Individuation: what it is, and its 5 phases according to Carl Jung

Being an autonomous, independent being capable of surviving on its own by adapting to the environment. Reaching one's own identity, recognizing oneself as one's own and integrated entity. Complete the development process to achieve being yourself. All these phrases reflect the main objective of human development: the achievement of the individuation process.

There have been many authors who have developed theories around the idea behind this concept, being one of the best known Carl Gustav Jung (father of depth or analytical psychology), who placed special emphasis on how we achieve sameness through this process. And it is on the concept of individuation that this article focuses, from the Jungian perspective, defining it and establishing its phases.

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Individuation: general concept

At a general level, individuation is understood as the process by which a person becomes an integrated individual, becoming oneself and reaching the capacity to be fully autonomous and independent. It is a process that requires the growth of the subject and the development of different psychic abilities, appearing throughout human development and lasting, in reality, for a good part of the life.

This process is especially relevant and visible during adolescence, when the person's individuation makes him or her capable of generating his own identity, differentiating himself from his parents and beginning to recognize himself as his own entity and only. For this, it is also necessary that there is a belonging, a link with the family and cultural environment that allows having a starting point and an environment that facilitates the process. all of it It will allow you to generate future projects consistent with yourself, as well as the possibility of connecting or disconnecting from the world in a healthy and sincere way.

The individuation process according to Carl Jung

In accordance with the above, Carl Gustav Jung elaborated one of what would be the bases of his analytical psychology: the concept of the individuation process. For the author, the term individuation is conceived as a process of differentiation, constitution and particularization of the essence itself, in such a way that the subject can discover who he is and allows the development of the personality. It is also identified with self-realization, being part of a natural and instinctive process towards one's own maturation.

It is important to take into account that the individuation process is eminently conflictive, both in the Jungian vision and in others, since it supposes the integration of contrary elements. In the case of Jung, he proposed that we are facing a process in which conflicts appeared between different opposites in the person, linked to the conscious-unconscious opposition and to individuality-collectivity.

The basis of this entire process is the ego, from which we will advance in understanding the aspects denied until then and little by little accepting and integrating them. The contents to be developed and integrated are going to be increasingly complex and to advance in this process it is necessary to be able to identify, link and integrate the opposites without identifying with them, differentiating them of the self

In this sense, the individual personal aspects will be integrated first, working on initially repressed emotional experiences before the consideration of its inadequacy or conflict or the experience of traumas, to later also integrate elements of the collective unconscious, adding to the development the development of inherited archetypes culturally. Likewise, the different basic processes that make up the personality will also be developed and integrated.

It is remarkable that there is also another conception of individuation more focused on evolution. biology of the subject, although contrary to other conceptions, the proposed individuation process by Jung not limited to adolescence or childhood. In fact, each of the stages that are part of this second interpretation of the process would last about ten years each, the process of conscious individuation not being completed until well into the adulthood.

First, it goes through a phase in which the ego begins to be born (previously there is no awareness of individuality), later when it reaches puberty it begins to have a distance from the environment and a search for identity, the adaptation to their role and the integration of the self appear and finally a fourth stage in which there is a search for a meaning of the self. It would be in the latter when there is a greater probability that the necessary processes take place to finish individuating.

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Stages of the individuation process

The individuation process, from the Jungian perspective, passes through a series of four phases through which the subject first complements his aspects. conscious and unconscious and little by little he will integrate the opposites (person and shadow, conscious and unconscious...) until he manages to reach the sameness of the person: that is, to be one same, a fully integrated individual.

Although in principle there are four, there are numerous interpretations and ways of dividing them even within Jungian theory, but in all of them the following are taken into account (including in this case a fifth, which would be the completion of the process).

1. Getting rid of oneself and the first approach to the unconscious

The beginning of the individuation process occurs at the moment in which the awareness that one's own consciousness is not the totality of being begins to appear. He starts to being aware of the existence of impulses, desires and unexpressed psychic content not directly observable. The subject realizes that there is a large part of himself that has been ignored by himself and is going to try to start to come closer to understanding him, since a time has come when his development has made him see this need.

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2. shadow encounter

Once the awareness that something else exists in one's own being is born, the first thing that is detected is that there is not only a conscious part but also an unconscious and a set of aspects that we deny by considering them negative (and that we also tend to project onto others as a compensation mechanism): in other words, we begin to be aware of the existence of the duality person (of what we are aware of and that makes us feel individual beings that relate to the outside world) and shadow (the hidden and unconscious part of the person)

Once you begin to be aware of the existence of the shadow, you will need to begin to value it without judging it: our unconscious desires and impulses have great value despite the fact that some are socially frowned upon. It is about integrating the denied elements and one's own personality. It is not about giving in to impulses (in fact, repression is seen by Jung as something that in a certain way way allows the birth of consciousness), but yes to accept the shadow as part of our nature.

3. Encounter with the anima/animus

The third great step of the individuation process is given in relation to the sexual archetypes. Until now, the child has been integrating aspects of his own, but now he must begin to integrate archetypal elements, coming from cultural heritage, which are part of his personality and of the community and which until then had been denied by the person. Specifically, at this stage the subject begins to integrate the masculine/feminine polarity.

This process involves integrating one's own being, in addition to the archetype identified with one's own sex, the part of your being traditionally identified with the opposite sex, appearing a link with it. In other words, the man must integrate the anima or feminine archetype (which corresponds to elements such as sensitivity, affection and expression). emotional) while the woman does it with the animus or masculine archetype (related to vigor and vitality, strength, reason and wisdom). It is about fully integrating the sexual archetype, both logos and eros, making them mediate and being a source of creativity and inspiration.

4. The integration of the light archetype

Once this is done, the dark and unknown areas of our psyche begin to light up, something that broadens our awareness of ourselves to a great extent and that can generate a feeling of narcissistic omnipotence that makes us believe superiors. But the effect of reality making us see that our abilities are not so extreme makes us "go down the drain", restoring our humility. At this moment wisdom and discovery appear, symbolized with the magician or the wise man who gives meaning to the unknown, exploring and discovering his own being.

5. The end of the individuation process: coincidentia oppositorum

Little by little, moments appear in which the self appears, moments in which the understanding of one's own being begins to exist. The process reaches its culmination when the coincidence or integration of the opposites is achieved, it supposes the acquisition of the sameness, the end of the individuation process.

At this moment, the set of elements that make up the mind are already integrated (the conscious and the unconscious, the individual and the collective, the person and the shadow...), having achieved a totally integrated. He is already himself, aware of the different aspects that are part of his being and able to distinguish and separate from the world. The subject is a complete being, individuated and little by little more and more autonomous (being able to even form his own ethical system).

Its importance in the formation of personality

The individuation process, understood as the one that allows us to become ourselves, It is of extreme importance in the configuration of the personality. In fact, Jung himself considers individuation as a series of transformations aimed at achieving the point medium of the personality, that is, the acquisition of an intermediate point that allows one to approach the conscious and the unconscious.

We must not forget that the idea of ​​individuation is to become oneself, integrating the different aspects of the personality and the psyche into a complete whole. This means accept the presence of the different traits that we have and value them, even those repressed and denied throughout life. The clearest example at the individual level is between the person (the part of our personality that we show) and the shadow (the hidden and rejected part that remains unconscious).

Individuation allows us to be free, to develop our own way of acting and seeing the world and not limiting ourselves to following the path marked out by our predecessors, allowing our way of being, seeing and acting to emerge independently and differentiated. In short, let our personality emerge. With this, we will be able to make a life project consistent with who we are and live our lives as individuals that we are.

Bibliographic references:

• Alonso, J.C. (2004). Jung's analytical psychology and his contributions to psychotherapy. Univ. Psycho. Bogota (Colombia) 3 (1): 55-70.
• Jung, C. g. (1934). On the formation of personality. in c. g. Jung, Reality of the soul (pp. 173-200). Buenos Aires: Losada.
• Munoz, P. (2010). Being Yourself: An Introduction to Analytical Psychology by C.G. Jung. Editorial Kaicron. Spain.
• Sassenfeld, A.M. (s.f.). Human development in Jungian psychology. Theory and clinical implications. University of Chile.