Jung’s confrontation with the unconscious
What did he mean by confronting the unconscious? He experienced the unconscious as a living, numinous presence, the constant companion of every waking (and sleeping) moment. For him, the secret of life’s meaning lay in relating to this daemonic power in such a way as to know it. To this secret the first sentence of his autobiography alerts us like a fanfare of trumpets: ‘My life is the story of the self-realization of the unconscious.’
How can we enable the unconscious to realize itself? By granting it freedom of expression and then examining what it has expressed. Thus, self-realization requires the psyche to turn round on itself and confront what it produces. In conducting this experiment Jung again experienced himself as split in two – between the conscious subject, who experienced, recorded, and struggled to survive, and the unconscious other, manifesting in the personalities and powers that forced themselves on him, demanding his attention and respect. Two consequences followed: a heightening of consciousness, and recognition of the psyche as a real, objective entity.
Dynamics of transformation and inner growth
For the rest of his life Jung was preoccupied with the dynamics of personal transformation and growth. He was one of the few psychologists in the twentieth century to maintain that development extends beyond childhood and adolescence through mid-life and into old age. It was this lifelong developmental process that he called individuation, and he believed that it could be brought to its highest fruition if one worked with and confronted the unconscious in the manner, he had discovered in the course of his of his “confrontation with the unconscious”.
According to Jung the scope of human life is to explore the full potential of the unconscious integrating the Ego (consciousness) with the personal and collective Self. He called this process “Individuation”.
Individuation as the goal of analytical psychology
Jung’s saw the individuation as the goal of analytical psychology. The individuation is a process which (under favorable circumstances) will evolve in the second half of life. It means recognizing one’s innermost uniqueness. Individuation is the process of self-realization. It is different from ego-centeredness and individualism. The Self is the totality of personality and archetype of order. It is superordinate to the Ego. It embraces consciousness and the unconscious. The Self is the center and circumference of the whole psyche. The Self is life’s goal and the most complete expression of individuality. The aim of individuation is to extend consciousness and develop personality. It involves divesting the self of its false wrappings.
As it turned out he was a good advertisement for his own theories. Many have testified to the change that came over him as he entered middle age. The rather aloof, prickly young man gradually gave place to the wise, genial figure of his late maturity. Though never losing his taste for seclusion, he developed a talent for getting on with people in all walks of life, and those who came to consult or visit him were impressed
In Jung’s view the Self is the “wiser” part of human psyche with the access to the collective knowledge of our species.
Marquis De Puységur and Jungian Self
One century earlier the Frech scientist Marquis De Puységur described his experience with a hypnotized subject [Victor], a peasant from his estate, who showed particular abilities while being hypnotized, he didn’t possess in the conscious state.
Puységur described his observations in following words:
“When [Victor] is in the magnetized state, he is no longer a naïve peasant who can barely speak a sentence. He is someone whom I do not know how to name (1784, p.35) .… He is teaching me the conduct I must follow. … And it is a peasant, the narrowest and most limited in this locality, that teaches me this. When he is in crisis [hypnotic state], I know no one as profound, prudent, or clear-cited (1784, pp. 32-3).
”Memoirs pour servir à l’histoire et à l’établissement du magnétisme animal (1784)
Jung dedicated a big part of his research to the exploration of the “Self”. He came to the same conclusion as his predecessor De Puységur, that the depth of human psyche contains a deeper autonomous being he called the “Old Wise Man” or the “One Million Years Old Self”.