What is Jungian Psychology?

The #psyche in Jung’s model is the sum of, or totality, of all psychic processes and contents, conscious and #unconscious, illustrated in the #image of the #psyche shown above. One way to understand the #psyche is to describe it using #metaphor; imagine the #psyche as an interactive theatre with a conscious and #unconscious stage in which many actors play a role. The conscious and #unconscious stages are separated by a stage curtain.

At the apron of the conscious stage, we meet the first actor, the #persona, turned towards the audience who represent social interaction in the world. Jung borrowed the term #persona from Greek which means ‘theatre mask’, like an actor’s mask, it is the personal façade that we put on to create a desired impression to others. Jung described the #persona as a complicated system of relations between an individual's #consciousness and #society, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the #individual. It is a social #attitude that an #individual adopts, for example, because he or she belongs to a certain #group, profession, occupation, social class, political party, tribe, clan or nation etc.

The actor behind the mask is the #ego, the lead actor on the conscious stage. The #ego exerts its influence as the lead identity of #consciousness, influencing the behaviour of the #individual, however, it does not constitute the unique person. The #ego expresses the individual's #consciousness using the attitudes [#introversion and #extraversion] and functions; #sensation, #intuition, #thinking, #feeling.

The conscious audience, the world at large or outer objects interact with the #ego, like a theatre audience, sometimes applauding, sometimes booing, taunting, conversing, ignoring or supporting the #persona and #ego; the workplace is a representation of the outer objects.

Behind the #ego is a vague psychic scrim, the stage curtain and the threshold of the #unconscious realm, the #personal unconscious. In a theatre, a scrim is a lightweight transparent curtain that conceals actors or objects behind it when they are not illuminated but reveals them if light is cast upon them. The #personal unconscious contains an individual’s memories of the past, personal experiences which are forgotten and are therefore concealed from the conscious stage unless they are illuminated.

These are memories from our childhood or adult life, which with some effort, we can bring back into our conscious mind. However, some memories appear spontaneously and with no effort by the #ego, these memories disrupt the #ego which is often powerless to suppress them. These memories which cause disruption to the #ego are known as #complexes, they are autonomous, arriving uninvited and incognito in the conscious mind, growing in number and intensity as the #ego engages with the outer world.

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#Complexes consist of emotionally charged clusters of often long-forgotten content and may trigger compulsive urges or reactions, taking over or possessing the #ego, forcing themselves onto the conscious stage. An #individual possessed by an autonomous #complex can appear to have irrational fears, disproportionate reactions, intense attractions or aversions to certain people. These behaviours often create interpersonal conflict in the workplace. 

Behind the #personal unconscious, we now enter the deeper layers of the #unconscious. Jung uses the term #unconscious both to describe mental contents which are inaccessible to the #ego and to delineate a psychic space with its own character, laws and functions. The #unconscious is a mirror #image of #consciousness but it has a much quieter and ethereal quality. The conscious stage includes perceptions of, and interactions with, the world at large or outer objects. The counterpart in the #unconscious, the inner objects, includes perceptions of, and interactions with, images from the #archetypes of the #collective unconscious.

There is another actor in the #unconscious, hidden within its depths, the #shadow. The #shadow contains all the attributes the #ego has not adopted. Whatever attributes the #ego has adopted, the #shadow adopts the opposite attributes. If the #ego is emboldened with pride, the #shadow is timid and incompetent. If the #ego is productive, the #shadow is reflective. If the #ego is loving, the #shadow is hostile. If the #ego is oriented to the outer world, the #shadow will be oriented to the inner life.

The #shadow is autonomous and can wreak havoc if ignored or repressed, interrupting the #ego’s role on the conscious stage. The #ego typically projects the #shadow onto others in the world at large, often such #shadow #projections have been the cause of discrimination, violent personal hatred, mass persecutions, and even genocide. The most severe aspects of the #shadow are manifested in racial, social and national prejudice. The #shadow contains the personal characteristics that the #individual wishes to hide from others and from him or herself.

However, if the #shadow is acknowledged progressive personal growth develops towards the emergence of the whole person.

The #persona also has its counterpart in the #unconscious, the #soul, a term that Jung refers to as an inner #personality. The #soul plays a compensatory role to the #persona on the conscious stage, which means that as the #persona presents a sort of #personality at the threshold of the outer world, the #soul presents a #personality of the threshold of the inner world.

Like the #shadow the #soul can also be projected onto the conscious audience. This is inevitable as long as the #soul remains #unconscious to the #individual. While the #shadow projects to the outer world in a negative way, the #soul often projects a more positive, favourable aura onto others, projecting an idealised #image onto some lucky beneficiary or #individual, often creating a harmonising effect between individuals in the workplace.