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Carl Gustav Jung  and the integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects

Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961), the founder of analytical psychology, usually referred to as “Jungian psychology”, saw in Gnostic alchemy a precedent to the process of individuation, as encountered in his own clinical practice. This was a breakthrough for Jung and offered a vast amount of data supporting his theory of the collective unconscious; more specifically, that psychic transformation follows an archetypal and universal process.  This transformative process happens through the integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the subject’s psychology.  Jung describes this process as having four stages:

 Individuation, in Jungian psychology, is the process whereby an individual realizes a state of spiritual and psychological wholeness. Through this process, that, which was previously fragmented and broken, is restored and synthesized so that a whole and unique individual emerges; an individual who fully accepts, and is one with, him or herself; an individual who is fully authentic and embraces his or her destiny. It is a movement away from being a pawn in the hands of fate, to consciously collaborating in the realization of one’s unique destiny.