A collection of articles that explain important Jungian concepts.
As the gatekeeper of consciousness, the ego has a profound effect upon the expression and health of the larger personality. Like the iris, which regulates the amount of light entering the eye, the ego regulates the sensory data that reaches the “retina” of your inner mind. For example, if you believe that a certain drug…
“Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.” Carl Jung Whereas a child’s physical birth is often measured in hours and minutes, its psychological birth is measured in years. Though the seed of individuality is present in infancy, the newborn’s ego is…
My last article in this series (12/12/13) pointed out that a major psychological task of childhood is the development of a strong ego. A strong ego should not be confused with a “big ego,” egocentricity, willfulness, or arrogance. “Ego strength” is a psychological term that describes the resilience and structural integrity of the conscious mind/identity.…
The previous articles of this series examined different aspects of the psyche and their representation in our dreams. This article and the next take a closer look at the dreams of children. Although the information shared in the earlier articles applies to children’s dreams, modifications must sometimes be made due to differences in the psychology…
The last article in this series examined how the animals that appear in our dreams sometimes function as symbols of the Self, Carl Jung’s term for the core of the psyche. The animals listed included snakes, owls, ducks, geese, swans, frogs, turtles, whales, dolphins, porpoises, fish, bugs and bees. To that list we could also…
The last article in this series examined the Self. The Self is the spiritual core and regulating center of the psyche. It is often symbolized in dreams by dream figures and images which evoke a sense of wholeness and the creative union of opposites. Examples include rare and enduring objects (e.g., gold, diamonds, a unique…
The last article in this series looked the anima and animus. The anima is the feminine side of a man’s personality, symbolized in his dreams by female figures. The animus is the masculine side of a woman’s personality, symbolized in her dreams by male figures. Because the anima and animus arise from a deeper level…
My last article in this series examined the shadow. As its name suggests, the shadow is that part of our personality that we tend to keep in the dark, concealed from our own and others’ awareness. Because the shadow is composed primarily of undeveloped characteristics common to one’s gender, it is symbolized in dreams by…
The shadow is the term developed by Carl Jung to describe the rejected and disowned aspects of one’s personality.
The first article in this series examined the ego, Carl Jung’s term for the conscious mind. The ego gives us our subjective sense of identity, and is typically symbolized in dreams by the dreamer or by a vehicle that the dreamer is in. In this article we explore a component of the psyche closely associated…
