Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Jung: Analytical
Psychology
(^110) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
can lead to psychological imbalance. Healthy individuals are in contact with their
conscious world, but they also allow themselves to experience their unconscious self
and thus to achieve individuation,a concept we discuss in the section titled Self-
Realization.
Personal Unconscious
The personal unconsciousembraces all repressed, forgotten, or subliminally per-
ceived experiences of one particular individual. It contains repressed infantile mem-
ories and impulses, forgotten events, and experiences originally perceived below the
threshold of our consciousness. Our personal unconscious is formed by our individ-
ual experiences and is therefore unique to each of us. Some images in the personal
unconscious can be recalled easily, some remembered with difficulty, and still others
are beyond the reach of consciousness. Jung’s concept of the personal unconscious
differs little from Freud’s view of the unconscious and preconscious combined (Jung,
1931/1960b).
Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes.A complex is an
emotionally toned conglomeration of associated ideas. For example, a person’s ex-
periences with Mother may become grouped around an emotional core so that the
person’s mother, or even the word “mother,” sparks an emotional response that
blocks the smooth flow of thought. Complexes are largely personal, but they may
also be partly derived from humanity’s collective experience. In our example, the
mother complex comes not only from one’s personal relationship with mother but
also from the entire species’ experiences with mother. In addition, the mother com-
plex is partly formed by a person’s conscious image of mother. Thus, complexes may
be partly conscious and may stem from both the personal and the collective uncon-
scious (Jung, 1928/1960).
Collective Unconscious
In contrast to the personal unconscious, which results from individual experiences,
the collective unconscioushas roots in the ancestral past of the entire species. It rep-
resents Jung’s most controversial, and perhaps his most distinctive, concept. The
physical contents of the collective unconscious are inherited and pass from one gen-
eration to the next as psychic potential. Distant ancestors’ experiences with univer-
sal concepts such as God, mother, water, earth, and so forth have been transmitted
through the generations so that people in every clime and time have been influenced
by their primitive ancestors’ primordial experiences (Jung, 1937/1959). Therefore,
the contents of the collective unconscious are more or less the same for people in all
cultures (Jung, 1934/1959).
The contents of the collective unconscious do not lie dormant but are active
and influence a person’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. The collective unconscious
is responsible for people’s many myths, legends, and religious beliefs. It also pro-
duces “big dreams,” that is, dreams with meaning beyond the individual dreamer and
that are filled with significance for people of every time and place (Jung,
1948/1960b).
The collective unconscious does not refer to inherited ideas but rather to hu-
mans’ innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever their experiences stim-
104 Part II Psychodynamic Theories