Overview
Jung developed his own distinctive approach to the study of the human mind. In his early years when working in a Swiss hospital with schizophrenic patients and working with Sigmund Freud and the burgeoning psychoanalytic community, he took a closer look at the mysterious depths of the human unconscious. Fascinated by what he saw (and spurred on with even more passion by the experiences and questions of his personal life) he devoted his life to the exploration of the unconscious. Unlike many modern psychologists, Jung did not feel that experimenting using natural science was the only means to understand the human psyche. For him, he saw as empirical evidence the world of dream, myth, and folklore, as the promising road to its deeper understanding and meaning. That method's choice is related with his choice of the object of his science. As Jung said, "The beauty about the unconscious is that it is really unconscious". Hence, the unconscious is 'untouchable' by experimental researches, or indeed any possible kind of scientific or philosophical reach, precisely because it is unconscious. Although the unconscious can't be studied by using direct approaches it is according to Jung, at least, a useful hypothesis. His postulated unconscious was quite different from the model that was proposed by Freud, despite the great influence that the founder of psychoanalysis had on Jung. The most known difference is the assumption of the collective unconscious (see also Jungian archetypes), although Jung's proposal of collective unconscious and archetypes was based on the assumption of the existence of psychic (mental) patterns. These patterns include conscious contents—thoughts, memories, etc.—which came from life experience. They are common to each human being and, actually, they're precisely what makes every human being have something in common. His proof of the vast collective unconscious was his concept of synchronicity, that inexplicable, uncanny connectedness that we all share.
The overarching goal of Jungian psychology is the attainment of self through individuation. Jung defines "self" as the "archetype of wholeness and the regulating center of the psyche." Central to this process is the individual's encounter with its psyche, and bringing its elements into the conscious, as an awakening. Humans experience the unconscious through symbols encountered in all aspects of life: in dreams, art, religion, and the symbolic dramas we enact in our relationships and life pursuits. Essential to this numinous encounter is the merging of the individual's consciousness with this broader collective through its symbolic language. By bringing conscious awareness to that which is not, when unconscious elements surface, they can be integrated into consciousness.
"Neurosis" results from a disharmony between the individual's (un)consciousness and his higher Self. The psyche is a self-regulating adaptive system. Humans are energetic systems, and if the energy gets blocked, the psyche gets stuck, or sick. If adaption is thwarted, the psychic energy will stop flowing, and regress. This process manifests in neurosis and psychosis. Human psychic contents are complex, and deep. They can schism, and split, and form complexes that take over one's person. Jung proposed that this occurs through maladaptation to one’s external or internal reality. The principles of adaptation, projection, and compensation are central processes in Jung’s view of psyche’s ability to adapt.
The aim of psychotherapy is to assist the individual in reestablishing a healthy relationship to the unconscious: neither flooded by it—characteristic of psychosis, such as Schizophrenia—or out of balance in relationship to it—as with neurosis, a state that results in depression, anxiety, and personality disorders, a life devoid of deeper meaning.
In order to undergo the individuation process, the individual must be open to the parts of oneself beyond one's own ego. The modern individual grows continually in psychic awareness, which is attention to dreams, explores the world of religion and spirituality, and questions the assumptions of the operant societal worldview (rather than just blindly living life in accordance with dominant norms and assumptions).
Read more about this topic: Analytical Psychology