Psyche and Self’s Theories in Psychology

An Overview It seems like some psychologists, including analytical ones, may be misrepresenting Jung’s views when it comes to the application of his theories and his theories of survival. Jung seems to have combined a biological and a social perspective of the psyche, where he looked at the psyche’s inherent social aspects. He is interested in the thought process of people like Burckhardt. Jung is becoming more of an interest to modern society and those thinkers who would like to understand the psyche for spiritual reasons, and from a logical, and in some ways scientific, point of view. Jung was one of Freud’s students, but moved away from him during the course of his professional career, though he maintained his respect for Freud. In one of his analyses of the difference between himself and Freud, he says, “My attitude to biology is equally positive, and to the empiricism of natural science in general, in which I see a Herculean attempt to understand the psyche by approaching it from the outside world, just as religious gnosis is a prodigious attempt of the human mind to derive knowledge of the cosmos from within. In my picture of the world, there is a vast outer realm and an equally vast inner realm; between these two stands man, facing now one and now the other, and according to temperament and disposition, taking the one for the absolute myth by denying or sacrificing the other.” In Jung’s views and theory it is apparent that he wants to understand the psyche from a more multifaceted dimension, and is not satisfied with aggression and sex being the roots of every human’s motivation. He continuously questions the unconscious, and says that the unconscious is not a specific thing, but rather something unknown which affects us in every moment. Jung views an individual in terms of a whole combined of opposite parts. The more a person becomes her whole self, the more she is able to comprehend and accept her every element. The more she does that, the more liberated she feels; an inner liberation that is reflected and projected into the external world. This acceptance includes the person’s persona (what we show the world) and shadow (the undiscovered aspect of us, which we repress and deny the existence of). To describe shadow a little more, Jung identifies the word shadow as an individual’s negative and repressed parts, which they project onto others. This could be anything from repressed unresolved issues, or out of balance feelings like fear, anger, jealousy, resentment, hate, etc. Therefore, the individual’s unreasonable rejection of others is ultimately an unconscious rejection of parts of themselves. For example, when we hate something in someone, it would be helpful to self-reflect and see what the root of that is. Maybe, just maybe, it is a repressed trait of our own being that needs our attention. While having a preference and being attracted to certain elements are natural parts of being a human, having strong negative feelings toward someone without a solid reason could be a projection of the shadow, which we need to look into. Further, shadow is an essential part of the process of individuation, because it helps with the mechanism of self-understanding and differentiation. When it comes to the process of differentiation, humans have to first set apart from their source to be able to find their individuality within the source. After that, they can connect back to the source with a sense of self-knowledge. In other words, after going through the individuation process, one can function from wholeness, but with full awareness and knowledge of the parts. Knowing the shadow is an important part of this individuation process. Until we acknowledge the shadow’s existence, it controls us. It is only when we understand and are willing to admit that we, like anyone else, have shadows that we can learn to deal with it and be in control of it. For example, consider a person who has some form of inner anger. If such a person is not aware of this part of her shadow, she may act excessively calm to give the persona of not being angry. In the meantime, just because she is denying this anger does not mean that it does not exist in her. On the other hand, it exists and is in full power and control over her because she is unaware of it. Such a person may not actively act angry by yelling or shouting, but will passively bring out this part of the shadow without being aware of it. This could be her being jealous of others, hurtful sarcasm, feeling anger at the wrong source, acting discriminatory toward others, gossiping about others, wanting to step over others to achieve goals, feeling happy for other people’s misery, taking advantage of others, or an inability to feel other people’s pain, etc. If we think that we don’t have any of these characteristics, it would be good to think again! Sometimes, an authentic self-discovery brings out surprises. Self-reflection is the key to releasing any negative inner feelings and thoughts that result in negative behaviors, it is the key to self realization. For Jung, the process of self-realization is not walking toward perfection but getting one step closer to the individual’s wholeness; the sum of her parts. The process of moving toward this wholeness is different for different individuals and cannot be imitated. Jung did not encourage following someone else, but learning from others and choosing one’s own path. When discovering a sense of wholeness, perfection is self-limiting because if we look for perfection, we are putting an end to an endless process of self-discovery. This can lead us to stepping into something with unreasonable expectations, creating disappointments. Self-discovery is like an onion; peel one layer and there comes another, and there is no ending point, but a process. Life is a route we take to become aware of our wholeness through interaction, reflection, learning, and growing. To have a full experience, one may need to feel some form of discomfort at times because life is not about avoiding what does not feel comfortable. To experience life fully, one has to realize that it is a combination of opposites. For anything to come into existence, there has to exist an opposite to make it noticeable. For example, if we want to feel happy with our life, we have to take steps for that happiness. Those steps will probably bring about some challenges that may impose experiences of discomfort or even pain. The question is whether the pain is worth the gain? Does the benefit outweigh the cost? Is the gain a real gain that adds to the content of our life, or is it just some impulsive desire? If the first, how much would we be willing to pay for it? It all goes back to the cost and benefit analysis and applying this analysis can help in achieving a state of inner balance. When it comes to self-realization, Maslow is another well known psychologist who addresses this concept in great detail. He came up with the term self-psychology, and described a pyramid of self-growth. I have talked about Maslow’s pyramid of growth in my other books, and will touch on it briefly here. What many people, including some psychologists, do not notice is the similarities that exist between Jung and Maslow’s foundations and concepts related to self psychology. They may use words differently, but there seems to be many of the same underlying explanations and at points, t complement each other. For example, Jung’s term, shadow, seems analogous to Maslow’s term, evil. Maslow’s self-actualization seems similar to Jung’s self-realization, and Maslow’s self-transformation seems similar to Jung’s definition of wholeness. Maslow says that evil is people’s own ignorance when they neglect their potential; the unused and wasted power that decays and brings disease. What one does not grow within might turn against one. In the same way, Jung explains that the shadow is the repressed part that is creating negativity.