Carl Gustav Jung - Life and Personal Experiences - Research Paper Example

? Carl Gustav Jung: Life and Personal Experiences & Significant Contributions to Psychology Outline Introduction The Early Life and Personal Experiences of Carl Gustav Jung The Significance of Jung in Psychology Influence of His Personal Experiences on His Works Conclusion: Why Jung Remains Influential in Psychology Introduction The works of Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist by the name of Carl Gustav Jung made significant impact on the field of psychology. Among his most known and influential contributions were the concepts of psyche, dream analysis, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. It was Sigmund Freud who had served as the master influence in Jung’s later theories (Walters, 2004). Nonetheless, both the professional and personal relationships between them soon came to an end when Jung had cultivated his own theoretical views that were diverging from those of Freud (Walters, 2004). Through his departure from the traditional psychoanalysis and the development of his very own theoretical approach, Jung has founded the sub-discipline of psychology known as analytical psychology (Bair, 2003). However, Freud was just slice of impacts in the development of his own theories. It is in this regard that this paper sees the need to grasp an understanding of why Carl Gustav Jung remains to be influential in psychology. In order to know and comprehend what served as other influential factors in the cultivation of his own ideas that have marked his departure from the traditional psychoanalytic views, this paper intends to investigate the life and personal experiences of Carl Gustav Jung. This paper also aims at discussing briefly the major contributions of Jung. Through this personal, intellectual, cultural and historical investigation, this paper answers why he still is a significant character in psychology. The Early Life and Personal Experiences of Carl Gustav Jung Born in Switzerland to a Protestant minister father and eccentric, depressed, absent from the household mother, Jung has grown as a shy, confused, frightened, isolated and introverted child (Jung, 1989; Bair, 2003). According to Walters (2004), at the age of four years, Jung convinced himself that just like his mother he had two personalities, which he labelled as “Personality No. 1” and “Personality No. 2”. He attributed his false self, which he projected to the world, to “Personality No. 1” while a secret wise, influential, dignified and authoritative self was his “Personality No. 2” (Walters, 2004). Meanwhile, when he was young, Jung was also engaged in some symbolic rituals, which had offered him some sort of security and inner peace (Walters, 2004). One of these was carving into the wooden ruler’s end an approximately two inch long mannequin, which he had coloured black, placed inside his pencil case together with a stone and hidden in the attic at the top of their house (Jung, 1989). Every so often, he went to the attic to visit his little mannequin with his messages on his secret language written on a tiny piece of paper (Jung, 1989). This ceremonial act, together with the other two – the habit of lighting and watching a sacred fire and sitting on a large stone contemplating whether or not he is the one sitting on the stone – had served as an aid to his mending process (Walters, 2004). When he was twelve years old, Jung once has fallen on the ground and fainted for some moments due to a hard push by his classmate. From this point on, he would always faint when he went to school or did his homework, so he had to stay at home for almost half a year. He was suspected to be epileptic, which has caused his father to worry about his capacity to support himself in the future. Overhearing his father's concerns has made him realize the need to overcome the urge of fainting and to develop the need for academic excellence (Jung, 1989). The Significance of Jung in Psychology Jung is significant to psychology because of his contributions to the field. The psyche is one of the key concepts in his theory. According to Cartwright (1974), the psyche (personality) for Jung incorporates three (3) layers, namely the conscious, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. This is basically how Jung reformulated the Freudian libido construct. It is the case that the layer of conscious has the entirety of what an individual is presently conscious or aware of. This particular layer has ego at its core, which is the organ of personality representing how an individual perceives himself or herself and the environment. The second layer is the personal unconscious, which corresponds to the Freudian’s unconscious and preconscious; however, in Jung’s opinion, this level does not hold the past experiences but rather looks forward to future events. It also is the case that his personal unconscious plays the role of highlighting the outlooks and qualities under-represented in the conscious. Lastly, the last layer is the collective unconscious, which happens to be the deepest level particularly distinctive to each person. This layer is a trace of each person’s emotionally toned experiences received from the ancestral past. For Jung, apart from the repressed experiences, there is also this collective unconscious, which stimulates every individual. The collective unconscious is the source of physical impulses to action known as instincts and archetypes, which have originated from the instincts. Archetypes are defined by Jung as the universal forms without content. It becomes distinct to each and every individual only when the content is supplied by the individual experiences based on cultural and personal aspects. In this case, self-realization can be said to be the most inclusive sort. In addition to that, the archetypes express themselves in hallucinations, fantasies and dreams. As suggested by Carlson (2010), what makes Jung exceptional is that he deemphasized the importance of sexual development. He never considered libido to be accountable for the core personality development but just as one of the significant sources (Carlson, 2010). For him, the development of personality can be explained much better by the collective unconscious (Carlson, 2010). Influence of His Personal Experiences on His Works Jung’s analytical theory of human behavior is influenced not only by his personal peculiarities but also by his historical, cultural and intellectual aspects. To a greater extent, his interest of exploring the unconscious is driven by the questions and experiences of his life. He witnessed and experienced polarities and dualities when he was younger, which he has considered to be a relevant part of his theory of psyche. The two world wars in his lifetime had likewise affected his personality development and, consequently, influenced his approach. If we consider Jung from the cultural perspective, it is seen that he had attraction for secrets. This cultural aspect can be traced back to his very own Swiss-Protestant values. Likewise, his interest in symbols can be associated with the fact that he was impressed by the eastern religions. At the intellectual level, his association with Freud has formed his interest in the unconscious (Walters, 2004). Conclusion: Why Jung Remains Influential in Psychology It was mainly because of the ideas of Jung that analytical psychology has branched out. He has developed a very unique personality theory. Focusing more on the cultural instead of the sexual aspect in explaining how humans behave makes him still relevant and influential up to this date in psychology (Carlson, 2010). Though similarities between Freud’s psychoanalysis and Jung’s analytical psychology still exist, Jung happened to cultivate his very own distinctive approach of examining the human mind through taking a closer look at the mystifying depths of the unconscious forces and motivations, which underlie the overt behaviour of humans. On the one hand, Jung presented the concept of introversion and extroversion. He originally discussed this fundamental concept in humanistic theories of personality, which is the self (Walters, 2004). Though his theory can be rated low according to scientific standards, his contributions are exceptional. In this regard, Carl Gustav Jung remains to be influential in psychology. References Bair, D. (2003). Jung: A biography. New York: Back Bay Books. Carlson, H. (2010). Psychology the science of behavior. Personality: Pearson. Cartwright , D.S. (1974). Introduction to personality. Chicago: Rand McNally. Jung, C. G. (1989). Memories, dreams, reflections. New York: Random House, Inc. Walters, D. (2004). Personality theory in context. Lulu Enterprises, Inc. Read More