Analytical Psychology is the name of CG Jung’s theory about the human psyche and his view of human beings in the world. We are body, soul and spirit. Analytical Psychology distinguishes itself also by focusing on the symbol’s meaning in an individual’s life. The symbol consists, according to Jung, of a known part (the visible image, such as the circle or the cross) and an unknown part (the invisible archetype) and therefore acts through its power of attraction, numinosity, as a link between the conscious and the unconscious. In the Jungian psychoanalytic work a dream image containing such a symbol can be the basis for an understanding of a person’s current circumstances, but also the seeds of understanding and awareness of the individual’s future growth and development. The goal of a Jungian psychoanalytic work is individuation, which can be said to be the concept for developmental psychology in Analytical Psychology.
Jung attached great importance to understanding the human psyche as oriented toward developing it’s potentials and to achieve meaningfulness in life. To discover this vitality – mental energy, or libido – as a basis for development, requires creation of a viable synthesis through a partnership between the conscious and unconscious layers of a human life. The contact and the movement between the conscious and unconscious areas of a person’s inner and outer life are the transcendent function. It allows to spot new self-images and opportunities of development, after working through and made conscious painful memories and personal complexes during the course of a psychoanalytic work.
Jung’s typology is also an important part of Analytical Psychology. It is based on that human beings have a tendency to exhibit different types of settings introversion and extraversion in relation to ourselves in the outer and inner reality. Moreover, Jung described the four different types of function: thinking and feeling; sensation and intuition. In Analytical Psychology this is the dynamic model of how we humans, more or less consciously, can appear in the world. The model should be seen as constantly changing throughout a person’s entire individuation.
