Running head: THE GRAND THEORY OF JUNG 1

Abigail Floriano-Monarrez
The Grand Theory of Jung
 THE GRAND THEORY OF JUNG 2

The Grand Theory of Jung

Jung, a man whose theory lies in a person’s levels of psyche and their quest to self-

realization. He explains how Archetypes in each person’s unconscious are shared universally and

how these can help develop our personality, the theory of opposites and the types of opposites

there are, and the therapeutic model, a form of therapy that helps people tap into their

personal/collective unconscious. This paper will go in depth with Jung’s theory and explain his

philosophy of the intrapsychic.

Jung’s theory starts with the levels of the psyche. The levels to the psyche being the

conscious, the personal unconscious, and the collective conscious. Conscious is the obvious one,

being the area of the brain that carries out daily activities. The personal unconscious has the

repressed thoughts and experiences you’ve had in your life. Within the personal unconscious

there are things called complexes, these are webs of ideas and themes. West (2015) stated that

original state of a complex is when trauma or a trauma like event happens to someone and then a

part of the psyche is split off (West, M. 2015). The trauma created thus helps with creating

people’s personalities, but these traumas go unseen since it stays in the personal unconscious.

The collective unconscious is the area in the mind that stores universal ideas and these can aid in

the way we perceive the world. The universal ideas shared by everyone are called archetypes,

these ideas can also be altered by experiences that a person may go through. These are Jung’s

levels of the psyche described in his theory.

The archetypes are psychic impulses that express themselves in dreams, fantasies,

delusions, and psychotic states. There are eight known archetypes in the collective unconscious:

persona/mask, shadow, anima, animus, great mother, wise old man, hero, and the self. Jung

(2013) refers to archetypes as preexistent thought forms, meaning that these ideas have already
 THE GRAND THEORY OF JUNG 3

been in the unconscious since it is shared with every human being. Jung also stating that these

then in turn give form to information that can enter the conscious. He also explains that when a

situation occurs, the archetype that is related to the situation is then put into the conscious but if

there is resistance in the mind to the archetype it can lead to chronic distress (Jung, C.J. 2013).

The archetypes that may pop in when situations occur have different meanings to them and how

they can be perceived in the mind. For example, the self is the most important one being the

archetype of all the archetypes. The self is tending to strive for growth, perfection, and

completion. Another example for an archetype is the persona/mask. This archetype refers to a

person’s way of presenting themselves to society with a role of some kind, but if too attached to

the role they may never reach self-realization being Jung’s main point to his theory.

Jung’s theory of the opposites refers to every good must have its bad, one thing must

have its opposite in order to be equal. Attitudes is a form of an opposite, a person being either

introvert or an extravert. In this theory one attitude is conscious while the other is unconscious.

So, if the introversion is conscious a person is turning their psychic energy inward and if the

extraversion is conscious the psychic energy is being directed towards an object. He also had a

theory of the four functions and how people see the world and take in information. The four

functions being: thinking( recognizing its meaning), feeling(its worth), sensing(exists),

intuiting(implicit understanding, knowing how you know). Another example falling underneath

the theory of opposites is the use of perception and judgment. Perception being open to all

information all the time and Judgement being that you only take the information you need to plan

or to reach closure.

The therapeutic model is designed in order to help people discover their unconscious both

personal and collective, meaning that bringing the ideas of the unconscious to the conscious and
 THE GRAND THEORY OF JUNG 4

interpreting the information instead of repressing them. Jung (2013) explains that once in the

conscious, the idea can become dangerous to the person undergoing therapy and the therapist

themselves, can be determining of one’s fate. If the psychotherapist is not themselves aware of

their own ideas and inner thoughts, then they cannot help their patient (Jung, C.J. 2015). Word

association, Dream analysis, and Active imagination are the names of the methods used in the

therapeutic model. Word association being helpful in bring out true feeling towards certain thing

and can uncover complexes, usually when given a word the opposite of the word is usually said

back. Dream analysis gives symbols for anything and everything and can make sense of things in

the real world. The active imagination focuses on certain details that pertain to a problem and

helps with picturing them bigger or smaller.

Jung’s goal is for everyone to reach self-realization, where the conscious and the

unconscious are in harmony. Where there is perfect balance such as the balance shown in a

mandala. Donald (2011) states that Jung’s first mandala went by the name Systema Munditotius,

and that it has perfect proportions regarding geometric principles. He also explained that there

was a harmony to the mandala and how he observed that Jung represented darkness and light in

symbols (Harms, D. 2011). Going back to Jung’s theory of the opposites he often spoke of there

being an opposite to anything and without the opposite, there is no balance. He also incorporates

this theory in his word association test with people often giving the opposite of the word

mentioned such as if the word dog was given, cat would most likely be said back. Jung’s theories

can be seen as not very scientific and lying mostly on theory but it is still influencing people to

use it for everyday issues.

 THE GRAND THEORY OF JUNG 5

References

Harms, D. (2011). The geometry of C. G. jung's systema munditotius mandala. Jung Journal,

5(3), 145-159. doi:http://dx.doi.org.catawba.idm.oclc.org/10.1525/jung.2011.5.3.145

Jung, C. J. (2013). Abstracts of the collected Jung, edited by C. L. Rothgeb. From

https://www.cgjungpage.org/learn/resources/jung-s-collected-works-abstracts/854-

abstracts-of-the-collected-works-of-cg-jung

West, M. (2015). Retrieved from West, M. (2015). Complexes and Archetypes. Retrieved

October 16, 2019, from https://www.thesap.org.uk/resources/articles-on-jungian-

psychology-2/about-analysis-and-therapy/complexes-and-archetypes/.