Synchronicity and Individuation: A Primer of Jung's Analytical Psychology

Historically there were more male therapists and more female patients. Just as society has changed, so has therapy. Jung's psychology includes the feminine aspects of a man and the masculine parts of a woman. Of course, today it is a complete psyche or an inner marriage. In the background would be a mandala, which also represents wholeness and individuation. Synchronicity is an acausal but meaningful relationship, which therapy honors. Jung's psychology also includes the shadow, which represents what has been left out. The ego in analytical psychology stands for the center of consciousness in the personal self, whereas the Self is the center of the psyche and totality and links one to spiritual wholeness. Hence the individuated person has confession, conscious and unconscious, archetypes, complexes, anima and animus or syzygy, numinous, gnosis, typology, symbols, dreams, the shadow, and active imagination. These aspects of analytical psychology are then discussed and illustrated with a case history. In sum, the ego is secondary to the Self in an individuated person. Both a mandala and Jungian therapy and analysis are associated with wholeness.… (more)