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Carl Jung Psychotherapy

July 26, 1875 - June 6, 1961Introduction Jungian therapy (“J-analysis”) is a face-to -ace psychoanalytic psychotherapy based on psychodynamic principles elaborated by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung after his break with Freud and classical psychoanalysis around 1912. In sharp contrast to the rarely psychoanalytic model of the mind restricted to instinct, drive, and defense, Jung postulated an innate, irreducible, and thus additional psychic need to apprehend meaning and to express it symbolically. This need most commonly generates a religious impulse that cannot in every case be derived from (nor need always be a defense against conflict with) the biological drives. When ignored or blocked, this need can produce not only unhappiness, but psychological distress and eventually overt symptoms. Jung considered the now-widespread dismissal of religion as driven less by rational disillusionment than by hubris.Classical Jungian therapy therefore aims at promoting an “individuation process” marked by an individually determined interior experience of a markedly mystical character. Jungian scholarship incorporates and interprets a vast, world-spanning body of mythological, religious, mystical, and occult references. Jungian ideas are widely embraced within artistic, literary, religious, and personal circles, but remain largely peripheral to academic psychology and psychiatry.

Jung anticipated many later trends: “ego-psychology”, which defines, and focuses treatment toward expanding a defense-free domain of the ego: the ideas of Otto Rank, who similarly focused on free will; Heinz Kohut with his emphasis on a “self” developed out of “normal narcissism”; Hans Leowald’s re-evaluation of regression as not merely restorative but creative; and Abraham Maslow’s notion of “self-realization”. Today’s easy blending parallels Jung’s approach-and was in large part,

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fostered by it.

The school Carl Jung was founder of a neopsychoanalytic school of psychology, which he named Analytical Psychology. Jung's unique and broadly influential approach to psychology has emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician for most of his life, much of his life's work was spent exploring other realms, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. His most notable contributions include:

The concept of the psychological archetype Theory of synchronicity The collective unconscious - also known as "a reservoir of the experiences of our

species."

Jung emphasized the importance of balance and harmony. He cautioned that modern humans rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm. Jungian ideas are not typically included in curriculum of most major universities' psychology departments, but are occasionally explored in humanities departments.

His school in His wordsJungian analysis is a unique psychotherapy. What is so distinctive — and so special — about Jungian analysis is that it emphasizes images. Jungian analysis is a psychotherapy that exercises and explores the imagination.

"Every psychic process," Jung says, "is an image and an 'imagining.'" He says that "the psyche consists essentially of images," and, even more emphatically, that "image is psyche."Vitally important images spontaneously emerge from the unconscious in the dreams of every night life and in the experiences of everyday life. They offer us a vividly precise, profoundly expansive vision of our intimate relations, our material aspirations, our artistic creations, and our spiritual obligations. These images are both eloquently informative and radically transformative. With exquisite exactitude, they offer us valuable perspectives on what life means – on who we have been, who we are, and who we might become. Jungian analysis shows us how to interpret these images accurately and how to engage them effectively so that we may live more consciously reflective and decisive lives. It offers us an opportunity to reimagine ourselves.William Blake says: "If the Spectator could Enter into these Images in the Imagination, approaching them on the Fiery Chariot of his Contemplative Thought, if he could enter into Noah's Rainbow . . . or could make a Friend & Companion of these images of wonder . . . then he would be happy."Jungian analysis shows us how to live more imaginatively — and more happily — as we love, work, and play.What is "Jungian psychotherapy?"One way to answer this question is to say what Jungian psychotherapy is not. It is not a psychotherapy in which the therapist offers advice to the patient. "For," Jung says, "I do not know what to say to the patient when he asks me, 'What do you advise? What shall I do?' I don't know either."In Jungian psychotherapy, the therapist deliberately adopts a "not-knowing" attitude.

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Why does the therapist not know? The therapist cannot know, immediately, what is unknown – that is, what is unconscious. Jung defines the unconscious as "the unknown at any given moment." He emphasizes that "the unconscious is something that is really unconscious."Jung says that the therapist must "give up all pretensions to superior knowledge, all authority and desire to influence" the patient. It is not the therapist who knows anything (for example, what is "best" for the patient). Rather, it is the unconscious that "knows" something.In Jungian psychotherapy, it is not the therapist who offers advice to the patient. Jung says that "we get nowhere by employing well-intentioned advice." It is the unconscious that offers advice to the patient.Jungian psychotherapy, Jung says, is "a dialogue or discussion between two persons." It is a mutual process, a collaborative conversation, between the therapist and the patient. Together, as equals, the therapist and patient analyze what the unconscious of the patient advises.The advice that the unconscious offers to the patient is what Jung calls”compensation." The problem, Jung says, is that the attitude of the conscious mind is too one-sided and too narrow. The solution, he says, is "to compensate the one-sidedness and narrowness of the conscious mind by deepening its knowledge of the unconscious."Jungian psychotherapy is”depth psychotherapy," or”psychotherapy of the unconscious." The purpose of Jungian psychotherapy is to deepen what the conscious mind knows about the unconscious. Jung says that "the real and authentic psyche is the unconscious."Dreams are especially important in Jungian psychotherapy, for, as Jung says, they are "beyond the control of the conscious mind." Jung regards dreams as "indispensable" to psychotherapy, for they have an importance "equal to the conscious mind itself."Why dreams are so important is that they are the purest, most spontaneous expression of the unconscious. What the unconscious expresses in dreams are compensations for the one-sided, narrow attitude of the conscious mind. "When we set out to interpret a dream," Jung says, "it is always helpful to ask: 'What conscious attitude does it compensate?'"When a patient has a problem, Jung does not pretend to know the solution. It is dreams that propose a solution to the problem, so Jung says to the patient: "let us see what they say." Dream interpretation is an essential activity in Jungian psychotherapy.Jung considers "it is the prime task of psychotherapy today to pursue with singleness of purpose the goal of individual development." The development of the individual is what Jung calls "individuation." Jung defines individuation as a process through which "the patient becomes what he really is." The purpose of Jungian psychotherapy is not for the patient to become merely "normal." Rather, it is for the patient to become truly unique. Jung says that individuation is a process through which "a man becomes the definite, unique being he in fact is."Jung says that "the fundamental rule for the psychotherapist should be to consider each case new and unique." Jungian psychotherapy provides an opportunity for us to develop as individuals so that, ultimately, through an encounter with the unconscious, we may consciously become who we uniquely are.

The Concept of psychological ArchetypeIn his work on the confrontation of conscious and unconscious, Jung describes the unconscious contents or archetypal images. Among these he mentions a few universal ones: the Shadow, Anima/Animus, the Wise Man and the Center. But what is the archetype? A hereditary given that shapes and transforms individual conscious. A given that is defined especially by a tendency rather than by specific contents, inherited images etc; a matrix that influences human behavior both on the level of ideas and on the moral, ethical level of conduct in general. Jung talks about archetype (named at first

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primordial image) as biologists' patterns of behavior. So, archetypes are innate tendencies that mold the human conduct. "The concept of archetype - states Jung - arises from the repeated observation that sometimes myths and tales from universal literature comprise well defined themes which reappear everywhere and every time. We find the same themes in fantasies, dreams, delirious ideas and illusions of individuals that live in our present days". These thematic images are representations of archetypes, they have archetypes as roots. They impress, influence and fascinate us. "Archetypes do not have a determinate content... but since the moment they become conscious, that is filled with the material of our conscious experience... The archetype is empty; it is a pure formal element, nothing else but a possibility to perform, a tendency of representation given a priori". Archetypes correspond to instincts that, as well, cannot be recognized as such unless they become manifest. Finally, the archetype is psychoid that is psychic-type but not immediately accessible to the mind.

The Concept of Collective Unconscious Jung conception of collective unconscious is based on his experiences with schizophrenic persons since he worked in the psychiatric Burgholzli hospital. Though initially Jung followed the Freudian theory of unconscious as the psychic strata formed by repressed wishes, he later developed his own theory on the unconscious to include some new concepts. The most important of them is the archetype. 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.

Archetypes manifest themselves through archetypal images (in all the cultures and religious doctrines), dreams and visions. Therefore a great deal of Jungian interest in psyche focuses on dream and symbols interpretation in order to discover the compensation of archetypes as symbols of psyche transformation. The collective unconscious is a universal datum, that is every human being is endowed with this psychic archetype-layer since his/her birth. We may also describe it as a universal library of human patterns of behavior, or the Sage in man, the very transcendental wisdom that guides mankind. Finally the archetype is God in man. (Jung didn’t mention, but in his writings it could be understood that he means unconscious is God himself/herself/itself- Dr.Scott Peck)

The concept of synchronicitySynchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related. In order to be synchronous, the events must be related to one another conceptually, and the chance that they would occur together by random chance must be very small.The idea of synchronicity is that the conceptual relationship of minds, defined by the relationship between ideas, is intricately structured in its own logical way and gives rise to relationships which have nothing to do with causal relationships in which a cause precedes

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an effect. Instead, causal relationships are understood as simultaneous — that is, the cause and effect occur at the same time.Synchronous events reveal an underlying pattern, a conceptual framework which encompasses, but is larger than, any of the systems which display the synchronicity. The suggestion of a larger framework is essential in order to satisfy the definition of synchronicity.Jung coined the word to describe what he called "temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events." Jung variously described synchronicity as an "'acausal connecting principle'" (i.e., a pattern of connection that cannot be explained by conventional, efficient causality), "meaningful coincidence" and "acausal parallelism". Jung introduced the concept as early as the 1920s but only gave a full statement of it in 1951 in an Eranos lecture, then in 1952 published a paper "Synchronicity — An Acausal Connecting Principle" in a volume with a related study by the physicist (and Nobel winner) Wolfgang Pauli. It was a principle that Jung felt gave conclusive evidence for his concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious, in that it was descriptive of a governing dynamic that underlay the whole of human experience and history — social, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. Events that happen which appear at first to be coincidence, but are later found to be causally related are termed as "incoincident".Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidence were not merely due to chance but, instead, suggested the manifestation of parallel events or circumstances reflecting this governing dynamic. One of Jung's favorite quotes on synchronicity was from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, in which the White Queen says to Alice: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards".

Jung's Methods in Psychotherapy Jung's method in psychotherapy follows the Freud's one, as he often admitted. In rare cases, in which Freudian approach of the soul is not sufficient, Jung applies also other methods that should guide the patient to a personal confrontation with the collective unconscious, and with archetypes. This confrontation aims the assimilation of archetypal images, in one word the individuation, an extensive process that leads to the realization of a psychic totality that includes equally the conscious and the unconscious. In common terms, it is all about an extension of the conscious mind which includes therefore the archetypal materials. The main methods of Jungian therapy are as follow: Free Associations TestTest used in psychotherapeutic treatment that consists of recording the average response time to certain stimulus-words. The patient is asked to answer to the inducted words pronounced by the analyst with any word that comes to his mind. The response time can be an indicator of the constellated unconscious complexes.Dream AnalysisUp to a point, it follows Freud's method: free associations, subject level, retrospective interpretation. But Jung added several other new ideas as well: Amplification of dream content, The idea that the dream is a compensation of ego's unilateral attitude The idea of the oneiric message's finalityActive ImaginationLet all the things flow. Let inner fantasies flow freely but not as a detached and contemplative viewer, nor as a psychotherapist, but as an actor that takes part in the fantasies, that plays a role in them. The fantasies are products of the unconscious and must be fully integrated in our conscious mind.

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Symbol AnalysisIt aims at the integration of the unconscious psyche and the extension of conscious.

Analysis of Oneiric Symbols

The symbol analysis is a basic component of Jung's analytical method. He devoted this subject a great number of works among which we mention: Psychology and Alchemy.

The symbols often appear in dreams and this is why they request the analyst's contribution to their decrypting. Unlike Freud, who reduces almost all oneiric symbols to sexuality, Jung claims that the symbols are indications of the collective unconscious archetypes and especially of the Self (the archetype of the center).

Notes:Jung introduces the notion of amplification in the effort of dream interpretation. The analyst participates with his vast knowledge to the deciphering of the oneiric symbols' psychological signification. This knowledge is extracted from astrology, alchemy, mythology, history of religions, etc.

Jung devoted the rest of his life to developing his ideas, especially those on the relation between psychology and religion. In his view, obscure and often neglected texts of writers in the past shed unexpected light not only on Jung's own dreams and fantasies but also on those of his patients..

Jung’s Influence Jung has had an enduring influence on psychology as well as wider society. He has influenced psychotherapy, introducing:

The concept of introversion vs. extraversion The concept of the complex Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was inspired by Jung's psychological types

theory Socionics, similar to MBTI, is also based on Jung's psychological types. o The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric

questionnaire designed to identify certain psychological differences according to the typological theories of Carl Gustav Jung as published in his 1921 book Psychological Types (English edition, 1923). The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. They initially created the indicator during World War II, believing that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be "most comfortable and effective".

o Socionics is a theory of personality and interpersonal interaction based on Carl Jung's work on Psychological Types, Freud's theory of the conscious and subconscious mind, and Antoni Kępiński's theory of information metabolism. The theory was developed mainly by the Lithuanian researcher Aušra Augustinavičiūtė in the 1970s and 80s, and

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continues to develop today. The name socionics is derived from the word "society", since Augustinavičiūtė believed that each personality type has a distinct purpose in society, which can be described and explained by socionics.

Central to socionics is the idea that a person's psyche processes information using "psychological functions." Different orderings of these functions result in different ways of perceiving, processing, and producing information, which in turn result in distinct thinking patterns, values, behavior, and thus different personality types. Socionics also includes a theory of intertype relations which examines the interaction of these functions among types.

Spirituality as a cure for alcoholism Jung also played a role in the development of Alcoholics Anonymous. For example, Jung once treated an American patient (Rowland H.) suffering from chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some time, and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that occasionally such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics where all else had failed. Rowland took Jung's advice seriously and set about seeking a personal spiritual experience. He returned home to the United States and joined a Christian evangelical church. He also told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he told was Ebby Thatcher, a long-time friend and drinking buddy of Bill Wilson, later co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Thatcher told Wilson about Jung's ideas. Wilson, who was finding it impossible to maintain sobriety, was impressed and sought out his own spiritual experience. The influence of Jung thus indirectly found its way into the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original 12-step program, and from there into the whole 12-step recovery movement, although AA as a whole is not Jungian and Jung had no role in the formation of that approach or the 12 steps. The above claims are documented in the letters of Carl Jung and Bill W., excerpts of which can be found in Pass It On, published by Alcoholics Anonymous. The detail of this story is disputed by some historians.

Jung and Freud Jung's legacy has not enhanced Christianity. From its inception psychotherapy has undermined the doctrines of Christianity. Sigmund Freud's attitudes towards Christianity were obviously hostile, since he believed that religious doctrines are all illusions and labelled all religion as "the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity."1 His one-time follower and colleague Carl Jung, on the other hand, may not be quite as obvious in his disdain for Christianity. However, his theories have disdainfully diminished Christian doctrines by putting them at the same level as those of all religions. While Jung did not call religion a "universal obsessional neurosis," he did view all religions, including Christianity, to be collective mythologies - not real in essence, but having a real effect on the human personality. Dr. Thomas Szasz describes the difference between the psychoanalytic theories of the two men this way: "Thus in Jung's view religions are indispensable spiritual supports, whereas in Freud's they are illusory crutches". While Freud argued that religions are delusionary and therefore evil, Jung contended that all religions are imaginary but good. Both positions are anti-Christian; one denies Christianity and the other mythologizes it.After reading Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, Jung contacted Freud and a friendship with mutual admiration ensued and lasted about eight years. Even though Jung had served four

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years as the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association, the break between Jung and Freud was complete. Jung departed from Freud on a number of points, particularly Freud's sex theory. In addition, Jung had been developing his own theory and methodology, known as analytical psychology.

CLASSICAL JUNGIAN THERAPY

1) FormatJungian therapy is conducted face-to-face. Jung believed that the “neutrality” of the classical psychoanalyst was undesirable-because largely illusiory. He was the first to argue for a more “personal” form of psychotherapy in which the mixing of the patients problems and biases with those of the therapist would be accepted as a virtue. Treatment sessions last about an hour and take place no more than three times weekly, more typically once or twice.

2) ProcessClassical Jungian therapy has two chief components: “dream interpretation” and “active imagination”.

a) Dream interpretation- the Jungian approach to dream interpretation uses two main techniques:

b) association and amplification. To associate to his dream, the patient freely expresses, withoutc) censorship, any thoughts that the imagery brings to mind. In contrast to classicald) psychoanalytic technique, however, Jungian-style association is interpreted, not free. It is akine) to the limited association Jung asked of his subjects in his early word-association studies: once

a link is established by the patient between nan element of the dream and some aspect of theg) patient’s life-past or present- the therapist encourages him or her to set that element aside andh) associate to other aspects of dream. Jung insisted that while associations eventually lead

toward a patient’s familiar conflicts( which he called complexes) they wandered away fromthe specific meaning of the dream to which they were tethered. Inevitably, the lack of new

k) information will lead both therapist and patient to devalue dream interpretation. For bothpractical and theoretical Jungian treatment, dream interpretation consists in teaching the

m) patient (by commentary, not directive) how to make plausible links between the elements ofn) dreams and their personal concerns. Early on, the dreams are expected to be of the kindo) familiar to most psychotherapists: fleeting, fragmentary, often confusing.

Active imagination- once a patient has begun to experience “big dreams”, they are encouraged to take their expressive engagement with the material a step further. The patient will be guided to converse with the dream figures in imagination. The goal is to achieve a state of mind akin to certain forms of meditation that utilize explicit visualization. Active imagination is a method of assimilating unconscious contents (dreams, fantasies, etc.) through some form of self-expression. The object of active imagination is to give a voice to sides of the personality (particularly the anima/animus and the shadow) that are normally not heard, thereby establishing a line of communication between consciousness and the unconsciousness. Even when the end products-drawing, painting, writing, sculpture, dance, music, etc. - are not interpreted, something goes on between creator and creation that contributes to a transformation of consciousness. The first stage of active imagination is like dreaming with open eyes. It can take place spontaneously or be artificially induced. In the latter case you choose a dream, or some other fantasy-image, and concentrate on it by simply catching hold of it and looking at it. You can also use a bad mood as a starting-point,

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and then try to find out what sort of fantasy-image it will produce, or what image expresses this mood. You then fix this image in the mind by concentrating your attention. Usually it will alter, as the mere fact of contemplating it animates it. The alterations must be carefully noted down all the time, for they reflect the psychic processes in the unconscious background, which appear in the form of images consisting of conscious memory material. In this way conscious and unconscious are united, just as a waterfall connects above and below.The second stage, beyond simply observing the images, involves a conscious participation in them, the honest evaluation of what they mean about oneself, and a morally and intellectually binding commitment to act on the insights. This is a transition from a merely perceptive or aesthetic attitude to one of judgment. Although, to a certain extent, he looks on from outside, impartially, he is also an acting and suffering figure in the drama of the psyche. This recognition is absolutely necessary and marks an important advance. So long as he simply looks at the pictures he is like the foolish Parsifal, who forgot to ask the vital question because he was not aware of his own participation in the action. But if you recognize your own involvement you yourself must enter into the process with your personal reactions, just as if you were one of the fantasy figures, or rather, as if the drama being enacted before your eyes were real. The judging attitude implies a voluntary involvement in those fantasy-processes which compensate the individual and-in particular-the collective situation of consciousness. The avowed purpose of this involvement is to integrate the statements of the unconscious, to assimilate their compensatory content, and thereby produce a whole meaning which alone makes life worth living and, for not a few people, possible at all.

3) Individuation In any event, not every one has a knack for active imagination. Those who do, are considered to have the essential skills for the “individuation process”. Utilizing active imagination as its chief vehicle, the Jungian analysand may now undergo a lengthy series of imaginative encounters with the major “archetypes”. These appear as larger-than-life brings of mythic proportion and so real as to engender intense emotional response. The therapists role at this stage is two-fold: first, to ensure that the emergence of this archetypal material is placed so as to minimize the risk of “inflation” (hypomania); and second, to guide the analysand toward literature that “amplifies” the meaning of emerging theme. Jung’s own autobiography remains the best example in the literature of such state, and of the difficulty of discriminating among deliberate active imagination, psychotic, hallucination, and extreme dissociation. There are some individuals who are able to engage in active imagination but who should not, because of its potentially destabilizing effects.In successful individuation process, the encounter with the archetypes greatly expands the individual’s sense of meaning and purpose in life, and their flexibility in adaptation. Potentials previously unrecognized and untapped may be awakened, and aspects of the personality that had lain fallow may now be cultivated and incorporated, yielding greater “wholeness”. Jung believed that such an expansion of the personality was marked in dreams and active imagination by the spontaneous appearance of symbols of the “self”. These are images whose basic geometric format is the quartered circle (mandala). They are strikingly similar to symbols utilized worldwide to represent God; in polytheistic cultures, the highest god; in Gnostic religions, the union of all gods.

The ideal classical Jungian individuation process is expected to traverse the following stages:o Integration of the ‘personal unconscious’, or ‘shadow’ loosely equated with the

unconscious as defined in psychoanalysis; this prepares the individual for the integration of the “collective unconscious”, that is , the archetypes, the wit

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o The “anima”-unrealized feminine aspects of a man, or “animus”-unrealized masculine aspect of a woman;

o The “Great Mother’, the embodiment of everything maternal, both nurturing engulfment, as nature herself can be;

o The “Wise old Man”, the embodiment of “spirit”;o The “Self”, an overarching union of all of these, that is at once the superordinate

representation of God and the foundation of individual identityIndividuation itself is a never-ending process. Jung considered the ignition of process in therapy, and at least some substantial experience of the Self, to be the goal of therapy. With the acquisition of a sense of meaning and higher purpose ni life, symptoms may be expected either to disappear or, if not, to have taken on the kind of meaning that allows them to be accepted as a gift rather than a hindrance.

The Religious Affiliation of PsychoanalystWhich religion was Jung? Throughout the course of Jung's long life, he struggled greatly with his Christian roots and psychic heritage. Jung was the only surviving son born to a Swiss Reformed Evangelical clergyman. Further, eight of his uncles were ministers. It's obvious that the young Carl Jung must have spent a large portion of his early life, surrounded by these very religious clerics. However, despite Jung's struggles with what he considered to be the dead faith of his father - at the end of his life, Jung came full circle in his personal struggles and remained a Christian (albeit, he will never be accused of "orthodoxy" in his beliefs). Jung was sympathetic to and interested exploring all the many other religious faiths across the world, and throughout antiquity. Jung's interest was in order to gain a better understanding of the working of the human psyche. Jung would not have recommended anyone converting to a religion or religious stance that was foreign to his/her own psychic inheritance and/or heritage.

Jungian Interpretation of Religion The Jungian interpretation of religion views all religious experience as a psychological phenomenon, and regards the personal experience of God as indistinguishable, for scientific purposes, as a communication with one's own unconscious mind. Carl Jung established a school of psychology called depth psychology, which emphasizes understanding the psyche through dream analysis. Other workers in depth psychology have used other methods with some success, but dream analysis remains the core of depth psychology. Works of art and mythology are interpreted similarly to dreams: a myth is "a dream being experienced by a whole culture." Inevitably archetypal figures appear in personal dreams which closely resemble mythic figures, which leads to a natural interest in experience of religion as a psychological phenomenon. Jung emphasized the importance of balance in a healthy mind. He wrote that modern humans rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious. Jungian psychology is typically missing from the curriculum of most major universities' psychology departments. Jung's ideas are occasionally explored in humanities departments, particularly in the study of mythography. Jung's parents were fervent Christian missionaries, and part of Jung's early life was occupied with resolving his personal conflict between his stern upbringing and his his own feelings about religion. This settled in on the "scientific" interpretation of religion, which treats religion as a psychological phenomenon only, and neither affirms nor denies a greater reality. Although Carl Jung was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, he searched through other subjects, attempting to find a pre-existing myth or mythic system which aptly

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illustrated his ideas about the human psychology of religion. He began with Gnosticism, but abandoned it early on. Later he studied astrology and then speculative alchemy as a symbolic system. It is not clear from his writings if he ever settled on any one of these systems of symbols. Carl Jung and his associate G.R.S. Mead worked on trying to understand and explain the Gnostic faith from a psychological standpoint. Jung's analytical psychology in many ways schematically mirrors ancient Gnostic mythology, particularly those of Valentinus and the 'classic' Gnostic doctrine described in most detail in the Apocryphon of John (see gnostic schools). Jung understands the emergence of the Demiurge out of the original, unified monadic source of the spiritual universe by gradual stages to be analogous to (and a symbolic depiction of) the emergence of the ego from the unconscious. However, it is uncertain as to whether the similarities between Jung's psychological teachings and those of the gnostics are due to their sharing a "perennial philosophy", or whether Jung was unwittingly influenced by the Gnostics in the formation of his theories. Jung's own 'gnostic hymn', the Septem Sermones ad Mortuos (Latin: "The Seven Sermons to the Dead"), would tend to imply the latter, but after circulating the manuscript, Jung declined to publish it during his lifetime. Since it is not clear whether Jung was ultimately displeased with the book or whether he merely suppressed it as too controversial, the issue remains contested. Uncertain too are Jung's belief that the gnostics were aware of and intended psychological meaning or significance within their myths. On the other hand, it is clear from a comparison of Jung's writings and that of ancient Gnostics, that Jung disagreed with them on the ultimate goal of the individual. Gnostics in ancient times clearly sought a return to a supreme, other-worldly Godhead. In a study of Jung, Robert Segal claimed that the eminent psychologist would have found the psychological interpretation of the goal of ancient Gnosticism (that is, re-unification with the Pleroma, or the unknown God) to be psychically 'dangerous', as being a total identification with the unconscious. To contend that there is at least some disagreement between Jung and Gnosticism is at least supportable: the Jungian process of individuation involves the addition of unconscious psychic tropes to consciousness in order to achieve a trans-conscious centre to the personality. Jung did not intend this addition to take the form of a complete identification of the Self with the Unconscious.

Jung's Spirit Guide Because Jung turned psychoanalysis into a type of religion, he is also considered to be a transpersonal psychologist as well as a psychoanalytical theorist. He delved deeply into the occult, practiced necromancy, and had daily contact with disembodied spirits, which he called archetypes. Much of what he wrote was inspired by such entities. Jung had his own familiar spirit whom he called Philemon. At first he thought Philemon was part of his own psyche, but later on he found that Philemon was more than an expression of his own inner self. Jung says:Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force which was not myself. In my fantasies I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I. . . . Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru. One can see why Jung is so very popular among New Agers.

Summary

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Psychological InterventionNeo Freudian theoryCarl Jung Psychoanalytic theory

C.G. Jung has exerted an enormous and steadily growing influence on modern culture, especially as the “search for meaning” has taken on special urgency in the light of the triumphs of scientific materialism. Transplanted via analogy from physics to psychology, the seminal ideas of the theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli profoundly influenced Jung’s theory of the psyche. Although greatly helped by Jung the person, and deeply gratefull to him, Pauli predicted what has infact happened: That for an era bereft by science of religion, Jungian theory would ultimately prove more worthy as a philosophy than as a strictly scientific model of psychology.Jungian therapy is therefore most distinct when aming its therapeutics primarily at the development of a spiritual life. Its practitioners root themselves theoretically in a model they find personally congenial and that provides for them, as it were, a larger myth within which to lead a meaning-infused life. In practice, the evidence for and against the comparative efficacy of a specifically Jungian treatment method is no better than for any other method-or worse. Given the many different approaches that have arisen among the various Jungian schools-and within them-a good argument can be made that the parameters defining Jungian therapy will surely evade adequate denotation, but that individuals who identify themselves as Jungian therapists do as a good job on the whole as do those who do not. There is no doubt that many individuals deliberately seek Jungian therapy for what the term “Jungian” connotes and that Jungian therapists favour a style of communication that is comfortable for such individuals.

References

1. Jeffrey Satinover, “Jungian Psychotherapy”. Yale University2. Sigmund Freud. The Future of an Illusion, trans. and edited by James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1961, p. 43.3. Thomas Szasz. The Myth of Psychotherapy. Garden City: Doubleday/Anchor Press, 1978, p. 173.4. C. G. Jung. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, 2nd ed., trans. by R.F.C. Hull. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969, p. 4.5. Calvin S. Hall and Gardner Lindzey. Theories of Personality. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1957, p. 80.6. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, op. cit., p. 7.7. C. G. Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections, ed. by Aniela Jaffe, trans. by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Pantheon, 1963, p. 55.8. Victor Von Weizsaecker, "Reminiscences of Freud and Jung." Freud and the Twentieth Century, B. Nelson, ed. New York: Meridian, 1957, p. 72.9. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, op. cit., p. 183.10. "Spiritus contra Spiritum: The Bill Wilson/C.G. Jung Letters: The roots of the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous." Parabola, Vol. XII, No. 2, May 1987, p. 68.