Depth Psychology
Psychology has had many prominent figures including the father of modern psychology which is Wilhelm Wundt, that have influenced its development. The classic psychology figure that we will be discussing today is Carl Jung. This post will give you a brief overview of Jung’s life and dive deep to discuss depth psychology further.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychologist who is best known for founding analytic psychology. Analytic psychology was a response, in some ways, to psychoanalysis by Freud. We will be discussing the relationship between Jung and Freud later on.
Carl Jung developed many psychological aspects we use today, and here are just a few concepts he founded:
Introverted And Extroverted Personalities
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We all know about introverted or extroverted personalities. Some people are extroverted, and they prefer to be social with other people. Others are introverted and prefer their company alone. Carl Jung’s theory of extroverted and introverted personalities is a bit deeper than that, with him believing that everyone has at least some of both traits. He didn’t believe that many people were truly introverted or extroverted.
These include instincts and archetypes and universal tropes like the Wise Old Man, Great Mother, Shadow, and others. Its existence has been hotly debated.
Archetypes
Jungian Psychology
Jung was the son of a pastor, and he lived a lonely childhood, but one that brought him a great opportunity to observe. He’d look at behaviors made by parents, teachers, and other adults. At first, it seemed like he would follow in his father’s footsteps as a minister, but he read about philosophy in his teens. From there, he decided to become a psychiatrist. He would study how patients would respond illogically to certain stimulus words, and he even developed the word “complex” to describe other content.
For five years, Jung worked with Freud. At first, it seemed like Jung would be the successor to psychoanalysis theory, but it turned out they had differences in views, and the collaboration between the two psychologists came to a close. Jung disagreed with Freud’s theories, especially the neurosis, which Freud believed had a sexual base. Jung even went so far as to resign from the International Psychiatric Association.
Jung worked on his concepts. He popularized the terms extroverted and introverted people. He believed the mind had four functions: to think, feel, sense, and intuition.
Jung And Religion
Being the son of a pastor, he developed some interesting ideas about how psychology and religion were related. He believed that the writings of the past affect how people dream in the present.
He believed that religion helped developed the modern-day consciousness. There were different reoccurring symbols one can find in consciousness. Religious symbols seem to be recognized wherever you go, so he thought they had been burned in the unconscious mind many years ago.
He also helped older adults with psychotherapy. At later ages, some people begin thinking their lives had no meaning, and it was up to them to find their place. His patients were losing their faith and purpose, and he believed that by looking at a patient’s dreams and thoughts, they could discover their purpose. He named this individuation.
He was also a psychology professor at a few universities. He helped spread his unique ideas to many pupils.
He also published many books in his lifetime, and some of his works have been published as recently as 2009. In 2009, the “Red Book” was finally published. It consisted of 16 years of his unconscious mind’s feelings, fantasies, hallucinations he induced, and more, all of which have had their illustrations as well.
So that is a summary of Carl Jung. Now, let’s look at depth psychology. What is it?
Depth Psychology – What Exactly Does It Mean?
The person who coined the term “Depth psychology,” interestingly enough, was not Carl Jung but Eugen Bleuler. Eugen was a psychiatry professor, and he directed at an asylum that Carl Jung began his psychiatric career at. Depth psychology has been a term used by competing schools of thought at the time, Freudians and Jungians.
Depth psychology refers to approaches to therapy that consider the unconscious mind. As you probably know, the unconscious mind drives our motivations and emotions but is not visible to our immediate conscious mind. Psychoanalysis is focused on the unconscious mind and helps uncover its secrets.
Depth psychology is the therapies that have been created by Jung, Freud, William James, and Pierre Janet, all of which explore the unconscious versus the conscious mind.
Jungian View & Depth Psychology
Since this article is about Jung, let’s discuss depth psychology through the lens of Carl Jung.
- The unconscious mind contains life experiences that are repressed. This may be due to trauma or some other reason. These repressed memories may motivate us, but we can’t see them as the most normal means.
- The theme of archetypes is important in in-depth psychology.
- Your psyche may create themes and symbols that are religious or mythological. The psyche is therefore quite spiritual or relies on instincts. Everyone’s psyche is different, and it can affect how spiritual you are. Some people may not be religious at all, no matter what they do, while others are maybe a little more religious. It all depends on the person.
- Every mind has its myth they are making. When someone thinks about myths, they may imagine old stories that explain things that science has explained. For example, the gods that control the weather. Instead of that, myths in the context of Jungian psychology refer to how the stories we tell are rich and can pass on from generation to generation.
What Do Depth Psychologists Study?
Depth psychologists will study many aspects of a human, including:
- Dreams are quite mysterious in how they happen and what they can say. Some believe that dreams are just random images in your mind, while others believe that they have a deeper meaning. No matter what side you’re on, a depth psychologist is here to study them.
- Slips of the tongue. Ever meant to say one thing, but it came out as something else, usually sexual? These are slips of the tongue or better known as Freudian slips. A depth psychologist will study those as well.
- Spontaneous humor. This is when you accidentally say something that people find funny. A depth psychologist will study why spontaneous humor happens and what we can learn from it.
- Meaningful coincidences. This is a part of a concept Jung referred to as synchronicity. In other words, coincidences that affected your life greatly were not part of a coincidence, but instead, inner and outer forces are working together to bring you to the place you are today. This is one of the arguments Jung made for the existence of paranormal forces.
- Interpersonal engagements. How we talk to people around us and how we engage with them are important in many regards. Interpersonal engagements involve our conversations, and a psychologist will study them and see what they mean for you.
A depth psychologist will understand the unconscious mind through these concepts and how it affects you and the people around you. This allows you to learn more about your unconscious mind and what makes you unique.
A depth psychologist will help you heal by letting you come to terms with rejected thoughts before. This can help you figure out the significance of these thoughts and let you explore your unconscious mind even more. It will also look at how the culture and the society around you can change how your unconscious mind works.
Depth psychology will draw on many different sources for their clients. A depth psychologist needs to be skilled in mythology, psychology, philosophy, literature, the arts, and other studies. It’s a tough and yet rewarding career. There is no doubt the myths of the past have affected the mind today. There are several depth psychology master programs in the US if you are interested in pursuing a career in the field. Getting a Ph.D. in depth psychology can offer a career in a growing field. Depth psychology will allow you to merge several different facets of human understanding.
If you need help, there is nothing to lose in talking to a psychologist, whether they excel in-depth or not.
Depth psychology (from the German term Tiefenpsychologie) refers to the practice and research of the science of the unconscious, covering both psychoanalysis and psychology.[1] It is also defined as the psychological theory that explores the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious, as well as the patterns and dynamics of motivation and the mind.[2] The theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Alfred Adler are all considered its foundations.[3]
Development
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The term “depth psychology” was coined by Eugen Bleuler and refers to psychoanalytic approaches to therapy and research that take the unconscious into account.[4] The term was rapidly accepted in the year of its proposal (1914) by Sigmund Freud, to cover a topographical view of the mind in terms of different psychic systems.[5] He is considered to have revolutionized this field, which he viewed in his later years as his most significant work.[6]
Since the 1970s, depth psychology has come to refer to the ongoing development of theories and therapies pioneered by Pierre Janet, William James, and Carl Gustav Jung, as well as Freud. All explore relationships between the conscious and the unconscious (thus including both psychoanalysis and Jungian psychology).[7]
Summary of primary elements
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Depth psychology states that the psyche process is partly conscious, partly unconscious, and partly semi-conscious.[1] In practice, depth psychology seeks to explore underlying motives as an approach to various mental disorders. Depth psychologists believe that the uncovering of deeper, often unconscious, motives is intrinsically healing in and of itself. It seeks knowledge of the deep layers underlying behavioral and cognitive processes.
In modern times, the initial work, development, theories, and therapies of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler and Otto Rank have grown into three main perspectives on depth psychology:
Psychoanalytic view
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Adlerian view
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Adlerian psychology has been regarded as depth psychology due to its aim of discovering the buried unconscious phenomena. It is one of the first frameworks that approached the individual as a fundamentally social being, one that needs to be situated in a socio-cultural context in order to be understood.[8] It is also described as a representation of the ego psychology and views the ego as an independent and creative entity that facilitates the interaction with social reality instead of merely a handmaiden of the id.[8]
The Adlerian approach to psychoanalysis includes a set of tools that allows an individual to break through a self-centered way of life. For instance, it eliminates the core style of life and fictional final goal of a patient through Socratic method as opposed to counselling.[9]
Jungian views
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Many scholars believe that Jung’s most significant contribution to depth psychology was his conceptualization of the “collective unconscious”.[10] While Freud cited the conceptualization unconscious forces was limited to repressed or forgotten personal experiences, Jung emphasized the qualities that an individual share with other people.[10] This is demonstrated in his notion that all minds, all lives, are ultimately embedded in some sort of myth-making in the form of themes or patterns. This myth-making or creation of a mythical image lies at the depth of the unconscious, where an individual’s mind widens out and merges into the mind of mankind.[11] Mythology is therefore not a series of old explanations for natural events, but rather the richness and wonder of humanity played out in a symbolical, thematic, and patterned storytelling.[citation needed]
There is also the case of the Jungian archetypes. According to Jung, archetypes are primordial elements of the Collective Unconscious.[12] They form the unchanging context from which the contents of cyclic and sequent changes derive their meanings. Duration is the secret of action.[13] He also stated that the psyche spontaneously generates mythico-religious symbolism or themes, and is therefore spiritual or metaphysical, as well as instinctive, in nature. An implication of this is that the choice of whether to be a spiritual person may be beyond the individual, whether and how we apply it, including to nonspiritual aspirations.
Another Jungian position in depth psychology involves his belief that the unconscious contains repressed experiences and other personal-level issues in its “upper” layers and “transpersonal” (e.g. collective, non-I, archetypal) forces in its depths. The semi-conscious contains or is, an aware pattern of personality, including everything in a spectrum from individual vanity to the personality of the workplace.[14]
Criticism
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- Fredric Jameson considers postmodernism to reject depth models such as Freud’s, in favor of a set of multiple surfaces consisting of intertextual discourses and practices.[15]
See also
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References
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