Depth Psychology refers to therapy approaches exploring the unconscious, and trans-personal aspects of human experience. “Depth” refers to what’s below the surface of psychic manifestations. These are behaviors, conflicts, relationships, family dynamics, dreams, and even social and political events.
During depth psychology, a therapist works with clients to reveal the source of their issues. Thus, they don’t focus on the symptoms associated with it. A depth approach may include therapeutic traditions that explore the unconscious. It further involves the study and exploration of dreams, complexes, and archetypes.
Depth Psychology is based on the theories of Carl Gustav Jung, a (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist. Jung is one of the forefathers of depth psychology next to Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. All three of them called attention to the importance of what lies below the surface of conscious awareness.
Approaches based on depth psychology focus on the psyche, human development, personality formation, and individuation. Individuation is a process of bringing our unconscious potential into a concrete living reality. This process helps to secure a bridge between an individual and the unconscious. By incorporating both an inner and outer exploration, one discovers a more potent sense of meaning and purpose in life.
In my research I found several articles by Dr. David Johnston, that are relevant for this website. Dr. Johnston is a psychologist who has many years of personal experience with Jungian depth psychology. He has further knowledge that aids in interpreting and understanding the unconscious. He mentions two of the books I have summarized, Jean Gebser’s Ever Present Origin and Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
In his article Meaning and Jungian Depth he discusses the nature of a meaningful life from the point of view of Jungian depth psychology. He writes that according to Jung a life is meaningful if consciousness is increased. Dr. Johnston continues to describe a life where consciousness is increased: “Where work and relational goals are transcended, becoming increasingly reflective of an inner need for more consciousness and, potentially, a vocation or meaningful expression of being.”
He explains that the “Self, that is the God or Godhead” is a “complex of opposites, including what we experience as good and evil”. A person with a meaningful life is related to the Self and integrates into consciousness experiences of the opposites. The process of individuation involves integrating new aspects of the unconscious into awareness and one’s activities in life. This helps developing one’s character and discovering one’s inner essence.
Dr. Johnston provides in this article examples of how people have been able to enhance the meaning of their lives with the help of depth psychology. With this approach they recognized certain aspects of themselves. Consequently, the made the necessary changes. The author emphasizes that in all cases the individuals concerned had “something of a genuine religious and ethical attitude to life, which is of fundamental importance to leading a meaningful existence.”
He adds that even if one’s life is deeply meaningful, it does not mean that there is no suffering. There are times when life seems random and senseless but by intuitively understanding “that life will once again make sense, that darkness will give way to light and that meaninglessness will prove to be contained in a greater meaning.”
In his article Jung, the Self and the Jungian Depth Psychological Worldview he elaborates further on the process of individuation and points out that “this process involves not only the transformation of individuals but also of the community” which implies the need of “a creative engagement of the individual in the life of the community.”
He also addresses the individuation process at the beginning of another one of his articles, Individuation and the Individuation Process, and interprets individuation simply as the “developmental unfolding of the psyche over the course of a lifetime.” He discusses in more detail how this process involves becoming more conscious of disparate aspects of one’s being including shadow qualities. In addition, we have to become more aware of the four functions of consciousness, thinking, feeling, intuition and sensation, along with the two attitudes, extroversion and introversion. He deduces that this process will consequently lead “to a relative degree of wholeness, at which time the Self, that is to say one’s inner center of being, begins to direct one’s life. “
I found even more overlap with my research in his article Jung in Contemporary Context. At the beginning he points out that we live in an “Age of Confusion” and refers to Hindu mythology and specifically the Bhagavad Gita which explain that the reason we are living in such confusing times is that people are no longer living according to eternal laws and therefore the Divine/God is preparing the way for a new age.
Dr. Johnston explains that in mystical literature and Hindu thought, the transcendent Self is considered to be “Brahman or God” but that Jung hesitated to make such metaphysical assertions and stayed with empirical experience. Rather “than insisting that these experiences of the transcendent Self are experiences of God, he referred to them as archetypal experiences of the God-image. Jung preferred to call it the God-image for the sake of a scientific attitude.”
In the same article Dr. Johnston writes that we are in the early stages of a major transformation in consciousness and culture. Jung once stated, that there is a transformation of the principalities and powers taking place. In other words, “a transformation of the archetypes, of the basic underlying patterns of life, and the way that we understand and relate to life and the world.” He continues to write: “The old ways are being transformed or destroyed, so the new can live”. He states his belief that a more divinely oriented world is “already there in its early stages of manifestation”.
In the conclusion of this article he writes that “a New World is laboring to become manifest”. He is of the opinion that “understanding Jungian psychology can be very helpful in gaining self-knowledge and consciousness and in encouraging fulfillment of one’s unique destiny.” He adds: “There is the need to assimilate qualities of the chtonic spirit, which allows for the instinctive expression of the Divine Will in life and the potential to participate consciously in the New World.”
Websites I have used for this article are:
http://www.goodtherapy.org/Jungian_Psychotherapy.html#Depth%20Psychology
http://www.pacifica.edu/whatisdepth.aspx