Jung`s Structure of the Psyche

I propose to start by describing the broad structures of the Jungian model of the self. However I will add as an addendum detailed description of the interrelationship between components and the psychic energy that activates and constellates them throughout the analytical process. This represents my interpretation of Jungian structure and its relation to the transpersonal map. The views expressed are a reflection, fusion and integration of my own interpretation of Jung`s psychotherapy. I recognise that he is a person of his time, a particular political and social outlook . In many ways he makes the subject and gender in terms of binary oppositions.

Jung's analytical Psychology involves both a structure and a dynamic of the Psyche. By Psyche Jung means the whole of our being both conscious and unconscious. It is innately purposeful or teleological, seeking, growth, wholeness and equilibrium. It is distinguishable from the concept of the Self, which stands for the goal towards which the Psyche is oriented.

The Psyche is divided into the conscious and the unconscious and the latter serves to compensate the conscious attitude. Whenever the conscious attitude is too one sided, the unconscious manifests itself autonomously to rectify the imbalance. It does this through powerfully charged dreams or or images. It can also do this through the creation of pathologies or disease.

Frequently an unconscious component can externalise itself and appear from without. This is called a projection. This involves a powerful emotional response to a person or situation. It may involve falling in love or disliking someone intensely. Such powerful emotional responses may indicate that an unconscious content is seeking to break or burst through into consciousness, but it can only appear as externalised or projected onto the other person or situation. It is not the other person or situation we love or hate but part of ourselves projected onto to him or indeed the situation

Locating the direction of psychic energy is a key part of the analysts task and as an aid to such an analysis. To this end Jung developed a series of psychological types to divide this energy into two basic attitudes-extrovert and introvert which is present in everyone in varying degrees. An extroverts attitude is attitude is motivated from the outside and is directed by external , objective factors and relationships.

Using Sigmund Freud as a prime example I observe see that his psychic energy flowed outwards towards the world. In the case of Jung we see attitude motivated from within and directed by inner subjective factors. In other words withdrawing energy from the world This can clearly be seen in the philosophical attitudes and conflicts between Freud and Jung. It shows that the extrovert and the introvert fail to understand one another and disrespect one another. A similar observation could be seen in the tensions and contrast between Hegel and Kierkegaard. Extroversion and introversion are mutually exclusive If one forms the habitual conscious attitude the other one becomes unconscious and acts in a compensatory manner. If the conscious attitude becomes too fixed, its unconscious attitude will break through as “the return of the repressed”. Jung classification has become so influential that the terms “ are now part of everyday speech extrovert” and “introvert” and we commonly use them to describe recognizable forms of social behaviour.

Beside these two attitudes, Jung introduces four functional types, these are a four part structure or quaternity which resembles the mandala. Jung argues that nature has four seasons and four compass points and just like ancient Greek medicine that divided human nature into the four “humours” of choleric, melancholic,sanguine and phlegmatic there were the four qualities of hot,cold, dry and moist that were in turn linked into the four elements of fire, Earth, air and water/ Jung realised that such quaternities could be used to describe the character and structure of the psyche. From this Jung posits four functions of the psyche grouped into two parts of opposites.

Intuition which tells us where a feeling comes from or is going to was opposed by sensation which tells us that something exists.. Thinking which tells us what something is is opposed by feeling and tells if something is good or bad.. Thinking and feelings are called “rational” by Jung and he calls sensation and intuition irrational because neither evaluates but instead depends upon an act of perception. An individuals innate conscious will be towards one of these four. If one of these four types is superior or most differentiated it means that by the process of compensation that its opposite will be unconscious. This is known as the undifferentiated function. The leftover other two are partially conscious or auxiliary functions which may serve or assist the superior function.

The return of the repressed may for example cause the overdeveloped thinking type to experience unbalanced moods and upsets. A feeling type boy could be forced to develop characteristics by a thinking type father, creating a crisis sf unhappiness in later life. Repressed feeling returns as hysteria. Repressed sensation manifests in phobias, compulsions and obsessions. Consequently mental and physical heath depends upon the development of the neglected functions and an awareness of the four types at work in oneself to achieve a rounded personality. The transpersonal map seems to be a good representation of the larger structures of the psyche. My main problem with it is that fails to describe the interaction, effect and dialectical process of both the archetypes in reflection of one another and in the way that it needs far more detail to explain the process of constellation and process.

A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species.The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life’s morning.

The significance of the morning undoubtedly lies in the development of the individual, our entrenchment in the outer world, the propagation of our kind, and the care of our children.

This is the obvious purpose of nature

But when this purpose has been attained -and more than attained-shall the earning of money, the extension of conquests, and the expansion of life go steadily on beyond the bounds of all reason and sense?

Whoever carries over into the afternoon the law of the morning, or the natural aim, must pay for it with damage to his soul, just as surely as a growing youth who tries to carry over his childish egoism into adult life must pay for this mistake with social failure.

In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche 
The Stages of Life
Page 75

Addendum

Additional information on structure and dynamics of the Psyche

Jung combines these two attitudes with the four functions and creates eight psychological types. By locating the persons type we are enabled to see the clients world-view and value system. These types describe personality and relationship patterns or career choices.

Extrovert thinkers direct themselves and others according to fixed rules and principles. They are interested in “reality, order and materiel facts. Darwin s search for natural laws or Marx's creation of theoretical formulations illustrate such types Extroverted thinking types might be illustrated by the Philosopher Wittgenstein when he asked the question, What is thinking? They formulate questions and seek to understand their own being. They tend yo neglect the world and dwell on their own ideas. Extroverted feeling types could be seen as chat show hosts or celebrities. They are conventional and well adjusted to their time and milleau. They are concerned with personal and social success. They are prone to create and end relationships quickly. , yet also can be sentimental and moody surprisingly. A prime example would be Rod Stewart,.

Introverted feeling types might be someone in a withdrawn community or indeed a musician They appear inaccessible and self sufficient. They can become involved in poetry and music. We might think the phrase “Still waters run deep is the impression they give. They can appear mysterious and enigmatic like Chopin and they attract powerful extrovert individuals for in close relationships.

The extroverted sensation type focus on external facts, are practical hard headed and accept the world as it is. They may be affable enjoyers of life, but they can slip into obsessions and compulsions. They seek pleasure through the senses or perhaps could be best illustrated by Casanova. The introverted sensation type might be a connaisseuror the aesthete. They feed on sense impressions and feed on their own inner sensations. They can be aesthetic . Appear unassuming and bemused. They often have difficulty in expressing their own vision or creativity.

The extroverted intuition type might be a political leader like Tony Blair. Unconscious insight keeps them on the scent of future novelty. They are often charismatic but their ruthless adventuring makes them unfit for long term stability their projects or relationships often tend to go haywire. Introverted intuition types are often poets or mystics. They follow an inner vision are day dreamers and are often clairvoyants seeing themselves as misunderstood geniuses struggling wit ha unique esoteric experience. Individuals like William Blake is a prime example and to others may appear to be a crank.

Jung argued that different types form relationships even unconsciously relying on the other to take care of their own inferior functions. Contrasting types might put each other down and so complementary unions are not the solution to individual psychic wholeness. Same type relationships can double up on the superior function and increase the disruption and challenge of the inferior function Jung was aware that typologies do not express the unique structure of anyone persons structure of the psyche. Individuals are a mixture of types which need lengthy observation and analysis. An individual can also change types through the course of life., however this typology is useful in describing how an individual will respond to archetypal figures and constellations.

The Psychological types are part of a broader dynamic of psychic energy within the structure of the psyche as a whole. There are four main archetypal figures. These figures work together in pairs, one of which is conscious and one unconscious. They are each compensated by their own unconscious counterpart. The first pair is the ego and the shadow. Jung remembered a dream from his own student days. In the dream of a dark night and high winds he remembered that he had a struggle to protect his candle from a high wind. In the dream a gigantic black shadow followed him. Jung identified these experiences as revealing the related archetypal figures as the Ego and the Shadow. He said “The Ego is the fragile . Precious light of consciousness that must be guarded and cultivated”

One of the first step in analysis is to make the client aware of the ego-shadow relationship. The shadow is always the same sex or sexual orientation or sexual identity. The ego is an individuals sense of purpose or identity. A healthy ego organises and balances the unconscious and unconscious elements of the psyche. A weakened ego leaves the individual in the dark and in danger of being swamped by unconscious images. The shadow is our own dark side characterised by our own uncivilized, primitive qualities which the ego wants to hide from others.. Jung described the shadow as “ not wholly bad, but primitive and unadapted. It can vitalise life, if we honestly face up to it”

The Ego and Shadow are personified by Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This occurs because that whilst the Ego is the centre of consciousness, it should not be confused with self which is the final goal of the individuation process that leads to the wholeness of the personality. The ego which identifies with the self becomes inflated, dangerously god like. An inflated Ego project sits own irrational Shadow onto others and identifies them as evil. The individual patient in the early stages of Jungian analysis who encounters the shadow faces a crisis. The more he recognises and withdraws from the shadow projections, the more he feels his ego. Jung stated “The less I can say `They do this, they are wrong, they must be fought-the more I become a serious problem to myself”. He said that the more we realize that whatever is wrong in the world is in ourselves, the more we deal effectively with our own shadow enabling us to contribute effectively to the real world..

The ego is related to what Jung calls the persona, that part of consciousness which negotiates with the outer world on the Ego's behalf. Persona originates from the Latin word for theatre mask. We like Eleanor Rigby keep it in a jar by the door for wearing when we venture out. The Persona is conditioned by Social Class, career and ethnicity. There are often many different persons we use to suit different situations. However we adopt a general persona based on our superior functional type because it comes more easily to us. Psychic health and equilibrium depend don a well adapted Persona because it makes social interaction possible. Jung states “ the danger is in identifying totally with the persona being nothing but the role you play” The perfect persona can lead to a one sided, rigid and alienated personality. Jung says 2 You are afraid of dropping the mask and finding nothing behind it”. In Ibsen`s " Peer Gynt" this idea is illustrated bysaying that the individual is no more than the numerous skins of an onion.. This almost suggests the case for the non existence of the self if it purely depends upon these layers of masks. Neurosis arises from the “wrong answers to life from empty success and confinement within too narrow a world view. Neurosis disappears by developing into a more complex and varied awareness of personality.

The unconscious side of the persona is the soul image. Jung uses the Latin male and female names for the soul, the animus and the anima.. The Soul Image is always represented by the individuals opposite gender.. The Soul Image is an archetype one which can represent the whole of the unconscious. It is inherited, collective and ageless. However it is modified by an individuals experience of the opposite sex, especially the parents. Soul images appear in dreams, myths and fantasies but are also subject to projection, giving a distorted impression of the opposite sex.. The males soul image has appeared in many forms throughout history but always with the compelling and fascination nature known as Eros, as an archetype of life itself, represented in image of earth and water,. Conventional masculinity in western society have seen this aspect in the notion of virgin or Whore, or as the lady the knight loves chastely or as a source of wisdom or indeed a muse.. Jung in the context of the time claimed over identification could lead yo homosexuality or transvestism. These are clearly a historically sense of fixed gender and sexuality roles. They grate with me but I clearly understand we must see Jung as an individual at atime of a particular facticity and outlook.

The woman's soul image takes the nature of logos9reason or the word), the search for knowledge, truth and meaningful activity. Often represented by image sf fire and water. This too is largely an identification with genders attitudes of the time. According to Jung the animus is projected onto men with whom the woman is involved. This may be a father father figure in a young woman , a heroic man as she matures and a comforting figure like a doctor or a holy man as she grows older still.

Over identification with soul image produces the soul Niger or Black Sun, the animus dominated woman is obstinate, ruthless and domineering craving power and is rationally opinionated. I am tempted to say here that this once more is a product of patriarchy's view at the end of the 19^th century . I think is particularly illustrated in jJngs` sexist comment “ sol Niger is prejudiced and as unteachable as a blind tom Cat. I wonder here that Jung may well reflect upon his own shadow.

Jung believed that men were polygamous in their conscious attitude, and so the anima compensates as only one woman in the unconscious. The anima may appear to the male as a cave, a ship,bowl, purse or as a cat amongst other images. He argued that because women were monogamous in their conscious attitude , the animus appears in compensatory form as a group of men. Symbolically appearing as a tower, sword ,tree, lion , eagle or bull amongst many others.

The pairing of conscious Persona and unconscious Soul Image is coloured and given texture by the two attitudes and the four functions. The conscious persona is based on the dominant attitude and superior function. Hence the unconscious Soul Image counterpart will be imagined along the lines of the opposite attitude and inferior function. So besides an extrovert/introvert switch the following happens.. The intuitive persona gives a soul image that is feeling. The feeling persona gives a thinking soul image and the sensation persona an intuitive soul image. Persona

A thinking type man, cut off from the realm of feeling may dream of mermaids, or he may project his unconscious, undifferentiated feeling function onto a feeling type woman type woman with whom he falls in love . By embracing her, he indirectly embraces his own feeling nature. But as he becomes more aware of his own unconscious feeling through the relationship, the anima image holds less fascination for him. His projection will be withdrawn and he falls out of love. As an individual goes through life we become less likely to fall in love in a romantic way because the process of self development and our knowledge of the structure of the psyche and its dynamic leads to self development and knowledge and we become more integrated and aware of our unconscious contents.

Bibliography and Reading List

Freud, Sigmund and Carl Gustav Jung, The Freud-Jung Letters, the Correspondence Between Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung, Ed. William McGuire. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974) Main Library 1 BF 175. Rather depressing: these two great men very very mean to each other towards the end.

Jung, C. G., Symbols of Transformation, an Analysis of the Prelude to a Case of Schizophrenia, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 5: Main Library 1 s BF 175. This is the book that broke with Freud.

Jung, C. G., The Practice of Psychotherapy, Essays on the Psychology of the Transference and Other Subjects, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1954) 16: Main Library 1 BF 175. Contains the valuable Analytical Psychology: its Theory and Practice: a short introduction to Jung's analytical practice.

Jung, C. G., Psychology and religion: West and East, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958) 11: Main Library 1 s BF 175. contains the brilliant lectures Psychology and Religion East and West. A very good introduction after Memories dreams .

Jung, C. G., Memories, Dreams, Reflections , Ed. A. Jaffe. (London: Collins and Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963) Main Library 1 s BF 175

Jung, C. G., Aion, researches into the phenomenology of the self, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959) 9(2): Main Library 1 BF 175

Jung, C. G., The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960) 8: Main Library 1 s BF 175

Jung, C. G., Freud and Psychoanalysis, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961) 4: Main Library 1 BF 175

Jung, C. G., Mysterium Coniunctionis, an Inquiry Into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung.(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963) 14: Main Library 1 BF 175

Jung, C. G., Alchemical Studies, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967) 13: Main Library 1 BF 175

Jung, C. G., The archetypes and the collective unconscious, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968) 9(1): Main Library 1 BF 175

Jung, C. G., Psychological Types, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971) 6: Main Library 1 s BF 175

Jung, C. G., Letters (of) C.G. Jung, 1906-1950, Ed. Gerhard Adler. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973) 1: Main Library 1 s BF 175. He burned all of the best ones.

Jung, C. G., Letters (of) C.G. Jung, 1951-196, Ed. Gerhard Adler in collaboration with Aniela Jaffe ;. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976) 21: Main Library 1 s BF 175

Jung, C. G., The Symbolic Life, Miscellaneous Writings, Ed. Hubert Read. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977) 18: Main Library 1 s BF 175

Jung, C. G., C. G. Jung Speaking, Interviews and Encounters, Ed. William McGuire and R.F.C. Hull. Picador. (London: Pan Books, 1980) Main Library 1 s BF 175. This is a nice book.