Glossary:
Active Imagination: a therapeutic technique which allows unconscious contents to be exposed in a waking state. It is like "dreaming with open eyes", but unlike the passivity of dreams, it demands the active participation of the individual. The images which arise may be elaborated through artistic and self-expressive mediums such as painting.
Amplification: a method of interpretation in which the analyst assists the patient to connect an image in a dream or fantasy with universal imagery. The personal images are amplified by comparison with similar images and motifs found in myths and fairy-tales. By engaging in this process, a synthesis of consciousness and the unconscious, and of personal and collective, is attained. The individual is reconnected with the archetype expressed through the image and the unconscious content is made explicit.
Analytical Psychology: Jung coined this term as early as 1913 to distinguish his approach from Freud's psychoanalysis.
Apports: the paranormal and otherwise inexplicable production or transporting of material objects, as for instance in a seance.
Archetypes: inherited, innate and a priori modes of perception, linked to the instincts, which regulate perception itself. The archetypes are primordial ideas, common to all mankind, and they express only through archetypal images. They are charged with emotion and function autonomously from the unconscious.
Compensation: for Jung, the unconscious stands in a compensatory relationship to consciousness and functions to restore any imbalance or one-sidedness created by the conscious attitude. Repressed contents re-emerge in dreams, images and symptoms because "every process that goes too far immediately and inevitably calls forth compensation".
Complexes: a collection of images and ideas with a common emotional tone which cluster around an archetypal core. They are autonomous and 'behave like independent beings'. Complexes are mediated into consciousness by the ego which can be overwhelmed by them (as in psychosis) or identify with them (as in inflation).
Ego: the ego is the centre of the field of consciousness and gives the individual his or her sense of purpose and identity. It organizes the conscious mind, mediating consciousness with the unconscious. The Ego is the precious "light" of consciousness which must always be guarded.
Extrovert & Introvert: the two poles of psychic orientation. In the extrovert attitude, energy flows outwards towards the world and is motivated and oriented by external, objective factors. Introverted energy withdraws from the world and is motivated and oriented by inner, subjective factors.
Functions: Jung distinguished four properties of psychic energy which he terms the four functions, paired in two sets of opposites: thinking-feeling and intuition-sensation. The functions are the means by which we orient ourselves to experience. In any individual, one function is conscious (superior), Its opposite is unconscious (inferior) and the remaining two are partially conscious and partially unconscious (auxiliary). The functions combine with the two attitude types (extrovert and introvert), to give eight functional types.
Hysteria: from the Greek for womb, hysteria was once diagnosed as a purely feminine disease. Psychiatry came to use the term to refer to neurotic behaviour In which the physical symptoms, e.g. paralysis or convulsions, derive from psychological rather that physical malfunction. Phobia, or extreme neurotic anxiety, is also a form of hysteria. Jung agrees with Freud that hysterical symptoms are a return of repressed memories in the personal background of the patient, and that they involve misplaced psychic energy, usually sexual. The form of the symptoms is itself symbolic of the nature of the psychological problem.
lndividuation: the process of self- development in which an individual integrates the many facets of the psyche to become him or her self - an individual, a separate, indivisible unity with a sense of psychic wholeness.
Libido: Freud's use of the term libido as "sexual energy" was extended by Jung to include psychic energy in general. He eventually dropped the term libido altogether in favour of "psychic energy' (see psychic energy).
Mandala: Sanskrit for "magic circle'. Sacred, geometric paintings used for meditation purposes and characterised by a circle and a square which radiate from a central point. Jung interpreted them as an archetypal expression of the Self and wholeness. Mandala images often emerge In dreams and paintings during analysis.
Mythopoeic Imagination: the myth-making imagination characteristic of primitive mentality but also, according to Jung, of the unconscious. It is to be contrasted with the discursive and directed thought of consciousness. It appears in non-directed fantasy thinking and dream images, and reflects the preconscious archetypal structure of the psyche.
Neurosis: originally a "disease of the nerves'. Freud saw that this was not a disorder of the nervous system, but of personality, arising from the thwarting of instinctual drives. Beyond the broad distinction between neurosis and psychosis Jung does not attempt a comprehensive classification of neurosis. His analysis took the whole of the disturbed psyche as its subject, and he looked on neurosis as reflecting psychic imbalance. Neurotic symptoms may manifest a compensatory and teleological process of self-healing, since they direct the sufferer's attention to his or her psychic dis-ease.
Projection: the unconscious displacement of psychic contents onto other people or objects. The projected contents may be unacceptable emotions and qualities or they may be beneficial and valuable. Both Shadow and Soul-image projections are carried by real men and women. The recollection and integration of projected contents is an important part of analysis and of the individuation process.
Psyche and Psychic Energy: by psyche, Jung means the whole of our being, conscious and unconscious. His analytical psychology attempts to reveal a structure and dynamics of the psyche and to create a typology of psychic energy - attitudes, functions, types and so on. Psychic energy can flow in a number of channels - biological, psychological, spiritual and moral. It will change direction and flow into another channel if it is blocked in any one channel. A shift in the flow of energy has purpose and functions to maintain a balance in the psyche as a whole.
Psychic Reality: a major concept for Jung. The psyche functions in psychic reality. Life is experienced as psychic reality, and even "illusory' experiences are real from this point of view. Both the inner and outer world are perceived by us in images, and as evidence of this, we tend to personify unconscious contents. So Christ, for example, is a collective image of the Self and has a real psychic force, quite independent of the historical question of Jesus.
Psychosis: an invasion of consciousness by unconscious contents where the conscious Ego becomes overwhelmed, splitting the individual off from social responses and conventional reality. Consequently, it is difficult for psychotic patients to respond to psychotherapy. The same process that produces madness in one person may be allied to genius in another. Psychotic states can be part of religious conversion and intense inspiration.
Schizophrenia: originally named dementia praecox, It was thought to be a disorder of body chemistry. it is characterised by a splitting apart of thoughts, feelings and actions. Jung acknowledged a physiological component in the illness but considered that its primary origin was psychological - the domination of personality by a split-off complex.
Self: the Self is an image of the unity of the personality as a whole, a central ordering principle. "The self Is not only the Centre but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the centre of the conscious mind".
Shadow: the inferior, uncivilized and animal qualities repressed by the Ego form a Shadow which stands in compensatory relationship to the "light" of the Ego. The Shadow is "the thing a person has no wish to be". It is of the same sex as the individual and can appear in dreams and fantasies or it can be projected.
Soul Image (anima, animus): an archetypal, inner image of the opposite sex, the anima in a man and the animus in a woman. It appears in dreams and fantasies and is projected onto individuals of the opposite sex, most frequently in the experience of "failing in love". The Soul-image has a compensatory relationship to the Persona. It functions as a guide to the soul and offers creative possibilities for the individuation process.
Teleology: teleological explanations seek an understanding in terms of purpose and end-goals, rather than a reduction to prior causes. Unlike Freud's psychoanalysis, Jung's analytical psychology frequently refers psychic functioning to such goals, as in the process of individuation.
Transcendent Function: an archetypal process which mediates opposites and enables a transition from one attitude or condition to another. It is activated whenever consciousness Is engaged in the tension of opposites. Symbols carry such opposites and thus the transcendent function arises in the attempt to understand the elusive meaning on images and symbols. The function has a healing effect by bridging consciousness and the unconscious and by allowing an individual to move beyond one-sidedness.
Transference: the projection onto the analyst of feelings and ideas which are derived from introjected figures or objects in the patient's past, commonly parental figures. The patient repeats and re-enacts the past relationship with the analyst. The transference may be a positive one (falling in love) or a negative one (hostility and hatred) By analysing the transference, unconscious patterns become conscious to the patient. Counter-transference occurs when the analyst projects his or her own unconscious contents onto the patient.
Unconscious: in analytical psychology, as in psychoanalysis, the existence of the unconscious, with its own laws and functions, is presupposed. It is capable of autonomously affecting and interrupting consciousness. Jung posits both a personal and collective unconscious, both of which stand in compensatory relationship to consciousness. The personal unconscious consists of personal, repressed, infantile contents. The collective unconscious contains collective, inherited contents, the instincts and the archetypes. One of Jung's favourite metaphors for the unconscious is that of the sea. With its fluidity, its calms and storms, mermaids and monsters, it can be a force of either creativity or destruction. Jung considers the unconscious is primarily creative, in the service of the individual.
Unus Mundus: the "One World". This phrase of the alchemists suggests the interpenetration of spirit , soul and matter. As interpreted in Jung's psychology, it describes the inter-relation of psyche and body. With the development of synchronicity, and the positing of a "psychoid substrate" of reality, this metaphor is carried into the inter-relation of psyche and matter. Jung hoped this would lead to a common ground for psychotherapy and physics.
