Carl Jung saw that individuation – becoming the person we are meant to be – is indeed the ultimate goal of the psyche. It is, he thought, partly about choosing one’s own uniqueness. Here Jung is not advocating individualism, which he saw as merely the arrogant assertion of the ego, but rather a process of accepting our uniqueness which is then to realize one’s full humanity – alongside everyone else, and our sense of being alive alongside all other living creatures.
Jung’s descriptions include: ‘Individuation means precisely the better and more complete fulfilment of collective qualities’ and ‘Individuation does not shut out from the world, but gathers the world to oneself.’ So, the desire to individuate is quite opposite to what Anthony Stevens calls:
‘the neurotic desire to be “normal”, that is to say just like everyone else. The individuating person wants to be like everyone else (a full member of the human family) but in his or her uniquely individual way.’
Stevens points out how this process of becoming can be fraught with danger, especially for those following their creative energies to the brink. He quotes Daniel Levinson, a psychologist who researched adult development in the second half of the twentieth century, and who wrote about the various stages and transitions we go through. Levinson cited various artists and writers who came to grief as they were led into self-destruction or insanity. Amongst these, Levinson includes Dylan Thomas, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Vincent van Gogh; and various contemporary writers and also come to mind – certainly R. D. Laing. And what about all those singers and entertainers who succumb to self-destruction – Amy Winehouse?
Amongst those who successfully weathered the experience of becoming their individual creative self, Levinson names Dante, Hesse, Thomas Mann, and Bertrand Russell as well as Freud and Jung. He argues that their later work had a depth and maturity derived from the creative energies released in them as they passed through various perilous mid-life and later life experiences. Needless to say, there are no women mentioned by either Levinson or Stevens!
One of the interesting parts of the process of becoming is to find meaning in the sufferings we experience (links back to earlier posts this summer), and to find opportunities in the midst of difficulties and crisis, so that we can weather and integrate what happens to us, rather than be destroyed by our response to events.
In a letter to the theologian and priest Victor White, Jung is interesting about the importance of Christianity, in the process of individuation. One of the early stages of individuation is working out and confronting our shadow. For each of us, and for every society confronting the age of darkness, Jung writes in 1953, ‘we shall need Christian virtues to the utmost’:
‘… in dealing with darkness, you have got to cling to the Good … You need every bit of your goodness in dealing with Evil … to keep the light alive in the darkness. …’
‘Good’ for the Christian is represented by Christ, and the conflict with the shadow – Jung writes: ‘i.e. Christ versus Satan, is only the first step on the way to the faraway goal of the unity of the self in God.’ This he sees as represented through the Holy Spirit which ‘means a restitution of the original Oneness.’ For Jung, religion plays a huge part in the process of becoming – of individuation.