Carl Jung was one of the most prominent psychologists of the early 20th century.

Jung dedicated his life to understanding the human psyche and made many significant contributions to the field of psychology. Many common parlance terms such as Introvert, Extrovert, Complex, and Shadow, all come from Jung’s work on analyzing the psyche.

Among Jung’s many contributions and discoveries none could be considered more important than his theory of individuation.

He developed his theory over the course of his career working with psychiatric patients. He discovered that neuroses, or psychological crises, were caused by unresolved issues that had risen up from the unconscious.

Jung defined Individuation as a process of personal transformation driven by confronting and integrating those unconscious contents, thus bringing us to a greater sense of self awareness.

He thought that by bringing unconscious contents into consciousness, we expand our self awareness. When we understand the root of our complexes and irrational behaviors, we can restrict the power they hold over us. We can stop them from seizing us and overwhelming us, and instead pursue self awareness as a means of personal growth.

Jung refined his theory of individuation all throughout his adult life, looking to dreams, symbolism, mythology, religion, and alchemy for inspiration. Eventually he came to hold it in such high esteem he considered it to be humankind’s “Magnum opus”, our life’s greatest work.

Why is Individuation Important?

Individuation is the natural process by which we psychologically grow and develop. It leads us to complete self awareness, allowing us to accept ourselves for our uniqueness, to find our own sense of agency and autonomy, and to discover a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

In a spiritual sense, individuation is our soul’s journey towards the fulfillment of our individual destiny.

If we seek to understand individuation, we can work alongside our own psyches and make it a more deliberate act. This is the goal of psychotherapy, and what Jung spent most of his career doing for his patients.

Individuation is a nebulous and nuanced theory. Jung worked on it all throughout his adult life, leaving a multitude of writings to distill a comprehensive definition of individuation from.

A Biological Process of Psychological Growth

Just like our physical body grows and develops as we age, so too does our psyche.

Individuation is the inborn biological drive of psychological development, a biological imperative to grow into our authentic selves. It guides us through the process of psychological maturation and leads us to an understanding of our unique potential in life.

The psychological purpose of this drive is to integrate all parts of our psyche into one cohesive unit. Jung believed the psyche was a self-regulating system, like an organ, and its function was one of attaining wholeness.

Jung viewed individuation as a sacred process that an individual “more or less” fulfills throughout their lifetime, but not one that could be completed. He thought of it as an ongoing, life-long process rather than a state that could be attained.

He encouraged psychotherapy because he saw it as a way to facilitate this process of psychological growth. Now, therapy is much more widely available, is becoming destigmatized, and we are seeing more people embrace the drive to individuate.

Gaining Self Awareness Through Integrating Conscious & Unconscious

Jung founded the process of individuation on the principle that by integrating the conscious and unconscious, we come to a greater sense of self awareness. Gaining insight into the unconscious parts of our psyche helps us gain a more comprehensive understanding of ourselves, and our psychological reality.

Through this process, we come to understand the source of our irrational thoughts and complexes. Then, we can work to understand how to heal the wound that caused them. We realize how repressed memories and trauma from the past unconsciously shape our behaviors and responses in the present. We come to understand how we project our unconscious fears, biases, and desires onto others, and how that prevents us from relating to those qualities in others and in ourselves.

By integrating the unconscious, we notice patterns of behaviors that are so automatic to us we can’t see them otherwise. We understand the origins of our traumas and begin healing the wound at the source. Still, something must jumpstart this process, and more often than not, it is a crisis of the Ego which acts as the catalyst.

The Transcendence of the Ego

We spend the first half of our lives developing a strong sense of identity — our personality, or what Jung called “The Ego”.

From childhood through early adulthood, we gradually define who we are as we learn to adapt to the external world. We find our place in the world, develop personal relationships, define our roles in society. The Ego becomes how we define ourselves. It is our sense of “I”.

However, something inevitably makes us question that sense of identity. We suddenly wonder if the lives we’ve built for ourselves are really providing us with meaning and purpose. We question whether the person we are is the person we’re meant to be, or just the person society made us to be.

Anything could signal this need to transcend the Ego. It could be a dream, a sudden realization, a recurring symbol, a midlife crisis. Regardless, it will hold our attention to an unignorable degree. It will force us to question our lives and our beliefs about who we are.

Ultimately, if we follow its call, it will lead us to a new center of identity, one that encompasses the entirety of the psyche.

Jung called this new center of identity The Self.

A Process of Self-Actualization

The Self is the totality of our psyche; the container that holds both the conscious and unconscious.

In terms of individuation, the Self acts as the driving force behind the entire process, and is simultaneously its end goal. The Self facilitates the process of the individuation through dreams, symbolism, and ego transcendent experiences.

As we transcend the ego, we realize that in developing that identity, we were forced to reject and neglect so many other parts of ourselves. These potentials within us were left undeveloped, unacknowledged, and repressed.

When we individuate, our sense of self expands beyond the ego. Our self awareness grows to encompass the entirety of our psyche.

This transformation often leads us far away from who we think we are and instead guides us to a new center of personality—an identity that is separate from the expectations of others and of society. One that acknowledges and embraces each and every facet of ourselves.

Through self actualization we discover a profound sense of purpose and meaning that the Ego could never see. We embrace the person we are, instead of the person society tried to make us.

Finding Our Inner Authority

Throughout our lifetimes, we become separated from various qualities and aspects of our Self. These are the qualities that are deemed disagreeable or undesirable by society, our parents, and even ourselves. So, we push those qualities as far away from the Ego as possible.

To move throughout our lives in a more socially acceptable manner, we develop a persona. Like a mask, we wear the persona to fit ourselves into whatever role we need to fulfill. We paint it with the qualities that we know will go recognized and rewarded, all the while hiding the qualities we feel will earn us judgment. These traits then become repressed, cast into what Jung called the Shadow, our psychological blind spot.

We can define Jung’s idea of completeness as a state in which we have completely realized and accepted all the parts of ourselves we’ve cast into the shadow. By accepting and integrating the shadow, we can take off the masks of persona. Then we can establish our own identities aside from the expectation and demands of others.

Thus, we find an entirely new way to exist in the world. An identity founded on our own sense of what is good. An existence of radical self acceptance. The embracing of a new cohesive, unalienable Self; one that can we can only find through reclaiming the shadow of ourselves that we’ve cast aside.

Our Psychospiritual Goal

Jung’s theory of individuation offers us a framework for understanding the process of psychological growth and self-actualization. He called the work of Individuation our Magnum opus and for good reason. Later in his life, Jung came to see individuation as a spiritual and psychological process. In a spiritual sense, individuation is the actualization of the inner god image.

Spiritual experiences are experiences of the Self. Individuation is the goal that spirituality, religion, myths, and dreams all guide us towards.

Individuation brings us home to ourselves. It reminds us of our inherent uniqueness, bestows us an unalienable sense of self autonomy, and leads us to become the person we were destined to be from the beginning.

Jung’s theory of individuation offers us a framework for understanding the process of psychological growth and self-actualization. He called the work of Individuation our Magnum opus and for good reason. Later in his life, Jung came to see individuation as a spiritual and psychological process. In a spiritual sense, individuation is the actualization of the inner god image.

When we return to the wholeness of Self, our purpose will make itself known to us. We will surround ourselves with things that endow our life with meaning. We will understand the role our individuality plays in the grander scheme of life. We will know our individual meaning and purpose, and work to transform ourselves into someone that lives up to that purpose.

To individuate, however, we need to understand the psyche itself. Next week, we will continue this foray into Jungian psychology by investigating the structure and the dynamics of the psyche. If you haven’t already subscribed, you can do so below! Leave a comment with any other Jungian topics you’d like me to cover!

Individuation: A Process of Self-Becoming