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Unconscious

The main driving force behind Jung's work was the expansion of his understanding of the unconscious (personal and collective) part of the self, the vast psychic receptacle that he considered the key to human individuation.

 

Psyche (soul) was seen as a totality of being and existed as a self-regulating entity, constantly adapting to influences to maintain its homeostasis. It was an act of movement between opposite parts that allowed this mechanism of self-regulation to emerge. And the unconscious was part of that process.

Image by Johannes Plenio

If a person had a tendency to be overly busy, then the psyche would create ways to warn the person to rebalance, encouraging ways to relax and just "be". If unobtrusive signals were not heard, then more explicit scenarios could be created. From the point of view of the unconscious, Jung believed that it consists of two facets. Firstly, from the suppressed, hidden part, and secondly, from the creative potential that exists in a person. From the point of view of the repressed parts of the self, they, according to Jung, consisted of all life experiences that were considered too overwhelming, painful or painful and redirected from the conscious to the unconscious.

 

Jungian journey (in the form of analysis) to individualization included many steps, initially bringing the unconscious to the level of consciousness. Making sense of this "information" and meaning for the individual could lead to inner understanding. Its eventual integration as part of the psyche could contribute to a growing sense of wholeness, while at the same time providing a mechanism for correcting any psychological fragmentation.

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