Psyche Structure

The Structure of the Psyche
Carl Jung
B.A. Humanities Level 2/3

An Introduction to the psyche
To Jung the ‘Psyche’ mean the totality of All
Psychic powers.
The Psyche was structures through:

1. Conscious
2. Unconscious
3. Collective Unconscious

Conscious + Unconscious +
Body +
Psyche =

To Jung the Psyche wasn't split but it was infinitely part of one another.
Jung believed the Psyche expressed itself through the following :
Conscious: Thoughts, ideas, events and so on.
Unconscious: Dreams
Body: Bodily and psychomatic symptoms, for example Anxiety.

The Basic Map of the Psyche
Consciousness
Personal Unconscious
Collective Unconscious

Body
Consciousness

Layers of the Psyche
Consciousness
The part of us that is awake, thinks and remembers.
The Structure of Consciousness is The Ego
Within the Ego lie 5 critical Layers:
Stability Personality.
Stability Identity.
Cognition.
Executive Functioning.
Reality testing.

EGO
Consciousness

Layers of the EGO

First Function: Stability Personality
The area where peoples personality generally remain the same.
For example:

In anticipation of meeting a friend we can generally anticipate how that person will be .
We hold a general sense of their personality.
What they like, what irritates them, what they dislike etc.

Exceptions to this would include people who have Borderline Personality Disorder.

People with BPD generally display Maladaptive assumption of belief systems about the world.
Inability to express feelings
Inability to connect or fuse with others
Impulsion
Inability to see themselves in a ration way.

Second function : Stability Identity
Over time our ‘self identity’ becomes stable.
We come to know ourselves - what we like dislike and how we will appear.
For example,
We come to realise that our identities do not change when we are asleep.
When we awake the following morning we know we will look the same and not change during our sleep time.

Third function: Cognition
This area of the Ego helps us Process information and store memories.

When I counsel I remember general thing s about my clients.
CBT Based in this area
In certain disorders we sadly realise how
Important this function is.

Fourth function: Executive Functioning
Our ability to deal with the everyday demands of the world.

For example:
We realise that we need to put our socks on before our shoes.
Thousand of such functions take place everyday.
They help us navigate the world.
Consider the ones that you have used to simply get here today....

Fifth function: Reality Testing
The division between the conscious and the unconscious is more blurry than we believe.
One of the markers to gage between the conscious and the unconscious is the Egos ability to employ reality testing.
For example,
we know we need to take the lift to the bottom floor of a tall building as we cant fly!
Or We know that we need to wait for the car to stop before we get out!
We rely on this function to get us through safely every day.
People who experience altered states of consciousness:

Alcohol/Drug dependency
High temperature/illness
Meditative states
Fatigue
Psychotic disorders, Psychotic Depressing

The Personal Unconscious

The part of our unconscious that we access mostly.
Personal unconscious is unique and mostly personal to each of us.
Whereas the Collective unconscious (the next level) is shared by all humankind.
This level contains complexes
Complexes are clusters of feelings associated around a common theme.

The Money Complex
Within childhood we all become aware of what notes and coins are.
We hear our parents speak about money for example:
“Money doesn't grow on trees!”
“Were not made of money!”
“Money doesn’t grow on trees!”
Later on we realise that things can be purchased with it: sweets maybe toys...
Or if we want a particular toy, it may be denied to us because its too expensive.

During adolescence we may get a part time job and realise that we can purchase thing to our gain with it.
Sadly we then become aware of areas such as:

Tax
National Insurance
Banks
Savings
Interest rates and so on...

When we eventually leave school we realise that we have to earn more money and work a lot harder to save for the things we want. For example: Our first car, home or savings.
All of these cluster together to create and form a complex........

The Money Complex

When we become triggered by a specific thought or signal we become complexed out!
The EGO takes a beating for the complex and suffers a reduced ability.
Our normal personality disappears as it pushes our buttons!

JUNG SAID.....
“Everyone knows nowadays that people will have complexes. What is not so well known, through far more important theoretically that complexes can have us!”

The collective unconscious....
Deep unconscious level and one that can not be directly experienced like complexes.
This layer is common to all humankind.
Some doubt the existence of this can it can be proved through the psyches symbol producing capacity.

COLLECTIVE UNCONCIOUS
We are all born with a general blueprint to our bodies.
We never question this element of the world
To Jung we were more that simple tool makers.
How better to prove this than through the symbols that humankind has created and passed through the ages.
ADVERTS
TRAFFIC SIGNS
RELIGION
All of these symbolic images are Archetypes

The inherent part of the psyche, structuring patterns of psychological performance linked to instinct. A hypothetical entity representilbe in itself and evident only through its manifestations.

We can only ever experience Archetypes second hand
We can never experience the archetype image not the Archetype.
Like the rest of this course its metaphysical!
We hold many archetype within our collective unconscious and we experience them through the symbols of the world.
And best of all, at night we dream and

re-call these symbols and images.

The Body

Body

T o Jung it was fundamental that the Psyche and the body were seen as one.
Within analytical psychology there no distinction between the two.
The body works to serve the expressions of the Psyche through a process called Somatisation.
Somatisation: To make physical which is psychological.
We experience somatisation during times of distress: Flight or fight feelings
Waking from a nightmare
This can occur the other way around when the body makes the psyche feel or sense something. It tells us something physical has occurred and the psychic needs to resonate with it.
EG: PTSD
Trauma
Flash backs.