The Self for Jung was the archetype of wholeness and the organizing principle of the psyche. In volume 12, paragraph 44 of his Collected Works, he writes: “The self is not only the centre, but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the centre of consciousness” (1953/1970).
This paradoxical concept is both the essence and the totality of one’s personality. The Self initiates life and it is life’s goal. Jung’s concept of individuation depends on one becoming one’s true, autonomous, and authentic self. The ego is the organ of consciousness. The goal of the second half of life is for the ego to subordinate itself to the supraordinate Self. In his autobiography, Jung writes: “In those years… I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the self. There is no linear evolution; there is only the circumambulation of the self.”
The Self is a transcendent or divine quality. Jung referred to...
Bibliography
Hopcke, R. (1989). A guided tour of the collected works of C. G. Jung. Boston: Shambala.
Jung, C. G. (1953/1970). Psychology and alchemy (trans: Hull, R. F. C.). In The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 12). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1959/1970). Aion (trans: Hull, R. F. C.). In The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 9, Pt. 2). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1961/1962/1963). Memories, dreams, reflections (A. Jaffé, Ed. & trans: Winston, R. C.). New York: Vintage Books.
Rudolf, O. (1989). The idea of the holy (trans: Harvey, J. W.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
McGehee, J.P. (2014). Jungian Self. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_368
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_368
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6085-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6086-2
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science