Individuation and society - Reflections on the religious dimension of history

Journal/Book: Anal Psychol. 1998; 29: Allschwilerstrasse 10, CH-4009 Basel, Switzerland. Karger. 256-271.

Abstract: According to Jung, individuation is the ongoing dialogue between the ego and the unconscious. In the future, however, Analytical Psychology has to describe individuation also as a process between the individual and society; the manifold manifestations of society have to be seen as manifestations of the unconscious. There is no society as such which makes individuation an impossible process; but each society in its specific form requires an adequate expression of critical distance and of commitment in both a permissive consumer society and a political or religious homogeneous and authoritarian institution. Men do not only have a history, they are their - personal, religious and cultural - history. The collective unconscious in each individual is the place where the time and space of humanity are gathered and where the individual experiences transcendence, religio, i.e. Relatedness to a greater timeless and numinous reality.

Note: Article Odermatt M, Bodenstr 5, CH-8104 Weiningen, SWITZERLAND

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