| Basic Concept: The "Ground of Being":
Freud vs. Jung (*)
Two of the most influential minds in the field of psychology are Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). Freud is best remembered today as the originator of psychoanalysis and his demonstration of the unconscious mind. Through hypnosis, Freud was able to restore repressed memories that no longer functioned at a conscious level. He analyzed dreams as keys to understanding various psychoses (mental aberrations). On the basis of psychoanalysis which he practiced with clients and patients for more than four decades, Freud interpreted the human personality as a "tri-partite" phenomenon composed of three domains: 1) the Ego, 2) the Super-ego, and 3) the Id. The Ego Freud characterized as a kind of "reality principle" ; the "Super-ego, he defined as a moral principle derived from social experiences (Guerin, 1969); the Id, claimed Freud, is buried deeply in the subconscious. It is the fundamental principle of human personality and identity, the seat of the Libido--the sex drive divided between "Eros," the "will to live," and "Thanatos," the "will to die." Constantly at war, these two primordial instincts are balanced by the Ego, found operating at both a conscious level (as the "Reason") and unconsciously. . Carl Jung, early on a supporter and confidant of Freud's, also experimented with dreams and hypnosis. The resulting interpretation, however, contrasted in important ways with Freud's concept of the human personality. None-the-less as controversial, perhaps, as Freud's theory, Jung's interpretation defined an "unconscious mind of the race," a stream of the human psyche that unites all races throughout the long stretch of generations upon generations. The individual human psyche is "grounded" in this great stream from which it draws both life and consciousness. Consistent with Plato's concept of the non-material Godhead in the "Great Chain of Being," this universal source is the reservoir of the collective patterns of being--the archeypal structures and potentials that shape and channel all human experience. . Online Connections For an introduction to Sigmund Freud and his three-part analysis of the human psyche, see Dr. C. George Boeree's "Sigmund Freud" and "Freud His Life and Thought." For parallel discussion of Carl G. Jung, see Dr. Boeree's "Carl Jung." Visit also the C. G. Jung Institute of Boston and its related links. For the more "well-heeled" in introductory philosophy, see "Carl Gustav Jung." . Our Course Connections The Eastern "slant" to the mysticism of the American Romantic writers--specifically Emerson and Whitman--would find the language of psychoanalysis and the archetypal theories of Jung most complementary to their own spiritual exercises. See Emerson's essay, "The Over Soul" and Whitman's "Song of Myself." . (*) "Ground of Being" is a phrase developed extensively by twentieth-century Protestant theologian Paul Tillich.  |