The goal toward which the individuation process is tending is
"Wholeness" or "Integration": a condition in which all the different
elements of the psyche, both
conscious and
unconscious, are welded together.
The person who achieves this goal possesses
Individuation involves a multidimensional
union of opposites.
According to Western thinking, since the
unconscious can never be made
wholly conscious, the Platonic ideal of the perfect man is unattainable, yet
wholeness is a
balancing act that offers us something to work towards.
“Unattainability” is not a good enough argument against not pursuing the
philosophy of
continuous improvement
towards such an ideal, because ideals are not the goals, they are only the
handrails.
Individuation is a
process that does not answer the question “Who am I?”, but
gives some major progress in the understanding.
“Inner work is about bringing the paradoxes of the psyche into consciousness and then untangling them.”
“Making motives and other contents
visible and holding them still in the light of conscious.
The light sticks with the contents and although they are still the same,
they can no longer hide in the dark."
The goal of
individuation is
individuality. The individual is a ‘finite field’
neither conscious, nor
unconscious, ‘but a bit
of both’.
“Life demands adaptation. Adaptation is never achieved ‘once-and-for-all’”
Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health. What concerns us here is only an excessive amount of them.”
Harmony is frequently the result of an ongoing creative process, whereby a new unity is discovered among concepts which had heretofore been disparate and disjointed. JViJP 87
The achievement of optimum development is a journey that is continuous throughout life. The path of individuation and the changes of attitude which take place are always accompanied by creative processes. New ideas arise, and inspiration occurs during both one's waking and sleeping hours. JViJP 87
The
shadow, (…), usually has a decidedly negative feeling-value, while the
anima, like the
animus, has more of a positive one. Whereas the
shadow is
accompanied by more or less definite and describable feeling-tones, the
anima and animus exhibit feeling qualities that are harder to define. Mostly
they are felt to be fascinating or
numinous. Often they are surrounded by an
atmosphere of sensitivity, touchy reserve, secretiveness, painful intimacy,
and even absoluteness. The
relative autonomy of the
anima- and animus-figures expresses itself in these
qualities. In order of
affective rank they stand to the
shadow very much as the
shadow stands in
relation to ego-consciousness.
The figure of the
shadow already belongs to the realm of
bodiless phantoms – not to speak of
anima and animus, which do not seem to
appear at all except as
projections upon our fellow human beings.
Now, instead of simply going into the
forest when middle age hits and canceling the whole darn show, as in the Indian
tradition, Jung says the Occidental approach to the transition from
responsibility to old age is that of achieving
wholeness, of
individuation.
This is exactly the Greek idea.
1.
Individuation is a process and not an end result
2.
It is the unceasing confrontation between the
Ego
& Unconscious.