For those not appreciative of the subtler forms of satire, I thought hard about re-doing this post in a more serious tone — however, I failed utterly. Because I think it’s an accurate description of Jung’s psychology of mid-life, and because satire can be a meaningful way of approaching unfamiliar ideas, I let it stand with one caveat: my projections onto the conventional perception of Jung’s ideas are my own small biases against the extraverted interpretation of the psychological facts he established through his work.
Jung arrived at his concept of individuation by comparing his own inner experiences to historical ideas; their connections to themes in myth and literature, and similar ideas in his patients: a scientific attempt to provide a broad compendium of associations to the central images forming the structure of the unconscious mind. The process of coming to terms with the unconscious meant discerning one’s unique personality from the cultural demands dominating the first half of life. That may appeal to those with a morbid susceptibility to inner compulsion, but let’s consider this idea from a more realistic social standpoint.
His speculations of a ‘psychological’ change accompanying menopause startled me. The changes in physiology initiated by hormonal diminution were actually seen by Jung as also effecting an emotional development designed to accentuate contrasexual ‘spiritual’ functions. How physical processes and spirituality are linked to homosexual fantasies, I couldn’t discern.
Far-fetched though it seems, this idea revolved around a bizarre model in which mind and body appeared as reciprocal factors designed for ‘purposes’ beyond physical need, social adjustment, or even consciousness. Though today we know the conscious mind is relatively self-sustaining and merely endures the body as the crude vehicle of an out-grown animal heritage (viz., eating, having sex and going to the bathroom), Jung yet conceived it as the basis of deeper aims which couldn’t be seen or touched (!).
He believed that natural processes don’t necessarily adhere to rational scientific ideas. Stages of development appeared to him as fluid and relative, interpenetrating to such a complex degree that nothing could really be certain (where’s the science in that?). Beyond the instinctual maintenance of the body, Jung theorized ‘subjective’ psychic processes which could be inferred (fantasized?) through personal emotional experience. ‘Unconscious’ drives were discernible through indirect reflections in behavior and were thought to develop according to natural laws.
FYI: an interesting, though equally irrational, supplement to Jung’s model was the idea of ‘centroversion’ introduced by Erich Neumann, a long-time member of his cult. It was intended as a complement to Jung’s concepts of introversion and extraversion, the psychic mechanisms adapting us to inner and outer ‘worlds’. These spontaneous movements of ‘psychic energy’ were seen as alternating of their own accord (what?!) as demands change with development and the effects of the environment. Bear with me.
It was Neumann’s further contention that centroversion is the organizing and directing function which coordinates the other two mechanisms in the gradual unfolding of consciousness, much like Jung’s outlier concept of the Self. Though it smacks of a philosophical chimera in an atheistic age, it was meant as a description of an ‘innate’ force behind the evolution of the individual as well as the species (what happened to God?)!
Anyway, it doesn’t begin to emerge until conscious development reaches a certain stage of separation from the ‘unconscious’. Many begin to feel disoriented, with vague and unidentifiable ‘yearnings’ (?) and a sense that something is missing in their lives. Such disturbances may correspond to the isolated experiences of a few rejected members of society, but it can’t in any way be indicative of healthy participation in the social norm.
Though Jung postulated this stage as reaching its peak at mid-life, he speculated that transitional periods could be so relative to personal experience, even early dreams and memories could portend it; that ‘symbols’ actually referred to functions which guide the unfolding of our natures — even preceding the menopausal stage. He saw them as compensatory attempts by an ‘inner self’ to maintain connection to it during critical stages in its shifts toward individual differentiation. What this might mean for society wasn’t elaborated.
Despite the fact that logic dictates our modern collective direction, Jung presumed this to be an illusion; that we’re driven by an over-valued intellect fueled by egotistical hubris. Though we know that science is our only defense against an inferior and hostile Nature, he suggested they were actually self-aggrandized aversions to an unconscious history fashioned largely by an innate animal-like earthly reality (never mind cause and effect). He and Neumann even suggested an inherent spiritual function in it centered around inner awareness and not just biological and social needs!
For a reflecting consciousness, they maintained, ‘instincts’ appear as religious symbols intended to compensate our primitive natures and not just crude misinterpretations of cause and effect. How such irrational fantasies could possibly signify objective processes is untenable in the light of modern science.
Since we’re largely unaware of this transition, we don’t know what’s happening when it insinuates itself; it’s too opposed to consciousness (I wonder why!). Jung insisted that we ‘project’ inner events onto the screen of outer circumstances. The changes in our personalities are reflected back to us through relationships: divorce, career change, new love-interests, a profound sense of inferiority, or the sudden onset of depression and/or compulsive behavior. The marvels of modern medications were yet unknown in Jung’s day.
The real purpose of these conflicts is to re-focus an exterior orientation to the ‘internal’ authority which precipitates the changes. What is this superstitious, quasi-religious obsession with some ‘thing’ greater than ourselves? Neumann further added that the effects of centroversion were always the motive force behind development, the reason the symbols seemed to conform from stage to stage. Focus on the outer world in the first half of life prompts us to see their effects as originating in the environment.
That this is only partially so, slowly dawns on the mind that can discern its own psychic activity ‘within’. They perceived this as a sort of religious/philosophical fantasy, though because we’re unconscious of its symbols as the organizers of psychic life, it’s traditionally projected onto dogmatic figures — references to the occult mindset of centuries ago. Put on your waders, they went further:
If, with psychological knowledge, the conscious mind confronts its own ‘background’ and is able to withdraw its projections from these invisible figures through conscious re-interpretation and emotional experience, it may discover the hidden language of ‘analogy’ in them — thus magically entering into a new stage of awareness! The inward attention is supposed gradually to connect us with a ‘psychic reality’ behind the changes. It begins to appear as a dual process in which outer and inner events reflect parallel paths of development. What this actually refers to, I couldn’t determine. How many realities do you see?
That opposing forces merge energies toward a purposeful end is not a new idea. The positive and negative poles which combine to produce electricity are familiar to everyone. But, Jung conceived this material truth (fasten your seat-belts) to apply to the mind as well! He implied that the analogy could acquaint us with the contrasts and contradictions between different ways of viewing life in the ‘transition’ from an external orientation to an ‘internal’ one. The collision of the two perspectives intended to inform the new direction creates the mental confusion designed to push us into it! Who’s confused?
Though many have observed that the individual relives the biological stages of humanity which precede its modern state; and though history portrays the intellect as gradually emerging from a rude emotional matrix, Jung actually saw this process as being driven by religious imperatives deeply embedded in the psyche and not by social and cultural exchange. The absurdity of this premise is apparent today.