XPost: alt.psychology, alt.psychology.psychoanalysis   
   From: mlwi@swipnet.se   
      
   "Critique of Individuation"   
      
   Abstract: Individuation as the process of psychological maturation is   
   connected with the 'spiritual path', the same as the 'narrow path'.   
   Worldly adaptation as a central aspect of individuation is overvalued.   
   According to psychology, the symbolic transformations in the unconscious   
   images fulfil a therapeutic function. This view is criticized as a way   
   of upholding the stagnant ego, which should really undergo an authentic   
   transformation. The notion of ego abandonment in spiritual tradition   
   must be taken seriously. Central to psychology is the integration of the   
   unconscious. But equally important is the opposite process of   
   'complementation'. Consciousness is not only synthetic, it has also a   
   'sympathetic' function. Consciousness can give life back to the   
   unconscious and not only empty it of its goods. To this end, a creative   
   form of contemplation is recommended, in the way of painting or writing.   
   The destruction of the stagnant state of personality, and the riddance   
   of aspects of personality, are part and parcel of individuation. Today,   
   adaptation and assimilation are overvalued whereas negation is   
   undervalued. The self in Jungian psychology is a towering ideal, a   
   conglomerate of contradictory aspects of personality. At a point in   
   time, the spiritual seeker must abandon the ideal of completeness and   
   begin to negate his worldly obsessions, which keep him involved in the   
   many meaningless games of life.   
      
   Keywords: integration, complementation, negation, destruction, spiritual   
   path, art, individuation, apotheosis, alchemy, Gnosticism, Holy Grail,   
   C.G. Jung, Emanuel Swedenborg, Poul Bjerre.   
      
   Read the article here:   
   http://www.two-paths.com/individuation.htm   
      
   Mats Winther   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)