Carl Jung’s contribution to psychology and philosophy is understated. A student of Freud, Jung started his career as a psychiatrist working closely with Freud. The initial work by Jung is highly influenced by him. The concepts of consciousness, ego, persona and suppressed behaviour in Jung’s work are footnotes to Freud’s theories.

But, Jung and Freud's story came to a bitter-sweet ending when Jung chose to explore mystical aspects of the psyche. Another reason for the fallout between the two was the age difference between two, which created a more father-son relationship between Jung and Freud. This is later reflected in Jung’s works.

Jung’s work differs from all the psychological work done in the past and even to date because of the fact he conducted experiments on himself to understand the true nature of his psyche. The Red Book reflects the depths he had to explore to understand the true nature of the psyche.

He dedicated his life to understanding the true nature of his psyche. Jung believed that to truly understand the nature of the psyche, he had to start with his psyche. His career in psychiatry made him believe that a man is only true to himself. The unconscious drivers are too sophisticated for many men to even understand. He was a true believer in the fact that the sole purpose of his existence was to kindle light in the mere darkness of just being.

Jung concluded that the personality consists of conscious and unconscious. The conscious and unconscious are the foundations for our beliefs and behaviors. The purpose of our existence is to understand and integrate the two, to live a fulfilled life. He named the process of integrating the conscious and unconscious aspects of the brain as individuation. Jung’s work differs from most psychologists because of his mystical aspect of the psyche. Jung grew up in a catholic Europe and like most thinkers from his time, he questioned the church’s authority. But Jung stood apart from others by exploring these religions, myths and art instead of just questioning and denying everything that wasn’t deemed scientific by the thinkers in his era.

Introduction

"... a man's task is... to become conscious of the content that press upwards to form the unconscious... as far as we can disconcert, the sole purpose of the human existence is to kindle light in the darkness of mere being"

-Jung

Jung’s model of the psyche

Jung believed that the psyche consists of three elements, consciousness, personal consciousness and collective unconsciousness. These three elements drive our behaviour and are responsible for our personality. Any thoughts in our brain are produced by either of these three elements. Understanding them is the sole purpose of our existence according to him. Jung considered the human brain to be still in its evolutionary stage and believed that the human brain is capable of extraordinary things if these three elements are explored and understood correctly.

Consciousness was believed to be in the realm of personal awareness by Jung. This element sits on the top and our brain is truly aware of this element. Consciousness is where ego exists. The ego is believed to be the centre of the consciousness and it maintains consistency and continuity in personality. The ego also projects the persona of an individual. The persona is the image that an individual tries to project to the world. The persona is an image, not the real self. This persona is adopted by the ego to survive in society. The persona is a shelter where a man adopts a coat of a sort which helps him hide from the feelings, thoughts and behaviours that the society deems unfit.

The personal unconscious is the place where the ego hides the feelings, thoughts and behaviours that it deems dangerous (sometimes to society and others for existence). The ego acts as a gatekeeper for exploring the true nature of the psyche. The death of this ego is in most cases the only path to the discovery of personal unconsciousness. A thought, behaviour or feeling according to Jung was not wrong, if it exists in our brain, it is a part of it. The suppression of these emotions and thoughts only leads to distress in the short term and an outburst in the long term.

These repressed emotions and thoughts are believed to form a biological or collective unconsciousness. This element sits in the dark corners of our brains and is a result of years of repressed thoughts by generations before us. Jung believed that the suppressed thought in personal unconsciousness gives birth to a collective unconsciousness over the years, which is present in everyone and explains the similar patterns in behaviour, thoughts and emotions. An unbroken chain of psychological imitation exists in our psyche which explains the similarity in behaviours, according to Jung. He explored different religious scriptures, cultures, arts and literature, and concluded there are clear patterns in religion, art and literature proving the existence of collective (un)consciousness.

The mystic approach to psychology by Jung is truly one of a kind. Jung was a true believer in evolution, but he did not deny the role of myths and religion which was overpowered by European colonization. He explored both Eastern and Western philosophy, which is reflected in his work and adds to the richness of his theories.