A Visual Guide to The Jungian Structure of the Psyche
The 9 essential components that Carl Jung thought made up our mind + 💾 [Downloadable asset]
This week I’ve turned the Jungian theory of psyche into a visual guide, and will be talking you through it.
There are many aspects of Jung’s philosophy, all of which interplay and affect each other. All of this can be quite confusing, this is why I want to give to you the fundamentals of his road-map of the mind, explaining the terminology and implications of each segment as we go.
What you see below is a downloadable asset (see end of letter), which you can keep and refer back to whenever, forever
⬜️⬛️The Conscious & Unconscious Mind
Consciousness is what you’re aware of, unconsciousness is what you’re not.
As you can see, this makes up the 2 main divisions of the psyche. The Ego and the Persona fall into our awareness, while the Shadow, Anima/Animus and the Self fall into the unconscious.
👨🦰 👯Personal vs Collective Unconscious
The unconscious is further dividing into the personal and collective.
The personal is: everything in our psyche that is unique to us, which we do not hold consciously in our mind.
Memories
Learned facts
Personal experiences
The collective is: All of the things we are not conscious of, that we inherited, either through genetics, or shared cultural beliefs.
Inherited drives
The need for food, sex, and shelter
Strong internal beliefs
Ideas of God
The Archetypes
What are the Archetypes?
This is an important concept.
They are the inherited, forces of push and attraction, that drive all psychic energy. We observe them as images/symbols (like the Magician, the Lover or the Warrior), but they only take on this form to communicate to our conscious mind.
Being unconscious elements, they are hard to explain, because by their very nature, you cannot be aware of them.
But just understand them as concentrations of psychic energy, that guide us towards action by inspiration, enthusiasm, and fear.
The image of the Lover inspires love.
The image (or idea) of the Warrior inspires courage etc.
👤 The Shadow
This is the first major archetype of the unconscious.
This a psychic energy ball of all of your neglected character-traits. Things like: bad table manners, a secret hatred for someone, or that time you went against your moral compass, will all accumulate here.
Because you have pushed these things out of your conscious mind due to shame, guilt, or refusal to accept something, as a symbol/image/idea, The Shadow will take on a dark, unknown appearance.
The first step of the individuation process (the Jungian path to wholeness and happiness in life), is to come familiar with your own Shadow
“Shadow work is the path of the heart warrior”
– C.G. Jung
👩❤️👨 The Anima and Animus
The Anima is feminine aspect of a man, and the Animus is masculine aspect of a woman.
Anima = Man’s inner femininity
Animus = Woman’s inner masculinity
Jung called both of these archetypes “the soul image”.
What he meant was that it was role of these figures to guide one to their inner Self.
⭐️ The Self
Reaching the Self is the ultimate goal, the inner gold, the lost soul we search for.
The ironic thing is, we always had it, and always will – but life, ego, the complications of living in a society got in the way, and we lost access to it. This is you, in its purest form, the ideal that we dream of.
The aim of life, is to re-unite with the Self.
🗣️ The Ego
The Ego isn’t that primadonna side of ourselves we are encouraged to suppress.
It is the newest aspect of human evolution, the software our gazillion giga-bit supercomputer brain runs through in order to interact with the world. When we talk about Ego problems, it is when that processing ability has become corrupted by inflation (thinking too highly of yourself), inferiority (having a lowly view of yourself), or a number of problems that all point to the same thing…
The Ego has become disillusioned, doesn’t function in accordance with reality, resulting in emotional pain (neuroticism).
It is through the lens of the Ego we build our conceptualisation of the world.
And, just being our interpretation, is why life is often alluded to as a dream.
Both happen in our minds.
🎭 The Persona
An aspect of, of at least associated with the Ego.
This is our ability to adopt a different face/personality for a situation.
Be honest, you don’t behave the same in front of:
Your friends
Your parents
Your lover
Nor should you.
The function of the persona is to survive in the social world.
The persona is imagined as the actors masks you see above in the subheading, and is defined by the Oxford dictionary as:
‘The aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others’
And is also the root for person.
Ruminate on that one.
📝 Final Thoughts & Summary
The psyche is divided into conscious and unconscious
The unconscious contains:
The Archetypes
Inherited, forces of push and attraction, that drive all psychic energy
The Shadow (Neglected parts the psyche)
The Anima/Animus (The masculine/feminine in women/men)
The Self (The purest form of ourselves we strive for in life)
The conscious contains:
The Ego (The computer program we play life through)
The Persona (Our socially conditioned personality based on the situation)
↓Download the free info graphic to revise on or show to your friends (if you have any) ↓
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