The Nuts and Bolts of Jungian Psychology and Spirituality
by William Walker, D. Min.
So what are the clothes by which we understand this primary experience today? More and more people are turning to the mythic structure and language of depth psychology for understanding the essential core experience of life. However, one big problem then and now is that a great many people put their faith in the philosophical or psychological understanding, and not in the essential experience behind or underneath the explanations about faith and the experience that brought about the state of faith from the state of un-faith. Faith is not the state of believing but the state of trusting in the source that makes faith possible. Hence, for the spiritual person, one's faith is not in the theological notions, rather faith is in the God who acts in reconciling the world to Himself/Herself and thus overcoming estrangement. Thus, while Jungian psychology may help us, one ought not put his/her faith in a psychological frame of reference. Don't mistake the clothes for the essential experience and its opportunities and demands for a more whole form of living.
In examining the
interest many spiritual people have in Jung and his
psychology, I find it
intriguing to ask about their attraction to
Jung's ideas. My initial answer to
this question is that Jung's model
of the psyche is the most complete and
comprehensive model of the human
psyche we have in psychology. In my view, Jung
worked very hard to come
to terms with who we are as human beings and just how
we relate to the
world and each other. This also includes how we relate to the
many
parts of ourselves. Jung was very clear that ego consciousness is not the
whole package. There is the world of the unconscious psyche, and to be
fully
human is to be in a dialogue with that unknown "other."
Secondly, I
think many people may be drawn to Jung as a way to
"piggyback" on his interest
in the spirit and its role in the human
psyche. In Modern Man in Search of a
Soul, Jung clearly lays out that
it is essentially through a spiritual
experience that people find the
true courage to overcome their anxiety, doubt,
and estrangement. Thus,
Jung's process of coming to terms with himself is a
model that
interests modern people as a way or paradigm that they might use for
themselves.
My third impression about this interest in Jung and Jungian psychology is that in order for a person to be fully informed, we must have an integrated psychological understanding of what is happening to go along with our theological and philosophical understandings. Additionally, people may be attracted to Jung because he was an "Externalist."The task is not to spiritualize life away but to be fully present in the moment—the core of the Existential movement in philosophy, theology and psychology. Existentialism includes the notion that "spiritualizing" is a psychological defense against the anxiety of not knowing, or a tendency to deal with the anxiety of not being whole. To be a true spiritual person is to come to terms with one's anxiety and not psychologically split or create illusions about reality. To be whole is to come to terms with what reality is (the whole of it) and our response to it. Jung had much to contribute to a model of God's presence in life capable of offsetting painful and limiting dualities. It is the unity of God and God's presence that will aid the spiritual development of people.
When we look at the Existential movement, from Kierkegaard, Sartre, Dostoyevsky, to Jung, what we find are two core motifs: the issue of human freedom and the issue of human responsibility. These were key issues for Jung as well. We also find in the Existential movement the motif of the modern person and community, of dividing oneself and creating an ideal about life, and then projecting that ideal into "another" realm. This is seen in the religious realm when people cannot fully come to terms with life and its hardships. They create an ideal and then project this better life into the future, or into a concept of an ideal " afterlife," and look forward to it. The Existential movement very much opposed this psychological splitting and/or its theological counterpart—a tendency to have a good mind and bad body and not to have the Kingdom of God at hand. Existentialism most wanted a person to be fully present in this moment, to be fully conscious in this moment, and to be fully responsible in this moment. One's essential courage to be comes from the individual's being fully informed and aware about the world and oneself. Being informed becomes the basis of our decision-making, for we know that we must somehow be responsible for how we are in the world and with ourselves.
In his 86 years, Jung produced more than 20 volumes of writings. In these he developed a "worldview," or psychological paradigm, to help him in his struggle to be truly himself as an individual in participation with the world. In understanding Jung, it is important to focus on what he meant by "individuation" and why he found dreams, visions and active imagination helpful in the process of overcoming our sense of estrangement and anxiety. His notion of individuation is, simply put, "the process" by which a person becomes fully one's true self. It is the process whereby consciousness does not identify with a part of the whole, and thus try to make the part into the whole. It is the process of developing consciousness and encountering the unconscious and being in a dialogue with it.
The most essential
issue for Jung was coming to terms with the
unconscious aspect of himself and
others. There is the question of
estrangement and how it comes about in the
first place. How do we get
reconciled with the true self once we are off course?
Jung's essential
notion is that the ego (one's consciousness) must be open to
the
various ways in which the unconscious presents itself. It is the
manifestation of the unconscious mind that assists us in overcoming our
one-sidedness and estrangement. According to Jung, the Self (big S, ie,
the
central core and totality of life, and not little s self) wants
life fully
developed and integrated. Dreams, visions, and religious
experiences present
those parts of ourselves (or reality) of which we
are not conscious. It is in
the process of receiving and integrating
these contents of the unconscious
"other" that we become more whole and
truly individual persons.
As human
beings, we cannot stand a
meaningless life. If life is to have authentic
meaning, we must become
truly ourselves and not just be a part of the collective
herd. We must
find a way to manifest this new sense of self and its meaning in
order
to be fully alive. We must not only understand ourselves but also be
willing to live from the new ethic found in this encounter between the
conscious
and unconscious. This is an ethic that includes one's social
world but it is not
based on the social ethic, as social ethics are
relative. Social ethics have
been transcended; we are provided an ethic
rooted in "the Other" rather than the
social orders. One can see rather
quickly why Jung's thinking and model would
appeal to the religious
person. It implies a parallel in the Christian
theological world, where
a human being must come to terms with the presence of
God and the
demands that has on one's life. The key theological practical
question
is that of revelation. How does "The Transcendent Other" reveal itself
in the historical world and the world of "this" individual? Jung
tackles that
question as best he can. He views dreams, visions, and
spiritual experiences as
a natural process of revelation.
Jung's map of the psyche includes the ego, persona, shadow, complex, anima/animus, Self, introversion, extroversion and the like. Jung saw problems in opposites (or the antinomies) and looked for a resolution of this duality into unity, writing, "The Self then functions as a union of opposites and thus constitutes the most immediate experience of the Divine which it is psychologically possible to imagine" (CW 11, par. 396). The Self is the slow, gradual realization of a divine cosmic center in the unconscious psyche of the individual. It is interesting to look at the nature of psychological projection and its purpose of bringing about reconciliation and wholeness, as well as Jung's method for becoming a unified whole. His method of becoming an individual and becoming whole off-sets the simple method of belief or identification with collective roles or values that bring authentic life.
We are confronted with a new ethic when we truly become our authentic selves as opposed to being adaptive selves (just part of a family system, a national system, or a system of social organization). To be fully human is to find a way to be an individual in participation with the various systems of social organizations in which we live. Essentially, however, the true core of ourselves comes from the experience of being our unique individual self and knowing that the core of this is transcendent of our ego-conscious orientation. It encounters us and demands that we become truly whole and find a way to manifest this in our daily lives in a loving way. In the last chapter of Jung's "so-called" autobiography" Memories, Dreams and Reflections, he sums up the issue of this mystery of life by saying, "In the final analysis we are all victims of cosmogonic love." It is our duty and destiny to find a way to become conscious of this love then manifest it in our individual and social lives. Jung held fast to the notion of love as in the Greek word eros, that power in the human psyche to overcome estrangement (be it emotional, physical, rational, or ethical) and to be an authentic creative and self-expressive person. To be such is to actualize the depth of human freedom and responsibility.
The above text was written in conjunction with a
seminar presented by the Samaritan Counseling and Spiritual Direction
Program in
Memphis,Tennessee, in October 2001.
William Walker, D.Min., is Director of the Counseling and Education Center of Memphis and the Memphis Jung Seminar, a training center for the certification of Jungian Analysts. A Diplomate Jungian Analyst, he has also served as Training Chairman for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts.