Presented by Anita Navarra and Mary Miller

Carl Jung – Introduction

He founded analytical psychology.

He was a Swiss psychiatrist.

He proposed and developed the concepts of archetypes, collective unconscious, individuation, personality types among other ideas.

Carl Jung

Born July 26, 1875 in Kessweil, Switzerland

Began Psychological studies in 1900

Married Emma Rauschenbusch in 1903

After graduation, worked at a psychiatric hospital in Zurich

1906 – studied word association

- named President of the International

Psychoanalytic Association

1907 – met Freud. They were friends/colleagues for a few years and then parted ways after differing on dream interpretation and human personality components.

He also taught at Zurich, had a private practice, and published, “Psychology of the Unconscious’’ in 1911.

1914 – Withdrew from society.

1913-1919 – studied inner dreams and fantasy images; he believed these were his most important life years.

Carl Jung - Timeline

Psychic Development

Individuation: The unfolding and development of the

personality. Involves establishing a relationship between the ego and the self.

Self: Center of the total psyche: includes conscious and unconscious.

Ego: Identified with conscious mind; center of consciousness.

Personal unconscious: Anything not conscious, but can be.

Collective unconscious: A kind of knowledge we are all born with, yet we are not directly conscious of.

They are “seeds of self, sources of energy, available for an individual’s growth into wholeness.” (Welsh)

They are unconscious and cannot be known directly, but experienced through symbols.

Contents of collective unconscious—also called dominents or images.

An unlearned tendency to experience things a certain way.

“Every psychological expression is a symbol if we assume it signifies more and other than itself.” (Jung)

Each figure in our dream may relate to an aspect of ourselves.

Archetypes

Everyone has a mother

We are born wanting a mother.

Images could be church, Mary, life at sea.

Mother Archetype

An Archetype that represents the dark side of the

ego.

The evil one is capable of – it is neither good or bad of itself, but it is what one is capable of when needed.

Images could be snake, dragon, demon.

Shadow

One’s public image – from the Latin word, mask.

A person puts this on before showing oneself to the outside world.

Persona

Anima/Animus, which points to our contrasexual side.

True Self, which can appear in dreams and visions in the guise of a wise old man or woman, or a sun child and possibly in myths, fairytales and the imagination through images such as prophet or savior or in the form of a circle (mandala), square, or cross.

There is not a fixed number of the many archetypes. Some examples:

Symbol

Father guide, authority figure

Child children, small creatures

Hero ego

Trickster clown, magician

Other Archetypes

The ultimate unity of the personality – symbol could be a

circle, cross, Mandala

Mandela could be used in meditation, drawing one’s focus back to the center.

“My mandalas were cryptograms concerning the state of the self which was presented to me anew each day…I guarded them like precious pearls….It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is

the center. It is the exponent of

all paths. It is the path to the center,

to individuation. ” - Carl Jung

Self

1. Opposites – opposition creates energy of the

psyche.

2. Equivalence – energy of opposites is given to both sides equally. Acknowledge both ends (poles?) or a complex will develop.

3. Entropy – energy decreases over a lifetime –oppositions come together.

Dynamics of the Psyche –3 Principles

1. Attitude in seeing the world: whether the ego most often faces towards persona and outer reality or the collective unconscious and its archetypes.

-Introverts see the world in terms of how it affects them.-Extroverts are concerned with their impact on the world.

2. Preferred ways of dealing with the world: receiving information and then making judgments about how to act upon it.

- Sensation and intuition are different ways of perceiving and receiving information.

-Thinking and feeling are judging functions.

Personality Types

First Half/Second Half of Life

First Half – acquiring ego and fitting into society.

Second Half

Letting go of parental, social, vocational

identities.

Time of the soul.

Sense of “me” begins to be expressed.

Life has purpose beyond material good.

There is a discovery and fulfillment of deep innate potential.

The journey is one of meeting the self and at the same time meeting the Divine.

The journey is one of transformation, individuation, which is at the mystical heart of all religions.

Spiritual Expression

The author, John Welch states that in his book,

Spiritual Pilgrims, he assumes the “adequacy” of Jung’s theories, and is not attempting to defend them. He admits the Jung’s theories are by “no means unchallenged today,” particularly his view of the reality of the collective unconscious and the existence of the archetypes.

Author’s Note

How might Jung’s theories be helpful to my personal

and faith development?

How might applying Jung’s theories be helpful in my ministry?

What are the “sticking points” of Jung’s theories that I find limiting or that I find myself resisting?

Discussion Questions