The word individuation refers to a natural goal in life: the goal of becoming whole, or complete. The word itself is informative. The root -- dividuation -- is related to the verb to divide. The prefix in- is a negation. Hence the word individuation could be paraphrased as un-dividedness. The process of individuation, then, is an on-going process of undividing oneself.
So how are we divided?
A lot goes on in each of us of which we are not typically aware. To some extent we can notice more of what is going on in us when we de-focus our consciousness from what preoccupies us in the foreground -- our tasks, our to-do lists, etc. -- and pay attention to subtle sensations, our inner chatter, the memories and images that float past our inner eye.
We are also not aware ("unconscious") of what we do when we operate on autopilot. Habitual tasks -- like driving to work or home on the same route every day, or any other "automatic" activity -- often do not even lodge in short-term memory. Consequently we may wonder, "Did I brush my teeth this morning?" "Did I feed the cat?" And so on. Sometimes these automatic activities are benign, but sometimes they are not, and then they cause us some degree of frustration, distress, or embarrassment. Obviously, we are only partially present -- aware, conscious -- when we are on autopilot.
We are likewise unconscious of what we have forgotten. Some of what we have forgotten we might like to remember, but we cannot voluntarily recall it. Other forgotten memories and experiences may be uncomfortable, painful, or embarrassing. Reminders of these contents still arouse the emotions associated with the memory, sometimes as if the original experience were happening to us again right now. We may do our darndest to suppress these painful memories. But then we are not whole. We have deported part of our life experience to the limbo of forgetfulness. We are still divided -- against ourselves, actually.
Internal changes and future developments comprise a third category of contents of which we are unconscious. For example, at age 25 we may very well have not idea the turbulence slowly developing in us that will become ever clearer as we approach age 28-29. Or again as we approach the early 40s, the well-known mid-life tipping point, when marriages often become critically difficult and affairs, separations, or divorces tend to crest.
In all these examples, our waking consciousness is unaware of something: something personally experienced and suppressed, repressed, or forgotten; of automatic patterns of action or thinking that do not always serve us well; and psychological developments that challenge our habitual attitudes of consciousness to grow and adapt in new ways. We are divided against ourselves. In the natural flow of life, we should be more like the tree: When the trees roots meet a rock, the they find a way to grow around, over, or under the rock. That is the way the tree adapts to its life circumstances.
In a late letter to a friend, Jung wrote that the individuation process is "the experience of a natural law and may or may not be perceived by consicousness." (Letters II, p. 294) In other words, life itself -- or nature, or whatever you want to call it -- prods each of us to find a conscious relationship to all that goes on in us, and to come to terms with it. In the process, we remain recognizably "the same," yet obviously different.
By reflecting on our life experience, individually in the more intense setting of Jungian analysis, we can become more fully aware, more fully conscious. Thus we further our development toward wholeness, "un-dividedness," and a "higher plane of consciousness," as M.L,. von Franz, one of Jung's students and colleagues expresses it. She continues: "The higher plane of consciousness cannot be made obvious by any scientific means. You can only feel it. It is a spiral and not a circle. The movement does not go in circles; it goes forward in spirals. This means that you always return to the same point but on a higher level. For instance, you meet a person who has individuated, you can say: 'Oh, this is still old John Smith' -- completely, in the true sense of the word. He has really remained himself. Analysis has not distorted him. He is still the good old John Smith I once knew, but he is on a higher plane. How can you express this fact? You can only say: 'I feel it.' There is something more nature, more conscious, more calm, and whatever he was is more intensely there and more real. But you can only hint at it. You cannot put into quantitative terms how much of John Smith is still John Smith and how much isn't. You see? This higher consciousness is something you feel about another person. You have a feeling that this is the same old person but somehow he is more worthy, more intense, more real, more himself. But it is something you can only feel." (B. Hannah and M.-L. von Franz, Lectures on Jung's Aion. Wilmette, IL: Chiron Publications, 2004, p.164f)
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Boris Matthews
Individuation