Page 24 - A critical exposition of Jung's theory of alchemy

my world”, and adds that “only after I had familiarised my self with
alchemy did I realise that the unconscious is a process... [and I then]
arrived at the central concept of my psychology: the process of
individuation” (Jung 1963: 205, 209). To simplify: the process of
individuation might be described as a spontaneous process, usually
arising in the second half of life (if at all), by which the person becomes
more integrated and gains a sense of their wholeness - perhaps in
opposition to the diversity of their instincts (cf. Jacobi 1968: 61, 107-9).

Jung’s Early Psychology

By the time that Jung became seriously interested in alchemy, his
early psychology was established. In this he had generalised the libido
from sexual drive to psychic energy in general, with the psyche as a self
regulating, self correcting, homeostatic system with lib ido flowing
between oppositions, and proposed that symbols channelled or directed
this libido. He had proposed that neglected aspects of a person’s being
could go off and form independent complexes in the psyche. He had
formed the theory of introverted and extroverted personality types, with
the theory of the four functions of Feeling, Thought, Intuition and
Sensation, and proposed that the unconscious was not simply the
repressed but a creative force which acted in compensation to the ego.

As the unconscious is not complementary to the consciousness but
dynamically compensatory, and it modifies consciousness (and vice
versa), he argued that people should not simply analyse the unconscious
but learn to live with it. Dreams, unlike in psychoanalysis where they
always lead back to sex and childhood trauma, became ways the
unconscious deals with current problems, using mythic and cultural
symbols as well as personal symbols, and leading forward to solutions.
Jung had proposed the existence of a whole Self, which cannot be
experienced directly but only intimated - the centre of the Self never
coincides with the ego, it is always outside immediate consciousness. He
was also working with images, which resembled Eastern Mandalas,
taking them as symbols which not only showed the unity of the Self, but
helped to produce the journey towards an awareness of this totality. In a
way, Jung proposes that problems and contradictions within a person’s
life are not so much solved in therapy as dissolved within a more
inclusive state of consciousness.

Jung had also developed the idea of a Collective Unconscious,
which could only be accessed after we had explored our personal

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