structure of personality

CARL JUNG’S STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY IN RELATION TO ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR

- Carl Gustav Jung was born in Switzerland on the 26th July 1875
- He was a lonely, isolated son of an emotionally troubled mother and a poor but extremely well read pastor.
- He studied psychiatry in the University of Basel and was an early supporter of Sigmund Freud basically because they shared the same interest in the unconscious.
- He later differed with Sigmund Freud on his theories about libido, the nature of the unconscious and the causes of behavior.
• Sigmund Freud said that the libido was a psychic energy that was specific to sexual gratification, but Carl Jung reasoned that the libido was the psychic energy that motivates our behavior to make us achieve personal balance with the psyche and be mutually in line; socially, intellectually, creatively etc.
• He also went against Freud’s theory which stated that the unconscious was a store for unacceptable repressed desires specific to the individual, and said that the unconscious was a store for the memories specific to an individual and his ancestral past.
• He also differed in the causes of behavior saying that instead of Freud’s theory which said that behavior was caused by past experiences; particularly in childhood, behavior was caused by past experiences in addition to future aspiration.
- This disagreements led to the formation of the Jungian tradition “Analytic Psychology” which was characterized by seeking the intra-psychic harmony and the balanced expressions of the separate aspects of the self.
- Jung was mostly fixated on the idea that normal behavior resulted from rationality, the balance of the aspects of the self, and the existence of mental harmony and synchronicity.
- He used the following key words; Complexes, Archetypes, Neurosis and Psychosis.
- Jung indicated that for one to have normal behavior, he must have a balance in the aspects of the self, balance in the complexes and balance in the archetypes.

His theory.
- For one to attain balance in the aspects of the self, there must be proper development in the structure of the mind.
- The Conscious Ego, which makes us aware of all our internal processes (e.g. pain, thought, emotion) and the external world (e.g. the noises outside) at levels necessary for awareness and just enough for one to be called normal.
- After this conscious ego, we have the Personal Unconscious Region which is mostly thoughts, memories, expressions, emotions etc. that are not being thought of at the moment; they may either be forgotten, or repressed. It is in this personal unconscious level where we contain elements known as Complexes. A Complex is a collection of thoughts, feelings, attitudes and memories that center on a particular concept. The more the elements attached to a complex, the greater the influence on the individual. If a complex becomes too strong then it creates a sense of imbalance and therefore causes abnormal behavior.
- After the personal unconscious level, we have the Collective Unconscious which is basically common sense. It is general wisdom shared by all people, developed over time and passed from generation to the next. It is this collective unconscious that predisposes an individual to respond to certain external situations in a given manner e.g. when a group of individuals come together there is the natural tendency to establish social order e.g. by greeting.
- The main distinguishing factor on Jung’s work on abnormal behavior was his definition of archetypes. Archetypes are universal thoughts, symbols, images which carry large amounts of emotion. Their special status comes from the importance they have gained across many generations and the significant role they play in our day to day living.
- Jung mentioned of 4 Archetypes that play a significant role in the establishment of balanced personality.

1. The Persona
This is the public personality e.g. being courteous, being polite in public.
Overdevelopment in the persona may cause one to lose his feelings / identity and lead a life dictated by others. They have shallow conforming personalities
2. The Animus / Anima
This is the individual’s psychological bisexuality. Jung said that each individual possesses characteristic features of the opposite sex
The animus is the masculine aspect of females e.g. Aggressiveness.
The Anima is the female aspect of males e.g. being nurturing.
Well-developed personality should have these two equally balanced
3. The Shadow
This is the dark and primitive side of the personality. Jung compared the shadow to Freud’s theory of the Id. Similarly it is the instinctive and impulsive aspect of personality. For one to attain normal behavior, the shadow must be repressed in the unconscious region and it is often kept out of the public personality.
4. The Self
This is the most significant aspect of personality. It is the element that predisposes the individual to unite all the other aspects of the personality. Its development reflects the desire by people across generations to seek unity and harmony. It is the motivating force seeking to achieve harmony between the private and the public, the masculine and the feminine, and the conscious and the unconscious aspects of an individual’s personality.
Failure of an individual to achieve this sense may cause the overdevelopment of the other aspects and archetypes at the expense of the rest, or even underdevelopment of one of the aspects with loss to the rest.

Mental Health
- Carl Jung believed that mental health was the balance of the various archetypes from the proper and mature development of the self. Normal behavior can thus be defined as the incorporation of the private parts of personality in the persona and being able to express them consciously in socially acceptable forms.
- The development of Neurosis is a result of the individual failing to achieve a sense of integration, resulting in the projection of the underrepresented aspects of the self, e.g. Connectedness with others, on to others e.g. blaming the spouse for not being affectionate, which serves to foster a mal-adaptive interpersonal social relationship.
- The development of Psychosis is a result of prolonged repression of the underrepresented aspects of the self, resulting in the aspects exploding in the individuals psyche in the form of drastic shifts away from the conscious and the public persona e.g. massive retreat into the unconscious mind away from reality e.g. as in the case of Schizophrenia.

Researched, Studied and Compiled by onyango 10th July 2014