Jungian Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology

By Geoffrey Pullen

Carl Gustav Jung was a visionary who lived many years before his time. He saw that humanity was in great danger unless more and more people looked deeply into their own psyches.

In a very important little book, Jung wrote:

This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious man within us which is changing. Coming generations will have to take account of this transformation if humanity is not to destroy itself through the might of its own technology and science.

The basic techniques of this branch of psychology are visualisation and imaging. Jung himself used a technique of “Active Imagination” in which patients were encouraged to visualise mental images spontaneously.

It is a fact that thinking in pictures approximates more closely to unconscious and “right hemisphere” (of the brain) processes than does thinking in words (primarily conscious and “left hemisphere”).

Dreams, which arise from a different level of consciousness are recalled in the form of images and contain powerful symbols which have tremendous therapeutic value.

In the individual’s growth towards Wholeness, or Individuation, as Jung called it, the use of guided imaging and visualisation can do many things. Desired qualities can be built into the psyche, bridges of communication can be built between faculties which may be weakened by earlier life experiences and a new strength can emerge when archetypal symbols are tapped.

These symbols are even present in the religions, myths and fairy tales of mankind, but we are in danger of remaining unconscious in the technological, predominantly “left hemisphere” society of today.

The therapy aims to release, transform and redirect these energies which have previously been locked up or blocked.

During a session, the psyche is placed in a deliberately passive and receptive condition. The aim is to clear the consciousness of all preconceptions and images and to let the unconscious speak to the conscious by means of images which the unconscious then projects onto the screen of the conscious mind.

Jung asserted that symbols and images emerge from different levels of the Collective Unconscious into the Personal Conscious of the individual. Within the Collective Unconscious there are found the archetypes — constellations of symbols which embody the fundamental building blocks of the psyche. These contain energy, or reserves of consciousness, which are needed in our growth toward Wholeness. The primary energy is called by Jung the Self.

Another aspect of this system is consideration of the masculine and feminine aspects of the psyche.

This is an area where Jungian ideas can have a great impact on modern society, caught up as it is in an over-valuation of the masculine, and only slowly showing an emergence of the feminine values (caring, co-operation, tenderness, etc.).

Jung asserted that archetypes which remain unconscious are projected onto other people: a woman tends to see in a man aspects of herself of which she is not yet conscious but which she very much needs — for men the converse is true.

The extra awareness that patients gain into their own mental and emotional nature can be a trigger to the process of transformation and growth.

Comments

A very succinct, valid and understandable summary.

Pagan, 10^th January 2024

Good.

An anonymous visitor, 28^th November 2019

It was really nice :)

An anonymous visitor, 15^th September 2019

It was nice :)

An anonymous visitor, 12^th September 2018