Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 105T
he middle-aged doctor sat at his desk in deep contemplation and concern. A
6-year relationship with an older friend and mentor had recently ended on bit-
ter terms, and the doctor felt frustrated and uncertain of his future. He no longer
had confidence in his manner of treating patients and had begun to simply allow
them to talk, not offering any specific advice or treatment.
For some months the doctor had been having bizarre, inexplicable dreams
and seeing strange, mysterious visions. None of this seemed to make sense to him.
He felt lost and disoriented—unsure whether or not the work he had been trained
to do was indeed science.
A moderately gifted artist, he had begun to illustrate his dreams and visions
with little or no comprehension of what the finished product might mean. He had
also been writing down his fantasies without really trying to understand them.
On this particular day, he began to ponder: “What am I really doing?” He
doubted if his work was science but was uncertain about what it was. Suddenly,
to his astonishment, he heard a clear, distinct feminine voice from within him say,
“It is art.” He recognized the voice as that of a gifted female patient who had
strong, positive feelings for him. He protested to the voice that his work was not
art, but no answer was immediately forthcoming. Then, returning to his writing,
he again heard the voice say, “That is art.” When he tried to argue with the voice,
no answer came. He reasoned that the “woman from within” had no speech center
so he suggested that she use his. This she did, and a lengthy conversation followed.
The middle-aged doctor who talked to the “woman from within” was Carl Gustav
Jung, and the time was the winter of 1913–1914. Jung had been an early admirer and
friend of Sigmund Freud, but when theoretical differences arose, their personal relation-
ship broke up, leaving Jung with bitter feelings and a deep sense of loss.
The above story is but one of many strange and bizarre occurrences experi-
enced by Jung during his midlife “confrontation with the unconscious.” An interest-
ing account of his unusual journey into the recesses of his psyche is found in Jung’s
autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Jung, 1961).
Overview of Analytical Psychology
An early colleague of Freud, Carl Gustav Jung broke from orthodox psychoanaly-
sis to establish a separate theory of personality called analytical psychology,
which rests on the assumption that occult phenomena can and do influence the
lives of everyone. Jung believed that each of us is motivated not only by repressed
experiences but also by certain emotionally toned experiences inherited from our
ancestors. These inherited images make up what Jung called the collective uncon-
scious. The collective unconscious includes those elements that we have never
experienced individually but which have come down to us from our ancestors.
Some elements of the collective unconscious become highly developed and
are called archetypes. The most inclusive archetype is the notion of self-realization,
which can be achieved only by attaining a balance between various opposing forces
of personality. Thus, Jung’s theory is a compendium of opposites. People are both
introverted and extraverted; rational and irrational; male and female; conscious and
unconscious; and pushed by past events while being pulled by future expectations.