JUNGIAN CONCEPTS

Some basic Jungian concepts are these :

Jung agreed with Freud that energy dynamics were important to the psyche, but he
thought the fundamental energy, or libido, was not specifically sexual in nature but,
rather, a more general type of energy.
The personal unconscious described by Freud overlays what Jung termed the collective
unconscious, which consists of universal images and inherited behavioral proclivities
(instincts).
All aspects of a persons psychological makeup, including all conscious and unconscious
aspects, are part of a whole, the psyche.
Personality is an important but largely surface aspect of the psyche.
The psyche is guided toward becoming a harmonious and integrative whole. Many crises
and conflicts can be considered part of the teleological or purposive process of growth
and development instead of merely as forms of pathology.
Spiritual growth is central to personality development.
Jung developed a typology of personality or temperaments to help understand and
categorize differences in how people experience and approach life

JUNG CONCEPT OF LIBIDO

For jung, the fundamental psychic energy was still to be termed libido, but his
conception of this primal force differed from the classical psychoanalytic view. For Jung,
libido was a neutral and nonsexualized or general psychic energy. Libido is a form of energy,
and, as in Freuds theory, may be channeled, suppressed, repressed, blocked, or expressed. In
all cases, however, it is to be understood as a dynamic life force not purely as a sexualized
energy.
THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUIVALENCE AND ENTROPY
Jungs principle of equivalence had been based on the first law of thermodynamics --that energy is neither created nor destroyed but only transformed. According to this law,
repressed libido is not destroyed but turns up elsewhre in the psyche. A good example is a
student who represses sexual fantasies may redouble efforts at community service. This
represents not the destruction of energy but a shift of an equivalent amount of energy
elsewhere in the psyche.
Jung also formulated a psychological principle based on the second law of
thermodynamics, the law of entropy, which states that, in a physical system, energy will flow
from the more energized matter to the less, eventually achieving a state of balance. The
principle of entropy implies that psychic energy flows from the most intensely energized
ideas, archetypes, and complexes to those that are less energized. Ultimately, the mental
system strives to an equilization of differences. Thus, for example, an individual who
overemphasizes one way of approaching life will find, over the years, that other areas receive
more energy. For example, a macho male may gradually get in touch with his more

sensitive and artistic side; a compliant young woman may get in touch with her more
combative sense of self.
SOME MAJOR THEMES OF JUNGS LIFE
1. The first theme was that Jungs dreams, visions, and secrets resulted in a sense of
isolation and independence of viewpoint beginning during his boyhood.
My one great achievement during those years was that I resisted the temptation to talk about it
with anyone. Thus the pattern of my relationship to the world was already prefigured: today
as then I am a solitary, because I know things and must hint at things which other people do
not know, and usually do not evem want to know.

2. A second theme was Jungs conviction that he consisted of two separate persons. Some of
the motives that shaped this odd belief: Jungs family dissatisfaction, his sense of
inferiority, his religious skepticism in a home where religion was paramount, and his
desire for the alleviation of stressful situations. This second theme includes the idea that
some inner experiences may be truthful revelations. This idea later became one basis for
many of Jungs ideas --- including the collective unconscious, archetypes or inherited
images that reside there, and the synchronicity between internal psychic events and
external equivalents. He viewed his sense of being two persons, his visions and his
dreams as gifts full of knowledge and wisdom bestowed by a truthful and holy source. He
was convinced that his personalities were not evidence of a psychopathological split
personality or schizophrenic dissociation.
3. Jung also was sure that his descent into the unconscious was a foray after truth, not a
psychotic folly.
STRUCTURE OF THE PSYCHE :
EGO, PERSONAL, AND COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS
The psyche [soul in Greek] is the total of all the conscious and unconscious contents of the
mind including the conscious ego, thoughts and feelings, memories, surface and deeper
emotions, the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, and a multitude of archetypes
including the most spiritual. It is important to indicate that the psyche is far more extensive
than the individuals own conscious sense of his or her personality, or than the images an
individual would project to the world. These comprise the archetype of the persona, which is
only one, mostly surface, aspect of the psyche. Within the psyche, there is space for all the
psychodynamics, transformations, and growth about which Jung theorizes.
The Conscious Ego
The conscious ego, for Jung, corresponds roughly to what Freud meant by the same term.
Functioning as the conscious part of personality, the ego includes all external sense
impressions, thoughts, and awareness of feelings and bodily sensations. Consciousness
consists of all those internal and external events that are within our awareness at a given
moment.
The Personal Unconscious

Jungs second division of the mind, the personal unconscious, is partly similar and partly
different from what Freud termed the unconscious. Jung conceived of the personal
unconscious as the necessary surface aspect of the unconscious.
Jung agreed with Freud that the personal unconscious contains ideas and impulses that have
been actively withdrawn from consciousness by repression. Such content is kept unconscious
because it involves repressing motives, the awareness of which would be threatening to the
ego. This part of Jungs personal unconscious corresponds in a general way to Freuds
dynamic unconscious.
Jung also included mental content which, through disuse or inattention, does not at the
moment occupy awareness, but which can become unconscious at will. (Freud would have
called such momentarily latent content preconscious). Even out of awareness, however, all
the activities that normally take place consciously also are recorded unconsciously. Therefore,
the personal unconscious also consists of all those contents that became unconscious simply
because they lost their intensity and were not attended to or forgotten. Tihs aspect of Jungs
personal unconscious is equivalent to long-term memory in contemporary cognitive
psychology.
Despite areas of agreement with Freud, Jung viewed the personal unconscious as having
different functions from Freuds dynamic unconscious mind. For Jung, the personal
unconscious has both retrospective and prospective aspects. It is oriented not only by the
individuals past but also by anticipations of the future. Jung noted that his patients often had
dreams that could aptly be described as forward looking in the sense that, though the
individual was not yet aware of his or her decision or feelings, a dream revealed that the
unconscious had already solved some problem or made some decision.
Jungs personal unconscious also has a compensatory function. When an individuals
conscious attitude leans too one-sidedly in a single direction, the unconscious may
compensate for the imbalance by producing dreams or fantasies that emphasize the opposite
tendency. For example, a person with a sedate existence may have dreams involving exciting
adventures. Compensation may also be seen in dreams that make available to consciousness
all that was subliminal or not attended to during the day.
The function of prospection may aid the individuals adaptation to life, as for example when
the individual is confronted with a difficult problem. In the morning, the solution may pop
suddenly into mind as if the problem had been continuously worked on while the individual
was sleeping. Jung also thought that people could have accurate precognitive hunches about
future events, sometimes based only on intuitive, inner knowing.
The Collective Unconscious
At a deeper level than the personal unconscious lies the impersonal or transpersonal
unconscious. This transpersonal domain is detached from anything personal and is common
to all men, since its contents can be found everywhere. Jung termed this layer of the
unconscious the collective unconscious.

Stored within the recesses of the collective unconscious are the primordial images and ideas
that have been common to human beings. These images represent possibilities of action;
predispositions to respond to external events in specific ways, and potentialities of shaping
experience in certain directions. They are, in short, flexible templates, or models, for current
experience to follow.
Jung termed these images of the collective unconscious archetypes, in the sense of
prototypes, or molds, or reaction. As a kind of template or model, the archetypes organize and
shape the course of an individual interactions with the external world and with the inner
world of the personal unconscious.
ORIGIN THE ARCHETYPES
Archetypes, in this view, are the cumulative effect of perpetually repeated experiences on the
human nervous systems development. It is not the memory of the actual physical experience
itself that is inherited. The repetitive subjective reaction to the event is impressed on
unconscious mental process. It is this internal state, this predisposition to react in similar way
to repetitions of the physical event, that is transmitted to future generations. Thus the
archetypes in the collective unconscious are residues of ancestral emotional life.
Symbol-Making Processes
In this view, people do not store within their brains the exact photographic copies of their
ancestors experiences. Each successive culture, each individual, creates afresh the myth and
the associatesd symbolism of the sun god, or the hero, or the god of thunder when external
events demand reaction. The mythological tendency, the predisposition to respond to these
external events in specific ways, and the disposition to be deeply affected by such events are
the real legacy of past generations. The primitive mentality does not invent myths, it
experiences them
Child-God Archetype
The Christ child and personifications of children as elves od drawfs are depicted throughout
legend and religious lore as having divine or mystical powers. Jung discovered this archetype
in female patients who had an imaginary child. Such a child may symbolize anticipation of
future events and is likely to make its appearance as an archetype when an individual is in the
process of beginning an initiative or new direction. The infant symbolizing the New Year is a
popular example of this archetype.
Mother-Archetype
The Mother archetype may be elicited from an individuals collective unconscious in
response to a real mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, or stepmother. Even figurative
mothers may provoke the emergence of the Mother archetype as symbolized by a wife,
Divine Mother (Virgin Mary), an institution, or any event, place, or person associated with
fertility and fruitfulness. Most students react to their college or university (Alma Mater) in
terms of this mother archetype. The Mother archetype can be positive or negative, light or

dark, good or evil. For example, the goddess of fate (Moira) can be kind and generous, or
remorseless and heartless. Evil-Mother archetype symbols abound: the witch, the dragon (or
any devouring and entwining animal). Thus the Mother archetype includes both the loving
and the terrible mother.
Trickster or Magician Archetype
Jung explored the figure of the Trickster or Magician through a variety of myths, most
notably in Native American mythology. A characteristic of this mythical figure is his fondness
for sly jokes, malicious pranks, and his dual nature: half animal, half human. The demonic
figures of the Old Testament, even the characterization of Yahweh himself as Trickster
undergoing transformation into a divine savior, embody this age-old myth
Hero Archetype
According to Jung, the finest expression of the symbol-making capacity of the collective
unconscious is the figure of the Hero, or its opposite, the demon. Hero myths are common to
many cultures and tend to share the same characteristics. The Hero defeats evil, slays the
dragon or monster, usually near water, suffers punishment for another, or rescues the
vanquished and downtrodden. To provide only one of scores of examples in popular culture,
Luke Skywalker played the hero role in Star Wars.
Shadow as Archetype
Within our personal unconscious there are repressed, unacceptable motives, tendencies, and
desires. There is thus within us an inferior, undesirable aspect to our personality. Jung calls
this side of our inner life the Shadow, the dark half of personality. It is the side of ourselves
that we would prefer not to recognize. The Shadow is common to all people. It is both a
personal and a collective unconscious phenomenon.
Mythologically, Shadow symbols include demons, devils, and evil ones. This archetype may
be evoked in our relations with another when we feel terribly uncomfortable with a person
but are unable to specify exactly what provokes the distress. We might sense, for example, an
immadiate dislike for some people we hardly even know. In such cases we may be projecting
our shadow side onto them because we recognize in these persons something that we do not
like in ourselves. In the case of war, one side may project their shadows upon the enemy, who
might be seen as cunning, treacherous, and sinister. People usually see their own side as
clever, courageous, and righteous. In popular culture, the Star Wars character Darth Vader is a
good example of the Shadow archetype; he contains unacceptable qualities of evil and
cunning.
Animus and Anima Archetypes
The projected image of feminity from a mans collective unconscious is his anima as is a
womans conscious experience of what are considered feminine qualities. The anima
determines a mans relationship to women throughout his life and shapes his understanding of

those relationships. In a sense, a mans first repressed and then projected anima compensates
for the otherwise one-sided masculine nature of his personality.
Likewise, the woman has her inherited masculine image, her animus, which is also the
conscious sense of masculine qualities in a male.
Jung suggested that the opinions of a womans animus have the character of solid convictions
with unassailable validity. The moods of the mans anima are often expressed in sudden
changes in temperament, or character, so that a man may say, I was not myself today.
The womans animus, unlike the mans anima, usually does not consist of a single
personification, but rather of a plurality of masculine figures. The animus is rather like an
assembly of fathers or dignitaries of some kind who lay down incontestable rational ex
cathedra judgments. The animus is thus the embodiment of all of a womans ancestral
experiences of man.
The Persona Archetype
Thus the persona in Jungs theory is the front we present to others because social living
makes demands for certain kinds of behavior. Society establishes certain expectation and
certain roles around which we must shape our public selves, and behind which we hide our
private selves.
As described thus far, the persona is an individual creation, rather than an archetypal form.
But there is also an impersonal or transpersonal aspect to the persona. It comes into existence
to smooth the individuals collective existence as an individual among individuals. It is, as
its name implies, only a mask of the collective psyche, a mask that feigns individuality,
making others and oneself believe that one is individual, whereas one is simply acting a role
through which the collective psyche speaks.
Other Archetypes
Jung discovered a whole array of archetypes in his work with clients, his personal
introspective work, and his study of mythic and religious symbols and themes. Just for
starters, there are the Eternal Child (a youthful and creative Peter Pan-like archetype), the
Wise Old Man, the Trickster, Wotan, and the Hero archetypes. A sensual Bacchus-like figure
is another archetype, as are a Venus- or Aphrodite- like archetype. One clue to archetypal
identities is the panoply of ancient or tribal gods and goddesses, each representing a different
aspect of the psyche. Another way of uncovering archetypes is to examine the themes behind
the most popular and energized figures of contemporary popular culture. People like Elvis
Presley, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, and Michael Jackson have elicited projections of
archetypal themes in the public.
ARCHETYPES AND SYNCHRONICITY
Archetypes can channel great emotion. Jung pointed out that sometimes an archetype might
even take control of the personality so that individual behavior from that point onward is

actually modified and directed by the collective unconscious. In fact, Jung thought that
groups of people, even whole civilizations, might project the meanings of a given archetype
at a given point in history.
Jung proposed the principle of synchronicity to account for events that are related through
meaning but with no apparent physical cause-and-effect sequence. For example, one might
dream of the death of a relative with whom little contact has been had in recent years. A day
after the dream, word arrives announcing that relatives death. The two events, dream and
relatives death, are not related causally. The dream did not cause the relatives death any
more than the future demise could have caused an anticipatory dream. The two events are
related through meaningful simultaneity without apparent physical cause and effect. Jung
termed such a phenomenon synchronicity.
JUNGIAN ATTITUDE TYPES : FREUD THE EXTROVERT AND ADLER THE
INTROVERT
According to Jung, the Freudian interpretation of the case just discussed centers on
the womans problem with unresolved sexual and emotional dependence on the father. That
pattern of dependence on a significant external love object is repeated, in the Freudian view,
throughout the womans life. (e.g., with her husband). For Freud, according to Jung, the key
element is the individuals conscious and unconscious relationship to people and things in the
external world (1917, p. 41). For Adler, on the other hand, the focus is more subjective with
the accent on the individuals striving for inner security and compensation for perceived
personal inferiority, as interpreted by Jung.
Jung formulated a problem out of his ruminations on the differences in approach of
Freud and Adler :
The spectacle of this dilemma made me ponder made me ponder the question : are there al
least two different human types, one of them more interested in the [external] object, the other
more interested in himself? (1917, p. 43)

Adler, it seemed to Jung, was an introvert whereas. Freud appeared to be more of an

extrovert. Jung described introversion, which he considered the first attitude and
extroversion, which he termed the second attitude.
The first attitude [introversion] is normally characterized by a hesitant, reflective, retiring
nature that keeps itself to itself, shrinks from objects, is always slightly on the defensive and
prefers to hide behind mistrustful scrutiny. The second [extroversion] is normalli
characterized by an outgoing, candid, and accommodating nature that adapts easily to a given
situation, quickly forms attachments, and, setting aside any possible misgivings, will often
venture forth with careless confidence into unknown situations. (Jung, 1917, p. 44)

Thus Freud and Adler were bound by their own personality type to see only one viable
interpretation of the psychology of others.
It is possible that Jungs explanation of how Adler and Freuds personal differences
gave rise to his own notion of two fundamental personality types is incomplete. Perhaps

Jungs own history of experiencing competing personalities within himself and in those close
to him also contributed to his development of the idea of psychological types. His
conclusions may result more from inner reflection than from abstract theorizing.
Jung also proposed that the differences between introverts and extroverts in relation to
subjective and objective experience were not absolute. In some cases, introverts will be more
interested in the objective, external world, when that world affects their inner lives.
Conversely, extroverts are more interested in the subjective world when the objective world
has caused them disappointment. Then, the extrovert will withdraw into moodiness and
subjective, egocentric behavior.
At all events, it is clear that Jung was not satisfied with the simple division of
personality into two rigid types. He postulated, in addition to the attitude types of
introversion/extroversion, four functional types : (1) sensation; (2) intuition; (3) thinking; (4)
feeling. Thus, the introvert and extrovert personalities have gradations and variety. In all,
disregarding the infinite variety that degree of expression may provide, there are eight
combined attitude-function types of introvert and extrovert. A bried consideration of the four
functions is in order before we undertake a survey of these eight types.
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE PSYCHE
Jung postulated that the mind has a number of specific function,directed on the one hand to
mediating intercourse with the external world and, on the other, focused on relations with
ones own inner world, the world of the personal and collective unconscious. To those
functions of consciousness directed outwardly to the world, Jung gave the name ectopsychic.
To the functions of the unconscious in its relations with the ego, Jung gave the name
endopsychic. The endopsychic functions were not emphasized in Jungs theory and we omit
them in the present discussion.
Ectopsychic Functions
The ectopsychic functions were those that Jung emphasized in constructing his
introversion/extroversion typology. The first ectopsychic function is sensation, which is the
sum total of external facts given to me through the functions of my senses. Thus sensation is
concerned with orientation to reality: Sensation tells me that something is; it does not tell me
what it is
The second ectopsychic function is thinking and is complementary to sensation, for thinking
in its simplest from tells you what a thing is. It gives a name to the thing. For Jung, the
term thinking was to be restricted to the linking up of ideas by means of a concept, in other
words, to an act of judgment, no matter whether this act is intentional or not.
The third ectopsychic function is feeling. For Jung, the concept of the feeling had a somewhat
restricted meaning. Feeling informs you through its feeling-tones of the values of things.
Feeling tells you, for instance, whether a thing is acceptable or agreeable or not. It tells you
what a thing is worth to you. Feeling may give rise in isolated circumstances to mood, an

emotional state of acceptance or rejection. Thus feeling is a subjective process that is

independent of external stimuli.
The fourth and last ectopsychic function is intuition. Sensation tells us that a thing is;
thinking tells us what that thing is; and feeling tells us what that thing is worth to us, whether
we like or dislike it. The only conscious function left is an awareness of time, the past and
the future of a thing, where it has come from, and where it is going. Intuition is composed of
hunches about the origins and the prospects of a thing. Jung found it very difficult to define
intuition, but he pointed to the conditions, familiar to almost everyone, under which we use
intuition : Whenever you have to deal with strange conditions where you have not
established values or established concepts, you will depend upon that faculty of intuition.
Intuition is therefore the psychological function that mediates perceptions in an unconscious
way so that our experience of intuitive problem solutions is that they spring on us suddenly,
without conscious intent.
Rational Versus Irrational Functions
The four ectopsychic functions can be further classified as either rational or irrational
functions depending on how much reasoning and judging is involved. Hence, sensation and
intuition are classified as irrational because conscious reasoning is, by Jungs definitions,
virtually absent in these functions. By contrast, thinking and feeling are classified as rational
function because both involve the judgmental process and the supremacy of reason. Feeling
is therefore considered a rational function in this typology, at variance with the commonly
held conception that feelings are often irrational.
To represent the opposite type of personality, the individual for whom feeling is the superior
function and thinking the inferior, the T and F spokes would be reversed. The two other
possible types of personality may be represented, depending on the dominance of other
sensation (S) or intuition (I),by rotating the spokes of the compass accordingly.
Each of these four functional types may dominate the basic introvert or extrovert attitude
orientation. Psychological types are not fixed. Jung suggested that an individuals type might
change over time. Which function that is superior or most fully differentiated at a given time
depends on the psyches need for auxiliary or compensatory functions to adapt to external
circumstances and to develop in a harmonious and balanced fashion.
THE EXTROVERT TYPES
The extrovert is focused on external objects instead of subjective experience.
Extroverts sre strongly influenced by their social surroundings, and their beliefs are therefore
shaped by the opinions and values of those close to them. The extreme extrovert can be
overly focused on objects and might completely lose the sense of an autonomous self in them
(Jung, 1921, p. 336). Thus, in Jungs view, the most typical neurosis of the extrovert is
hysteria, as hysterical reactions are essentially attention getting, dependent attitudes toward
people and things in the environment. Eysenck (e.g., 1953a, 1953b, 1967) has marshaled a
good bit of empirical evidence that supports this view.

Extrovert Thinking Type (Rational)

Thinking extroverts are also captured by external ideas and objects; they are unable to
escape their influence in solving problems. They may give the impression of a certain
shortsightedness or lack of freedom in the drawing of logical conclusions because they refuse
to go beyond the objective facts at hand.
Thinking extroverts subjugate everything to the intellect, refusing to see any other
principle for themselves or others to follow than the power of their own decision making.
Their moral code is correspondingly rigid and intollerant of exception. Their struggle is for
objective and valid universal truths (Jung, 1921, p. 347). Ughts and musts dominate the
thinking extroverts approach to values, and their thinking tends to be dogmatic.
Since thinking is their superior function, the feeling side of their lives is suppressed.
They may, therefore, give the impression of being cold or indifferent. Key concise trait
descriptions are that they are objective, rigid, and cold.
Extrovert Feeling Type (Rational)
According to Jung, dominance by the feeling function is most characteristic of women (Jung,
1921, p. 356). Like thinking extroverts, feeling extroverts seek harmony with the external
world. Their thinking function is hidden behind a facade of loud gushing talk and intense
displays of extravagant emotionally. They have a tendency to make friends easily and to be
influenced by the feeling-tone of social situations. They are often described as intense,
effervescent, and sociable.
Extrovert Sensation Type (Irrational)
The sensation extroverts lifestyle is a search for new sensory experiences (1921, p. 363).
They may refine their sensory powers to a high pitch so that they are not merely gross sensual
types, but rather connoisseurs of fine wines, discriminating judges of art. Sensation extroverts
are usually good company, for they suppress any tendency to introspection and self-concern,
favoring instead minute attention to objective, external detail. They tend to be well adjusted
to reality and concerned for the welfare of others. Key trait descriptions are realistic, sensual,
jolly.
Extrovert Intuitive Type (Irrational)
The intuitive extrovert has difficulty maintaining an interest in any one thing for very long.
Usually, this type of person flits from one new idea to another and stays with each only until
the novelty wears off. This individual tends to make decisions without much conscious,
reflective thought. Yet such persons decisions are likely to be good ones because intuitive
extroverts can use their intuition to access the wisdom of their own unconscious. Their
consideration for the welfare of others is weakly developed. However, intuitive extroverts are
valuable to society because they have the capacity to inspire confidence and enthusiasm for
new causes and undertakings. Key trait words describing the intuitive extrovert are visionary,
changeable, and creative.

THE INTROVERT TYPES

The introvert attitude, you may recall, implies that, even though such individuals are aware of
external conditions, they are focused on their subjective reactions. The introverts orientation
to life in modern society may be characterized as an exhausting struggle to keep themeselves
free of external influences and tugs. Typically, if the extreme introvert succumbs to neurosis,
it will be to what was called psychasthenia in Jungs day. This neurosis is, as might be
expected, characterized by intense anxiety reactions, chronic fatigue, and exhaustion. The
diagnosis of psychasthenia is no longer used. Some combination of the diagnoses of
anxiety disorder and dysthymic disorder (neurotic depression) would probably be assigned to
Jungs neurotic introvert. Eysenck has marshaled evidence that this neurotic disposition
was more than a haphazard guess on Jungs part.
Introvert Thinking Type (Rational)
The introverts whose consciousness is dominated by the thinking function presents a picture
of the stereotypical intellectual. Concerned with abstractions and with the creation of
theories, the thinking introvert has tendency to ignore the practicalities of everyday living.
His judgment appears cold, inflexible, arbitrary, and ruthless, because it relates far less to the
[external] object than to the subject [himself] (Jung, 1921, p. 384)
The thinking introvert develops an intense desire for privacy. Some key terms to describe the
introverted thinking type are therefore intellectual, impractical, and private.
Introvert Feeling Type (Rational)
Dominance of unconsciousness by feeling in the introvert produces a picture of cold
indifference to others. The extreme feeling introvert seems to have no concern for the feelings
or opinions of others. There is an air of superiority and critical neutrality in the feeling
introverts relations with other. Emotional expression is kept to a minimum, for the feeling
introverts emotions are intense and troublesome. Key trait descriptions are silent and
indifferent.
Introvert Sensation Type (Irrational)
The introvert sensation type is focused on changing flux of external events. Their subjective
reactions are of paramount importance, for the only thing that matters to the sensation type of
introvert is their personal reaction to objective sensory events. Such individuals thinking and
feeling functions are not developed. They evaluate their sense impressions in terms of clearcut categories of good and evil --- only in terms of what seems good and evil for them. They
sometimes are distant from the outer world and misinterpret reality. They remain clamly
undisturbed under most circumstances. They are often described as passive, calm, and
artistic.
Introvert Intuitive Type (Irrational)

The introvert intuitive type of person tends to be aloof and unconcerned about concrete
reality or external events. They present the stereotypical picture of the peculiar artist or the
slightly mad genius whose productive efforts result in beautiful but strange creations.
Inaccurate perception is the main problem for intuitive introverts. They often interpret their
perceptions in ways that will satisfy the inner self. Thus they may become estranged from
those around them and be viewed as a wise person gone wrong or as a crank and oddball.
Key descriptive traits are mystic, dreamer, and unique. Incidentally, Jung saw himself as an
introvert intuitive type. (Jung, 1959).
THE PROCESS OF INDIVIDUATION : ENANTIODROMIA
Given Jungs emphasis on the collective unconscious, inherited archetypal images, and on the
classification of personality types, it might seem that he was uninterested in individual
personality development. In fact, Jung also spent a good deal of the latter part of his life
exploring the processes by which a person becomes a complete individual. He investigated
the process of individual psychological differentiation, by which each person develops their
own pattern of traits as well as an idiosyncratic relationship with their personal unconscious
and the collective unconscious. He called the process of harmonizing the unconscious with
the conscious ego and accessing the meaning of the variety of the components of the psyche,
individuation.
Jung also thought that each person has an innate tendency, the transcendent function, to
pursue inner harmony. The transcendent function is the motive force for the individual to
come to terms with all aspects of the self. It guides the need to accept the content of the
unconscious as mine. Individuation and the transcendent function are two sides of the same
coin. Individuation refers to the attainment of full development of all sides of oneself into a
unique whole. The transcendent function is the guiding force behind this process.
Jungs method of helping his patients to attain individuation involved the process of active
imagination. Jung instructed his patients in the art of consciously focusing on dream images
or on fantasy figures. Active imagination might best be considered a form of visualization or
meditation for the purpose of attaining self-knowledge. Through the process of active
imagination, Jungs patients could examine many formerly hidden aspects of their psyches.
Within every personality, Jung discerned many usually conflicting, discordant, and
antagonistic opposites. Thus, for the anima, there is the animus; for the good mother
archetype, there is the evil opposites; for introversion, there is extroversion; for thinking,
sensation; for sensation, feeling; and the Shadow is opposite to the persona archetype.
Sometimes, Jung approached opposites as complementary aspects of reality. For example,
causal explanation should be balanced by acausal, synchronistic explanation; dreams can be
analyzed not only in terms of the dreamers past, but also in terms of their future.
Jung employed a term from Heraclitus, the fifth-century B.C. Greek philosopher, to label the
usually opposed themes of the human condition. Jung referred to these opposites as examples
of enantiodromia, literally as running counter to. Initially, Jung restricted the term to mean
only the emergence of an unconscious function or idea that was opposite to a conscious

dominant function. Eventually, however Jung began to see the development of personality as
a goal-directed enterprise, marked by a striving toward the equal development of all parts of
the psyche. Thus, opposites must surface and coalesce in the psyche. Each of us should not
only develop the function of rationality, but also should accept our irrationality. We should
not only be aware of qualities we have that we think are ideal but also recognize the shadow
characteristic in ourselves. Failure to recognize the opposite tendency within ourselves can
lead only to the feeling of being torn apart. Success at individuation means the acceptance of
inherent enantiodromia or play of opposites.
Individuation is such an involved process that it necessarily can come to fruition only in
ones mature years. Throughout life, the psyches development is focused on the attainment
of the reconciliation of opposites. Within the fully differentiated, individuated psyche, a final
psychological organization develops that embodies all the discordant elements, slighting
none, emphasizing all equally. Jung gave the name self to that psyche in which all the aspects
have been reconciled and balanced and has become a harmonious whole. He also applied the
term self to the part of the psyhe that provided guidance toward such wholeness.
EVALUATING CARL JUNG
Jungs work has had a continuing influence, not so much on scientific psychology, but on
psychotherapeutic practice and in the humanities and creative arts. There are numerous
Jungian institutes throughout the world. Many scholarly investigations are animated by
Jungian theory. Expressive artists and writers find inspiration in Jungian archetypal
explorations. Jungs work did anticipate, in particular with its emphasis on instincts, the work
of evolutionary psychologists. He was also far ahead of his time in emphasizing crosscultural approaches to personality.
Jungs reputation has been tainted among those who are convinced that he either unwittingly
or deliberately contributed to Nazi anti-Semitism. How relevant this factor is for evaluating
his work and his theories is a very difficult question. One conclusion is that his theories, in
their acceptance of all facets of human behavior --- both good and evil --- provide neither a
complexe nor a satisfactory moral, ethical compass.
Refutability
Of all the theories we present, Jungs is the one that best fits Ellenbergers (1970) idea that
some theories emerge from a thinkers creative illness. The historical and biographical
evidence, as well as the content of the theory itself, link most of Jungs more controversial
ideas to his attempts to resolve his own substantial conflicts. However, unlike other theorists,
for whom the same relationship exists between their ideas and their lives, Jungs personal
difficulties included periods of hallucination, suicidal depression, and regression, as
documented in his autobiography. Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Jung, 1961).
Consequently, Jungs critics often dismiss his ideas without serious consideration.
In our view, a theory should not be dismissed simply because it has demonstrable links to the
personal distress or interests of its creator. The theory should be tested against reality, not

against opinion. In fact, we could easily argue that a psychological theory originating in the
personal distress of its creator is likely to be a more accurate description of some aspects of
human personality than if it had originated only in the laboratory.
Not surprisingly, like Freuds theory, Jungs is also a composite of empirical and
nonempirically based ideas. Jungs early work with the word association test was certainly
empirical, and though the standars of evidence have grown more stringent than they were in
Jungs day, his basic research technique would qualify as a refutable way to test his
hypothesis of psychological complexes.
Jungs conception of personality types, especially the fundamental dimension of introversionextroversion, is eminently testable. Eysencks work (e.g, 1967; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985),
which we review in Chapter 17, has certainly established the basic dimension and its
correlates in the laboratory. However, beyond only the most elementary trait descriptions,
Eysencks concepts of introversion and extroversion differ from those of Jung. Nevertheless,
taking Jungs ideas about this dimension, there is at least paper-and-pencil personality test
devoted to measuring the Jungian personality types and their attitudinal correlates (Myers,
1972). Moreover, we should point out, the descriptions that Jung gave of the types, subtypes,
and attitudinal variations lend themeselves to a variety of empirical tests using already
available psychological instruments.
What of Jungs most original and central ideas? The collective unconscious, archetypes,
synchronicity, to name a few of Jungs major concepts, are not stated in empirically testable
form. By definition, synchronicity is a non-empirical, acausal concept, and we really cannot
get much further from refutability than that. The scientific problem with each of these ideas is
that none of them has a mesurable referent. For the phenomena that Jung indicates as
belonging to any one of these main concepts, it is possible to generate alternative and simpler
explanations. The burden of proof, then, lies with Jung and his followers to show that their
explanation covers the facts.
Jungs Conception of Human Agency
Jungs work anticipated much of the later ideas of existentialist and humanist theorists, such
as Rollo May, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Rogers, in their emphasis on the persons active
creation of meaning. The ideas of Jungs later years focus on the self, on actualizing the self,
and on a holistic conception of personality that is quite consistent with humanistic
psychology in flavor and conception. Jung believed, apparently, in determinism, the
determinism of our primordial ancestry and our personal history. However, he emphasized
that the persons responsibility lies in an active synthesis of the discrete parts of his or her life
into a harmonious whole. This synthesis is an activity, not merely of the persona, but of the
who psyche, guided in the process of individuation by the archetype of the self.
Jungs emphasis on the spiritual side of life, his concern with teleology or goal-oriented
behavior, and his willingness to see the determinants of behavior in a persons remote past,
personal past, and future strivings certainly argue for a complex, largely active conception of
human agency.

Jungs Combined Idiographic-Nomothetic Emphases

Jung envisioned his theory as providing a nomothetic basis for understanding behavior by
transcending the individual, by going beyond the immediate past, and by allowing for the
influence of the future. In a way, his concepts of the collective unconscious and synchronicity
are the clearest examples of a nomothetic or universal focus in personality theory. Concepts
such as enantiodromia, the various archetypes, the collective unconscious, the principles of
entropy, equivalence, and opposites are also nomothetic or generally applicable. As we have
indicated here, they are very difficult if not impossible to test.
On the other side of the coin, Jung clearly proposed idiographic concepts that have fared
better in empirical research. His word association procedure is an idiographic one by
definition. His psychoanalytic-like analysis of dreams and symptoms is, like its
psychoanalytic cousin, highly individualized. And Jungs conception of the self as the
psychological structure that harmonizes the conflicting pulls of an individual life proceeding
toward self-actualization is largely idiographic.
SUMMARY
Beginning his career in the tradition of classical clinical psychiatry, Carl Gustav Jung
developed a tool if investigation that brought his thinking close to that of Sigmund Freud.
The word association test, in Jungs innovative hands, revealed that normal and neurotic
subjects harbored latent and inexpressible ideas and feelings. These complexes, as Jung
called them, could be objectively demonstrated in the pauses, hesitations, and inhibitions of
the subjects as each reacted to a list of stimulus words.
Eventually, however, Jung pursued a path different from Freuds when he foud himself
unable to accept the exclusively sexual nature of Freuds libido. With his own patients, Jung
discovered residues of human history and prehistory in their fantasies. His own childhood
experiences with visions and alternative personalities had prepared him to accept the
possibility that some psychic content might arise from sources external to the individual. His
self-analysis (from 1913 to 1917) of the dreams, visions, and nightmares that flooded his
consciousness convinced him more strongly that a higher power was responsible for at least
some of the content of mental life. He therefore postulated a personal unconscious similar to
Freuds concept, and a collective unconscious that transcends the personal experiences of the
individual.
Within the collective unconscious, there are stored inherited predispositions to respond with
great emotion to specific events. These predispositions, which Jung called archetypes, include
the animus and anima, the hero, God, the shadow, and the persona. Jung considered the
archetypes solid evidence of the innate symbol-making tendency humans had inherited from
their ancestors.
In trying to resolve the differences between himself and Freud, and between Freud and Adler,
Jung postulated two personality types: the introvert and the extrovert. Introverts are
characterized by their withdrawal from social stimulation, their intensely subjective interest

in things intellectual, and their reliance on the power of their own feelings. The extrovert,
much the opposite, is dominated by objective, external reality and is socially oriented. In
addition to these attitude types, Jung proposed four functions: thinking and feeling (rational),
and intuition and sensation (irrational). Introverts and extroverts each can be dominated by
one or more of these functions, leading to an eightfold combined typology.
In his later years, Jung came to emphasize the spiritual side of humanitys existence. Jung
postulated that to achieve full individuality, or individuation as he called it, the person must
form a psychological organization that can reconcile all of the opposing and contradictory
trends within the psyche. To this reconciler of opposites, Jung gave the name self.
An evaluation of Jungs theory indicates that some parts are, in principle, testable, especially
his early work on word association and his conception of his theory of personality types.
Jungian theory is essentially an active agent theory that anticipated much of the concerns of
the American existentialists who focused on the persons capacity to create meaning actively
from reality. We should note, however, that the active agent in Jungs theory is not the
egoistic personality or persona, but the entire psyche, itself, including both unconscious and
conscious elements. Jungs theory is a complex blend of nomothetic universals (e.g.,
collective unconscious, archetypes) and idiographic particulars (e.g., introversion, the self).