So individuation- that is the ego part of God, that let's me and you look like something else but what we truly are~ It is our Soul that crys out to reincarnate and get back to unfolding learning and loving. Our soul has something it wants...

Date:   12/1/2005 12:18:24 PM ( 19 y ago)

Individuation: The Process of a Lifetime


Whenever I am asked to speak about dreams or Jungian analysis or anything related to analytical psychology, I find myself feeling compelled to say at least a few words about the process referred to as individuation, in order to put all these other things in context. For the process of individuation is the vessel, the container within which all other things rise and fall, ebb and flow - including our dreams and fantasies, our aspirations and sense of vocation, our ventures and wrong turnings. The process of individuation is the archetypal soup in which all humankind finds itself swimming. This evening, the entire lecture will center on this course that Jung once defined as "the process by which a person becomes an ‘in-dividual," that is, a separate indivisible unity or ‘whole.’" And I must emphasize that it is only an introduction.
Jolande Jacobi, a Jungian analyst, has a paragraph in her book entitled The Way of Individuation, which I have found to be a quite simple and yet poignant description both of the human condition, and of what is involved in consciously trying to live this process referred to as individuation. She writes, "Like a seed growing into a tree, life unfolds stage by stage. Triumphant ascent, collapse, crises, failures, and new beginnings strew the way. It is the path trodden by the great majority of mankind, as a rule unreflectingly, unconsciously, unsuspectingly, following its labyrinthine windings from birth to death in hope and longing. It is hedged about with struggle and suffering, joy and sorrow, guilt and error, and nowhere is there security from catastrophe. For as soon as a man tries to escape every risk and prefers to experience life only in his head, in the form of ideas and fantasies, as soon as he surrenders to opinions of ‘how it ought to be’ and, in order not to make a false step, imitates others whenever possible, he forfeits the chance of his own independent development. Only if he treads the path bravely and flings himself into life, fearing no struggle and no exertion and fighting shy of no experience, will he mature his personality more fully than the man who is ever trying to keep to the safe side of the road."

There is something in the human psyche, which in its own fullness of time, struggles to produce what Jung refers to as the "true personality." This struggle to bring about the birth of one’s "true personality," is the basis for what Jung called the process of individuation, a process that involves bridging the gap between the treasures of the archetypal world of the unconscious and the everyday world of ego-consciousness, in an attempt to actualize the unique potentialities of one’s individual psyche.

It is important, I think, to recognize that this process is nothing new. Precisely because it is a universal human condition, we find expressions of it in all cultures, in all times, and in myriad forms. It can be found artistically in the seemingly simple "Oxherder" pictures of Zen Buddhism or in the cryptic, alchemical pictures of the Rosarium Philosophorum; architecturally, in the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral or in the tower which Jung built in Bollingen; poetically, in the spiraling journey of Dante’s Divine Comedy, or in Hermann Hesse’s novel about the life of the Buddha entitled Siddhartha; musically, in Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute or in Beethoven’s opera Fidelio; mythologically, in the ancient story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu or in the Summerian myth of Inanna and Ereshkigal; esoterically, in the Greater Trumps found in the Tarot cards or in the pseudo-scientific, symbolic system of alchemy; playfully, in the many ball games played around the world, including baseball; and spiritually, in the Jewish system of Kabbalah or the familiar yet paradoxical sayings and parables of Jesus of Nazareth, such as, "Whoever would seek to save their life will lose it; but whoever would lose their life will preserve it." No doubt we could think of many other examples expressed throughout the ages which describe the structure and stages of the individuation process.

So how might we understand this oftentimes mysterious and demanding process today? Within the context of analytical psychology, we can begin with Jung’s definition of it and proceed from there. "I use the term ‘individuation,’" writes Jung, "to denote the process by which a person becomes a psychological ‘in-dividual,’ that is, a separate, indivisible unity or ‘whole.’" Jung’s understanding of the impact and the nature of the individuation process came from his own experience, most dramatically from his own psychological crisis immediately following his break with Freud in 1913, and subsequently, from his ongoing self-analysis, his work with psychiatric patients at the Burgholzli Psychiatric Clinic in Zurich, his study of ancient alchemical and Gnostic manuscripts, and his travels abroad, which included trips to India, Africa and the southwestern United States. It is very important to realize that Jung’s understanding of individuation is rooted in his personal experience of that process. He underwent that of which he spoke, and hence could speak with some authority of what this process involves, or at the very least, of his own personal experience of this universal process.

Jung understood individuation to be something that began in the second half of life, when individuals reach the zenith of their lives and suddenly find themselves facing an unknown vista or some unforeseen upheaval. Sometimes this turning point takes the form of a crisis: such as a financial failure, a health problem, a broken relationship, or a change of residence or profession - something which upsets the status quo. Sometimes this experience assumes the form of a profound self-doubt, a loss of meaning or religious conviction, a questioning of everything previously held so dear. Sometimes it presents itself as a deep yearning or a call to change direction. And many times, it can manifest itself in powerful dreams and fantasies.



In essence, one could say that the unconscious, or more specifically, the Self (with a capital "S"), the central organizing archetype in the human psyche, which has seemingly hidden the greatest measure of its influence while the ego has been busy building a life for itself, suddenly the Self returns full force to claim a significant say, if not a central place, in the overall scheme of things. And for what purpose? To call a person to become "a psychological ‘in-dividual,’" "a separate, indivisible unity or whole." Those personal aspects which have heretofore been disregarded - be they interests, talents, characteristics, experiences, or issues - now come forth to be acknowledged. That which was fragmented now strives for unity. That which was broken now yearns for wholeness. That which was neglected now seeks expression. That which was previously formless in nature suddenly begins to take a new shape, strangely in keeping with what feels like a unique and deeply ingrained individual patterning. The center of the personality moves from the ego toward the Self, in an attempt to establish a new center of the psyche somewhere between the two. There is something in the human psyche, which in its own fullness of time, struggles to produce the "true personality."

In Jung’s understanding, we do not suddenly make a conscious decision to emancipate ourselves from the herd and its well-worn paths in order to go our own way. And neither does necessity or moral decision always have the power to effect such a turning. It’s just too easy to take refuge in convention, to cling to what is familiar, acceptable, and comfortable. No, what Jung saw as the deciding influence was an irrational factor, something commonly called vocation. In Jung’s words, "vocation acts like a law of God from which there is no escape." The path toward individuation comes with the ego’s response to a call from the unconscious, whether that call takes the form of a momentous outer development or a deep inner yearning. Whichever the case, we feel compelled to give up our stranglehold on the world of the familiar and at least to listen to what the world of the unconscious may have to say to us.



We have been walking around this process of individuation looking at it from various angles. Perhaps before going further, it would be helpful to put Jung’s view of individuation in an even broader context. Some Post-Jungian analysts (Fordham, Samuels, Dieckmann, Edinger, Whitmont) have questioned whether individuation is a process pertaining exclusively to the second half of life, where Jung concentrated his attention. It has been argued by Jungians of the Developmental School that "individuation is a life-long activity and, in its essential features, can be observed in children." Andrew Samuels suggests a tripartite definition. Individuation can be seen as a natural process occurring throughout life. It can also be seen as a natural process taking place in the second half of life. Or, it can be seen as a process worked on and brought to consciousness by way of analysis. This last definition would be Jung’s unique understanding and contribution to this field.

Jolande Jacobi, a first generation follower of Jung, attempted to enumerate the various aspects of the individuation process in an even more differentiated way. She also talks about individuation as a natural process which is the ordinary course of human life, in addition to the ‘methodically’ or ‘analytically assisted’ process worked out by Jung. Individuation can take the form of a process experienced as an ‘individual way’ (e.g., analysis, creative writing or painting) or as an initiation resulting from participation in a collective event (e.g., military service, religious rituals, vision quest). It can be the result of a gradual development consisting of many little transformations, or a sudden transformation brought about by a shattering or mystical experience (e.g., St. Paul’s blinding on the Damascus Road or Jakob Boehme’s seeing a vision of God in a bowl of soup). It can be experienced as a continuous development extending over a whole lifespan, or a cyclic process constantly recurring in unchanged form. It can be a process in which only the first phase is accomplished preceding mid-life, or a process in which both phases follow in sequence. And finally, the path of individuation can be prematurely interrupted by outer or inner circumstances, or it can remain undeveloped or atrophied in form.

Although Jung concentrated his efforts on understanding that part of the individuation process that occurs in the second half of life, he did have an appreciation of individuation being a life-long endeavor. I want to share with you a rather lengthy and dense quotation from Jung which I recently stumbled upon.

"Fear of self-sacrifice lurks deep in every ego, and this fear is often only [of] the precariously controlled demand of the unconscious forces to burst out in full strength. No one who strives for selfhood (individuation) is spared this dangerous passage, for that which is feared also belongs to the wholeness of the self -- the sub-human, or supra-human world of psychic ‘dominants’ (archetypes) from which the ego originally emancipated itself with enormous effort, and then only partially, for the sake of a more or less illusory freedom. This liberation is certainly a very necessary and very heroic undertaking, but it represents nothing final: it is merely the creation of a subject, who, in order to find fulfillment, has still to be confronted by an object. This [object], at first sight, would appear to be the world, which is swelled out with projections for that very purpose. Here we seek and find our difficulties, here we seek and find our enemy, here we seek and find what is dear and precious to us; and it is comforting to know that all evil and all good is to be found out there, in the visible object, where it can be conquered, punished, destroyed, or enjoyed. But nature herself does not allow this paradisal state of innocence to continue for ever. There are, and always have been, those who cannot help but see that the world and its experiences are in the nature of a symbol, and that it really reflects something that lies hidden in the subject himself, in his own trans-subjective reality."

So what is involved in the overall process of individuation? Following this quote of Jung’s, you could look at it this way. At the beginning of life, an infant is totally contained in the unconscious. There is no reflecting "I" or "me," only an instinctual intelligence. At a certain age, sometime within the first five years of life, the ego begins to emerge, to take shape, to solidify; like a tiny island emerging from a vast ocean. The child uses the designation "I" for the first time, instead of referring to him or herself by name. As the child grows and develops, the ego is strengthened, while the unconscious recedes, although never completely. It is always present and available, especially during those pivotal moments when we find ourselves stuck, hampered, sidetracked, or wounded, or on the verge of making a major life transition. Through adolescence and into adulthood, the ego hopefully makes its way and its mark upon the world, unfolding as best it can amid the inevitable challenges and setbacks of life. And it is no easy task. It often requires heroic efforts. But once a certain degree of autonomy is achieved, the process does not end. The difficulties we encounter, the enemies we make, the experiences we enjoy in the outer world around us are not all there is. They are real, but they are also the unique reflections of our inner psychological landscape and development. So much energy is spent and exhausted in conquering, punishing, destroying, and enjoying what we believe to be the true source of all good and evil - that is, what lies out there in the visible objects which surround us, until at some point, in that indefinable period we refer to as mid-life, the unconscious reappears, again in any number of different ways, be they inner or outer, and disrupts this paradisal state of innocence, calling to us, as if to reclaim its rightful place within the totality of the human psyche and to awaken the ego to that other world, equally real, that lies hidden within each of us.

The unconscious will use any means it can - dreams, fantasies, the body, interpersonal relationships - whatever avenue is open to it, in order to make this overture to the ego. What the unconscious desires, it appears, is an ongoing dialectical relationship with the ego. If the person is able to respond to this call and to enter into this relationship satisfactorily, then the individuation process may continue at its own pace. But more often than not, such an intrusion is a shock to the system and catches one completely off-guard. If the person refuses or simply does not know how to enter into such a relationship with these powerful forces in the depths of the psyche, then the individuation process breaks down, and life suddenly becomes tedious at best or debilitating at worst. The ego is unable or unwilling to accept a development of personality. And it is as if the unconscious then sets an obstacle before the person, in effect saying, "You can continue traveling down this path if you like, but I will make it exceedingly difficult for you." Such a difficulty could be compared to what is often referred to as a neurosis, what Jung described as a psychological crisis due to a state of disunity with oneself. And as annoying and painful as a neurosis can be, it is not without its value. Jung once commented about this "state of disunity" saying, "In many cases we have to say, ‘Thank heaven he could make up his mind to be neurotic.’ Neurosis is really an attempt at self-cure. … It is an attempt of the self-regulating psychic system to restore the balance, in no way different from the function of dreams - only rather more forceful and drastic." It is usually at such a time of suffering and confusion that a person will seek to begin a therapy or an analysis in order to learn first, how to understand what the unconscious is trying to communicate; then, how to enter into and maintain this ongoing dialogue with the unconscious; and finally, hopefully, how to begin living a life which reflects the collaboration in this new relationship.

This is such a broad subject. It is impossible to fully cover this process in the time we have tonight. So I have chosen to examine three quotations by Jung which address the relationship between ego and unconscious which lies at the center of the individuation process. I am now talking about that analytically-assisted process worked out by Jung occurring in the second half of life.

The first quote is taken from Jung’s essay, "A Study in the Process of Individuation," found in Volume 9 of the Collected Works. "The collaboration of the unconscious is intelligent and purposive, and even when it acts in opposition to consciousness its expression is still compensatory in an intelligent way, as if it were trying to restore the lost balance." Jung is saying that despite the fact that the unconscious really is unconscious, there still appears an intelligence and a purpose in its unsolicited intrusions. It was Jung’s experience that the psyche was by nature self-regulating. Much as our bodies instinctively strive to maintain a certain range of body temperature, by generating heat when we’re cold or cooling us off when too warm, so do our psyches, again instinctively, attempt to self-regulate and balance our psychological state of being.

The psyche does this in a compensatory manner. When a person has particular difficulty in adapting to external or internal reality, the unconscious will react in the form of dreams, fantasies, and synchronistic experiences in an attempt to compensate the conscious attitude and to restore the lost balance. If there is a feeling of fragmentation, the Self, that central organizing archetype in the unconscious, will attempt to compensate by offering a sense of unity. Examples of this can be found in the very moving and reassuring images of mandalas, those sometimes simple, sometimes intricate square or circular shapes that often appear in the dreams of those who are undergoing an especially difficult time. Other examples of such mandalas would be the Rose Windows found in many cathedrals, Ezekiel’s vision of wheels within wheels, or Tibetan sand paintings.

If there are aspects of the personality that have too long lain fallow, the Self will attempt to compensate by presenting these aspects in dream images or by creating an attraction to someone, through the magic of projection, who does possess these aspects. Karen Signell in her book, Wisdom of the Heart, relates the dream of a woman making a momentous decision to embark upon a new career.

"I’m riding a horse and we go right into a building and straight into the elevator. A guard says, ‘You can’t do that! You can’t take a horse up an elevator.’ I call, ‘Oh yes I can!’ The elevator goes up and up and up until we reach the top. I’m still on horseback. We come out onto some fields with a golden glow, like the high meadows in France that are infused with a special golden light - the kind the Impressionists painted."

For this woman the horse appeared as a representation of her own inner sense of confidence, fiery energy and light spirit, all of which were needed if she was to rise above her doubts and prohibitions in order to follow her own calling, symbolized in the golden fields of the French Impressionists.

To give another example of the compensatory nature of the unconscious, if we find ourselves blindly going down a path in life not in keeping with our true personality, the Self may subtly, or not so subtly, comment on our intention or suggest another approach. Edward Whitmont gives an example in his book, The Symbolic Quest, in the form of a dream which came to a man living in modest circumstances, who had decided to leave his wife and children in order to marry a wealthy woman many years his junior. He dreamt,

"I was about to take a trip to a rather out-of-the-way destination. Rushing off hurriedly, I passed a group of respectable-looking elderly gentlemen who disapprovingly shook their heads. Disregarding them, I pushed on, when suddenly from out of the clouds a huge hand appeared, took hold of me and shoved me right back where I started from."

It seemed that although he might disregard generally accepted moral standards, symbolized in the disapproving elderly gentlemen, the dreamer could not disregard a power reaching from heaven to earth which does not allow him to proceed. Whether we call this power the Self, the inner judge or conscience, the moral integrity of the personality, the will of life, or - like the symbolic image of this dream- the hand of God, there is a transpersonal aspect in the human psyche which endeavors to compensate our conscious attitudes and intentions in service of one’s true personality.

This self-regulation is going on all the time, whether we are aware of it or not. But when, through analysis or dream work, we endeavor to become mindful of these compensatory hints, taking them into serious consideration, the process of individuation flows along much more easily and life seems to possess a more fulfilling quality.

The second quote is from the same essay. "But if we understand anything of the unconscious, we know that it cannot be swallowed. We also know that it is dangerous to suppress it, because the unconscious is life and this life turns against us if suppressed, as happens in neurosis. Conscious and unconscious do not make a whole when one of them is suppressed and injured by the other. If they must contend, at least let it be a fair fight with equal rights on both sides. Both are aspects of life. Consciousness should defend its reason and protect itself, and the chaotic life of the unconscious should be given the chance of having its way too - as much of it as we can stand. This means open conflict and open collaboration at once. That, evidently, is the way human life should be. It is the old game of hammer and anvil: between them the patient iron is forged into an indestructible whole, an ‘individual.’ This, roughly, is what I mean by the individuation process."





 

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