Synonyms
Definition
In his chapter on “Definitions,” Jung (1921/1989) describes compensation as having to do with “balancing,” “adjusting,” and “supplementing” in relation to psychological processes so that through the operation of compensation, the psyche is able to self-regulate. Jung thereby understood compensation to be “a basic law of psychic behaviour” (Jung 1928/1993: 153) so that if any attitude is overdeveloped in consciousness, a corresponding compensation will emerge from the unconscious to bring the psyche back into balance.
Introduction
Compensation is the concept Jung used to describe the psyche’s self-regulating tendency much like the concept of homeostasis in biology. Since psychic balance is achieved by adjusting and supplementing any component within the psyche which is overdeveloped or overemphasized, compensation became a central concept within Jung’s psychology. Given that such a compensatory...
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References
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Merchant, J. (2020). Compensation. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1368
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