#jolandejacobi

[jungiananalysis]

Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G. Jung: An Introduction with Illustrations, p. 7.

In Diagram 2 the black point in the centre marks our ego; surrounded and sustained by consciousness, it represents the side of the psyche which, especially in our Western culture, is primarily oriented towards adaptation to outward reality. ‘By the ego,’ says Jung, ‘I understand a complex of representations which constitutes the centre of my field of consciousness and appears to possess a very high degree of continuity and identity.’ He defines consciousness as ‘the function or activity which maintains the relation of psychic contents with the ego.’ All our experience of the outer and inner world must pass through our ego in order to be perceived.

[jungiananalysis]

Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G. Jung: An Introduction with Illustrations, p. 9. 

The next circle shows the sphere of consciousness, surrounded by contents lying in the unconscious, contents that have been set aside for our consciousness can hold only a very few contents at once - but which at any time can be restored to the level of consciousness, and also contents that we repress because they are disagreeable to us for various reasons - in other worlds, ‘forgotten, repressed, subliminally perceived, thought, and felt matter of every kind.’ Jung calls this sphere the personal unconscious to distinguish it from the collective unconscious, as shown in Diagram 3. The collective part of the unconscious does not include personal acquisitions specific to our individual ego, but only contents resulting ‘from the inherited possibility of psychical functioning in general, namely from the inherited brain structure. This heritage is common to all human beings, perhaps even to all animals, and constitutes the foundation of every individual psyche.

[jungiananalysis]

Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G. Jung: An Introduction with Illustrations, p. 16.

In actual life the function types almost never appear in pure form, but in a variety of mixed types, as indicated in Diagram 6. We often find mixtures, but only of ‘adjacent’ functions, and when either component is pronounced, it is difficult to classify the individual according to his function type. 

The complementary or compensatory relation between opposite functions is a structural law of the psyche. The over differentiation of the superior function, which is almost inevitable with the passage of the years, results nearly always in tensions that are among the main problems of the second half of life. Over differentiation leads to a disturbance of balance, which in itself can do serious harm.

[jungiananalysis]

Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G. Jung: An Introduction with Illustrations, p. 14.

The Chinese sign t’ai chi t’u, reproduced in Diagram 5, offers a striking and perhaps not wholly accidental analogy to the value and direction of the functions. The course of the process of differentiation is indicated by the broken line; the ‘way’ follows not the periphery but an inner line corresponding to the relation between the functions as described above. T’ai chi t’u is a product of inner vision and one of the primal symbols of mankind. It represents the duality of light and dark, of masculine and feminine, as a unit, a totality. 

[jungiananalysis]

Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G. Jung: An Introduction with Illustrations, p. 11.

The circle again symbolizes psychic totality; at the four cardinal points stand the four basic functions which are constitutionally present in every individual: thinking, intuition, feeling, and sensation. 

Diagram 4 shows the relations between the four functions. The upper half is light, while the lower half is dark; this is intended to show that the superior function pertains entirely to the light, conscious side, while its opposite, which we call the inferior function, is wholly confined to the unconscious. The two others lie partly in consciousness, partly in the unconscious zones, indication that in addition to his main functions an individual usually makes use of a second, auxiliary function, which is relatively differentiated and directed. The third function is seldom available to the average man; the fourth, the inferior one, is as a rule entirely beyond the control of his will. 

[jungiananalysis]

Consciousness and The Unconscious

Jolande Jacobi, The Psychology of C.G. Jung: An Introduction with Illustrations, p. 5-6.

By ‘psyche’ Jung means not only what we generally call ‘soul’ but the totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious, hence something broader and more comprehensive than the soul, which for Jung is only a certain ‘limited functional complex’. The psyche consists of two complementary but antithetical spheres: consciousness and the unconscious. Our ego has a share in both.