The Integration of the Personality
- Author:
Jung. Kegan Paul. 15s.
In order to value this book of Professor Jung’s it is necessary to look back through his previous work. His main contribution to psychology must be considered to be his researches into individuation. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology was written over twenty years ago and since then a great deal has been added to the basis he laid down then. Psycho- logical Types was a far more elaborate view of the same problem looked at from a rather different angle from the angle of Types. In both cases there is no detailed analysis of the pro- cess, or part of the process, going on in a patient. It is true that the Psychology of the Unconscious dealt with clinical material but it dealt with a neurotic process which individua- tion is not, it is normal or supernormal.
Though it could never be said that Professor Jung’s previous books were not related to clinical experience, he is often accused of obscurantism. Actually he is difficult rather than obscure, and clear if the trouble is taken to understand what he says. The truth is that Professor Jung has a thoroughly original mind and has founded a completely new view of psychology which has a method of its own and has reaped already a rich harvest. This originality, which demands new concepts, is simply thought to be obscure owing to its novelty.
It must be admitted, however, that Analytical Psychology is a difficult subject to master, partly on account of its complexity, but more, I think, on account of the way in which it pre- sents long known facts in a new light, namely in a psychological light.
The first three chapters of The Integration of the Personality give an introduction to the main body of the book which is contained in two main chapters, one on a series of patients’ dreams, the other on Alchemy.
There is much in the first three chapters which follows up and amplifies what Professor Jung has previously written. Most welcome from a clinical point of view is a clear description of how he applies his knowledge to the treatment of patients. He says that when an eruption from the unconscious occurs, “it is like a flow of lava in which all sorts of minerals gush forth in one glowing stream, welling up from the entrails of the earth. There is no use in rationalizing or intellectualizing this activity. Yet it is all important to maintain a sense of mutual understanding between patient and doctor whilst the eruption lasts, so that the patient never loses the feeling of intelligent companionship. If he does lose contact with his directeur de conscience, he may fall a prey to panic inspired by the overwhelming strange- ness of his vision.”
Though at this time the intellect is powerless, Jung does not undervalue its power, for ” when the main shock is over … we try to reduce the seemingly incomprehensible events to rational sequences and to personal and imper- sonal origins.” This constitutes the process of assimilation, and with this comes enrichment of the personality.
The next two chapters are detailed example of how Jung handles material from the un- conscious, that ” glowing stream “. First he analyses a long series of patients’ dreams which show some aspects of the individuation process- It is this chapter which fills the gap referred to before. The next chapter is on alchemy and here Professor Jung shows that alchemy was not just the maudling of deranged minds but a deliberate method of experiencing the unconscious through the medium of material experiment. In other words the alchemist, starting from a sort of chemistry, discovered that he could experience visions which, though expressed in a chemical language, are expres- sions of the collective unconscious.
Jung’s analysis of alchemy is undoubtedly the most penetrating that any psychologist has attempted and it is especially illuminating because he relates it to other expressions of the mdividuation process, namely Christianity and Gnosticism.
The discovery of the ” objective psyche “, as collective unconscious is sometimes called, and its processes has a significant bearing upon the problem of personality. This is the subject the last chapter. It is only by inference therefore that it can be made to cohere with the rest of the book. The chapter is couched in cautious terms and represents Jung’s contribu- tion to a problem which he does not regard as having reached a solution or to be defined; “e relates it to the Chinese concept of Tao which cannot be defined, it is simply an experience. As with all Jung’s books he goes beyond the “mits of specialization so that this book can be read not only by a specialist but also by the General reader. M.F.
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