 |
There
are certainly artistic complexities in the graphics to the right of
these words. I purposefully tried for symbolism to demonstrate Carl
Jung's theory of personality, because, from my perspective, it is very
complex. Without being disrespectful to this great man, I often get the
impression from studying his theory, that "he made it up as he went
along." He was so interested and intense in practically
everything he did (as an adult, at least) that he latched onto so many
circumstances and events going on around him that it often appeared he
was stumbling all over himself. I have to say, though, that I respect
his genius and his strong efforts to be of service to humankind.
As
I earlier said, Jung's theory was the more interesting of the two that
were developed by Alfred Adler and Jung after their defecting from
Freud's influence. Adler went more quietly into his ways; but Jung
was more than active in developing his theory -- almost manicy at times.
How did Jung and Freud meet? After Carl wrote a treatise on the use of
psychoanalytsis to treat patients at the clinic in which he practiced,
he sent it to Freud to read. Freud invited him to Austria to visit and
talk about their mutual interest. The mutual interest was Freud's theory
-- used by both -- to treat one particular mental illness that was then
called dimentia praecox (which name is now not used, but is
included in the schizophrenia "family" of mental
illnesses.) They became close friends, but had a falling out for
some reason or other (after about nine years of friendship) -- no one
knows for sure what caused the schism. Perhaps, it may have been because
Jung appeared to ignore what Freud believed so ardently -- that
early incestuous (abusive) experiences of his patients caused the hysteria
neurosis (Freud, himself, remembered being sexually abused); or it may be
that Jung's theory of personality and his treatment techniques, being
very complex, may have disturbed Freud. Who knows? But, then,
Jung's theory is complex (and can be disturbing), because he,
personally, was very complex. Interwoven in his model of personality are
ideas sustained from Freud, various philosophers who intrigued him,
his personal analysis of himself (introspection of his unconscious --
pretty tricky stuff), and a conglomerate of ideas derived from his study
of fringe practices or beliefs (the occult): telepathy and clairvoyance,
spiritualism, yoga (not necessarily occult), mediums and séances,
alchemy, astrology, fortune telling, strange religious symbolism,
visions and dreams. He attended séances (popular in his day), became
interested in the readings of one young medium and based his
doctoral dissertation on her reports.
Jung
was a mixed up individual in many ways. He had an unhappy, lonely
childhood, often confusing reality with unreality -- not in a
mental illness way, of course. He placed considerable stock in strange
and unusual events that occurred, not being able to explain them
scientifically. Even though he was a complex, strange man,
paradoxically, those who came into contact with him found him witty,
jovial, generous, compassionate and willing to listen. His parents
experienced marital difficulty, causing him to feel rejected and
unwanted. One can see why Jung's model of the personality, no doubt,
would be complex. He lost respect from many of his colleagues because of
his interest in the occult. He did, though, give attention to the
spirituality of humankind. He considered the psyche the whole
personality and, to his credit, treated each human as a whole person
instead of as being in bits and pieces. He considered the ego in a
slightly different light from Freud. As I interpret his description of
it, he thought of it as an organizer for the conscious mind, full of
conscious perceptions, memories, thoughts and feelings. He thought of it
as the screening function to organize the memories of experiences into
important groups, allowing the unimportant to be ignored or forgotten.
However, his consideration of the conscious function of personality is
fairly the same as Freud's. He considered its primary function was to
think, sense, feel and perform intuiting. He divided people into
thinking types and feeling types. He categorized people into two
attitude types -- introverts and extroverts. When Jung discussed
the unconscious part of the personality, he considered it as having two
separate aspects: personal unconscious and collective
unconscious. He considered that, since there appeared to be clusters
of related memories and aspects in the personal unconscious, they should
be treated as complexes. He made a list of these different
complexes, the nature of which, are themselves complex. Discussion of
them will serve no purpose in this short effort. He did think that the
problems caused by the complexes were the basis for much of neuroticism,
though.
|
Of
the two functions of the unconscious, the collective
unconscious got the most attention, and brought Jung to fame
for his having introduced it to the attention of psychiatrists and
psychologists. He attempted, by presenting his idea of the
collective unconscious, to show that our total heredity is
as important as environmental determinants are in influencing
human behavior. This theory poses that man has inherited
characteristics from not only his near relatives, but he has
inherited characteristics from his species -- not only is
he linked with the inherited past of his infancy, but is linked
with the inherited past of the whole species before him, as far
back as the species existed. Quite a revelation! The collective
unconscious (of which its elements have never been conscious,
according to Jung), is a reservoir of first or original images or
memories, deep and pervasive. They are latent, yet influence all
our behavior. They explain our innate fear of falling, the dark,
snakes and the like. According to Jung the elements of his collective
unconscious are responsible for the selectivity of each of us --
quite a leap of faith, as I perceive it. He called the
contents of the collective unconscious archetypes. He spent
a great deal of his later life studying these archetypes. About
all I can positively say about Jung's theory is that it is not a
closed system. He was willing to consider the spiritual aspects of
human kind; however, some of his beliefs in the spiritual aspects
of mankind are somewhat weird. Although he claimed that his study
of the occult was to gain knowledge, he came away abundantly
influenced by it. For this reason, I feel that, even though he was
willing to consider the spiritual aspect of each human, much of
his consideration is somewhat suspect and questionable, being
based on the occult as it is. I feel the spiritual dimension of
each of us is far from occult, and is an absolutely essential
dimension and the support system necessary not only to understand who
we are, but to understand why we are!
|
Though I take issue with Jung's theory, I am inclined to feel comfortable with him as a man (sans his theorizing.) He apparently was a man of faith, for he displayed it in one special way. Carved (in Latin) above the portal of his front door are these words (translated): Bid or not bidden; God is always present! These same words are carved on his grave stone! One can get a picture into his heart as he lived his life; though his expression of some inner opinions may tend to give a wrong impression. I must admit that Carl Jung impressed me as a man who believed in God and probably did all his life. |
