About C.G. JungC.G. Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and one of the founders of psychology. Jung gave us many concepts that have come into common usage like the introversion and extroversion, having a complex, synchronicity and archetypes. His word association test led to the invention of the lie detector. His psychological types were the basis for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.In his psychotherapeutic practice, Jung used talk, dream work, play, and the arts. He looked to fairy tales, mythology, and alchemy as guides to human experience. Jungian Psychology, or Analytical Psychology, as he called it, has changed over time and today is a rich and diverse field.
While Freud thought the unconscious was determined by past experiences and contained our forbidden wishes, Jung saw it as also forward looking and containing our potential. He believed that some part of us knows who we are meant to be if we could be fully ourselves, and that we can activate this process of becoming within ourselves. He called this process individuation.
Jung saw feelings of depression, anxiety, and the muddles we get into, as messages from our unconscious signaling that something needs to change in our lives. For Jung symptoms had meaning that needed to be explored. He thought that lasting change is not achieved through rational knowledge alone but has to be embodied, felt, and lived in the world.
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