Most autobiographies cover the main events of a life with the reader Free Essay Example

Most autobiographies cover the main events of a life, with the reader often left with only glimpses of the inner life of the author. Carl Jung’s autobiographical Memories, Dreams, Reflections, in contrast, focuses on the great psychologist’s spiritual and intellectual awakenings, rather than the external events of his life. The descriptions of his visions, dreams and fantasies. Memories, Dreams, Reflections is controversial because it was still in manuscript form when Jung died, and required further editing to become the final version we read today.

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But it found the popular audience Jung had always hoped for, and inspired many to become psychoanalysts. For some Jung’s theories inspire a life-long interest in Jungian psychology, which aims to reveal the science of the mind and personality as being driven by unconscious and even spiritual forces.

To me one of the most interesting parts to Jung’s theory is integrating oneself. In Jung’s book he showcases the ability to integrate the self aspect of inner being.

If psychosis resulted from some corruption in a person’s psyche, the life of a sane person would be shaped by internal myths and complexes. The goal of what Jung termed ‘individuation’ was the uniting of inner opposites, or recognizing the many contradictions within yourself. This self-knowledge would allow a sense of unity of purpose about your life and your personality to emerge. I appreciate that its integration that is necessary for a sense of wholeness. Without doing so, we tend to project onto other people or things that we do not recognize in ourselves, with often harmful consequences.

While reading the book I have been having a more vivid view in the cognitive of my daily life. My internal experiences of my everyday life has been brought in the light to say. After reading this it is hard not to interrogate oneself or think about the way I am thinking.

Jung’s theory of collective unconscious is made up of a collective knowledge and imagery that every individual is born with. However, the question I believe is most important is if the unconscious influence our consciousness? The biggest problem with this view is that it’s impossible to scientifically test. As a general rule, scientists consider something true only when it can be meaningfully observed or measured. The unconscious mind, by definition, can’t be. After all, its central feature is that it’s completely inaccessible. The concept of the collective unconscious is not commonly used in most contemporary psychotherapy. However, dream analysis continues to be an important part of some psychotherapy, and there is widespread popular interest in the meaning of dreams. For example, hundreds of websites provide lists of the meaning of dream symbols. Many of these meanings are based upon Jung’s original interpretations.

Nevertheless, even with these findings I personally believe in Jung’s theory of the unconscious. The conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. This also includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily and brought into awareness. The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict.

Jung saw the mind, body, and feelings or what he called ‘the psyche’ as all working together. Even negative symptoms could be potentially helpful in drawing attention to an imbalance; for example, depression could result from an individual suppressing particular feelings or not following a path that is natural and true to their particular personality. In this way he saw the psyche as a self-regulating system with all psychic contents thoughts, feelings, dreams, intuitions etc. Inclusion Jung’s theory Like other theories used in psychoanalysis, cannot be tested in a clinically or environmentally. I believe many aspects of his theory to be very relatable and realistic. However more study is needed to find Jugn’s theory as fact.