Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist. Initially, he worked in a psychiatric hospital of Zurich for about nine years. But he quit his job in 1909 and started private practice. His relationship with Freud began when he wrote a letter to Freud in 1906. Freud invited him to Vienna in 1907. He nominated Jung as the president of the first International Psychoanalytic Association in 1910. Freud chose him as his colleague for promoting his cause of psychoanalytical movement. But their relationship became strained when they started arguing over some elements of psyche and their role in the development of our personality. Therefore, Jung developed his own theory of personality which is known as Analytical Theory or Analytical Psychology. It is different from Freud’s theory of personality in several ways. The first thing which differentiates his theory from Freud’s theory of personality is his conception of unconscious. According to him, our unconscious is consisted of two separate components, namely personal unconscious and collective unconscious. The personal unconscious contains all those thoughts, feelings, ideas and images that were once conscious but now they have become unconscious because of repression (a defense mechanism which we use to shift our painful feelings and thoughts from the conscious zone to unconscious zone of our psyche in order to safeguard ourselves from the resultant anxiety) and forgetting. It consists mainly of our intentionally repressed painful feelings and thoughts. It is specific to every person i.e. varies from person to person and each person has its own personal unconscious.
Unlike the personal unconscious, collective unconscious is common to mankind as a whole. It can be found in all times and cultures of the world. It is the reservoir of memories and urgings of human beings, which are based on certain common elements of our experience. It has roots in the primitive history of humanity. Collective unconscious is the collection of those beliefs and phenomena that we received from our ancestors. The contents of collective unconscious are called archetypes. Archetypes are the primordial images, characters and patterns of circumstances which are common to us all and existed in all spaces and times. They include those concepts, which are common to all human beings in the world, like the concept of father, mother, family, earth, sun, ocean, jungle, river and fire. Other example of archetypes are Persona, Shadow, Anima and Animus which are explained as under:
Persona
It consists of those characteristics of our personality which we want to display to public. Persona is like a mask, we put on this mask to hide all the undesirable qualities of our personality from others. Persona compels us to act according to the norms of society in which we live. It is composed of all the socially acceptable behaviors. It wants us to become an ideal person in all situations.
Shadow
It is that aspect of our personality which we don’t want to show to public. We intentionally keep it hidden from the public. It is the selfish and cruel side of our personality. It consists of the animal urges and feelings of inferiority. It is closely connected to our Id. Shadow has the tendency to reveal itself to the outside world. And sometimes, we have no control over it. Shadow is unavoidable and we are incomplete without it. Its size is not equal everywhere, but varies with the type and norms of society. It is small in open minded and liberal society and large in narrow and restrictive societies.
Anima
It is the male characteristics of a female. It consists of those unconscious beliefs and feelings which relate to opposite gender. It is a personification of feminine values. It is crucial for male dominated societies.
Animus
It is the female characteristics of a male. Tendencies and qualities specific to male but assumed by females are thought of as masculine. Anima and animus have significant influence over the lives of male and female. They relate to the unconscious part of our psyche. But they can entered into the conscious part of our psyche when activated by certain stimuli.
Jung described four functions of psyche namely feeling, thinking, sensing and intuition. All these four functions play a vital role in understanding and interpreting the reality. Jung was of the view that our behaviors are not merely the results of our personal unconscious but they are also influenced by our collective unconscious. Jung, like Freud, also used the term ego for the rational and conscious part of our mind. Jung rejected Freud’s conception of Oedipus complex (a psychological condition wherein a male child develops love and sexual desire for her mother and tries to take the place of her father) and suggested Electra complex (a psychological condition wherein a female child develops love and sexual desire for her father and tries to take the place of her mother) instead.
Another cause of chasm between them is their disagreement over the composition of Libido. Freud considers Libido as a form of sexual energy only while Jung includes all forms of psychic energy in it.
Jung says that dream is a good indication of our inner world. We can use it to know about the unconscious component of our mind. The job of dream is to restore equilibrium in the various opposing forces of our psyche.
Moreover, Jung introduce two new terms for the two opposing attitudes of our psyche, namely introversion(an introverted person is one who has the tendency to live a solitary life and prefers to engage himself/herself in isolated activities) and extroversion(an extroverted person is one who prefers to live with public and enjoys engagement in social activities). According to Jung, a successful person is that who is successful in bringing and maintaining equilibrium in these opposing forces. Jung says that the goal of life is individuation, the process of knowing the unique qualities of oneself and harmonizing various elements of psyche. Jung took into account the entire lifespan of personality development instead of focusing his attention merely on childhood like Freud. He described four stages of personality development namely childhood, youth, middle age and old age.
