Overview of Carl Jung's theories/discoveries

1. Presented by Anita Navarra and Mary Miller

2. Carl Jung – Introduction

 He founded analytical
psychology.
 He was a Swiss
psychiatrist.
 He proposed and
developed the concepts
of archetypes, collective
unconscious,
individuation,
personality types
among other ideas.

3. Carl Jung

 Born July 26, 1875 in
Kessweil, Switzerland
 Began Psychological
studies in 1900
 Married Emma
Rauschenbusch in 1903
 After graduation,
worked at a psychiatric
hospital in Zurich

4. Carl Jung - Timeline

 1906 – studied word association
- named President of the International
Psychoanalytic Association
 1907 – met Freud. They were friends/colleagues for a
few years and then parted ways after differing on dream
interpretation and human personality components.
 He also taught at Zurich, had a private practice, and
published, “Psychology of the Unconscious’’ in 1911.
 1914 – Withdrew from society.
 1913-1919 – studied inner dreams and fantasy images; he
believed these were his most important life years.

5. Psychic Development

Individuation:
The unfolding and development of the
personality. Involves establishing a
relationship between the ego and the self.
 Self: Center of the total psyche:
includes conscious and unconscious.
 Ego: Identified with conscious mind;
center of consciousness.
 Personal unconscious: Anything not
conscious, but can be.
 Collective unconscious: A kind of
knowledge we are all born with, yet we
are not directly conscious of.

6. 
 They are “seeds of self, sources of energy, available for an
individual’s growth into wholeness.” (Welsh)
 They are unconscious and cannot be known directly, but
experienced through symbols.
 Contents of collective unconscious—also called
dominents or images.
 An unlearned tendency to experience things a certain
way.
 “Every psychological expression is a symbol if we assume
it signifies more and other than itself.” (Jung)
 Each figure in our dream may relate to an aspect of
ourselves.
Archetypes

7. Mother Archetype

 Everyone has a mother
 We are born wanting a mother.
 Images could be church, Mary, life at sea.

8. Shadow

 An Archetype that represents the dark side of the
ego.
 The evil one is capable of – it is neither good or bad
of itself, but it is what one is capable of when
needed.
 Images could be snake, dragon, demon.

9. 
 One’s public image – from the Latin word, mask.
 A person puts this on before showing oneself to the
outside world.
Persona

10. Other Archetypes

 Anima/Animus, which points to our contrasexual side.
 True Self, which can appear in dreams and visions in the guise of a
wise old man or woman, or a sun child and possibly in myths,
fairytales and the imagination through images such as prophet or
savior or in the form of a circle (mandala), square, or cross.
 There is not a fixed number of the many archetypes. Some
examples:
Symbol
Father guide, authority figure
Child children, small creatures
Hero ego
Trickster clown, magician

11. Self

 The ultimate unity of the personality – symbol could be a
circle, cross, Mandala
 Mandela could be used in meditation, drawing one’s
focus back to the center.
 “My mandalas were cryptograms concerning the state of
the self which was presented to me anew each day…I
guarded them like precious pearls….It became
increasingly plain to me that the mandala is
the center. It is the exponent of
 all paths. It is the path to the center,
to individuation. ” - Carl Jung

12. Dynamics of the Psyche –
3 Principles

 1. Opposites – opposition creates energy of the
psyche.
 2. Equivalence – energy of opposites is given to both
sides equally. Acknowledge both ends (poles?) or a
complex will develop.
 3. Entropy – energy decreases over a lifetime –
oppositions come together.

13. Personality Types

1. Attitude in seeing the world: whether the ego most often
faces towards persona and outer reality or the collective
unconscious and its archetypes.
-Introverts see the world in terms of how it affects them.
-Extroverts are concerned with their impact on the world.
2. Preferred ways of dealing with the world: receiving
information and then making judgments about how to act
upon it.
- Sensation and intuition are different ways of perceiving
and receiving information.
-Thinking and feeling are judging functions.

14. First Half/Second
Half of Life

First Half – acquiring ego
and fitting into society.
Second Half
 Letting go of parental,
social, vocational
identities.
 Time of the soul.
 Sense of “me” begins to
be expressed.

15. Spiritual Expression

 Life has purpose beyond material good.
 There is a discovery and fulfillment of deep innate
potential.
 The journey is one of meeting the self and at the
same time meeting the Divine.
 The journey is one of transformation, individuation,
which is at the mystical heart of all religions.

16. Author’s Note

 The author, John Welch states that in his book,
Spiritual Pilgrims, he assumes the “adequacy” of
Jung’s theories, and is not attempting to defend
them. He admits the Jung’s theories are by “no
means unchallenged today,” particularly his view of
the reality of the collective unconscious and the
existence of the archetypes.

17. Discussion Questions

 How might Jung’s theories be helpful to my personal
and faith development?
 How might applying Jung’s theories be helpful in
my ministry?
 What are the “sticking points” of Jung’s theories that
I find limiting or that I find myself resisting?