Analytical psychology

Analytical psychology (sometimes analytic psychology), also called Jungian psychology, is a school of psychotherapy which originated in the ideas of Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist. It emphasizes the importance of the individual psyche and the personal quest for wholeness. Analytical psychology (sometimes analytic psychology), also called Jungian psychology, is a school of psychotherapy which originated in the ideas of Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist. It emphasizes the importance of the individual psyche and the personal quest for wholeness. Important concepts in Jung's system are individuation, symbols, the personal unconscious, the collective unconscious, archetypes, complexes, the persona, the shadow, the anima and animus, and the self. Jung's theories have been investigated and elaborated by Toni Wolff, Marie-Louise von Franz, Jolande Jacobi, Aniela Jaffé, Erich Neumann, James Hillman, and Anthony Stevens. Analytical psychology is distinct from psychoanalysis, which is a psychotherapeutic system created by Sigmund Freud. Jung began his career as a psychiatrist in Zürich, Switzerland. There, he conducted research for the Word Association Experiment at the Burghölzli Clinic. Jung's research earned him a worldwide reputation and numerous honours, including an honorary degree from Clark University, Massachusetts, in 1904; another honorary degree from Harvard University in 1936; recognition from the University of Oxford and the University of Calcutta; and appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, England. In 1907, Jung met Sigmund Freud in Vienna, Austria. For six years, the two scholars worked together, and in 1911, they founded the International Psychoanalytical Association, of which Jung was the first president. However, early in the collaboration, Jung observed that Freud would not tolerate ideas that were different from his own. In 1912, Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious (Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido) was published (re-published as Symbols of Transformation in 1952) (C.W. Vol. 5). The work's innovative ideas contributed to a new foundation in psychology as well as the end of the Jung-Freud friendship in 1913. The two scholars continued their work on personality development independently: Jung's approach is called Analytical Psychology (German: analytische Psychologie), and Freud's approach is referred to as the Psychoanalytic School (psychoanalytische Schule), which he founded. Unlike most modern psychologists, Jung did not believe that experiments using natural science were the only means to gain an understanding of the human psyche. He saw as empirical evidence the world of dream, myth, and folklore as the promising road to deeper understanding and meaning. That method's choice is related with his choice of the object of his science. As Jung said, 'The beauty about the unconscious is that it is really unconscious.' Hence, the unconscious is 'untouchable' by experimental researches, or indeed any possible kind of scientific or philosophical reach, precisely because it is unconscious. Although the unconscious cannot be studied by using direct approaches, it is, according to Jung at least, a useful hypothesis. His postulated unconscious was quite different from the model that was proposed by Freud, despite the great influence that the founder of psychoanalysis had on Jung. The most well-known difference is the assumption of the collective unconscious (see also Jungian archetypes), although Jung's proposal of collective unconscious and archetypes was based on the assumption of the existence of psychic (mental) patterns. These patterns include conscious contents—thoughts, memories, etc.—from life experience. They are common for all human beings. His proof of the vast collective unconscious was his concept of synchronicity, that inexplicable, uncanny connectedness that we all share. The overarching goal of Jungian psychology is the attainment of self through individuation. Jung defines 'self' as the 'archetype of wholeness and the regulating center of the psyche'. Central to this process is the individual's encounter with his/her psyche and the bringing of its elements into consciousness. Humans experience the unconscious through symbols encountered in all aspects of life: in dreams, art, religion, and the symbolic dramas we enact in our relationships and life pursuits. Essential to this numinous encounter is the merging of the individual's consciousness with the collective consciousness through this symbolic language. By bringing conscious awareness to what is not conscious, unconscious elements can be integrated with consciousness when they 'surface'.