130 Part II   Psychodynamic Theories

the ego and to produce a one-sided person who lacks the soul spark of personality.
The self-realized person is dominated neither by unconscious processes nor by the
conscious ego but achieves a balance between all aspects of personality.
Self-realized people are able to contend with both their external and their inter-
nal worlds. Unlike psychologically disturbed individuals, they live in the real world
and make necessary concessions to it. However, unlike average people, they are aware
of the regressive process that leads to self-discovery. Seeing unconscious images as
potential material for new psychic life, self-realized people welcome these images as
they appear in dreams and introspective reflections (Jung, 1939/1959, 1945/1953).

Jung’s Methods of Investigation

Jung looked beyond psychology in his search for data to build his conception of
humanity. He made no apologies for his ventures into the fields of sociology, his-
tory, anthropology, biology, physics, philology, religion, mythology, and philoso-
phy. He strongly believed that the study of personality was not the prerogative of
any single discipline and that the whole person could be understood only by pursu-
ing knowledge wherever it existed. Like Freud, Jung persistently defended himself
as a scientific investigator, eschewing the labels of mystic and philosopher. In a
letter to Calvin Hall, dated October 6, 1954, Jung argued: “If you call me an occult-
ist because I am seriously investigating religious, mythological, folkloristic and
philosophical fantasies in modern individuals and ancient texts, then you are bound
to diagnose Freud as a sexual pervert since he is doing likewise with sexual fan-
tasies” (Jung, 1975, p. 186). Nevertheless, Jung asserted that the psyche could not
be understood by the intellect alone but must be grasped by the total person. Along
the same line, he once said, “Not everything I bring forth is written out of my head,
but much of it comes from the heart also” (Jung, 1943/1953, p. 116).
Jung gathered data for his theories from extensive reading in many disci-
plines, but he also gathered data from his use of the word association test, dream
analysis, active imagination, and psychotherapy. This information was then com-
bined with readings on medieval alchemy, occult phenomena, or any other subject
in an effort to confirm the hypotheses of analytical psychology.

Word Association Test

Jung was not the first to use the word association test, but he can be credited with
helping develop and refine it. He originally used the technique as early as 1903
when he was a young psychiatric assistant at Burghöltzli, and he lectured on the
word association test during his trip with Freud to the United States in 1909.
However, he seldom employed it in his later career. In spite of this inattention, the
test continues to be closely linked with Jung’s name.
His original purpose in using the word association test was to demonstrate
the validity of Freud’s hypothesis that the unconscious operates as an autonomous
process. However, the basic purpose of the test in Jungian psychology today is to
uncover feeling-toned complexes. As noted in the section of levels of the psyche,
a complex is an individualized, emotionally toned conglomeration of images
grouped around a central core. The word association test is based on the principle
that complexes create measurable emotional responses.
 Chapter 4   Jung: Analytical Psychology 131

In administering the test, Jung typically used a list of about 100 stimulus words
chosen and arranged to elicit an emotional reaction. He instructed the person to respond
to each stimulus word with the first word that came to mind. Jung recorded each
verbal response, time taken to make a response, rate of breathing, and galvanic skin
response. Usually, he would repeat the experiment to determine test-retest consistency.
Certain types of reactions indicate that the stimulus word has touched a com-
plex. Critical responses include restricted breathing, changes in the electrical conduc-
tivity of the skin, delayed reactions, multiple responses, disregard of instructions,
inability to pronounce a common word, failure to respond, and inconsistency on
test-retest. Other significant responses include blushing, stammering, laughing,
coughing, sighing, clearing the throat, crying, excessive body movement, and repeti-
tion of the stimulus word. Any one or combination of these responses might indicate
that a complex has been reached (Jung, 1935/1968; Jung & Riklin, 1904/1973).

Dream Analysis
Jung agreed with Freud that dreams have meaning and that they should be taken
seriously. He also agreed with Freud that dreams spring from the depths of the
unconscious and that their latent meaning is expressed in symbolic form. However,
he objected to Freud’s notion that nearly all dreams are wish fulfillments and that
most dream symbols represent sexual urges. Jung (1964) believed that people used
symbols to represent a variety of concepts—not merely sexual ones—to try to
­comprehend the “innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding”
(p. 21). Dreams are our unconscious and spontaneous attempt to know the unknow-
able, to comprehend a reality that can only be expressed symbolically.
The purpose of Jungian dream interpretation is to uncover elements from the
personal and collective unconscious and to integrate them into consciousness in order
to facilitate the process of self-realization. The Jungian therapist must realize that
dreams are often compensatory; that is, feelings and attitudes not expressed during
waking life will find an outlet through the dream process. Jung believed that the
natural condition of humans is to move toward completion or self-realization. Thus,
if a person’s conscious life is incomplete in a certain area, then that person’s uncon-
scious self will strive to complete that condition through the dream process. For
example, if the anima in a man receives no conscious development, she will express
herself through dreams filled with self-realization motifs, thus balancing the man’s
masculine side with his feminine disposition (Jung, 1916/1960).
Jung felt that certain dreams offered proof for the existence of the collective
unconscious. These dreams included big dreams, which have special meaning for
all people; typical dreams, which are common to most people; and earliest dreams
remembered.
In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung (1961) wrote about a big dream he
had while traveling to the United States with Freud in 1909. In this dream—briefly
mentioned in our biographical sketch of Jung—Jung was living in the upper floor of
a two-story house. This floor had an inhabited atmosphere, although its furnishings
were somewhat old. In the dream, Jung realized that he did not know what the ground
floor was like, so he decided to explore it. After descending the stairs, he noticed
that all the furnishings were medieval and dated to the 15th or 16th century. While
exploring this floor, he discovered a stone stairway that led down into a cellar. From
132 Part II   Psychodynamic Theories

there he descended into another ancient room with beautiful vaulted ceilings, which
he knew intuitively were from the ancient Roman period. While exploring the floor
of this cellar, Jung noticed a ring on one of the stone slabs. When he lifted it, he
saw another narrow stairway leading to an ancient cave. There, he saw broken pot-
tery, scattered animal bones, and two very old human skulls. In his own words, he
had “discovered the world of the primitive man within myself—a world which can
scarcely be reached or illuminated by consciousness” (Jung, 1961, p. 160).
Jung later accepted this dream as evidence for different levels of the psyche.
The upper floor had an inhabited atmosphere and represented consciousness, the top
layer of the psyche. The ground floor was the first layer of the unconscious—old but
not as alien or ancient as the Roman artifacts in the cellar, which symbolized a deeper
layer of the personal unconscious. In the cave, Jung discovered two human skulls—the
ones for which Freud insisted Jung harbored death wishes. Jung, however, saw these
ancient human skulls as representing the depths of his collective unconscious.
The second kind of collective dreams is the typical dreams, those that are com-
mon to most people. These dreams include archetypal figures, such as mother, father,
God, devil, or wise old man. They may also touch on archetypal events, such as birth,
death, separation from parents, baptism, marriage, flying, or exploring a cave. They may
also include archetypal objects, such as sun, water, fish, snakes, or predatory animals.
The third category includes earliest dreams remembered. These dreams can be
traced back to about age 3 or 4 and contain mythological and symbolic images and
motifs that could not have reasonably been experienced by the individual child. These
early childhood dreams often contain archetypal motifs and symbols such as the hero,
the wise old man, the tree, the fish, and the mandala. Jung (1948/1960b) wrote of
these images and motifs: “Their frequent appearance in individual case material, as
well as their universal distribution, prove that the human psyche is unique and sub-
jective or personal only in part, and for the rest is collective and objective” (p. 291).
Jung (1961) presented a vivid illustration in one of his earliest dreams, which
took place before his 4th birthday. He dreamed he was in a meadow when suddenly
he saw a dark rectangular hole in the ground. Fearfully, he descended a flight of
stairs and at the bottom encountered a doorway with a round arch covered by a
heavy green curtain. Behind the curtain was a dimly lit room with a red carpet
running from the entrance to a low platform. On the platform was a throne and on
the throne was an elongated object that appeared to Jung to be a large tree trunk,
but in fact it was made of skin and flesh, with a round head and eye on top. Filled
with terror, the young boy heard his mother say, “Yes, just look at him. That is
the man-eater!” This comment frightened him even more and jolted him awake.
Jung thought often about the dream, but 30 years would pass before the obvious
phallus became apparent to him. An additional number of years were required before
he could accept the dream as an expression of his collective unconscious rather than
the product of a personal memory trace. In his own interpretation of the dream, the
rectangular hole represented death; the green curtain symbolized the mystery of Earth
with her green vegetation; the red carpet signified blood; and the tree, resting majes-
tically on a throne, was the erect penis, anatomically accurate in every detail. After
interpreting the dream, Jung was forced to conclude that no 31/2-year-old boy could
produce such universally symbolic material solely from his own experiences. A col-
lective unconscious, common to the species, was his explanation (Jung, 1961).
 Chapter 4   Jung: Analytical Psychology 133

Active Imagination
A technique Jung used during his own self-analysis as well as with many of his patients
was active imagination. This method requires a person to begin with any impression—
a dream image, vision, picture, or fantasy—and to concentrate until the impression
begins to “move.” The person must follow these images to wherever they lead and
then courageously face these autonomous images and freely communicate with them.
The purpose of active imagination is to reveal archetypal images emerging from
the unconscious. It can be a useful technique for people who want to become better
acquainted with their collective and personal unconscious and who are willing to
­overcome the resistance that ordinarily blocks open communication with the uncon-
scious. Jung believed that active imagination has an advantage over dream analysis in
that its images are produced during a conscious state of mind, thus making them more
clear and reproducible. The feeling tone is also quite specific, and ordinarily a person
has little difficulty reproducing the vision or remembering the mood (Jung, 1937/1959).
As a variation to active imagination, Jung sometimes asked patients who
were so inclined to draw, paint, or express in some other nonverbal manner the
progression of their fantasies. Jung relied on this technique during his own self-
analysis, and many of these reproductions, rich in universal symbolism and often
exhibiting the mandala, are scattered throughout his books. Man and His Symbols

Carl Jung, the wise old man of Küsnacht. © Dmitri Kessel/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
134 Part II   Psychodynamic Theories

(1964), Word and Image (1979), Psychology and Alchemy (1952/1968), and Claire
Dunne’s (2000) illustrated biography, Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul, are
especially prolific sources for these drawings and photographs.
In 1961, Jung wrote about his experiences with active imagination during his
midlife confrontation with the unconscious:
When I look back upon it all today and consider what happened to me during
the period of my work on the fantasies, it seems as though a message had come
to me with overwhelming force. There were things in the images which
concerned not only myself but many others also. It was then that I ceased to
belong to myself alone, ceased to have the right to do so. From then on, my life
belonged to the generality. . . . It was then that I dedicated myself to service of
the psyche: I loved it and hated it, but it was my greatest wealth. My delivering
myself over to it, as it were, was the only way by which I could endure my
existence and live it as fully as possible. (p. 192)

Psychotherapy
Jung (1931/1954b) identified four basic approaches to therapy, representing four devel-
opmental stages in the history of psychotherapy. The first is confession of a pathogenic
secret. This is the cathartic method practiced by Josef Breuer and his patient Anna O.
For patients who merely have a need to share their secrets, catharsis is effective. The
second stage involves interpretation, explanation, and elucidation. This approach, used
by Freud, gives the patients insight into the causes of their neuroses, but may still leave
them incapable of solving social problems. The third stage, therefore, is the approach
adopted by Adler and includes the education of patients as social beings. Unfortunately,
says Jung, this approach often leaves patients merely socially well adjusted.
To go beyond these three approaches, Jung suggested a fourth stage, trans-
formation. By transformation, he meant that the therapist must first be transformed
into a healthy human being, preferably by undergoing psychotherapy. Only after
transformation and an established philosophy of life is the therapist able to help
patients move toward individuation, wholeness, or self-realization. This fourth
stage is especially employed with patients who are in the second half of life and
who are concerned with realization of the inner self, with moral and religious
problems, and with finding a unifying philosophy of life (Jung, 1931/1954b).
Jung was quite eclectic in his theory and practice of psychotherapy. His treat-
ment varied according to the age, stage of development, and particular problem of the
patient. About two thirds of Jung’s patients were in the second half of life, and a great
many of them suffered from a loss of meaning, general aimlessness, and a fear of
death. Jung attempted to help these patients find their own philosophical orientation.
The ultimate purpose of Jungian therapy is to help neurotic patients be-
come healthy and to encourage healthy people to work independently toward self-
realization. Jung sought to achieve this purpose by using such techniques as dream
analysis and active imagination to help patients discover personal and collective
unconscious material and to balance these unconscious images with their conscious
attitude (Jung, 1931/1954a).
Although Jung encouraged patients to be independent, he admitted the impor-
tance of transference, particularly during the first three stages of therapy. He
 Chapter 4   Jung: Analytical Psychology 135

regarded both positive and negative transference as a natural concomitant to patients’

revelation of highly personal information. He thought it quite all right that a num-
ber of male patients referred to him as “Mother Jung” and quite understandable that
others saw him as God or savior. Jung also recognized the process of countertrans-
ference, a term used to describe a therapist’s feelings toward the patient. Like
transference, countertransference can be either a help or a hindrance to treatment,
depending on whether it leads to a better relationship between doctor and patient,
something that Jung felt was indispensable to successful psychotherapy.
Because Jungian psychotherapy has many minor goals and a variety of tech-
niques, no universal description of a person who has successfully completed ana-
lytical treatment is possible. For the mature person, the goal may be to find
meaning in life and strive toward achieving balance and wholeness. The self-
realized person is able to assimilate much of the unconscious self into conscious-
ness but, at the same time, remains fully aware of the potential dangers hidden in
the far recess of the unconscious psyche. Jung once warned against digging too
deeply in land not properly surveyed, comparing this practice to a person digging
for an artesian well and running the risk of activating a volcano.

Related Research
Jung’s approach to personality was very influential in the early development of person-
ality psychology. In recent times, however, its influence has waned, even though
there are still a few institutions around the world dedicated to analytical psychology.
Today, most research related to Jung focuses on his descriptions of personality types.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI; Myers, 1962) is the most frequently used
measure of Jung’s personality types. The MBTI adds a fifth and sixth function, Judg-
ing and Perceiving, to Jung’s original typology, creating a total of 16 possible per-
sonality types. Judging involves the preference to come to firm conclusions rather
than staying open minded to new evidence (perceiving). This instrument is often used
by school counselors to direct students toward rewarding avenues of study. For exam-
ple, research has found that people high on the intuition and feeling dimensions are
likely to find teaching rewarding (Willing, Guest, & Morford, 2001). More recently,
researchers have extended work on the usefulness of Jungian personality types by
exploring the role of the personality types in leadership style as well as in clergy and
their congregation. Lastly, we take a critical look at the MBTI.

Personality Type and Leadership

The MBTI has been used extensively in organizational behavior research, specifi-
cally related to leadership and managerial behaviors. Interestingly, some of this
work suggests that the preference for thinking over feeling and for judging over
perceiving (e.g., Gardner & Martinko, 1990) is characteristic of effective managers,
who are commonly called upon to focus on achieving results through quick analy-
sis of problems and confident implementation of decisions. Indeed, people who
display the sorts of behaviors associated with the thinking and judging functions
are commonly considered “leadership material” (Kirby, 1997), because these have
almost become defining characteristics of what it means to lead.