A Library Guide to Jung's Collected Works

Individuation: "C. G. Jung defined individuation, the therapeutic goal of analytical psychology belonging to the second half of life, as the process by which a person becomes a psychological individual, a separate indivisible unity or whole, recognizing his innermost uniqueness; and he identified this process with becoming one’s own self or self-realization, which he distinguished from “ego-centeredness” and individualism. The self, the totality of personality and archetype of order, is superordinate to the ego, embracing consciousness and the unconscious; as the center and circumference of the whole psyche, the self is our life’s goal, the most complete expression of individuality (Jung, 1916/1928, 1939a, 1944, 1947/1954, 1963). The aim of individuation, equated with the extension of consciousness and the development of personality, is to divest the self of its false wrappings of the persona, the mask the personality uses to confront the world, and the suggestive power of numinous unconscious contents. While individuation appears to be opposed to collective standards, it is not antagonistic to them, but only differently oriented and never isolated from collective relationships and society. Nevertheless, the stunting ofindividuation by the individual’s adherence to social norms is injurious to his vitality and disastrous for his moral development (Jung, 1921, 1916/1928).") [Read more]

"In this collaborative work by a Jungian analyst and her analsyand, a woman learns to understand her dreams, visions and emotions, and especially the kinship between sexuality and spirituality, acquiring in the process an authentic sense of self."

"Stein suggests new approaches—on both personal and communal levels—for gaining freedom from the compulsion to repeat endlessly the dysfunctional patterns that have conditioned us. In this concise and contemporary account of the process of individuation, he sets out its two basic movements and then examines the central role of numinous experience, the critical importance of initiation, and the unique psychic space required for its unfolding. Using psychological insights from C. G. Jung's writings, from myths and fairytales, and from years of clinical experience, Stein offers a vivid description of this lifelong and dynamic process that will be useful to clinicians and the general public alike. As a movement toward the further development of human consciousness in individuals, in cultural traditions, and in international arenas where the relations among diverse cultures have become such a pressing issue today, understanding the principle of individuation has relevance for students and workers in many fields. The principium individuationis is a phrase with a long and distinguished history in philosophy, extending from the Middle Ages to Leibniz, Locke, and Schopenhauer. In Jungian psychology, it is brought into the contemporary world as a psychological principle that speaks of the innate human tendency to become distinct and integrated—to become conscious of our purpose, who and what we are, and where we are going."

"A case of claustrophobia in a woman of middle life is the subject of Dr. Adler's account, the material of which comprises over 150 dreams and numerous "active imaginations," paintings, and drawings. The author demonstrates the practical value of Jung's theories of the archetypes, the shadow, animus and anima, the self, and the individuation process in general. These factors are shown at work throughout a continuous analysis, in which the relationship between patient and analyst operates against the background of the transference.
The reader is able to observe a typical Jungian analysis in the working, with regard both to the individuation process and to the treatment of a neurotic symptom. Thus The Living Symbol can be said to fill a significant gap in the literature of analytical psychology. Twelve color plates, several text figures, bibliography, and index."

"In his account of the individuation process, Carl G. Jung describes a spiritual goal for the individual as well as the collective. That process, as exemplified through archetypes in both literature and film, offers the reader insight into the variety and richness those paths may take. In this text, Phyllis Berdt Kenevan provides an analysis of individuation, and then explores four different individual paths of characters from the stories of Zorba the Greek, House of the Spirits, Crime and Punishmentand Baghdad Cafe. Kenevan then explores ways in which individuation can become a path for the collective, analyzing My Dinner With Andre, Wings of Desire, and various Dostoevsky novels. This look at archetypes as vehicles for interpretation in literature should be of interest to those on courses in personal and social psychology, literary or film interpretation, Jung, and philosophy and psychology."

"In his memoir, Memories Dreams Reflections, Carl Jung tells us that, as a child, he had the experience of possessing two personalities. 'Two Souls Alas' is the first book to suggest that Jung's experience of the difficult dynamic between these two personalities not only informs basic principles behind the development of Jung's psychological model but underscores the theory and practice of Analytical Psychology as a whole. Mark Saban suggested that what Jung took from his experience of inner division was the principle that psychological health depends upon the avoidance of one-sidedness - a precept that underpins Jung's seminal notion of individuation. In practice, this process requires again and again that any one-sided position, approach or belief is brought into tension with a conflicting 'opposite' position, in order that a third position can be achieved which transcends both of the earlier positions. In the second part of the book, Saban takes up this principle and uses it to perform an internal critique on Analytical Psychology as enshrined in Jung's Collected Works. He suggests that in certain arenas Jung's personal one-sidedness - specifically his persistent tendency to prioritise the inner dimension of psychological work, and to downplay or ignore the outer dimension - undermined Jung's capacity to fully follow through the 'logic' of the two personalities. Saban argues that, as a result, Analytical Psychology has failed to find a stance from which it can creatively engage with political, social and historical matters. This book opens up a new direction for post-Jungian psychology, and indicates some ways in which, by following the logic of the two personalities, the one-sidedness that has long shadowed Jungian psychology can begin to be corrected."

"Drawing on the pioneering work of such eminent developmental and child psychologists as Michael Fordham and Melanie Klein, Mara Sidoli emphasizes the overarching role of the child-parent bond in the developmental process, paying particular attention to the mother's body and its complex relationship to the child's psychic growth, as well as to the perils of incomplete or inadequate mothering. The case studies, dealing with patients from twelve days to twenty-eight years old, concentrate on underrecognized but vital developmental themes: infant sibling rivalry (the myth of Coin and Abel), the infant's body as mode of psychic expression, the infant's feelings of shame or omnipotence in contact with mother, and the function of transference-countertransference in child psychology."