Svatman

Analytical psychology is a psychotherapy method started by Carl Jung in 1912.

It is a theory of mind that emphasizes the importance of wholeness  for each individual. As in traditional psychoanalysis, 
analytical psychology suggests that early experiences are very  important in personality development. At the same time, though, 
analytical psychology emphasizes the significance of the present, including the role that cultural shifts and archetypes (or underlying universal symbols) play in individual psychology. 

By bringing together an understanding of individual experience with a recognition of the role played by broader truths and 
experiences, analytical psychology hopes to work toward an integrated human consciousness. It is utilized not only for those 
with a mental disorder, but also for those who desire to promote  their own psychological development and well-being.

Jung believed that the role of the unconscious was very important in human behaviour. In addition to our unconscious, Jung said 
there is a collective unconscious as well which acts as a storage area for all the experiences that all people have had over the 
centuries. He also stated that the collective unconscious contains positive and creative forces rather than sexual and aggressive ones, 
as Freud argued. 

Carl Jung believed that all persons have masculine and feminine traits that can be blended within a person and opined that the 
spiritual and religious needs of humans are just as important as the libidinal, or physical, sexual needs.

Analytical psychology organises personality types into groups such as the “extroverted,” or acting out, and “introverted,” or turning 
oneself inward. These are Jungian terms used to describe personality traits. 
Developing a purpose, decision making, and setting goals are other components of Jung’s theory. While Freud believed that a person’s 
current and future behaviour is based on experiences of the past, Jungian theorists often additionally focus on dreams, fantasies, and other things that come from or involve the unconscious.

Jungian therapy, therefore focuses on an analysis of the patient’s unconscious processes so that the patient can ultimately integrate
them into conscious thought and deal with them. Much of the Jungian technique is based on bringing the unconscious into the 
conscious.

In explaining personality, Jung said that there are three levels of  consciousness, viz.,

• The Conscious
o The conscious is the only level of which a person is directly aware.
o This awareness begins right at birth and continues throughout a person’s life

• The Personal Unconscious
o Painful, repressed, and/or forgotten memories from one’s past make up the personal unconscious
o Contains infantile memories and impulses, forgotten events, and experiences originally perceived below the threshold of consciousness
o Contains “complexes”. – Emotionally toned 
conglomeration of associated ideas

• The Collective Unconscious
o Jung’s most distinctive concept
o An innate collection of psychic material common to  all humans in all cultures
o Emotionally toned experiences derived from 
ancestors
o Responsible for myths, legends, and religious beliefs
o Refers not to the inherited ideas but to man’s innate tendency to act in a certain way whenever experience stimulates a biologically- inherited response tendency
o Contains the “archetypes”

This is part of depth psychology. It not only treats mental health issues but also helps a person to understand oneself deeply. Once a person starts understanding oneself, he/she can understands how others are different from him/her. Instead of focusing solely on competition, now the person understands how he/she has been shaped over the years and how his/her path is unique and instead of comparing ourselves with others we must focus on working on our own paths designed specifically for us. Jung identified this goal as “INDIVIDUATION”.

 

INDIVIDUATION
Jung believed that a human being is inwardly whole, but that most of us have lost touch with important parts of our selves.
Through listening to the messages of our dreams and waking imagination, we can contact and reintegrate our different parts.
The goal of life is individuation, the process of coming to know, giving expression to, and harmonizing the various components of the psyche.

“Individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfilment of the collective qualities of the human being, since adequate consideration of the peculiarity of the individual is more conducive to better social achievement than when the peculiarity is neglected or suppressed.”

• ~Carl Jung, Jung and St. Paul, Page 6