PERSONALITY AND PERSONAL GROWTH

Unit III: Significant Contributors to understand of Self (Freud; C Jung; Winnicott; H.

Kohut; Eric Fromm; A. Maslow; Rollo May; Vicktor Frankel; Martin Seligman; B.F
Skinner; Anna Freud; Karen Horney, Allport and Lacan)

 The word "personality" stems from the Latin word persona, which refers to a
theatrical mask worn by performers to play roles or disguise their identities, public
face we display to the people around us.

 According to Allport (1961) personality is the “dynamic organisation within the

individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment
to his environment”.

 Personality is not static but dynamic, the organisational pattern determines the
kind and degree of adjustment of the individual to his environment, and this
adjustment-pattern is unique to the individual.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF PERSONALITY

 Now if you carefully analyse all these definitions of personality, you will find the
following:

a) Psychophysical systems: Personality is a system that has both psychological and

physical aspects. This system is composed of interacting elements and the main
elements of the system are traits, emotions, intellect, temperament, character and
motives. All these elements are psychological but they are based in the neurology and
endocrinology of the body.

b) Dynamic organisation: It signifies that different elements of psychological system

are independent but function in an interlocking manner and are subject to change.
However, this change can take place over a period of time in a gradual manner.

c) Unique adjustment to environment: Every person is characterised with a dynamic

organisation of psychological traits that makes his adjustment. The reason for this is
that experiences of every person are unique therefore their reaction to the
environment is also unique. You may notice that even identical twins who come out of
the same embryo, though have the same genetic make-up, react differently to the
same situation because their frame of references is unique.

Traits

 Traits are relatively permanent characteristics of personality which compel an

individual to behave consistently across different situations. People can be
compared by measuring these traits. We call these traits relatively permanent
because they change over time.

 Characteristics: Enduring characteristics, stable, predictable, may vary with the

 situation and unique.

Approaches to personality

 Psycho dynamic approach (psychoanalysis & Neo-psychoanalytic)

 Trait and type approach
 Life span approach
 Behaviouristic approach
 Humanistic approach
 Cognitive approach
 Social learning approach

Some major issues on theories

 Theories are different on some points

 Formal theories or Personal theories
 Free will or Determinism
 Nature or Nurture
 Past or Present
 Uniqueness or Universality
 Equilibrium or Growth
 Optimism or Pessimism

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY (Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939)

 Emphasis on unconscious processes, sex & aggression, instincts, early childhood
experiences, and sexual conflict as a cause of neurosis.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Freud developed a technique that he called
psychoanalysis and used it to treat mental disorders.

 According to psychoanalytic theory, personality development takes place as a

result of the attempts to resolve conflicts between unconscious sexual and
aggressive impulses and societal demands to restrain these impulses.

 Freud’s theory of development has two primary ideas:

1) Everything you become is determined by your first few years – indeed, the adult is
exclusively determined by the child’s experiences

2) The story of development is the story of how to handle anti-social impulses in

socially acceptable ways.

1) Instinct theory

 Instincts: Mental representation of internal stimuli, such as hunger, that drive a

person to take certain actions.
Characteristics of instincts: Source, impetus, aim/object.

 Source: Internal, biological condition (hunger), Mind transforms it into a wish

(mental representation)

 Impetus: person experiences a feeling of a tension or pressure. We need to

maintain homeostasis (physiological equilibrium)

 Aim: satisfy the need. We can channelize our need to some other activity. 2 types
are:

 Eros and thanatos are those two driving forces.

a) Life instincts/Eros: the drive for ensuring survival of the individual or species by
satisfying the basic needs. Eros is the god of love in Greek mythology. According to
Freud, Eros is the life force. It is responsible for our life instinct and survival,
which includes sexual desire, reproduction desire, and pain avoidance.

 Libido, the psychic energy (sexual) manifested by the life instincts, drives toward
the pleasurable behaviour and thoughts.

 Cathexis: an investment of psychic energy in an object or person.

b) Death instincts/Thanatos: the unconscious drive toward decay, destruction and

aggression (an unconscious wish to die). The counterpart of Eros is Thanatos-the
death force or instinct (Thanatos is the god of death in Greek mythology). It is
responsible for negative feelings like, violence, aggression, and hate. The aim of
thanatos is to balance the drive of Eros by driving us towards death and
destruction.

 Aggressive drive: the compulsion to conquer, and kill.

Instincts provide energy, motivation and direction tom all facets of life.

2) Topological theory: The Conscious, the Preconscious, and the Unconscious

Freud believed that most mental processes are unconscious. He proposed that people
have three levels of awareness: the preconscious, the conscious and the unconscious.
Freud published this idea in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life in 1901.

 According to him, our conscious mind is that part which deals with the current
information. That is, all the thoughts, feelings and actions of which you are aware
at the very moment are part of the conscious mind. The conscious contains all the
information that a person is paying attention to at any given time.

Example: The words Dan is reading, the objects in his field of vision, the sounds he can
hear, and any thirst, hunger, or pain he is experiencing at the moment are all in his
conscious.

 Preconscious or subconscious mind deals with all those information for which you
are not currently aware but can become only if you pay attention. The
preconscious contains all the information outside of a person’s attention but
readily available if needed.

Example: A close friend’s telephone number, the make of one’s car, and many of the past
experiences are in the preconscious.

 The unconscious contains thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories (probably

socially unacceptable) of which people have no awareness but that which influence
every aspect of the individual’s day-to-day lives.

Example: Rakesh’s unconscious might contain angry feelings toward his mother or a
traumatic incident he experienced at age four, about none of which he is aware .

Freud believed that information in the unconscious tries to come into the conscious
and very often it is seen in slips of the tongue, jokes, dreams, illness symptoms, and
the associations people make between ideas.

3) Structural theory: (anatomy of personality): The Id, the Ego, and the Superego

Freud proposed that personality has three components: the id, the ego, and the
superego.

a) Id: Id is conceived as a reservoir of instinctual energy that contains biological urges

such as impulses toward survival, sex, and aggression.

 The id is unconscious and operates according to the pleasure principle, the drive to
achieve pleasure and avoid pain.

 The id is characterised by primary process thinking, which is illogical, irrational,

and motivated by a desire for the immediate gratification of impulses.

 This part of personality operates unconsciously. It deals with basic instincts,

biological needs, and aggressive impulses.

 It is the most primitive part of human personality present since birth. From id,
other parts of the personality (ego and superego) develop.

 The aim of id is to gratify one’s need immediately without considering the moral
values of the society and the individual.

 Eros and thanatos are the two driving forces of id (Eros is the god of love in Greek
mythology). According to Freud, in the context of id, Eros is the life force. It is
responsible for our life instinct and survival, which includes sexual desire,
reproduction desire, and pain avoidance.
 The counterpart of Eros is Thanatos-the death force or instinct (Thanatos is the god
of death in Greek mythology). It is responsible for negative feelings like, violence,
aggression, and hate. The aim of thanatos is to balance the drive of Eros by driving
us towards death and destruction.

 When personality is dominated by id, then the individual tends to become more
impulsive. Such people will do what they want irrespective of time, place and
situation, just like a child.

b) Ego: Ego is considered as the component that manages the conflict between the id
and the constraints of the real world.

 Some parts of the ego are unconscious, while others are preconscious or conscious.

 The ego operates according to the reality principle, the awareness that gratification
of impulses has to be delayed in order to accommodate the demands of the real
world.

 For instance, a 10-year-old child wants to eat a scoop of ice-cream kept in the
refrigerator. But the child knows that eating ice-cream without seeking permission
from parents will be punished. Thus, the ego restricts the child for instant need
gratification.

 The ego is characterised by secondary process thinking, mature thought processes

help to deal rationally with the external world which is logical and rational.

 The ego’s role is to prevent the id from gratifying its impulses in socially
inappropriate ways.

 The part of the personality responsible for the reality check which emerges from id
and its main objective is to strike a balance between id’s impulsive needs and the
reality of this world.

 It is the decision-making component of our psyche and works on logic only. In the
words of Freud, “ego is that part of the id which has been modified by the direct
influence of the external world” (Freud, 1923).

 If ego would not be able to resolve the conflict between the impulsive demands of
the id and realistic demands of this world, then it would lead to the development of
anxiety and stress. To ward off this anxiety, individual will be motivated to use
unconscious defense mechanisms

c) Superego: This is considered to be the moral component, moral master or moral

guru of our personality.
 It contains all the moral standards learned from parents and society.

 The superego forces the ego to conform not only to reality but also to its ideals of
morality. Hence, the superego causes people to feel guilty when they go against
society’s rules.

 Like the ego, the superego operates at all three levels of awareness.

 Let us continue the same example referred above. Whether that 10-year-old child
will ask permission from parents or not for eating a scoop of ice cream depends on
the development of her/his superego. Since seeking permission is morally correct
behaviour, it will indicate the presence of superego in the child.

 Role of the superego is to internalise the moral and ethical value of society through
the process of socialisation.

 This part of our psyche develops between the ages of three to five years.

 Further, according to Freud, our superego consists of two systems: (i) conscience
and (ii) ideal self.

 The conscience’s role is to punish or reward ego, through the feeling of pride or
guilt, depending on its behaviour. For example, if ego gives in id’s demand and
breaks the moral code of conduct, superego will make you feel guilty about your
behaviour.

 The second system, the ideal self is idealised picture of your own self, also does the
job of making you feel guilty or pride, depending on your behaviour.

4) Economic theory
Conflict: Freud believed that the id, the ego, and the superego are in constant conflict.
He focused mainly on conflicts concerning sexual and aggressive urges because these
urges are most likely to violate societal rules.

Anxiety–a feeling of fear or apprehension without an obvious cause. It is a threat to

ego, internal conflicts can make a person feel anxious. In Freud’s view, anxiety arises
when the ego cannot adequately balance the demands of the id and the superego.

3 kinds of anxiety

 Reality or objective anxiety: fear of tangible danger

 Neurotic anxiety: conflict between id & ego
 Moral anxiety: conflict between id & superego

Defense Mechanisms: One of the roles of ego is to protect the person from anxiety
and stress. To manage these internal conflicts, people use defense mechanisms.

 Defense mechanisms are behaviours that protect people from anxiety.

 “The unconscious strategies people use to protect themselves from anxious thoughts
and feelings”.

 There are different defense mechanisms, many of which are automatic and
unconscious.

 Repression: This refers to keeping unpleasant thoughts, memories, and feelings

shut up or pushed back into the unconscious.

Example: Ram witnessed his mother being beaten by agoonda on a motor cycle who was
trying to snatch away her gold chain. This happened around when he was seven years of
age. He does not remember this incident as of today as an adult. This is so because he
has repressed that traumatic incident into the unconscious.

 Reaction formation: This refers to behaving in a way that is opposite to behaviour,

feelings, or thoughts that are considered unacceptable.

Example: Nisha feels attracted to her boss but does not admit this to herself. Instead, she
constantly makes very disparaging comments about the boss, exactly opposite of her
gfeelings of attraction.

 Projection: This means attributing one’s own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to

someone else.

Example: Karan gets attracted to women other than his wife and feels bad about it.
However, he is unable to state anything about it nor he wants to accept such feelings
within him. He therefore unconsciously projects these feelings on to his wife saying that
she is unfaithful and that she goes with other men and gets attracted to other men etc.

 Rationalization: This refers using incorrect but self-serving explanations to justify

unacceptable behaviour, thoughts, or feelings.

Example: Ronak jumps a red light while driving. He justifies this by telling to himself that
he was already in the intersection when the light changed to red.

 Displacement: transferring feelings about a person or event onto someone or

something else.

Example: Seth is angry at his professor for giving him a bad grade. He leaves class and
shouts angrily at a passer-by who accidentally bumps into him.

 Denial: refusing to acknowledge something that is obvious to others.

Example: Rashmi has started drinking alcohol which has started to affect her academic
performance, her job, and her relationships. However, she insists that she drinks only to
relieve stress and that she does not have an alcohol problem.

 Regression: reverting to a more immature state of psychological development.

Example: When six-year-old Jameel gets less attention from his parents because of a new
baby brother, he suddenly starts to wet his bed at night.

 Sublimation: channeling unacceptable thoughts and feelings into socially

acceptable behaviour.

Example: Priya deals with her angry feelings toward her family by writing science fiction
stories about battles between civilizations which contains a lot of aggression.

5) Psychosexual Stages of Development

 He thought that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and sexual impulses
shifts from the mouth to the anus and eventually to the genitals. As a result, we go
through five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and
genital. Our adult personality, Freud (1917) claimed, is determined by the way we
resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of
reality.

 During the five psychosexual stages, which are the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and
genital stages, the erogenous zone associated with each stage serves as a source of
pleasure. The psychosexual energy, or libido, was described as the driving force
behind behavior.

 Psychoanalytic theory suggested that personality is mostly established by the age of

five. Early experiences play a large role in personality development and continue
to influence behavior later in life.

 If a child’s needs in a particular stage are gratified too much or frustrated too much,
the child can become fixated at that stage of development. Fixation is an inability
to progress normally from one stage to another, a persistent focus on an earlier
psychosexual stage. If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage,
fixations can occur. Those 5 stages are;

The Oral Stage

 Age Range: Birth to 1 Year

 Erogenous Zone: Mouth

 The infant derives pleasure from oral stimulation through gratifying activities such
as swallowing and sucking. Children completely depend on their caregivers
especially mother.

 Over gratification or under gratification may lead to the fixation at this early oral
stage resulting into the development of over-eating behaviour, drinking or smoking
in adulthood. Freud called such people as oral-incorporative or oral-ingestive.
 Later during this stage, children experience pleasure from chewing and biting.
Unable to resolve the psychological conflict of this stage may develop the habit of
nail biting and object chewing in adulthood. Freud further pointed out that these
people are more critical and sarcastic in nature. He referred such people as oral-
aggressive or oral-sadistic.

 If fixation occurs at this stage, the individual would have issues with dependency
or aggression. Oral fixation can result in problems with drinking, eating, smoking,
or nail-biting.

The Anal Stage

 Age Range: 1 to 3 years

 Erogenous Zone: Bowel and Bladder Control

 The primary focus of the libido was on controlling bladder and bowel movements.
The major conflict at this stage is toilet training.

 According to Freud, success at this stage is dependent upon the way in which
parents approach toilet training.

 According to Freud, inappropriate parental responses can result in negative

outcomes. If parents take an approach that is too lenient, Freud suggested that an
anal-expulsive personality could develop in which the individual has a messy,
wasteful, or destructive personality.

 If parents are too strict or begin toilet training too early, Freud believed that an
anal-retentive personality develops in which the individual is stringent, orderly,
rigid, and obsessive.

The Phallic Stage

 Age Range: 3 to 6 Years

 Erogenous Zone: Genitals

 Phallic word comes from the Greek word Phallos which means penis. Children
knowingly or unknowingly touch their genitals for pleasure.

 The primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. At this age, children also begin to
discover the difference between male and female.

 Freud also believed that boys begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s
affections. The Oedipus complex describes these feelings of wanting to possess the
mother and the desire to replace the father. However, the child also fears that he
will be punished by the father for these feelings, a fear Freud termed castration
anxiety (removal of penis).

 The term Electra complex has been used to describe a similar set of feelings
 experienced by young girls. It involves the sexual attraction for father, feeling of
rivalry for mother and a threat of getting punished by the mother for having this
feeling towards father. Freud, however, believed that girls instead experience
penis envy.

 Successful resolution of this complex develops mature sexual identity. According to

Freud, by the end of this stage personality is formed completely.

The Latent Period

 Age Range: 6 to Puberty

 Erogenous Zone: Sexual Feelings Are Inactive

 During this stage, the superego continues to develop while the id's energies are
suppressed. Children develop social skills, values and relationships with peers and
adults outside of the family.

 The development of the ego and superego contribute to this period of calm. The
stage begins around the time that children enter into school and become more
concerned with peer relationships, hobbies, and other interests. The latent period
is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy repressed or dormant.

 As with the other psychosexual stages, Freud believed that it was possible for
children to become fixated or "stuck" in this phase. Fixation at this stage can result
in immaturity and an inability to form fulfilling relationships as an adult.

The Genital Stage

 Age Range: Puberty to Death

 Erogenous Zone: Maturing Sexual Interests.

 The onset of puberty causes the libido to become active once again. During the
final stage of psychosexual development, the individual develops a strong sexual
interest in the opposite sex.

 Freud believed that the ego and superego were fully formed and functioning at this
point. Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs, interest in
the welfare of others grows during this stage. The goal of this stage is to establish a
balance between the various life areas.

 Teens in the genital stage of development are able to balance their most basic urges
against the need to conform to the demands of reality and social norms.

Carl Jung: Analytical psychology

 Carl Gustav Jung (pronounced as “yoong”), (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist

 and a close friend of Sigmund Freud.

 Carl Jung broke from the traditional orthodox psychoanalytic theory of Freud and
developed his own separate theory of personality called analytical psychology.

 Analytical psychology is a school of psychology that aims at personality

development in an individual and his or her ability to contribute in substantive
manner to the society. For these purposes, it focuses on the personal and collective
unconscious and their conflict in an individual’s life. There has to be a balance
between the various opposing forces of personality like extraverted and
introverted; conscious and unconscious; male and female; and thus people may
achieve self- realization.

 Freud had warm personal feelings for Jung and regarded him as a man of great
intellect. These qualifications prompted Freud to select Jung as the first president
of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

 In 1906, Jung began a regular correspondence with Sigmund Freud. By 1913,

however the collaboration had dissolved, with Jung rejecting many of Freud- most
cherished views about instincts and human sexuality.

 Jung emerged from his period of self-scrutiny to create his own school of
personality psychology, which he called analytical psychology.

As Jung’s theory emphasizes the role of unconscious processes on personality it is

considered similar to that of psychoanalytic theory even though it differs in other
aspects.

Jung Freud
Unconscious mind: Jung divided the Freud’s Position: Freud believed the
human psyche into three parts. But in unconscious mind was the epicentre of
Jung’s view the unconscious was our repressed thoughts, traumatic
divided into the ego, the personal memories, and fundamental drives of
unconscious and the collective sex and aggression. He saw it as a
unconscious. To Jung, the ego is the storage facility for all hidden sexual
conscious, the personal unconscious desires, resulting in neuroses, or what
includes memories (both recalled and we would nowadays call mental
suppressed) and the collective illness. He declared that the human
unconscious holds our experiences as amind centres upon three structures –
species or knowledge that we are born the id, the ego and the super ego. The
with (for example, love at first sight). id forms our unconscious drives
Jung’s take on the human psyche was (mainly sex), and is not bound by
inspired by his studies into Eastern morality but instead only seeks to
philosophy and religion such as satisfy pleasure. The ego is our
Buddhism and Hinduism. He also conscious perceptions, memories and
believed that the contents of the thoughts that enable us to deal
unconscious are not restricted to effectively with reality. The superego
repressed material. attempts to mediate the drives of the id
through socially acceptable
behaviours.

Dreams: Freud believed that we could Like Freud, Jung believed that dream
learn much about an individual analysis allowed for a window into the
through the interpretation of dreams. unconscious mind. But unlike Freud,
Freud argued that when we are awake Jung did not believe that that the
our deepest desires are not acted upon content of all dreams was necessarily
because a) there are the considerations sexual in nature or that they disguised
of reality (the ego) and also morality their true meaning. Instead, Jung’s
(the superego). But during sleep these depiction of dreams concentrated
restraining forces are weakened and more on symbolic imagery. He
we may experience our desires believed dreams could have many
through our dreams. different meanings according to the
dreamer’s associations. Jung was
Freud also believed that our dreams against the idea of a ‘dream dictionary’
are able to access repressed or anxiety where dreams are interpreted by fixed
provoking thoughts (mainly sexually meanings.
repressed desires)– for example,
someone dreaming of a large stick in
Freud’s view would be dreaming of a
penis. It was the job of the analyst to
interpret these dreams in light of their
true meaning.

Sex & Sexuality: To Freud, repressed
and expressed sexuality was
everything. He felt it was the biggest
motivating force behind behaviour
(and as such psychopathology).
Jung felt that Freud’s attention was too
focused upon sex and its impact on
behaviour. Jung decided that what
motivates and influences behaviour is
a psychic energy or life force, of which
sexuality could be only one potential
manifestation. Jung also disagreed also
with Oedipal impulses. He thought that
the relationship between mother and
child was based upon the love and
protection granted by the mother to
the child.

In Jung’s view, there is constant and According to him, endless repetition of

often instinctual themes until death
creative development in an individual, intervenes.
the search for completion, wholeness
and desire for reincarnation.
Jung saw parapsychology and
“psychic phenomena” as very
important.
Freud did use “complex” in his
theories, like “Oedipus complex” or
“castration complex.”
Freud was against studying such ideas
and linking them to psychoanalysis; he
believed doing so would distort
existing theories.
For Jung, the term “complex” meant
emotionally charged images or
concepts that behave like their own
split personality. Each complex had
an archetype at its center, and it was
related to the concept of trauma.

THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

 Personality as a whole, or psyche, as Jung calls it, consists of a number of

differentiated but interacting systems. The principal ones are-

• The ego
• Personal unconscious and its complexes
• The collective unconscious and its archetypes (persona, anima and animus,
shadow, etc)
• Development of self

1. The Ego
 Ego resides in the conscious mind and comprises of conscious thoughts, memories,
feelings and perceptions.
 It plays a major role in an individual’s feelings of continuity and identity from an
individual perspective and is considered as the center of consciousness.
 Healthy individuals are in contact with their conscious world, but they also allow
themselves to experience their unconscious self and thus to achieve individuation

2. The personal unconscious and its complexes

a) The personal unconscious
 Personal unconscious adjoins with the ego and comprises of once conscious
experiences, that have now been suppressed, repressed, forgotten or ignored and
also of events or experiences which were too weak to make a conscious impact on
the individual.
 Formed by our individual experiences and is therefore unique to each of us.
 Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes.

b) The complexes
 Complex is a structured group which contains collective thoughts, feelings,
 memories
and perceptions that exist in the personal unconscious.
 According to Jung, 1934, it has a nucleus that acts like a magnet attracting or
"constellating" various experiences to it.
 For example, the mother complex. This nucleus is derived from cultural
experiences with mothers in part and in part from the child's experiences with
his/her mother.
 Feelings, ideas and memories concerning the mother are attracted to the nucleus
and form a complex.
 An individual’s thoughts, actions and feelings are guided by the conception of the
mother if she/he has a strong mother complex.

3. The collective unconscious and its archetypes

a) The collective unconscious
 Transpersonal or the collective unconscious stores the latent memory traces
inherited from one's ancestral past.
 Has roots in the ancestral past of the entire species, that is inherited and pass from
one generation to the next as psychic potential.
 Distant ancestors’ experiences with universal concepts such as God, mother, water,
earth, and so forth have been transmitted through the generations so that people in
every clime and time have been influenced by their primitive ancestors’
primordial experiences.
 For example-Humans are predisposed to fear the dark or the snakes.
 This is because primitive humans i.e., the early generations faced many threats in
the dark and were victims of poisonous serpents.
 Consequently, such tendencies are observed even in modern humans and makes
one more susceptible to such experiences.
 Humans, like other animals, come into the world with inherited pre-dispositions to
act or react in certain ways if their present experiences touch on these biologically
based predispositions.
 These latent or potential memories depend upon inherited structures and
pathways that have been engraved on the brain as a result of the cumulative
experiences of mankind.
 Hence, collective unconscious influences what an individual learns from an
experience, and it further influences the behavior of the person.
 It is responsible for people’s many myths, legends, and religious beliefs.
The personal and the collective unconscious - two unconscious regions of the mind
can
be of immense service to humans.

ARCHETYPES: The structural components of the collective unconscious are called by

various names (Jung, 1943):
• archetypes
• dominants
• primordial images
• images
• mythological images
• behavior patterns
 Archetypes have a biological basis but originate through the repeated experiences
of humans’ early ancestors.
 These are the ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious.
 An archetype is a universal thought form (idea) that contains a large element of
emotion.
 This thought form creates images or visions that correspond in normal life to some
aspect of the daily life situations.
 Archetypes are permanently ingrained in the mind of an individual as an
experience that has been continuously repeated a long time. An example can be
people have seen the sun make its daily appear from one horizon to the other for
many generations.
 The repetitive nature of this experience was ultimately imprinted in the collective
unconscious as an primordial image of the sun- the powerful, god, dominating,
heavenly body, light- giving that people idolized and worshipped.
 These archetypes function in a more holistic manner to make meaning out of a
situation and they are not isolated from one another in the collective unconscious,
instead these archetypes interact with each other.
 Dreams are the main source of archetypal material. Hallucinations of psychotic
patients also offered evidence for universal archetypes
 It is assumed that there are many archetypes in the collective unconscious. Few of
them are magic, birth, death, rebirth, power, unity, the hero, God, the child, the
demon, the earth mother, the animal and the old wise man.

The persona: The side of the personality that people show to the world.
 The term refers to the mask worn by actors in the early theatre.
 According to Jung, 1945, the persona is a mask assumed to be worn by an
individual to fulfil the demands of the social world and custom and also to his/her
own inner archetypal wishes.
 This is the public personality, consisting of those aspects of an individual that one
displays to others in the outside world as compared to the masked personality
which is present behind the social facade.
 Like all archetypes, this archetype, came into being as people of a particular
culture experience certain events.
 Here, humans assume a social role in response to social interactions which served
the purpose of humans as social animals. (Persona resembles Freud's superego in
some respects).
The Anima and the Animus: Jung recognized the human as a bisexual animal. He
proposed that every man has a feminine side to his personality and similarly every
female has a masculine side to her personality which constitutes their respective
archetypes.
 The feminine side in males is referred to as the anima, while the masculine side in
females is referred to as the animus.
 These archetypes, though accustomed by the sex chromosomes and the sex glands,
are a result of the cultural experiences of males with females and females with
males.
 It can be said, living with each other, each sex has acquired some traits or
mannerism of the other (males have feminized and females have masculinized).
 These archetypes cause both the sexes to manifest features of the other, and also
act as collective images that motivate each other to react to and comprehend
members of the other sex.
 But, if the archetypal image is anticipated without respect for the real character of
the other sex, it, may lead to misunderstanding and discord.
 Thus, a compromise has to be maintained between the needs of the collective
unconscious and the realities of the external world for a person to be practically
well adjusted.
Anima: Feminine archetype in men which represents irrational moods and feelings.
 To master the projections of the anima, men must realize the feminine side of their
personality.
 Originated from early men’s experiences with women mothers, sisters, and lovers.
 Source of misunderstanding in male female relationships, but also be responsible
for the alluring mystique woman has in the psyche of men.
 In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung vividly described this experience, intrigued
by this “woman from within”, Jung concluded that she must be the “soul”, in the
primitive sense, and I began to speculate on the reasons why the name “anima”
was given to the soul.
 Why was it thought of as feminine? Later I came to see that this inner feminine
figure plays a typical, or archetypal , role in the unconscious of a man, and I called
her the “anima.”
Animus: Masculine archetype in women, represent symbolic of thinking and
reasoning
 Like the anima, the animus appears in dreams, visions, and fantasies in a
personified form.
 In every female male relationship, the woman runs a risk of projecting her distant
ancestors ’ experiences with fathers, brothers , lovers, and sons onto the
unsuspecting man.
 The corresponding figure in the unconscious of woman I called the “animus”.
The shadow: This archetype consists of the animal instincts that humans inherited in
their evolution from lower forms of life (Jung, 1948).
 As a result, the shadow typically represents the animal side of human nature.
 Archetype of darkness and repression, qualities we do not wish to acknowledge but
attempt to hide from ourselves and others.
 Morally objectionable tendencies, it is easier to project the dark side of our
personality onto others, to see in them the ugliness and evil that we refuse to see in
ourselves.
 This archetype is in control of one’s perception of initial evil and becomes the sin
or devil, when projected outside.
 This archetypal image is also accountable for the occurrence of unpleasant, socially
undesirable thoughts, feelings, and actions in a person’s consciousness.
 These may then be hidden by the facade or suppressed into the personal
unconscious. (It resembles Freud's concept of id).

Great Mother: This pre-existing concept of mother is always associated with both
positive and negative feelings.
 The great mother, therefore, represents two opposing forces—fertility and
nourishment on the one hand and power and destruction on the other.
 The fertility and nourishment dimension of the great mother archetype is
symbolized by a tree, garden, ploughed field, sea, heaven, home, country, church,
and hollow objects such as ovens and cooking utensils.
 Power and destruction, she is sometimes symbolized as a godmother, the mother of
God, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, a stepmother, or a witch.
 Legends, myths, religious beliefs, art, and literary stories are filled with other
symbols of the great mother, a person who is both nurturing and destructive.
 Fertility and power combine to form the concept of rebirth, which may be a
separate archetype, but its relation to the great mother is obvious.
 Rebirth is represented by such processes as reincarnation, baptism, resurrection,
and individuation or self-realization.
 People throughout the world are moved by a desire to be reborn: that is, to reach
self-realization, nirvana, heaven, or perfection.

Wise Old Man: Archetype of wisdom and meaning, symbolizes humans’ pre-existing
knowledge of the mysteries of life.
 Political, religious, and social prophets who appeal to reason as well as emotion
(archetypes are always emotionally tinged) are guided by this unconscious
archetype.
 Personified in dreams as father, grandfather, teacher, philosopher, guru, doctor, or
priest. He appears in fairy tales as the king, the sage, or the magician who comes to
the aid of the troubled protagonist and, through superior wisdom, he helps the
protagonist escape from myriad misadventures.
 Hero: Represented in mythology and legends as a powerful person, sometimes
part god, who fights against great odds to conquer or vanquish evil in the form of
dragons, monsters, serpents, or demons.
 Heroic deeds can be performed only by someone who is vulnerable. An immortal
person with no weakness cannot be a hero.
 When the hero conquers the villain, he or she frees us from feelings of impotence
and misery; at the same time, serving as our model for the ideal personality.

Self: It was considered equivalent to the psyche or total personality earlier and it was
found that self was representative of human’s determination for unity.
 According to Jung, all the other systems are accumulated around self, which is
considered the midpoint of personality.
 The self combines this system and the person is provided with unity, equilibrium
and stability.
 This archetypal image can be expressed with the help of many symbols, mandala
or magic circle being the major one.
 Furthermore, the goal of human life is the development of self, a process known as
individuation.
 Individuation is a dynamic complex and lifelong balancing act, whereby the person
seeks to synthesize the various opposites in personality in order to become a whole,
i.e., an ultimate integration of both conscious and unconscious.
 Each person possesses an inherited tendency to move toward growth, perfection,
and completion, and he called this innate disposition the self.
 Archetype of archetypes because it pulls together the other archetypes and unites
them in the process of self-realization.
 Symbolized by a person’s ideas of perfection, completion, and wholeness, but its
ultimate symbol is the mandala, which is depicted as a circle within a square, a
square within a circle, or any other concentric figure.
 It represents the strivings of the collective unconscious for unity, balance, and
wholeness.
 Mandala (Sanskrit: म डल, Mandala, 'circle') is a spiritual and ritual symbol in
Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the Universe.
 The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle
with a center point. Each gate is in the general shape of a T. Mandalas often
exhibits radial balance.
 The self includes both the conscious and unconscious mind, and it unites the
opposing elements of psyche male and female, good and evil, light and dark forces.
 He later wrote: The essential thing is to differentiate oneself from these
unconscious contents by personifying them, and at the same time to bring them
into relationship with consciousness.
 That is the technique for stripping them of their power. It is not too difficult to
 personify them, as they always possess a certain degree of autonomy, a separate
identity of their own.
 Their autonomy is a most uncomfortable thing. However, the archetype of self does
not become evident until the person has reached middle age.

THE ATTITUDES
A predisposition to act or react in a characteristic direction.
 Each person has both an introverted and an extraverted attitude, although one
may be conscious while the other is unconscious.
 Jung differentiated between these two main orientations and attitudes towards the
environment among persons responsible for individual differences.
 Extraversion familiarizes an individual about the outer objective world whereas;
introversion familiarizes an individual about the internal subjective world.
 Introversion: Turning inward of psychic energy with an orientation toward the
subjective
 Extraversion: Turning outward of psychic energy so that a person is oriented
toward the objective and away from the subjective.
 Both the contrasting orientations exist in the personality but only one of them is
dominant and conscious whereas the other is subordinate and unconscious.

THE FUNCTIONS
 Both introversion and extraversion can combine with any one or more of four
functions, forming eight possible orientations, or types.
 According to Jung, there are four fundamental functions that help an individual to
understand his or her events in their lives: thinking, feeling, sensing, intuiting.

Thinking- Logical intellectual activity that produces a chain of ideas.

 Through thinking, a person analyses an event in a rational and intellectual manner.
 Logical intellectual activity that produces a chain of ideas.
•Extraverted thinking people rely heavily on concrete thoughts, but they may also use
abstract ideas if these ideas have been transmitted to them from without, for example,
from parents or teachers. E.g., mathematicians, accountants, engineers.
•Introverted thinking people react to external stimuli, but their interpretation of an
event is colored more by the internal meaning they bring with them than by the
objective facts themselves. E.g., inventors, philosophers.

Feeling- The process of evaluating an idea or event.

 Feeling is the value function. Through feeling, a person experiences an event
emotionally, through pleasure, pain, love, fear or joy.
 Feeling is the evaluation of every conscious activity, even those valued as
indifferent

•Extraverted feeling people use objective data to make evaluations. They are not
guided so much by their subjective opinion, but by external values and widely
accepted standards of judgment.
•Introverted feeling people base their value judgments primarily on subjective
perceptions rather than objective facts.

Sensing- Sensing is the perception or reality function and produces measurable

evidences about an event. Simply the individual’s perception of sensory impulses.
•Extraverted sensing people perceive external stimuli objectively, in much the same
way that these stimuli exist in reality.

 This facility is essential in such occupations as proofreader, house painter, wine

taster, or any other job demanding sensory discriminations congruent with those
of most people.

•Introverted sensing people are largely influenced by their subjective sensations of

sight, sound, taste, touch, and so forth.

 Portrait artists, especially those whose paintings are extremely personalized, rely
on an introverted-sensing attitude.

Intuition- It is the perceiving through subliminal contents and unconscious processes.

It goes beyond facts, feelings and idea to apprehend the hidden unconscious essence
of an event.
 Intuition involves perception beyond the workings of consciousness.
 More creative, often adding or subtracting elements from conscious sensation.
•Extraverted intuitive people are oriented toward facts in the external world. Rather
than fully sensing them, however, they merely perceive them subliminally
•Introverted intuitive people are guided by unconscious perception of facts that are
basically subjective and have little or no resemblance to external reality
 Mystics, prophets, surrealistic artists, or religious fanatics.

 Feeling and thinking are referred to as the rational functions as they make use of
judgment, reason, generalization and abstraction. Thereby, enabling an individual
to search for truth in the world.
 Intuition and sensation are referred to as the irrational functions as they use the
perception of the particular, accidental and the concrete. Usually for an individual,
one of the four functions is most developed while one is subordinate and deeply
buried in unconscious.
•Sensing tells people that something exists;
•Thinking enables them to recognize its meaning;
•Feeling tells them its value or worth; and
•Intuition allows them to know about it without knowing how they know.