What is Jungian Psychology?
Young Man at His Window, Painting by Gustave Caillebotte, 1875
Jungian psychology, also known as analytical psychology, is a psychodynamic approach founded by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Jung’s theory is distinct from Freud’s psychoanalysis and emphasizes the psyche’s innate tendency toward growth, integration, and balance. A central focus is the belief in a self-regulating unconscious that seeks to guide the individual toward wholeness. Rather than viewing psychological symptoms as purely pathological, Jung posited they could be meaningful signals which point to internal conflicts, an unfulfilled potential, or misalignments between the external life and inner self.
Jung's early work with patients in psychosis at the Burghölzli hospital led to the development of core concepts such as complexes and archetypes. Through word association tests, he observed how delayed responses often revealed emotionally charged clusters of thoughts and memories, which he called complexes. These complexes were believed to be based on both personal experience and deeper, universal patterns Jung termed archetypes, such as the mother, shadow, or hero, residing in what he called the collective unconscious. These archetypes are not memories, but psychological structures that shape how we perceive and respond to the world.
A main theme in Jung’s psychology is the process of individuation, the journey toward becoming one’s most authentic self. He believed that within each person exists a deeper, organizing principle known as the Self, which acts as a compass for psychological growth. Individuation involves integrating disowned or unconscious aspects of the personality, such as the shadow, as well as developing lesser-used psychological functions. For example, a person dominated by rational thought may need to explore emotional or intuitive capacities to find greater balance and wholeness.
Vollmondnacht über einer Bucht, mit Staffage und ankernden Schiffen zur Rechten, Painting by J. Van Gingelen, 19th Century
Jung also developed a typology that includes the attitudes of introversion and extraversion and four psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Each individual tends to favour one or two functions, while others remain underdeveloped or repressed, often forming part of the shadow. Jung viewed these typological differences as key to understanding interpersonal dynamics and the inner conflicts that arise when certain aspects of ourselves remain unacknowledged or projected onto others. The goal of therapy, as a result, is not to eliminate parts of the psyche, but to create a more inclusive relationship with the self.
Dreams, spirituality, and the analytic relationship also play an important role in Jungian therapy. Dreams are seen as direct expressions of the unconscious and offer symbolic guidance toward personal integration. Jung emphasized the spiritual dimension of psychological life, viewing encounters with the Self as akin to transformative spiritual experiences. He also valued the therapeutic relationship as an interplay between analyst and analysand, where both are mutually impacted and transformed.