0390435333.pdf

Feist−Feist: Theories of

Personality, Seventh

Edition

II. Psychodynamic

Theories

4. Jung: Analytical
   Psychology

© The McGraw−Hill^119

Companies, 2009

On the other hand, people who are overpowered by their unconscious are often
pathological, with one-sided personalities (Jung, 1951/1959a).
Although the self is almost never perfectly balanced, each person has in the
collective unconscious a concept of the perfect, unified self. The mandala represents
the perfect self, the archetype of order, unity, and totality. Because self-realization
involves completeness and wholeness, it is represented by the same symbol of per-
fection (the mandala) that sometimes signifies divinity. In the collective uncon-
scious, the self appears as an ideal personality, sometimes taking the form of Jesus
Christ, Buddha, Krishna, or other deified figures.
Jung found evidence for the self archetype in the mandala symbols that appear
in dreams and fantasies of contemporary people who have never been conscious of
their meaning. Historically, people produced countless mandalas without appearing
to have understood their full significance. Jung (1951/1959a) believed that psychotic
patients experience an increasing number of mandala motifs in their dreams at the
exact time that they are undergoing a period of serious psychic disorder and that this
experience is further evidence that people strive for order and balance. It is as if
the unconscious symbol of order counterbalances the conscious manifestation of
disorder.
In summary, the self includes both the conscious and unconscious mind, and it
unites the opposing elements of psyche—male and female, good and evil, light and
dark forces. These opposing elements are often represented by the yang and yin (see
Figure 4.2), whereas the self is usually symbolized by the mandala. This latter motif
stands for unity, totality, and order—that is, self-realization.Complete self-realization
is seldom if ever achieved, but as an ideal it exists within the collective unconscious
of everyone. To actualize or fully experience the self, people must overcome their

Chapter 4 Jung: Analytical Psychology 113

FIGURE 4.2 The Yang and the Yin.

Introversion

Extraversion