Core Elements of Jungian Thought

What defines Jungian thought?   Jung had a breathtakingly broad and deep approach to psychology, one that incorporated everything from type theory to the paranormal.  But, there are core elements that define and delimit Jungian thought.  If a proposition or interpretation contradicts these elements, it can no longer be considered Jungian, at least in the classic sense.

Because there are identifiable boundaries to Jungian thought, some have condemned Jungians as dogmatic.  I believe this label is misapplied.  Just because a school of thought has a coherent set of core elements does not make it dogmatic.  Jung had a unique way of defining religious dogma, which is instructive here.  He said dogma is the crystallized experiences and beliefs of someone who once had a personal experience, but which is now offered as an absolute to be taken on faith.  In other words, dogma stands in opposition to unique, lived experience.  Jungian thought, at its essence, insists on lived experience.  Until it has been lived, it’s only theory and words.  It’s only a dead framework until we breath life into it each day.  That’s why the programs that awarded me my Jungian certification required 300 hours of training analysis.  Until I demonstrated that I had assimilated the material as my own, my training was not considered complete.

That said, what are the core elements of Jungian thought?  Naturally, different Jungians have defined these elements in slightly different ways.  I recently reviewed texts written by Jung and his successors, and I find five common elements upon which there is general agreement.

Element 1 – The reality of the psyche

Psychic reality is core to Jungian thought.  Indeed, Jung saw psychic reality as anything that strikes a person as real, whether it arises from an internal experience or an external experience.  Where other schools of thought emphasize historical truth or objectively observable facts, Jung emphasized that anything which has an emotional impact on the ego is real.

Jung was particularly critical of the “nothing but” attitude of modern Western culture.  He descried the constant belittlement of experiences that cannot be easily connected to the familiar, tangible world.  The “nothing but” attitude is satisfied with simplistic explanations, and it attempts to reduce everything to mere cause-and-effect, mere imagination, mere subjectivity.  In contrast, Jung insisted that the psyche is no less real than the physical, and that the psyche has its own structure and is subject to its own rules.  In fact, that which our conscious mind takes for granted as being real is based upon, and results from, the unconscious psyche.  In Jung’s words, “We are in all truth so enclosed by psyche images that we cannot penetrate to the essence of things external to ourselves.  All our knowledge is conditioned by the psyche which, because it alone is immediate, is superlatively real.”  Therefore, it is core to Jungian thought to look beyond the obvious meanings of myths, fairy tales, and historical events to find the deeper truths of the psyche that underlie them and are revealed through them.

Element 2 – The ego stands in relation to a vast unconscious

The immature ego fancies itself the lord of its domain, both internal and external.  Most modern psychologies support the immature ego in this position, holding up adaptation as the highest aim of human endeavor.  Jung disagrees emphatically.  In Jungian thought, the ego is a small boat floating on an immeasurable ocean, over which it has no control.  This ocean is the unconscious, both personal and collective.  The collective unconscious is the repository of human experience since the beginnings of human experience, perhaps before.  The contents of the collective unconscious are the archetypes, and these suprapersonal patterns color the ways that we apprehend and experience life.  Archetypes are particularly evident in those typical and significant human experiences like birth, marriage, sickness, social unrest, and death.

Jung mapped this vast territory, and he prescribed a approach in dealing with archetypes.  If we dismiss them as imaginary, or we treat them like playthings for the ego, the archetypes will take their revenge in the form of psychological and physical symptoms.  On the other hand, if we succumb to their numinosity, archetypes will enslave us and rob us of our precious uniqueness.  Between these extremes, Jung advises a middle way, wherein we venerate archetypes for their autonomous, godlike qualities while we strive to assimilate, in some small measure, the power and wisdom they offer us.

Archetypes reveal themselves to us in dreams, in myths, in scriptures, in fairy tales, in popular media, and on the front page of the daily newspapers.  They’re just literary genres or popular notions.  They are living entities with roots as deep as human life itself.

Element 3 – At the center of the psyche lies an image of God called the Self

In a televised interview, Jung was once asked if he believed in God.  Jung answered, “I do not need belief.  I have experienced God, and I know he is real.”  There is no such thing as an atheistic Jungian.  Religious experience is a core element of Jungian thought, but this is not the same thing as ascribing to a particular creed.  It is religion as experience.

Jung opposed the notion that human life comes down to a daily struggle ending in a meaningless death.  He urged his patients and students  to see life as a journey which begins and ends at the center of the psyche, as an ever-deepening  relationship with the archetype of the archetypes, the Self.  The Self is the ultimate meaning-maker.  If our interior life is seen as a firmament, the Self is the still point around which this vastness orbits in its eternal cycle.  Similarly, a relationship with the Self shows us how daily occurrences, good or bad, bring us to a new level of awareness of the undeniable presence of the Self.   There is a pattern of meaning behind seemingly random events, and it’s more real that anything we’ve ever believed to be true.

A relationship with the Self transforms ego.  To know and be known by the Self is to know God in an intimately personal way.

Element 4 – Individuation is the ultimate and most challenging human endeavor

We are conditioned to expect instant answers.  New age thinking leads to the vain belief that our enlightenment is in the next book, on the next tape, at the next conference.  If it can’t be explained in simple language in an entertaining twenty minutes, it must be wrong.

Since individuation involves the process of becoming whole, we must be willing to embrace the ugliest, shunned, fearsome parts of our shadow.  That’s not pleasant, but it’s necessary.  Individuation is also contrasted to individualism, which is a self-indulgent stressing of one’s peculiarities.  Individuation is a better and more complete fulfillment of collective qualities.  As Jung put it, “Individuation does not shut out the world, but gathers the world to itself.”

Individuation does not happen by accident.  For the process to proceed in any meaningful way, we must build our resolve, especially when the path becomes perilous and we are lured into seemingly easier byways.  We must also dedicate ourselves to compassion, for others and ourselves.  Humility and moderation are also essential, avoiding the perils of inflation and possession.  Finally, we must cultivate constant awareness and ever-expanding consciousness.

Element 5 – For those who are aware, there are constant clues and supports along the way

If you have any doubt about the reality of the psyche, the influence of the archetypes, the presence of the Self, or the path of individuation, there are insights near at hand.  At night, dreams point the way.  In waking life, we are nurtured by symbols, fairy tales, and myths.  When we are most lost on the way, there are synchronicities, those acausal miracles that grip us with their numinous meaning.

Of course, we often ignore or disregard these gifts from the unconscious.  But, when we take them seriously, they become clearer and increasingly powerful.  We are abandoned only when we turn our back on our true nature.

In summary, Jungian thought is not for everyone.  It is a rigorous system of thought that reveals new layers of meaning even after decades of study.  Jung did not hesitate to dismiss sloppy thinking, misdirection, and overly simplistic approaches to complex issues.  He had little use for the New Age thinkers of his time, who browsed world philosophies and religions like fussy eaters at a buffet table, choosing tidbits that might be delectable but do not come together as a nutritious meal.  At times, he applied a ruthless judgment to his fellow psychologists, whom he felt were obsessed with the least significant aspects of the psyche.  But, through it all, Jung operated out of compassion for individual and collective suffering.  And he never expected his followers to go places where he had not gone himself, including the darkest depths of the unconscious that threatened to swallow the unwary explorer.  He left us a 20-volume legacy in the form of his Collected Works, and a core set of elements that have offered protection and inspiration to generations of earnest truth-seekers.  It’s a worthy path for any who wish or dare to proceed.