Carl Jung – Is He Relevant Today?

Carl Jung – Is He Relevant Today?

Carl Gustav Jung was born into a religious family in Switzerland and studied to be a doctor. During these studies he became fascinated with current philosophy, anthropology and psychological theories and work in neuroscience so when he qualified he chose to work at a cutting-edge mental health hospital in Switzerland called Burgholzli.

He was passionate about research and clinical work and as a later contemporary of Freud became very close to him. However, after an intense letter-writing relationship, Jung rightly refused to accept some of Freud’s theories and both men decided to part company.

Jung continued on his own path and developed some genius theories which are still followed today.

Here are some aspects of Jungian theory which I use in the consulting room:

The Universal Unconscious

Jung believed that there is a universality to the unconscious. This is one of his more tricky concepts to explain but in essence he believed that there are aspects like symbols, ideas, and themes of the unconscious which are common across all humankind over all of history. They may be experienced locally or globally and transgenerationally. An example could be the universal story of a great flood. Many religions and civilisations have this myth in their culture.

It is fascinating how many universal unconscious ideas translate over ages, countries and cultures. I love how very often a dream can include a universal theme within it. So, for instance a client of mine could speak about a dream in which they were a snake who shed its skin. The client might find helpful associations and insights from the dream such as who else was in the dream, the setting of the dream and their own experiences of snakes. This all helps build a possible interpretation of the dream within the universal idea of a snake shedding its skin which symbolises an ending of something and also a new beginning.

Archetypes

Jung thought that there are some specific types of characteristics and personalities that are common across humanity. These have now become quite common in western society, in fact “archetypal” has become a word in common parlance. An example of a Jungian archetype is:
The Mother Goddess.

This is the idea of the matriarch. The nurturing loving mother figure such as Gaia or Mother Earth or other representations like Mary Mother of Jesus in the Roman Catholic tradition or Demeter or Isis in Greek and Egyptian cultures respectively. According to Jung, the mother archetype is a protecting caring figure. Obviously, not everyone’s mother is like this archetype and mothers and motherhoods vary wildly and are much more nuanced than Jung’s archetype of mothers but he gives us a good basis to think about and work from to compare other experiences of mothering and motherhood.

The Shadow Side and Integration

I find this concept of Jung incredibly helpful in my clinical work. My understanding of this is that we all have a shadow side which is the part of us that we usually don’t like very much. For example, our shadow side pops up when we are jealous or angry or mean. It is the side of us we don’t like to admit we have, and we are often ashamed of.

Jung saw it as a natural part of us and a part which is not to be disowned or repressed. In fact, his theory encourages the opposite: to bring out our shadow side from the unconscious to the open so that it becomes conscious and integrates with our conscious side.

I find it so useful to explain our difficult feelings like this. We may have repressed our anger or jealousy for years. But once we realise that these feelings are just a normal part of us then we have the capacity for change.

If we think about these unwanted feelings, or our shadow side, as feelings that are actually giving us information, then they can be useful. Once we learn to tune into these feelings and accept them as part of ourselves we can listen to them and use them as helpful information for us.

An example of this is someone who never feels angry. They have issues with their mother-in-law who is controlling and demanding but they are never able to allow themselves to be annoyed at her or even share their feelings with anyone about it. In fact, they overcompensate these barely conscious uncomfortable angry feelings by being extra nice to the mother-in-law.

In treatment, we gradually uncover the client’s true feelings about how annoying and rude the mother-in-law is and by exploring this further the client comes to appreciate how understandable and normal it is to feel angry at this difficult person. Over time the client is able to acknowledge their feelings, talk about them with their spouse and, going forward, choose how to react more healthily and honestly in the moment, thus accepting the shadow side of themselves and integrating it into their personality in a helpful way.

My next post will be on Donald Winnicott.