My life is a story of the self-realization of the unconscious. Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions.

– Carl Jung

• Unlike Freud, Jung argued that libido was not primarily sexual, but it was a broad, undifferentiated life energy.
• Libido in Jung's system:
  • As a diffuse, general energy.
  • A narrower, inner psychic energy that fuels the formation of personality, which he later named psyche
  • Jung used psyche and personality interchangeably

• Jung drew ideas from physics to explain the functioning of psychic energy, which are;
• The principle of opposites The existence of opposites or polarities in physical energy in the universe, such as heat versus cold.
  • Every wish or feeling has its opposite
  • The sharper the conflict between polarities, the greater will be the energy produced

• The principle of equivalence If the psychic value in a particular area weakens or disappears, that energy is transferred elsewhere in the psyche
• if we lose interest in a person, a hobby, or a field of study, the psychic energy formerly invested in that area is shifted to a new one
• The psychic energy used for conscious activities while we are awake is shifted to dreams when we are asleep

• The entropy principle A tendency toward maintaining a balance or equilibrium in the personality
• If two desires differ greatly in their psychic energy, it will flow from the more strongly held to the weaker
• But, if perfect balance were attained, then the personality would have no psychic energy as the opposition principle requires conflict for psychic energy to be produced

Jung believed that the total personality, or psyche, is composed of several distinct systems or aspects that can influence one another.

• The ego is the center of consciousness, the part of the psyche concerned with perceiving, thinking, feeling, and remembering.
• It is our awareness of ourselves and is responsible for carrying out all the normal everyday activities of waking life.
• The ego acts in a selective way, admitting into conscious awareness only a portion of the stimuli to which we are exposed.

• Much of our conscious perception of our environment is determined by the opposing mental attitudes
• Extraversion An attitude of the psyche characterized by an orientation toward the external world and other people
• Introversion An attitude of the psyche characterized by an orientation toward one’s own thoughts and feelings

• …opposing ways of perceiving both the external real world and our subjective inner world
• Jung posited four functions of the psyche: sensing, intuiting, thinking, and feeling
• Sensing and intuiting are grouped together as nonrational functions because they do not use the processes of reason
• Thinking and feeling are rational functions that involve making judgments and evaluations about our experiences

• Personal unconscious a reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed because it was trivial or disturbing
  • It is similar to Freud’s concept of the preconscious

• Collective unconscious The deepest level of the psyche containing the accumulation of inherited experiences of human and pre-human species
  • In his studies of ancient cultures, both mythical and real, Jung discovered what he believed to be common themes and symbols that appeared in diverse parts of the world

• A complex is a core or pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes organized around a common theme
• For example, some people have a complex about power or status, they are preoccupied with that theme to the point where it influences behavior
  • They might try to become powerful by running for elective office

• The ancient experiences (or primordial images) contained in the collective unconscious are manifested by recurring themes or patterns
• The persona a mask, a public face we wear to present ourselves as someone different from who we really are
  • It can be harmful if we come to believe that it reflects our true nature inflation of the persona

• The anima and animus an archetypes refer to Jung’s recognition that humans are essentially bisexual
  • The psyche of the woman contains masculine aspects (the animus archetype), and the psyche of the man contains feminine aspects (the anima archetype)

• The shadow The most powerful archetype has the sinister and mysterious name of shadow, which contains the basic, primitive animal instincts
  • We must at all times restrain, overcome, and defend against these primitive impulses
  • The shadow is the source of evil, but it is also the source of vitality, spontaneity, creativity, and emotion

• The self represents the unity, integration, and harmony of the total personality
  • The striving toward that wholeness is the ultimate goal of life.
• This archetype involves bringing together and balancing all parts of the personality
• The self shifts from the ego to a point of equilibrium midway between the opposing forces of the conscious and the unconscious

• ..becoming an individual, fulfilling one’s capacities, and developing one’s self
• There are several stages through which we must proceed before we can reach Jung’s ideal of self-fulfillment

• Confront the unconscious the unconscious forces must be assimilated and balanced with the conscious
• Dethrone the persona we must come to accept the genuine self that the persona has been covering

• Accept our dark side A greater awareness of both the destructive and the constructive aspects of the shadow will give the personality a deeper and fuller dimension, because the shadow’s tendencies bring zest, spontaneity, and vitality to life
• Accept our anima and animus Accepting the emotional qualities of both sexes opens new sources of creativity and serves as the final release from parental influences

• Transcend an innate tendency toward unity or wholeness in the personality, uniting all the opposing aspects within the psyche
  • Environmental factors, such as an unsatisfactory marriage or a frustrating job, can inhibit the process of transcendence and prevent the full achievement of the self.

• A personality assessment related to Jung’s personality theory is the MBTI, developed in the 1920s by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers
• MBTI is the most popular and most frequently used personality test ever devised and is taken by more than two million people every year for hiring and promotion decisions
• But…

• Neither Isabel nor Katharine Briggs had formal trainings in Psychology or Psychometrics
• MBTI is, psychometrically speaking, questionable
  • It does not measure personality (not sure what it measures) validity
  • It does not give people consistent result reliability
• It's excessively commercial