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Video Description
The goal of life, Jung taught, is not to be perfect — it is to be whole. This lecture from Academy of Ideas walks his favored method for getting there: individuation. It begins with radical self-acceptance, owning your flaws and strengths exactly as they are. From there it moves to accepting others, then to choosing a life mission — a purpose that pulls you out of despair. The path still holds suffering, but as the video shows, meeting that suffering fully is what finally reveals who you are.
Full Video Transcript
When all is said and done, our own existence is an experiment of nature, an attempt at a new synthesis.
While Carl Jung is best known for his ideas on the unconscious, be it his theory of the archetypes or his writings on the shadow side of man, Jung was first and foremost a practicing psychologist.
Throughout his voluminous writings, one can find many practical tips on how to live a better life.
And in this video, we are going to explore this side of Jung’s work,
focusing our attention on his favored method of self-development,
which he called the process of individuation.
To individuate is to self-realize with the aim of moving toward psychological wholeness.
Wholeness is an ideal state wherein all our latent potentials are actualized,
and all the elements of our unconscious brought to the light of consciousness
and integrated harmoniously into our character structure.
In the brevity of a human life, we can only ever approach, but never fully reach, the condition of psychological wholeness.
But moving in this direction generates fulfillment and leads to the cultivation of a character that is rooted in our individuality,
and which transcends mere social roles and the expectations of our peer group and society at large.
Or as Jung explains,
Individuation as a method of self-development offers many benefits over following the well-worn paths of conformity.
Firstly, this process makes us more capable in life.
For as we aim towards psychological wholeness, we increase the number of skills and character
traits at our disposal, and so augment our capacity to take advantage of life’s opportunities
and to deal with its problems.
Individuation is also an effective antidote to diseases of despair, be it anxiety disorders,
neuroses, depressions, or certain forms of addiction.
For while these conditions can stem from a myriad of causes, one of the most common is
an unlived life, or the feeling that we are stagnating, in conjunction with a nagging
awareness of our ever-approaching death.
Individuation forces us out of these ruts of being and places us on a life path that
is both purposeful and meaningful.
A further benefit of individuation is that a byproduct of approaching the state of psychological
wholeness is the spontaneous formation of an attitude that affirms life, and which,
in the words of Jung, is beyond the reach of emotional entanglements and violent shocks,
a consciousness detached from the world.
Or as Jung writes elsewhere,
If you sum up what people tell you about their experiences on the path of individuation,
you can formulate it this way.
They came to themselves.
They could accept themselves.
They were able to become reconciled to themselves, and thus were reconciled to adverse circumstances
and events.
To attain the benefits of individuation requires that we take a step that is simple in theory
but difficult in practice.
We must focus our attention selfward and in the most objective manner possible assess
our life in the current state of our character.
Wisdom begins only when one takes things as they are, explains Jung.
So it is a healing attitude when one can agree with the facts as they are, only then can
we thrive.
A radical self-acceptance is needed to individuate.
This entails identifying and accepting our character flaws and weaknesses, but also our
talents and strengths.
It requires an acceptance of past mistakes and failures, and a clear grasp of the current
conditions of our life in the recognition that, we cannot go forward except from the
place where we happen to be.
And perhaps most importantly, we need to accept that there exists a vast potential within
us, and that the possibilities for our development are endless.
Or as Jung writes, Since the growth of personality comes out
of the unconscious, which is by definition unlimited, the extent of the personality now
gradually realizing itself cannot in practice be limited either.
But while self-acceptance is a preparatory step on the path of individuation, it is also
a step that in and of itself produces strong therapeutic benefits.
In volume 13 of his collected works, Jung quotes a letter from one of his patients about
the inner change that occurs when one comes to accept him or herself.
Out of evil, much good has come to me, by keeping quiet, repressing nothing, remaining
attentive, and by accepting reality, taking things as they are and not as I wanted them
to be, by doing all this, unusual knowledge has come to me, and unusual powers as well,
such as I could never have imagined before.
I always thought that when we accepted things they overpowered us in some way or other.
This turns out not to be true at all, and it is only by accepting them that one can
assume an attitude towards them.”
In addition to self-acceptance, Jung also advocates an increased acceptance of those
close to us, particularly our family members. Jung maintained that far too many people waste
far too much time in the tangles of what he called the boring family drama. Unless we
have suffered a traumatic experience that we have yet to come to terms with, it is better
to accept any past mistreatment as a given condition of our life. Playing the victim,
dwelling in pity or blame, trying to change another or trying to account for why we were
treated is wasted life but no matter how much the parents and grandparents may have sinned against
the child the man who is really adult will accept these sins as his own condition which has to be
reckoned with only a fool is interested in other people’s guilt since he cannot alter it the wise
man learns only from his own guilt practicing a radical self-acceptance in conjunction with an
increased acceptance of others places us on the firm ground of reality from which to take the next
step on the path of individuation and this is to adopt a goal or life mission i have observed writes
jung that a life directed to an aim is in general better richer and healthier than an aimless one
and that it is better to go forwards with the stream of time than backwards against it adopting
a goal or life mission is integral to individuation as psychological wholeness is not approached
through mere passive meditation. Rather, a constant embrace of challenges leads to the
actualization of our potential, and novel experiences bring unconscious contents to
the light of consciousness, and it is a life mission that generates this full participation
in life. What is more, a goal or mission can help pull us from the passivity of a disease
of despair by diverting our focus and energy from pathological interests to more constructive
and reality-based pursuits. Practical experience teaches us as a general
rule that a psychic activity can find a substitute only on the basis of equivalence. A pathological
interest, for example, an intense attachment to a symptom, can be replaced only by an equally
intense attachment to another interest. So as not to be delayed at the step of choosing
a goal or life mission, we should realize that there is no single right choice. Psychological
wholeness can be approached from many angles, so we just need to find something that is
intrinsically rewarding enough to keep us motivated, and challenging enough to create
the novel experiences necessary for self-realization. But like all major life decisions, in choosing
a mission, we must be the one to decide. We should not rely on others to choose for us.
Or as Jung writes, Why are you looking around for help? Do you
believe that help will come from outside? What is to come is created in you and from
you. Hence, look into yourself. Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours.
All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you, with
With a mission in hand, we merely need to work towards its achievement, in a consistent
and disciplined manner, in order to individuate, or as Jung writes,
How are you fulfilling your life’s task, your mission, your raison d’être, the meaning
and purpose of your existence?
This is the question of individuation, the most fateful of all questions.
To avoid being thrown off course, we should be aware that as we walk the path of individuation,
We will encounter setbacks and failures and make mistakes and errors.
But these experiences should not discourage us, for as Jung wrote,
We must make mistakes.
We must live out our own vision of life.
If you avoid error, you do not live.
In a sense even it may be said that every life is a mistake, for no one has found the
truth.
It is also useful to keep in mind that individuation does not free us from the conditions of human
existence.
We will still be haunted by our approaching mortality, while illness, injury and cruel
twists of fate will still befall us.
Like all paths in life, on the path of individuation, suffering is inevitable.
When suffering comes our way, Jung was of the strong opinion that we shouldn’t flee
from these situations, or deny or repress the feelings that accompany them, but instead
we should experience our suffering to the fullest, as only then can we move beyond it.
Real liberation, writes Jung, comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states
of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full.
But even though the path of individuation is challenging, and even though it does not
free us from suffering, it is a path that generates fulfillment, and such cannot always
be said of the paths of modern-day conformity.
If, therefore, we are stuck in a life of boredom, mediocrity, anxiety, depression or addiction,
Jung’s method of self-development offers a way out.
Our personality develops in the course of life from germs that are hard or impossible
to discern, writes Jung, and it is only our deeds that reveal who we are.
At first we do not know what deeds or misdeeds, what destiny, what good and evil we have in
us.
And only the autumn can show what the spring has engendered.
in the evening will it be seen what the morning began.
Source: Academy of Ideas