Discussion 3
Counseling Theories
Chapter 3
Carl Jung
Jungian Analysis
Jungian Analysis is the psychotherapeutic approach of Analytical Psychology in which the analyst and client work together to bring unconscious elements of the psyche into a more balanced relationship with conscious awareness and experience in an effort to discover meaning, facilitate maturation of the personality, improve mental health or provide relief to psychological suffering (Hamilton, 2018).
Jungian Concepts
Active Imagination -- Jung created the concept of active imagination as a way to describe bridging the gap between unconsciousness and consciousness. Using imagination, fantasy, dreams and meditation, a client is able bring their unconscious into the present through narrative or action. Active imagination relies on a client’s undirected observation of their imagination or dreams, not an intended image of their desires.
Carl Jung
Jungian Concepts
Active Imagination –
Jung created the concept of active imagination as a way to describe bridging the gap between unconsciousness and consciousness.
Using imagination, fantasy, dreams and meditation, a client is able bring their unconscious into the present through narrative or action.
Active imagination relies on a client’s undirected observation of their imagination or dreams, not an intended image of their desires.
Carl Jung
Jungian Concepts
Individuation
Individuals with emotional difficulties often feel like they live fragmented, disjointed lives filled with varying degrees of emotional experiences. Forward progress is often impaired as a result of inner conflict and self-sabotage stemming from segregation of the different selves within a person.
Individuation involves integrating all of a person’s past positive and negative experiences in such a way that the person can live a healthy, productive, and emotionally stable life.
Individuation allows a person to become unique and essentially individual from other human beings and the collective unconscious.
The process of individuation occurs through various methods, including dream interpretation and active imagination, and gives birth to a mature, holistically healthy and harmonious individual.
Carl Jung
Jungian Concepts
Collective Unconscious
Jung was the first to use the term collective unconscious as a means for describing an expression of the unconscious that is exhibited by every living being with a nervous system.
Rather than only possessing experiences from our personal history or our psyche, the collective unconscious organizes all of the experiences within a species.
Jung believed the collective unconscious was inherited and inherent to each being, rather than a result of specific events.
According to Jung, the human mind has innate characteristics “imprinted” on it as a result of evolution. These universal predispositions stem from our ancestral past. Fear of the dark, or of snakes and spiders could be examples of this imprint. Jung called these ancestral memories and images archetypes.
Carl Jung
Jungian Archetypes
Archetypes (Jung, 1947) are images and thoughts which have universal meanings across cultures which may show up in dreams, literature, art, or religion.
Jung believed symbols from different cultures are often very similar because they have emerged from archetypes shared by the whole human race. For Jung, our primitive past becomes the basis of the human psyche, directing and influencing present behavior. Jung claimed to identify a large number of archetypes but paid special attention to four.
The “persona” (or mask) -- is the outward face we present to the world. It conceals our real self and Jung described it as the “conformity” archetype. This is the public face or role a person presents to others as someone different to who we really are (like an actor).
Carl Jung
Jungian Archetypes
The Four Archetypes of Jungian Analysis
The “persona” (or mask) -- is the outward face we present to the world. It conceals our real self and Jung described it as the “conformity” archetype. This is the public face or role a person presents to others as someone different to who we really are (like an actor).
The anima/animus -- is the mirror image of our biological sex, that is, the unconscious feminine side in males and the masculine tendencies in women. Each sex manifests attitudes and behavior of the other by virtue of centuries of living together. The psyche of a woman contains masculine aspects (the animus archetype), and the psyche of a man contains feminine aspects (the anima archetype).
Carl Jung
Jungian Archetypes
The Four Archetypes of Jungian Analysis
The Shadow -- This is the animal side of our personality (like the id in Freud). It is the source of both our creative and destructive energies. In line with evolutionary theory, it may be that Jung’s archetypes reflect predispositions that once had survival value.
The Self -- provides a sense of unity in experience. For Jung, the ultimate aim of every individual is to achieve a state of selfhood (similar to self-actualization), and in this respect, Jung (like Erikson) is moving in the direction of a more humanist orientation.
Carl Jung
Jung’s Theory of Personality
Introversion and Extroversion
Introversion– Introverts are more comfortable living alone and being by themselves. They depend on their “me time” to recharge; they become immersed in their inner world and run the risk of losing touch with their surroundings or their outer world.
Extroversion – Extroverts are actively involved in the world of people and things; they are socially active and more aware of what is going on around them. They like to be part of groups, communities and probable places where they get a chance to interact. The idea of being alone terrifies them, leaving them alienated from their inner selves.
Carl Jung
Jung’s Theory of Personality
Jung believed that no one is completely extroverted or introverted, but they certainly connect to one or the other attitude. Jung stated it this way:
“If you take an extrovert you will find his unconscious has an
introverted quality, because all the extraverted qualities are played out
in his consciousness and the introverted are left in the unconscious.”
Since both introverted and extroverted qualities exist in an individual, Jung believed that each person thinks, feels, senses, and experiences (intuition) the world in many different ways. Additionally, Jung observed that perceiving and judging functions were always used hand-in-hand with attitudes of extraversion and introversion.
These eight mental functions were called his Eight Types by Jung. These eight mental functions-in-attitude are the functions that we use to adapt to the world, and these functions are the core of Jung’s theory of psychological types.
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
The Counseling Relationship in Jungian Counseling
Essential to Jung’s approach to counseling was his humanity. This can be seen in the concept of the “wounded healer.” The counselor is touched by the client’s pain (angry and hurtful forces represented by the shadow). Accepting the client and their psychological disturbance and unconscious processes are critical to Jungian Analysis.
Although Jung took an individualistic, and patient-oriented approach to his work, he proposed stages of the process of Jungian analysis to provide a clearer understanding of analytic work:
Catharsis – The intellectual and emotional confession of secrets.
Elucidation – Interpretation of the transference relationship.
Education – Socially education on superiority, power, and the client’s issues to society.
Transformation or Individuation – focuses on individuals’ understanding their unique patterns and their individual personalities.
Carl Jung
Jung’s Life Stages
The Athlete Stage – this is the stage in where we are most self-absorbed, and therefore is the one which tends to be the least mature. It is characterized by being obsessed mainly with our phsysical appearance. The athlete phase can be narcissistic, critical or both. There are people that have never made it out of this phase or often go back to it.
The Warrior Stage – in this phase we start to take on some responsibilities and sometimes people get the desire to beat the world – which in simpler words mean to become more goal oriented. The warrior stage is mainly characterized by the struggles in our lives that we are facing at the early adulthood – so we start to understand maturity. This is the most common phase as most of the people go back to it along their lives as they need to sort of re-invent themselves.
Carl Jung
Jung’s Life Stages
The Statement Stage – In this stage we ask ourselves “What have I done for others?” Basically the aims in your life change. They shift from personal achievements that you got in the warrior stage to accomplishing goals based on forwarding other people’s lives. Hence, this phase would correspond to parenting, as your focus becomes providing a better life for your children.
The Spirit Stage – this is the final stage where people realize their essence – meaning that they are more than the things they have gained (as money, friends, possessions, among others). This spirit phase is characterized by “getting out of your own mind” and focusing on what is waiting for us beyond physical beings. According to philosopher Lao Tzu, the supreme virtue is to be able to have without possessing, acting with no expectations, and leading and not trying to control.