27.7.21 Individuation, tension and balance – maintaining balance amidst the tension of opposites
'The Tension of Opposites
Prior to beginning the individuation process, we have certainty. Through the course of our development, we form a solid self-identity. We think we know who we are.
But this self-identity is always one-sided. It’s an illusion, or maya, as the Buddhists call it.
Because we are unconscious, we don’t feel the inherent tensions and oppositions between the conscious self we know and the unconscious parts of ourselves.
You’re probably familiar with the Taoist symbol of yin and yang. This ancient symbol represents the balance or harmony of opposites.
Yang is the sunny light side while yin represents the shadowy side.
Instead of seeing yin and yang as opposing forces, the Chinese view them as complementary forces that interact within a greater whole (represented by the circle encompassing them).
Consider how the values and worldviews of masculine and feminine principles can vary.
The masculine seeks autonomy. The feminine seeks communion or relationship.
Can you imagine what it would be like to integrate both masculine and feminine principles within your mind, not favoring either perspective over the other?
It’s not easy, but this is part of the goal of the individuation process.
Jung found that opposites create tension in the psyche. If we don’t learn to address these tensions, denying the opposites instead, we repress or push the pressure out of our consciousness.
But repressing doesn’t eliminate the opposites or the tension itself. It only makes them more destructive in our psyche by strengthening our shadows.
Repressing tension makes us one-sided, and it leads us to project our unconscious fantasies on to reality.
When we deny these internal tensions, we enforce our delusions and self-deception.
Besides the tension between masculine and feminine principles, here are two other common internal tensions:
Instincts and Psyche
A key pair of opposites in Jung’s work are instincts and psyche.
The instincts are our biological roots, our body. The psyche, in Jung’s conception, is the totality of mental processes that include both conscious and unconscious forces.
Any time we try to favor psyche over instincts—mind over body, spirit over nature—or vice versa, we cut ourselves off (dissociate) from a part of what we are.
Good and Evil
Most of us prefer pursuing “good” while avoiding “evil.” We want to realize God and cast out the Devil. We want angels, not demons.
Jung points out in Aion that evil had a different meaning before Christianity.
The rise of Christianity added a kind of spirit of evil to the principle of evil which it did not have before. The sharpening of differentiation of ethical reactions into too clear-cut black-and-white lines is not favorable to life.
As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Good and evil are one.”
The Path of Individuation
Individuation is Jung’s solution to our tendency toward one-sidedness.
In this process of becoming a complete human being, we integrate all the parts of our personality of which we aren’t presently conscious.
Why did Jung call the process “individuation”?
Jungian psychologist Robert Johnson explains in Inner Work:
Because this process of actualizing oneself and becoming more complete also reveals one’s special, individual structure. It shows how the universal human traits and possibilities are combined in each individual in a way that is unlike anyone else.
Jung writes in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology:
Individuation means becoming an “in-dividual,” and, in so far as “individuality” embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore translate individuation as “coming to selfhood” or “self-realization.”
Johnson points out that individuation doesn’t mean we become isolated from the human race. He writes,
Once we feel more secure as individuals, more complete within ourselves, it is natural also to seek the myriad ways in which we resemble our fellow human beings … the essential human qualities that bind us together in the human tribe.
As we individuate, we connect and identify with the entire human family.
Three Stages of the Individuation Process
'The Tension of Opposites
Prior to beginning the individuation process, we have certainty. Through the course of our development, we form a solid self-identity. We think we know who we are.
But this self-identity is always one-sided. It’s an illusion, or maya, as the Buddhists call it.
Because we are unconscious, we don’t feel the inherent tensions and oppositions between the conscious self we know and the unconscious parts of ourselves.
You’re probably familiar with the Taoist symbol of yin and yang. This ancient symbol represents the balance or harmony of opposites.
Yang is the sunny light side while yin represents the shadowy side.
Instead of seeing yin and yang as opposing forces, the Chinese view them as complementary forces that interact within a greater whole (represented by the circle encompassing them).
Consider how the values and worldviews of masculine and feminine principles can vary.
The masculine seeks autonomy. The feminine seeks communion or relationship.
Can you imagine what it would be like to integrate both masculine and feminine principles within your mind, not favoring either perspective over the other?
It’s not easy, but this is part of the goal of the individuation process.
Jung found that opposites create tension in the psyche. If we don’t learn to address these tensions, denying the opposites instead, we repress or push the pressure out of our consciousness.
But repressing doesn’t eliminate the opposites or the tension itself. It only makes them more destructive in our psyche by strengthening our shadows.
Repressing tension makes us one-sided, and it leads us to project our unconscious fantasies on to reality.
When we deny these internal tensions, we enforce our delusions and self-deception.
Besides the tension between masculine and feminine principles, here are two other common internal tensions:
Instincts and Psyche
A key pair of opposites in Jung’s work are instincts and psyche.
The instincts are our biological roots, our body. The psyche, in Jung’s conception, is the totality of mental processes that include both conscious and unconscious forces.
Any time we try to favor psyche over instincts—mind over body, spirit over nature—or vice versa, we cut ourselves off (dissociate) from a part of what we are.
Good and Evil
Most of us prefer pursuing “good” while avoiding “evil.” We want to realize God and cast out the Devil. We want angels, not demons.
Jung points out in Aion that evil had a different meaning before Christianity.
The rise of Christianity added a kind of spirit of evil to the principle of evil which it did not have before. The sharpening of differentiation of ethical reactions into too clear-cut black-and-white lines is not favorable to life.
As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Good and evil are one.”
The Path of Individuation
Individuation is Jung’s solution to our tendency toward one-sidedness.
In this process of becoming a complete human being, we integrate all the parts of our personality of which we aren’t presently conscious.
Why did Jung call the process “individuation”?
Jungian psychologist Robert Johnson explains in Inner Work:
Because this process of actualizing oneself and becoming more complete also reveals one’s special, individual structure. It shows how the universal human traits and possibilities are combined in each individual in a way that is unlike anyone else.
Jung writes in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology:
Individuation means becoming an “in-dividual,” and, in so far as “individuality” embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore translate individuation as “coming to selfhood” or “self-realization.”
Johnson points out that individuation doesn’t mean we become isolated from the human race. He writes,
Once we feel more secure as individuals, more complete within ourselves, it is natural also to seek the myriad ways in which we resemble our fellow human beings … the essential human qualities that bind us together in the human tribe.
As we individuate, we connect and identify with the entire human family.
Three Stages of the Individuation Process