Carl Jung

The pioneer I chose to elaborate on is Carl Gustav Jung, his views and research tactics have contributed to today’s understanding of psychology and expanded our knowledge on several different aspects and elements of psychology. Jung is best known for his development of archetypes, studies of the human psyche, the dream analysis and the collective unconscious. Carl Jung was born July 26, 1875, in Kesswil, Switzerland; he passed away on June 6, 1961 in Zurich. Originally Carl studied medicine, but also developed an interest in spiritual phenomena. This fascination with medicine and spirituality led him into the field of psychiatry. In 1902, he graduated from the University of Basel with a medical degree. Jung worked with psychiatric patients at the University of Zürich asylum. In 1906, he wrote Studies in Word Association and sent a copy to Sigmund Freud. The two became friends. His time spent working with Sigmund Freud had a major impact on Jung’s later theories and helped him develop a fascination for the unconscious mind. Jung wanted to further understanding of the human mind through dreams, myth, art and philosophy. Jung began to separate from Freudian theory, rejecting Freud's emphasis on sex as the sole source of behavior motivation. It was during this period of intense self-analysis that Jung became increasingly interested in dreams and symbols, later using what he learned during this time as the basis for his theories of psychology. Jung became more organized about his theoretical approach, broke from psychodynamic theories and formed his own theory called Analytical Psychology. Jung's colleagues in the psychoanalytic community turned against him due to parting from Freud. Carl devoted himself to exploring his own subconscious. He recorded his experience in a previously unpublished book known at The Red Book and continued to write and illustrate the book over the next fifteen years, the book became published in 2009. Jung believed the human psyche exists in three parts: the ego (the conscious mind), the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Jung believed the collective unconscious was a reservoir of all the experience and knowledge of the human species. Jung also believed that the process of individuation was essential in order for a person to become whole and fully developed as a human being. Individuation is a process in which the various parts of a person, including the conscious and unconscious, become completely integrated so that the individual becomes his or her "true self." "In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated from others. While Jungian theory has numerous critics, Carl Jung's work left a notable impact on psychology. His concepts of introversion and extraversion have contributed to personality psychology and also influenced psychotherapy. His advice to a patient suffering from alcoholism led to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, which has helped millions of people suffering from alcohol dependence. According to Jung, dreams are a way of communicating and acquainting yourself with the unconscious. Dreams are not attempts to conceal your true feelings from the waking mind, but rather they are a window to your unconscious. They serve to guide the waking self to achieve wholeness and offer a solution to a problem you are facing in your waking life. Jung views the ego as your sense of self and how you portray yourself to the world. Part of Jung's theory is that all things can be viewed as paired opposites: good/evil, male/female, or love/hate. So working in opposition to the ego, is the "counter ego" or what he refers to as the shadow. The shadow represents the rejected aspects of yourself that you do not wish to acknowledge. The shadow is more primitive, somewhat uncultured, and a little awkward. http://www.dreaminterpretation-dictionary.com/carl-jung-theory.html Archetypes constitute the structure of the collective unconscious - they are psychic innate dispositions to experience and represent basic human behavior and situations. Thus mother-child relationship is governed by the mother archetype. Father-child - by the father archetype. Birth, death, power and failure are controlled by archetypes. The religious and mystique experiences are also governed by archetypes. The most important of all is the Self, which is the archetype of the Center of the psychic person, his/her totality or wholeness. The Center is made of the unity of conscious and unconscious reached through the individuation process. Archetypes manifest themselves through archetypal images (in all the cultures and religious doctrines), in dreams and visions. Therefore a great deal of Jungian interest in psyche focuses on dreams and symbols interpretation in order to discover the compensation induced by archetypes as marks of psyche transformation. The collective unconscious is an universal datum, that is, every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype-layer since his/her birth. One can not acquire this strata by education or other conscious effort because it is innate. We may also describe it as a universal library of human knowledge, or the sage in man, the very transcendental wisdom that guides mankind. Jung stated that the religious experience must be linked with the experience of the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Thus, God himself is lived like a psychic experience of the path that leads one to the realization of his/her psychic wholeness. http://www.carl-jung.net/archetypes.html http://www.carl-jung.net/index.html