The name of Carl Gustav Jung is known to many. This is a follower of Freud who worked on the continuation of the development of psychoanalytic theory. However, he did not follow the traditions of his teacher, but chose his own path.
In this regard, the cooperation of Jung and Freud was very short-lived. After all, they soon diverged in views. Each of them in his own way understood the concept of the collective unconscious. This was the reason for the creation of Jung's own school, which he called analytical. Also, this scientist has developed a system of psychotherapy, which to this day finds its application with the aim of diagnosing and treating a variety of mental pathologies. This system is called Jungian analysis.
General Provisions
What is the essence of Jungian analysis? Its author did not at all take the path of completely rejecting existing psychoanalytic concepts. He only considered them enclosed in a framework of limitations and tried to expand his vision of a scientific direction. The psychology actually created by Jung is more universal and extensive. Freud's theory can be considered only one of its special cases.
Jung agreed with his teacher that modern man has to constantly suppress his instinctual drives. Moreover, in most cases he does not even realize the motives of his actions. Jungian analysis aims to help a person better understand the situation on the basis of studies of the manifestation of the unconscious life of the individual, namely dreams, fantasies, reservations, etc. As a result, the patient will begin to better cope with his psychological problems, and the symptoms of the disease will weaken.
The foundations of Jungian analysis were not reflected in the creation of scientific theories. The fact is that the author of this technique was more interested in the person’s immediate experiences, his dreams and feelings, significant everyday events and spiritual searches. Jung was developing a psychology that would be closest to the emotional sphere of people. That is why he refused to work on complex theorizing and describing dogmatic statements. In this he emphasized the empirical nature of psychology. At the same time, he sought to describe the phenomena considered by her as they appear in life.
The origins of psychological problems
In his workings, Jung suggested that all human experiences are in the form of excitement and fear, pleasure, etc. have collective grounds. But at the same time, he, like Freud, admitted that the current problems of the individual are a consequence of his life history, psychological trauma, experienced stresses and especially early relationships in the family. This is the essence of the Jungian analysis created by the scientist. The concept is based on the understanding that, in addition to conscious life, a person has an unconscious part of complexes, psychological and childhood injuries that the client will be able to analyze using the help of an experienced specialist.
In addition, each person has uniqueness, his own significant inner center, which regulates his whole life. If you find a common language with him, you can feel the fullness of being.
Theoretical Constructs
Jung formulated those concepts and methods on which analytical psychology is based in his Tavist lectures. The scientist included two main areas in the structure of the psychic being of the individual. One of them is consciousness, and the second is unconscious. The unconscious, in turn, was subdivided by Jung into collective and individual. In the first concept, the researcher included the content of the psyche not of an individual person, but of the whole society. After all, it already in itself has a collective nature.
In general, Jung's theory includes the following elements:
- The starting point of the analysis created by the scientist is a theory that considers various types of personality. During its development, Jung pointed out the existence of two attitudes, namely extraversion and introversion, as well as four functions, including sensations, intuition, feelings and thinking.
- Based on the typification of personality, Jung created his own model characterizing the unconscious behavior of the individual, and also developed the concept of archetype.
- The scientist has distinguished personality by person and ego, anime and shadow, animus and self. A similar work was done by him on the basis of consideration of archetypes.
Jung believed that the human psyche is, first and foremost, the unconscious. That is why people are not able to fully perceive or understand anything. Moreover, any mental experience can be interpreted by a person using many options. Jung believed that any thought could branch to infinity.
Individualization
One of the basic concepts of Jungian analysis is archetypes. They are:
- hidden in the depths of the unconscious mental prototypes;
- innate ideas that can be considered universal;
- initially given to man models of experience, thinking and perception.
All these elements are primary representations of the world and do not depend on the level of knowledge acquired by a person. This is a worldview structure that is passed down from generation to generation. Jung considers archetypes both as a result of experiences that previously took place in human life, and as the causes of these experiences. The knowledge of these elements in psychology has become a significant step forward, because archetypes during periods of life turns are the sources from which an instruction can be obtained to resolve the problem.
Their conscious processing leads to the development of the process of restoration and deployment of potential integrity, which was given to a person in the embryonic period. This is the individualization of personality. This process involves the establishment of direct connections between the self and the ego. Moreover, the last of these two archetypes is the center of consciousness. The self is the core of the psyche. It includes both consciousness and the unconscious, constantly interacting with each other, despite the fact that their existence passes separately from each other.
Introversion and extraversion
Of all the concepts proposed by Jung, these two are most widely used. They indicate that individuals can be characterized in terms of their internal and external orientation.
In Jung’s analytical psychology, libido is seen as a creative life energy that promotes a person’s continuous personal growth. Extroversion and introversion are two types of attitudes. The first of these is characteristic of people who are mobile, easily forming attachments and contacts. The main driving force behind them is external factors. In this regard, extroverts are easily suggestible and very subordinate to the opinions of others. Most often they are prone to a disease such as hysteria.
Introverts, by contrast, are contemplative. They need privacy and are only interested in themselves. These people are characterized by such a form of neurosis as psychasthenia.
Functions of the personal sphere
According to Jung, in the struggle for his existence, man uses:
- Thinking. It allows him to form an opinion that has a connection with objective reality.
- Feelings. They are also a way of forming an opinion, however, they focus on the value orientations of the individual.
- Feel. Their support is the sensory experience of a person, his perception of specific facts and details. Sensations are based on the sense of smell, touch and vision.
- Intuition. It is a way of cognition of sensory information based on the use of past experience, consideration of future goals.
Unconscious personal and collective
In Jungian analysis, these concepts are also basic. The personal unconscious is formed in the individual on the basis of his past. It consists of repressed and painful memories, as well as those that were able to seep into the subconscious from consciousness. Of these, some elements of personality are added. And all of them do not reach the human consciousness.
The core of mental material is the second component. This is the collective unconscious, which is distributed between people of all cultures and time periods. Personal experience does not have any effect on the occurrence of this element.
Jungian analysis examines the expression of the unconscious through collective and individual symbols. But it is around the first of them that all work with the patient is built. Search, as well as interpretation of the relationship of images created by the collective unconscious, is the main task of Jungian techniques.
Active imagination
When conducting Jungian analysis, feedback on the receipt of numerous positive results has a technique that performs the task of generating characters that allow you to integrate conscious and unconscious processes. In this case, the psychologist creates a projective situation that allows a person to concentrate by presenting images from his dreams, fantasies and works of art. Specialists offer their client to mentally “flip” these objects, following the dynamics of their changes and history. The images that are manifested in this case, a person must sketch or record.
Such a move will allow us to concretize what we have seen and find the meaning hidden in it. In this case, the person turns on conscious control, and he is able to get used to the images that have appeared.
Amplification method
The list of Jungian analysis techniques contains a method in which relationships between universal and individual symbols are built using interpretation. The specialist offers the client to consider objects taken from art, culture and mythology. After these images are subject to interpretation, which allows a person to create new relationships in his existing model of the world.
Amplification was originally related to the alchemical process. This concept meant the immersion of a person who puts experiments in a stream of images in order to find new ways to interpret them. A little later, the method of amplification began to be used in psychoanalysis. It allows the client to expand the facets of his inner world, and the specialist - to discover the deepest experiences of the patient.
Sand therapy
This method was proposed by Dora Kalf - a student of Jung. This therapy, on the one hand, is a "miniature sandbox", and on the other, a small model of the world. Today it is used by clinics conducting Jungian analysis in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of the country. The client in this case works with a flat box filled with sand, as well as with a set of figures that belong to different eras and contain different symbols (attributes of culture, figures of people, natural elements, trees and houses).
The color of the box inside is blue. It is a symbol of water and sky. The client, starting to play with sand, creates his own model of the world. On the one hand, he remains an adult, and on the other, he becomes a child. The "reorganization" of the world, carried out by the patient, harmonizes that model which is available in the human mind. Experts recommend paying special attention to this technique. During its implementation, the effect of art therapy is manifested, which acts as an excellent prevention of stress.
Dream analysis
Jung viewed night visions as a direct channel through which one can communicate with the unconscious. This method involves searching for the relationship between individual and cultural symbols.
The foundations of the Jungian dream analysis are based on the fact that their content can be interpreted as the integration and reflection of existing life processes. But on the other hand, night scenes allow people to assimilate the experience of all mankind, which was accumulated in the collective unconscious.
In the Jungian analysis of dreams, the subjective and objective level of interpretation of what is seen is distinguished. In this regard, the same images can be interpreted in completely different ways. For example, the appearance in a dream of a woman who is familiar may reflect the specifics of a waking relationship with her, an expression of the need to solve a particular problem, or indicate the dynamics of an individual’s mental processes.
In addition, a dream analysis performed by a specialist has a prospective or retrospective aspect. The first of them sets up relationships with the future and is engaged in the search for those processes that begin to ripen in the human soul. As for the retrospective analysis, its main task is to find the relationship between dreams and life events that occurred recently or in the distant past.
In order to make the most complete integration of the meanings of images seen in night scenes, specialists can use dance-movement or art therapy, as well as other methods, for example, working with one of the traditional symbolic systems - Tarot cards. Such techniques are very effective, and therefore recommended for their passage.
Training
Jung's concept has tremendous theoretical value. Her appearance could have a tremendous impact on almost all humanities. In addition, the development effectiveness has been proven by more than half a century of clinical practice, being an integral application in the psychoanalytic treatment of both adults and children.
For those who are interested in Jungian analysis, you can take training in additional education courses. They invite everyone interested in psychology. At the same time, students can become not only specialists in this field, but also social workers, as well as people who have any higher, incomplete higher or secondary professional education.
Training in Jungian analysis is an introduction to analytical psychology. In addition, the course participants also receive practical skills that are necessary for conducting psychological counseling. This knowledge can be used in the future. The scope of their application will be business or family, as well as individual counseling. Jungian analysis gives a good effect during the psychological and pedagogical work, psycho-correctional classes with children, as well as in the field of advertising and human resource management.
The Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis offers training in Jungian analysis in Moscow. At the same time, students can choose for themselves full-time or part-time form of obtaining knowledge.
Literature
To study the concept of Jung and the work of some experts. For example, the book “Schizophrenia. The Experience of Jungian Analysis ”, written by I.A. Zaitseva-Puskash describes an urgent and as yet little-studied problem. It concerns the understanding of the content of thinking and its structure in schizophrenia. This book is intended not only for professionals. Her reading will be interesting to a wide range of people.
Another interesting book is “Boundaries in Analysis. Jungian approach ”by Vsevolod Kalinenko. In this work, the author emphasized the consideration of psychological problems from the point of view of the cultural unconscious. The book is intended for students studying in psychological universities, as well as for qualified specialists in this field.
Another interesting work is “The Jungian Analysis of Fairy Tales” by Hans Dieckmann. This psychoanalyst is committed to Jung's concept. The author of the book shows the decisive role that the fairy tale plays in the whole future life of man. At the same time, Hans Dieckmann explains how a similar influence can be used to eliminate the pathological process.
International Association
There is an organization that brings together professionals working in the field of analytical psychology. This is an international association whose members are representatives of 28 countries. The main task of this community is to disseminate the ideas and practices of analytical psychology in all countries of the world, as well as training specialists based on the highest ethical and scientific standards.
The Russian branches of this association are located in Moscow. One of its members since 2013 is Makhmudov Eldar.He uses Jungian analysis with his techniques in his medical practice. Everyone can contact him for advice. Makhmudov Eldar Jungian analysis is actively using to help solve a variety of problems.