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Jung is an important theorist that believed that people need a religious or spiritual

experience to become mature. He also believed that in order to be mature people must accept

morality and death. Jung theorized that in order to achieve the state of maturity, there are three

steps that must be taken: Dependency, Autonomy, and Integration. The first stage can be

described as the stage in which someone finds themselves depending on their surroundings, more

specifically where they look at their surroundings for a sense of belonging and depend on the

greater being to form their thoughts. The second stage is autonomy or freedom. This stage

consists of being free and independent and being able to assert your own power. In this stage the

person must use the lessons learned during the dependency stage and they notice that the higher

power has been controlling for a long time. The person becomes self conscious and breaks away

from that dependency on the greater being. The final stage of Jung’s theory is the integration

stage which is the actual acceptance of the being or the finishing of becoming a whole person.

Jung believed that this final step was when someone accepted their limits, also known as death.

This final step is what completes the process to maturity and what makes the person understand

themselves in a personal perspective. Jung is a perfect theorist to use as a lens to analyze case

studies because it provides a basis for thought about case studies. Using Jung as a theorist, I

believe that we can compare the stories in Patel, formed in the United States, and the story of Bin

Laden, formed in Saudi Arabia, to show how religion and spirituality are important in the

maturity of a person.

In the narrative “Acts of Faith” by Iboo Patel there were various stories that Patel

presented in order to get his message across. Some of the stories that show Jung’s theory with

maturity are the stories of his own personal growth in his muslim faith. Patel’s journey of
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discovery is one that I believe sticks out the most when it comes to Jung’s theory because the

three steps of maturity are present within the discovery of himself. In the first story about that

clearly shows the first step of dependency is when Patel begins by saying that he has grown up

Muslim his whole life. He was brought up by a strong muslim faith and because he was so young

he never thought of challenging it once. We can use an analogy to further explain how him

growing up Muslim is dependency. Dependency is almost like the “baby” stage, it is the stage

where the least growth occurs because as babies we are not able to form our own ideas. As

children, we are given ideas and are asked to continue to believe them without any say in how

we feel about them. People during this stage just believe what they are told and don’t really

question their faith.

Further on in the book, Patel begins to question authority, he begins to worry about how

his muslim faith was being protrayed in media. This is an example of the autonomy stage. People

realize that some of the things they have learned throughout their lifetime aren’t in their best

interest. This stage of dependency can be seen through the analogy of the “teenage” human

being. During the teenage stage of life, is when I believe the most growth occurs. Teenagers

begin to question whether everything they have learned up to that point is true and they begin to

experiment with others beliefs and question whether the beliefs they have grown up their whole

life are the truest to how they view life. This specifically happened a lot when Patel grew up

seeing his Muslim faith being portrayed on social platforms as something it wasn’t. It also occurs

when he believed that interfaith dialogues were something that was crucially important to his

ideals. As he saw more and more of life, he realized that one thing that was missing was that
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strong interfaith connection because it allows for others to learn about their own faith more

deeply and to see how faith plays an important role in a more personal level.

As Patel experiments with interfaith and with his faith he matures and finds peace within

himself. The final stage can be described with the analogy of an adult human being, being wise

and all knowing and having a set of ideas that are idealistically set in stone. In this stage we can

see clearly how Patel realizes that there is more to his religion than what meets the eye. One of

the ways that Patel realizes this is through seeing what his grandmother does to help other

people; he didn’t like the idea of helping strangers because it could be dangerous. When Patel

asks why she helps people, he explains , “She looked a little shocked that I would ask,as if to say

that the answer was self evident. But in case it wasn’t clear to me, she said simply, “I am a

Muslim. This is what Muslims do.” (Patel 100). This quote was extremely powerful because it

broke the entire stereotype that Muslim people are terrorists. It made people see the true essence

of Islam and it also made Patel realize that there was more to people and that the things that we

see from the outside can seem dangerous but are also the ones that matter the most. This was one

part of his personal growth. The other part that was mentioned was when he started the Interfaith

Youth Core. This was a part that showed his growth and maturity because he discovered that he

could start his own program and didn’t have to continue feeling that some programs weren’t

entirely inclusive. Patel reached a level of maturity that casme through the discovery of self.

Jung can help us compare this journey of self to the journey of Osama Bin Laden outlined

in the text “Studying Religion: An Introduction Through Cases” by Gary Kessler. Osama Bin

Laden was brought up in the text because his back story was given to us. Osama Bin Laden’s

discovery was similar to Patel in the way that it had some of the steps to peace and
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wholesomeness but the difference is that Bin Laden was brought up with wrong ideals and didn’t

ever think of challenging the ideals he was brought up with. Bin Laden started the first faze of

dependency. This step can be seen when we see that people aren’t born terrorists, they learn to

become terrorists and that is one of the two things that made Bin Laden into the person he

became. The ideals he grew up with were Wahhabism, a belief that the Quran should be

interpreted literally. This shows how in the “baby” phase of life it’s important to set good ideals,

and to give people something wholesome to believe in. The dependency step is when he learned

about Wahhabism and when he was in college and had professors who instilled violence in him,

it also wasn’t any help that Bin Laden grew up surrounded by violence.

The combination of all of these beliefs made him form his own beliefs, which weren’t the

best beliefs anyone can have. Bin Laden then formed the idea that, “ an uncompromising, global,

and violent jihad was the best means for regaining the past glory of Islam” (Kessler 213). This

belief is what became the basis for his actions towards others and what he believed was the best

thing to do. Once this idea was instilled in his mind he believed it was the truest ideal and was

what would save Islam from the path it was going in. The steps of Autonomy and Integration

became intertwined in the end because he formed his own ideas and believed that this was his

wisdom and peace.

Both studies are similar in the aspect that they contain Jung’s theory and they follow the

steps towards maturity. For example, Patel was raised with a Muslim belief in his dependecy

stage. This stage was important in forming who he is. In contrast, Bin Laden was also raised as a

Muslim but his ideals were influenced by a different type of Islam, one that isn’t an accurate

representation of all of Islam. It’s strange to think that one small change in the first step of
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maturity can make two very different people. It shows how Jung’s theory is important when it

comes to analyzing various back stories because Dependency is a crucial stage to maturity. Bin

Laden and Patel are both considered Muslim but one is notorious for promoting violence.

Through Jung’s theory it is clear to see how the dependency stage in maturity is crucial to the

growth of people.

The second step in Jung’s theory is also seen through the two studies I chose to focus on

because the second step was Autonomy. In this step, the independence step we see how

important it is because of the two different basis of beliefs that came from the dependency stage.

This is seen specifically when Bin Laden chooses to form an ideal that Islam must follow the

Quran literally when in reality that isn’t true. In Patel he actually has some doubts about his faith

because of interfaith and because of how it is portrayed in the media. The two compare in the

aspect that they both are able to form their ideas in this stage but they are bothe very opposite

ideals, one wanting to unite everyone and bring people of all religions together and one wanting

to convert everyone to Islam and if someone disrepects Islam they could potentially be executed.

The third and final step is the Integration which is extremely different for Patel and Bin Laden

because of how it creates a false sense of the whole self. This is because Bin Laden belivied that

his ideas were the true essence of Islam and that he would bring peace to everyone when in

reality he created more hate. Patel is the one who has his ideals also be morally correct because

he wants people to become close to everyone and to prove that interfaith can create lifelong

bonds and friendships.

Carl Jung’s theory is a great way to analyze case studies and see how different or similar

case studies can be. This is because of how universal and inclusive the theory is. Jung belived
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that wisdom and maturity would be achieved through a process that can be universal for

everyone. It is important to see how Islam can be portrayed and learned differently all because of

the Dependency stage and that sometimes that stage is what decides the future for all people. I do

believe there is a flaw in Jung’s theory though because he stated that in the final stage is when

people achieve wisdom but the thing is not all wisdom is good. For example, Bin Laden thought

that violence and non-conforming to outsiders was the best way to view Muslim faith. Despite

this minor flaw, I believe that Jung is crucial to looking deeper into the story of others.
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Citations:

Kessler, Gary E. ​Studying Religion: an Introduction through Cases​. McGraw-Hill Higher

Education, 2008.

PATEL, EBOO. ​ACTS OF FAITH 2018: the Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle

for the Soul of a ... Generation with a New Afterword​. BEACON, 2018.