By Gregory Mitchell
Analytical Psychology is the name given to the psychological-therapeutic system founded and developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). Carl Jung was the son of a pastor in the Swiss Reformed Church, and many of his relatives were ministers too. Jung went to Basel University in 1895 to study medicine, and student life, along with the early death of his father, proved to be emancipatory. His commitment to knowing the nature of the psyche through direct, personal experience and revelation resulted in the precedence he gave to dreams and visions and the idea of understanding them through investigations of philosophy, religion and literature. The death-blow to Jung's Christian faith came when he felt nothing at all at his confirmation, the religious initiation of which he had been led to expect much. A good deal of his later work can be viewed as a quest to replace the faith he had lost.

Renown came first to Jung from his research on word association, in which a person's responses to stimulus words can reveal complexes: groups of related, often repressed, ideas and impulses that bring about habitual patterns of thought or behavior. While a young psychiatric resident, Jung read the just-published book by Freud on the interpretation of dreams. Freud's revolutionary idea of attributing unconscious motivation to human behavior resonated with similar thoughts Jung was entertaining at the time, and Jung proceeded to devise an experimental method, called the Word Association Test, which could be seen as providing an objective, scientific basis for some of Freud's ideas. Jung used the psychogalvanometer as a tool for hitting upon a complex.

In psychology a complex is generally an important group of unconscious associations, conflicting beliefs that stand on their own like a splinter identity, or a strong unconscious impulse, lying behind an individual's condition. Jung described a "complex" as a node in the unconscious; it may be imagined as a knot of unconscious feelings and beliefs, detectable indirectly, through behavior that is puzzling or hard to account for. Complexes such as the 'Guilt Complex' drain energy and integrity from the conscious Ego. What is unconscious tends to be projected onto others: attributed to other people or external situations. The projection may lead to an erroneous perception such as when you think your friend is angry while he himself feels quite content. To resolve the complex may give significant relief.

The inferiority complex, in particular, has become widely understood and used due to the importance it holds in Adler's Individual Psychology.

Use of the psycho-galvanometer
The simple psycho-galvanometer was one of the earliest tools of psychological research. A psycho-galvanometer measures the resistance of the skin to the passage of a very small electric current. It has been known for decades that the magnitude of this electrical resistance is affected, not only by the subject's general mood, but also by immediate emotional reactions. Although these facts have been known for over a hundred years and the first paper to be presented on the subject of the psycho-galvanometer was written by Tarchanoff in 1890, it has only been within the last 25 years that the underlying causes of this change in skin resistance have been discovered. This change was found to be related to the level of cortical arousal. The emotional charge on a word, heard by a subject, would have an immediate effect on the subject's level of arousal.

One of the first references to the use of this instrument in Psychoanalysis is in the book by Carl Gustav Jung, entitled 'Studies in Word Analysis', published in 1906. He describes a technique of connecting the subject, via hand-electrodes, to an instrument measuring changes in the resistance of the skin. Words on a list were read out to the subject one by one. If a word on this list was emotionally charged, there was a change in body resistance causing a deflection of the needle of the galvanometer, indicating that a complex-related 'resistance' was triggered. Any words which evoked a larger than usual response on the meter were assumed to be indicators of possible areas of conflict in the patients, hinting at unconscious feelings and beliefs, and these areas were then explored in more detail with the subject in session. Jung used observed deflections on the meter as a monitoring device to aid his own judgment in determining which particular lines of enquiry were most likely to be fruitful with each subject.

Many papers have been presented on this subject over the last 25 years, and the most important findings of this research are:

1. A low level of cortical arousal is desirable for relaxation, hypnosis, and the subjective experience of psychic states and unconscious manifestations.
2. A high level of cortical arousal gives increased powers of reflection, focused concentration, increased reading speed, and increased capacity for long-term recall.
3. Cortical arousal has a simple relationship to skin conductivity. Arousal of the cortex increases the conductivity of the skin and conversely, a drop in arousal causes a drop in skin conductivity.

Jung and Freud
Jung was thirty when he sent his work 'Studies in Word Association' to Sigmund Freud in Vienna. Freud reciprocated by sending a collection of his latest published essays to Jung in Zürich, which marked the beginning of an intense correspondence and collaboration that lasted more than six years and ended shortly before World War I in May 1914, when Jung resigned as the chairman of the International Psychoanalytical Association. His own researches led him away from Freud's emphasis on the psychosexual origins of neuroses, founding his own analytic psychology in response to Freud's psychoanalysis. This differed from the Freudian model in downgrading the importance of sexuality and childhood conflicts in the treatment of neuroses, and concentrating more on a patient's current conflicts.

Jung and Freud agreed on the most basic hypothesis: in addition to the rational, conscious aspect of the personality, there is another realm of the psyche of which man is normally not aware, which they called the unconscious. But they soon disagreed as to what the contents of the unconscious is. Freud maintained that the unconscious was composed of repressed, traumatic childhood experiences that involved the clash of emerging instinctual needs and the oppressive reality of the family and society. Psychoanalysis was then developed as a technique, consisting of free associations, designed to bring such conflicts into awareness and thus deal with them from an adult viewpoint.

The way to Individuation
Jung employed the meter technique successfully for a while, but gradually became dissatisfied with it. Although it certainly seemed correct as far as it went, it did not go far enough. He found he could not, in good conscience, reduce all of a person's current life situation to repressed childhood instinctuality, especially if instinctuality primarily meant sexuality. Jung identified five primary functions of the psyche that are themselves archetypes, or universal patterns of experience:

1. The Persona is an identity we hold and which we present to the outside world. We may hold several of such: our career role; our role as mother father, son, etc; our political identity, and so on.
2. The Ego is our center of consciousness, our conscious sense of self. Therefore it excludes (although remains influenced by) all of our make-up that is unconscious.
3. The Shadow is an unconscious part of the Ego, and receptacle for that which we have for one reason or another disowned or wish to remain out of sight and those qualities that one would rather not see in oneself, as well as unrealized potentials. The Shadow is intimately connected to the Id and its structures, Thanatos and Eros that contains the animal instincts. It's the part of the personality that's forced out of mental awareness by the Ego's defense mechanisms.
4. The Anima is a node of unconscious beliefs and feelings in a man's psyche relating to the opposite gender, the Animus is the corresponding complex in a woman's psyche. As part of the Ego unconscious, these complexes can rise into consciousness when activated by appropriate circumstances.
5. The Self is simply the totality of the entire psyche. It is the function which contains all the other functions and around which they orbit. It may be difficult for the conscious Ego to accept that there may be more to the psyche than that of which it is currently aware.

The above diagram incorporates the Freudian concepts of Id and Superego, which I feel are needed to complete an accurate picture. The mind is an immensely complex structure, which has been described with great insight by Jung, Freud, Adler, Assagioli and other eminent psychologists, up to the present day. Each concentrate on different aspects but one does not invalidate the other; taken together they provide a complete understanding.

Jung understood and acknowledged the enormous importance of sexuality in the development of the personality, but he perceived the unconscious as encompassing much more. In addition he saw in unconscious material, especially dreams and fantasies, an unfolding of a process. This process was uniquely expressed in each person, but it had nevertheless a common structure. Jung called it the "individuation process" in which the potential of a person's psyche is seeking fulfillment. The concept of Individuation is considered by many to be his major contribution. It is a process which generally takes place in the last half of life - a time in the life cycle neglected by many other psychologists. While the first half of life is devoted to making one's way and establishing oneself in the world, the last half can be a time of psychological development, of moving toward awareness, integration, wholeness.

The barriers to individuation which we must seek to explore and resolve are contained in our 'Shadow' personality: those qualities that one would rather not see in oneself, as well as unrealized potentials. The Shadow of beauty is the beast. Because they're repressed such beliefs and feelings are typically unconscious; they influence our entire lives, tell us what we can and can not do, and drive our behaviors. Even when we're conscious of them, we tend to hide them because we're ashamed or embarrassed. We don't want anyone to know that we feel unworthy of love or that we're not good enough so we try to suppress such beliefs and deny them.

Being opposite the Persona, the Shadow is not generally acknowledged or accepted by the Ego, but when integrated (rather than repressed) it can be very useful to the individual in seeing or realizing the full aspect of the inner self. This energy can be re-directed positively into waking life. For example, a positive side of the Shadow is to provide strength to an intimidated person.

The major goal of Jungian therapy is Individuation through the integration of the Ego and the Shadow. By this means a person becomes a psychological 'in-dividual,' that is, a separate indivisible unity or 'whole'.

According to the concept of Equifinality, there is more than one route to integrating the Ego and the Shadow and achieving Individuation: Mind Development courses include extensive practice with the use of right brain mnemonics, techniques of creativity and Image Streaming, and these methods all draw on Shadow Materials in the right hemisphere. Jung may have given us the inspiration, but we have methods that deal with the Shadow with a minimum of pain.

Introversion and extraversion
Carl Jung introduced several new terms to the language, among which are 'introvert' and 'extravert.'

Introversion is "the state of or tendency toward being wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested in one's own mental life." Introverts tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate, and relatively non-engaged in social situations. They take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, watching movies, inventing and designing. An introverted person is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people (although they may enjoy one-to-one or one-to-few interactions with close friends).

Extraversion is "the act, state, or habit of being predominantly concerned with and obtaining gratification from what is outside the self." Extraverts tend to enjoy human interactions and to be enthusiastic, talkative, assertive and gregarious. They take pleasure in activities that involve large social gatherings, such as parties, community activities, public demonstrations, and business or political groups. An extraverted person is likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time spent alone.

According to Jung, extraversion and introversion refer to the direction of psychic energy. If a person's energy usually flows outwards, he or she is an extravert, while if this energy normally flows inwards, this person is an introvert. Extraverts feel energized when interacting with large group of people, but feel a decrease of energy when left alone. Conversely, introverts feel energized when alone, but feel a decrease of energy when surrounded by large group of people.

Personality Mapping
Jung published 'Psychological Types' in which the concepts of introverted and extroverted personality types are introduced - habitual outlooks which determine a person's experience of life. He refined these ideas according to four functions of the mind: thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition, and considered that, in each person, one or more of these functions predominate, and that the others require development through application if that person is to become whole. Jung put it like this: "For complete orientation all four functions should contribute equally."

By the use of a Bilateral Meter, a form of dual psychogalvanometer which measures and compares arousal of each of the brain hemispheres, it is possible to make a Hemispheric Assessment. By this method the subject's left or right dominance and flexibility of hemispheric arousal are determined, and his degree of introversion/extraversion. People have habitual responses and styles of cognition that relate to certain personality types as specified by Jung. Although Jung was primarily interested in psychopathology, he recognized that these factors could be influenced by exercise and tailored case handling, and with the use of a Bilateral Meter this is a task that we are now in a position to undertake. This method was fully described in the Bilateral Meter Course.

Galvanometer Tests may be represented in the form of a two-dimensional 'Personality Map', as shown below. This incorporates the factors of brain arousal (as a result of such factors as anxiety, tension, alertness, involvement and willingness to confront life) which may be measured on the GSR Meter; and hemispheric balance (as a result of cognitive or feeling functions predominating) which may be measured on the Bilateral Meter.

The map derived from these two dimensions is similar in many ways to the model of personality and mental pathology postulated by C.G. Jung. The small central square in the diagram represents what we call the 'Ideal Range of Readings': a range of rational response; outside of this area responses become neurotic and at the extreme, psychotic. If the techniques used in analysis have been effective, a client's readings should fall within the square, in which case the client may approach advanced techniques with a reasonable expectation of success.

The medium sized square represents the normal range of personality according to the Jungian Model, and the terms are defined as follows:

1. Phlegmatic = Thinking Introvert.

2. Melancholic = Feeling Introvert or Intuitive Type.

3. Sanguine = Thinking Extravert.

4. Choleric = Feeling Extravert or Sensation Type.

The large square represents the pathological ranges of personality. The difference between the pathological states and the normal states is a difference of degree; one state shades imperceptibly into the other.

The oval marked A represents the access a hypothetical client may have to a range of personality or consciousness states: the range of arousal and hemispheric mobility which is under the person's conscious control. The tandem arrangement of GSR and Bilateral Meters is able to show both axes simultaneously, thus presenting a dynamic display of these factors.

Jung and the transpersonal
'My life is the story of the self-realization of the unconscious,' wrote Jung on the very first line of his autobiography, and the process that he called 'individuation' - the idea of continual, lifelong personal development - was an important part of his approach to psychology and to life. Few contemporary psychologists shared his view that psychological development, the growth towards the realization of an individual's true potential, continued throughout the whole of life rather than being limited to childhood. Such self-realization could occur, he argued, by treating the unconscious as a living, daemonic presence: by confronting and examining what the unconscious has to say, a person can come to know themselves more truly and personal transformation can occur.

Jung made the significant step of defining the unconscious of a person as comprised of both a personal unconscious (proceeding from the experiences of the individual) and a collective unconscious (issuing from the inherited structure of the brain, and common to humanity).

The personal unconscious contains all the beliefs, values, feelings and memories which one is not currently conscious of. It contains material that can be made conscious by simple act of will, which can be termed 'pre-conscious'; material that requires some effort or external stimulus to retrieve, both cognitive and affective, which can be termed 'subconscious'; as well as material that may never be recalled to consciousness ever again. It is made up of the things you've experienced every day of your life. The personal unconscious is also a dumping ground for things we aren't comfortable with and which we'd really rather not have in consciousness very often.

The collective unconscious contains instinctive drives and patterns of behavior that we all share, as human beings. It is passed on genetically but Jung also perceived the collective unconscious as something we tap into, as a current 'over-mind' of our race.

In Jung's theory, complexes may be related to traumatic experience, or not. There are many kinds of complex, but at the core of any complex is a universal pattern of experience, or archetype. The concept of archetypes - potent universal symbols appearing in myths, fairytales and dreams - is an important part of Jung's concept of the unconscious. He considered the complexes existing in the personal unconscious to be personifications or manifestations of archetypes from the collective unconscious leading to characteristic patterns of behavior.

As the carrier of the individual's consciousness, it is the task of the Ego to become aware of its own limitations, to see its existence as only an island - though an essential one - in the ocean of personal and collective unconscious. A major part of the Ego's task is to develop an appropriate relationship with what Jung termed the Self, the archetype of wholeness. The Self can be understood as the central organizing principle of the psyche, that fundamental and essential aspect of human personality which gives cohesion, meaning, direction, and purpose to the whole psyche.

Jung uses the term Superego infrequently and usually in discussion of Freud's views. This was because of Jung's emphasis on the innate nature of morality, there being a pre-existing moral channel to accommodate the flow of psychic energy. The inbuilt Superego has a harsh archetypal (ie. powerful, primitive, extreme) nature and this is modified, rather than accentuated by parental introjects. Hence there is less need to postulate a learning process in connection with conscience.

When Jung does write of the Superego as such, he equates it with collective morality, buttressed by culture and tradition. Against the background of such collective morality, a person has to work out his or her own system of values and ethics (Ego Morality) - this is part of the process of individuation (the integration of the Ego and the Shadow).

Following World War I, Jung became a worldwide traveller. He visited India and his experiences led him to become fascinated and deeply involved with Eastern philosophies and religions. He drew parallels with the 'unitary consciousness' of the Eastern concept of spirituality and aspects of the collective unconscious.

Jung proposed an underlying, unitary reality that gives rise to the archetypes. This is an idea found in much mystical and religious thought. He also turned his thoughts to parapsychology, and developed a theory of 'meaningful coincidence' which he called synchronicity. He described this as 'a coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the same or similar meaning.'

Through the Individuation process, Jung hoped that each of us who heeds the call might one day reach our full potential. He realized that if the individuals in our society could face up to their shadows and reconnect with their inner opposites, that we could all hopefully transcend the destructive side of our nature. This could open the way for a direct connection with the vast and humbling resources of both the personal and collective unconscious, resources that have long been used by poets, painters, and performers and are there for anyone who makes the commitment to becoming a true individual.

It is important to note that Jung seemed to often see his work as not a complete psychology in itself but as his unique contribution to the field of psychology. Jung claimed late in his career that only for about a third of his patients did he use "Jungian analysis." For another third, Freudian psychology seemed to best suit the patient's needs and for the final third Adlerian analysis was most appropriate. In fact, it seems that most contemporary Jungian psychoanalyts merge a personal eclectic approach with the Jungian theories in order to have a "whole" theoretical repertoire to do actual clinical work.

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