Further Information About Analysis
What Analysis is
Jungian analysis is rooted in the system of analytical psychology first articulated
by the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist C. G. Jung (1876-1961). An essential
aspect of this system and approach concerns itself with working with archetypal
underpinnings of human experience. Analysis can be complementary with other
treatments approaches. It is insight orientated work that includes a focus on
development of the personality. The work often combines reductive
(looking at past experiences) and
teleological, or prospective (looking toward future developments), as complementary
components of the therapeutic work. The nature
of the work is such that it takes time, and often the rhythm of psychic development
is not the same as our conscious ideas and thoughts about what it ought to be.
Metaphorically speaking analysis has been described in terms of going on a
journey, the phenomenon of the night sea journey being one Jung talks about a lot in his writings.
Analysis is a dialectic process between
two persons. It is a
therapeutic method of treating psychological issues that concerns itself with
interactions between conscious and unconscious elements in the psyche and the
bringing of repressed fears and conflicts into awareness. It is a therapeutic
method concerned with psychodynamics ,
or relationships and connections
between various parts of an individual’s personality or psyche.
Working "in depth" and with deeper unconscious processes of the psyche
and/or with working with symbolic materials are unique to analytical psychology.
For example the work may involve
working with dream materials, paintings, drawings, myths, fairy tales, or other
expressions of archetypal motifs.
Why One Might Consider Analysis
A feeling of 'being stuck' or a vague sense of unhappiness in one's life, or
perhaps a feeling of being burned out in one's work are familiar situations an
analyst encounters in persons who come into analysis. In a safe and respected
place (the analytic container if you like) the work occurs at a pace and rhythm
that is sensitive to and responsive to your psyche. Jungian psychology has as its
overall tendency a valuing of consciousness and a learning to relate to one's
shadow materials so that the energy contained in the shadow (unconscious
spheres of the personality) might become available to support individual life.
It is not necessary to have done therapeutic work before one decides to enter into analysis.
The choice to do analysis might be the first entrance into therapeutic work.
Some people who have done previous therapeutic work might want to do deeper work for
any number of reasons and so might choose to enter analysis. Motivation and curiosity
about how your own psyche works and a commitment to work regularly seem to be
important factors that you need to assess in your decision making process.
Possible Outcomes of Analysis
Although precise outcomes from analysis can be difficult to impossible to predict
there are some general comments that can be made about possible outcomes of
analysis. It takes time for the archetypal dimension to emerge in the work and
when it does there is a possibility for profound re-alignment and shifting in the
structures and processes of the personality. What can never be known with
certainty beforehand is whether the development will be positive (that is, in the
direction of development of the personality) or whether the development will be
negative (that is, in the direction of a narrowing of the personality).
There is a risk when embarking on the journey, and unforseen challenges and developments
present themselves. An outer resource you have is the analyst, who is committed
to your safety and well being.
Development of the personality can be thought of as experiencing
a sense that one is in one's
life, and that life is flowing, moving and is bearable. This is not to suggest that
each day and each hour are beds of roses, but it means to say that the sting of
the thorns (of life) when they arrive can be borned and one does not feel as if
one is shattered by pricks of living. Some examples of changes that could
indicate that movement is happening in the direction of development of the
personality include:
- energy is available for living and dealing with the challenges of
living
- an increase in awareness about one's strengths and limitations
- an increase in the capacity to reflect (and not react only)
- an increased feeling of freedom from a compulsiveness of urges, fears,
and emotions for example that have been 'driving one's life'
- identifiable changes in attitudes & behaviours towards one's self and
others
- the development of a sense of meaning in one's life (intellectually knowing
this and feeling it)
- implementation of supportive nurturing attitudes and behaviours towards
one's self in one's life
- accessing of creative energies within one's personality that can be used
to express one's self in living (for example in hobbies and/or interests,
work and/or artistic expressions)
- identifiable improvements in relationships with one inner and outer
worlds
- experiencing a balanced and healthy sense of responsibility for one's self
- an acceptance of a conscious suffering of pain and guilt in one's life (the
healthy stuff)
- an acceptance of who one is, i.e., achievement of as conscious a
harmony as possible with those forces in the unconscious that are
seeking a centering of the whole personality.
Individuation
Development of the personality has been described by Jung as a life long
process, one that he termed the individuation process. This process can be
thought of as a powerful urge within the psyche that expresses itself in an
on-going process of becoming more and more related with both the inner and outer
worlds. It is a path and an attitude if you like and not a point of destination.
It is best captured in the notion of a dynamic balance of psychic energy that tends
to flow between the extremes of a regression of energy into the psychic life and
a progression of energy into the outer life. This is a basic idea in analytical psychology.
Some think the urge toward individuation is the most powerful force within the personality, and when it is
activated one has the choice of going along willingly or unwillingly for the journey.
Jung took pains in his Collected Works and repeatedly stressed that one should
not confuse individuation and individualism:
"As the individual is not just a single, separate being, but by his very
existence
presupposes a collective relationship, it follows that the process of individuation
must lead to more intense and broader collective relationships and not to
isolation." (Psychological Types, Collected Works 6, paragraph 758)
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