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Core Jungian Concepts
Episode 86 – Splitting, Polarization & Conflict

Episode 86 – Splitting, Polarization & Conflict

It happens all the time: people and problems split into opposing camps, whether the conflict is internal, between partners, in a family or—as we know all too well—between political parties.

Animus & Anima: Inner companions that can make us whole

Animus & Anima: Inner companions that can make us whole

Anima and animus function as autonomous contrasexual archetypes that guide ego into the depths of Psyche, unlocking creativity, feeling, empathy, and spiritual insight when integrated, yet triggering seduction, aggression, or control when projected or repressed. These figures emerge in dreams and active imagination as evolving personae—primal sprites, erotic goddesses or heroes, mature partners, ultimately spiritual guides—yet they need not appear as literal men or women, but as any radically other image. Their role lies in carrying undeveloped qualities across the threshold of consciousness, demanding precise, phenomenological attention to their symbolic form and affect. Through that attention, therapy enacts an alchemical conjunction of opposites—culminating in an inner Androgyne that restores psychic balance and advances individuation.

Episode 64 – Voyages

Episode 64 – Voyages

“Although the word voyage connotes a sea journey, this episode considers a voyage to be an intentional trip of any kind. “

Individuation: The Central Concept of Jung’s Psychology

Individuation: The Central Concept of Jung’s Psychology

Individuation is the empirical process by which personality orders itself around the Self, the inner center that embraces conscious and unconscious. It proceeds through images, affects, and decisions that gather a scattered life into pattern. Energy (libido) concentrates at real conflicts and releases through symbol, which gives a new attitude. The work advances in sequences—recognition, image, ethical deed—so that insight takes form. A person emerges who carries their singular pattern with greater fidelity and steadiness.