critical ego-Self relationship. Work with dreams is important because the images in dreams "are symbols, that is, the best possible formulation for still unknown or unconscious facts, which generally compensate the content of consciousness or the conscious attitude." [Jung, COLLECTED WORKS, Vol. 14, Para 772] Focus on and discussion of dream images are techniques for understanding the messages the Self is trying to convey via the dream. The dreamer begins to glimpse his/her role and function in the psychic background and see in what ways he/she is at odds with psychic unfolding.


Psychological maturity, for Jung, is the individual's commitment toward the responsible living and fulfilling of the archetypal dimensions of the psyche and the demands of the Self.