A brief biography of Carl Jung as well as an explanation of his theories and contributions to the world of psychology.
Carl Gustav Jung was born in July 26, 1875 in the Swiss village of Kessewil. His parents were Paul Jung and Emilie Preiswerk Jung. Carl came from a family of simple but educated people. Several of his extended family members were members of the clergy as well. When Carl was a child, he developed a love of language, and he also developed a love of literature. He could read several ancient languages, as well as most modern Western European languages. What set Carl apart from most was the fact that he could read the language of the original Hindu books called Sanskrit.
As a young man, Carl kept to himself a lot. He didn't like school, and when he went away to boarding school the other children were jealous of his intelligence. It was during this time at boarding school that he developed the embarrassing habit of fainting while under pressure. Jung studied medicine at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and decided upon psychiatry as a career. After graduating, he worked in a Zurich mental hospital under Eugene Blueler, who was an expert in schizophrenia, as well as the founder of the condition. Around this time Carl married Emma Rauschenback (with whom he would eventually have five children) and taught classes at the University of Zurich. It was also at this time that he invented word association. Word association is the term used to describe the process of asking a patient what he or she associates to a given set of words, and then studying his or her responses.
Jung was a lifelong admirer of Sigmund Freud, and the two met in Vienna in 1907. Freud and Jung became close colleagues, and eventually most came to view Jung as Freud's apprentice or successor. Freud also thought of Carl as an admirable contemporary. The two eventually had a falling out. Most believed that this was due in part to Freud's reluctance to allow Carl to analyze his dreams. After World War I, Jung traveled extensively throughout Africa, America, and India. He retired in 1946 and he died in Zürich in 1961, six years after the death of his wife.
Jung's theory divides the human psyche into three parts. The ego, or the conscious mind. The personal unconscious, which includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be, and the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is considered one of the most widely recognized aspects of Jung's theory. It can be described as the knowledge and the experience that we are all born with. In his book "Man and His Symbols", Carl Jung describes the unconscious psyche as follows: "Many scientists and philosophers deny its existence. They argue naively that such an assumption implies the existence of two "subjects" or (to put it in a common phrase) two personalities within the same individual. But this is what it does imply- quiet correctly." (P.5)
The collective unconscious can be described through a number of experiences. Some prime examples are the feelings of "love at first sight". deja vu ( the feeling that we've been somewhere before), and the near death experience. In the case of near death experience, many scientists speculate that we are all programed internally to experience death in this manner. It has been likened to a kind of psychological last defense against the inevitable finality of death. The components of the collective conscious are called archetypes. Jung also called these components dominants or mythological primordial images. The archetype has no form of its own, but rather can be described as a need or instinct. It is something that is not felt as a specific desire for any one particular thing. The following are the different archetypes discover by Carl Jung:
The mother archetype can be described as something that we all come into the world with a need for. Usually, if we do not have a mother, we will seek a substitute. A mother archetype could be a mythological character or a religious figure as well. As humans, we feel the need to fill a void within us. We need to be nurtured, and mother is a symbol of provider, protector, and caretaker.
The archetype of Manna can be described as our spiritual power. In ancient cultures, a phallic symbol usually did not refer to sex. A phallic symbol would usually refer to Manna or spiritual power. Manna symbolizes fertility, strength and healing for a family or a society.
The archetype of the shadow is derived from our more animalistic nature. It is concerned with the human race as we were in a post civilization, when our only concerns were survival and reproduction. It is the basis of sex without emotion. Most consider the shadow symbol to be a symbol of "the dark side" of the ego. The shadow is actually amoral. It is neither good nor bad, it just is. Some symbols of the shadow archetype are the snake, dragon, and sometimes even monsters or demons. These symbols are considered to be the guardians to the gate of our collective unconscious.
Another archetype is the persona. This is the personality that we show to the outside world. Persona comes from the Latin word for mask. This persona is sometimes our true nature, but oftentimes it is just what we want people to believe we are. A lot of times people will begin to believe that the public persona they have developed is indeed their true personality.
The role of male or female that we play is part of our overall personality. This role is decided upon for us at birth by our parents, depending upon what gender we are. Society places different expectations on men and women. Women are expected to be mothers who are caring and thoughtful. Women are considered fragile creatures, while men are expected to be strong, brave and valiant. Many times we've heard a mother or father say to their little boy, "Big boys don't cry". The anima archetype is the female aspect of our collective unconscious. The animus is the male aspect of our collective unconscious.
There are several other archetypes as described by Jung in his theory of the collective unconscious. The proceeding are just a few. In addition to Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, his theories on the dynamics of the psyche made lasting impressions on the world of psychology. They came about helping in the development of the world-renowned Meyer's-Briggs Type Indicator; which is a widely recognized test developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. It is obvious that Carl G. Jung's contributions to the world of modern day psychology are outstanding. Many people have gone on to study the theories of Jung that relate to personality and the collective unconscious. His theories are based in spirituality, and most psychologists do not place much stock in this explanation that all of human kind has a collective unconscious. Even so, most cannot deny that what he says about archetypes not being at the forefront of our being, but being present still, is nothing less than the truth. I feel that we live in a society where people find it difficult to base reality on symbols alone. Carl Jung developed this symbolism in order to create some king of tangible, concrete understanding of qualities that we have all retained within our sub-conscious from birth, and since the incipience of creation.
