‘Two Souls Alas…’: Jung’s two personalities and the making of analytical psychology

The thesis falls into two parts. The first examines Jung’s two personalities, as described in his memoir, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. The argument is that Jung’s experience of the dynamic between the two personalities informs basic principles behind, first the development of Jung’s psychological model and second Jung’s entire mature psychology. It is suggested that what Jung took from this experience was the principle that psychological health required the avoidance of one-sidedness, achieved through the dynamic of the two personalities. This dynamic was thus central to Jung’s notion of individuation. In short, this required the individual to bring any one-sided position into tension with a conflicting ‘opposite’ position, in order that a third position could be achieved which transcended both of the earlier positions. The second part of the thesis utilises the conclusions of the first section to bring an internal critique to bear on Jung’s analytical psychology as enshrined in the collected works. It is suggested that in certain arenas Jung’s personal one-sidedness distorted his psychology in such a way as to undermine his ability to follow through the ‘logic’ of the two personalities (as identified in part one). Jung’s tendency to prioritise the inner dimension of psychological work, and to downplay or ignore the outer dimension shows up in analytical psychology’s persistent problems engaging with political, social and historical matters. It is argued that this one-sidedness expresses a bias in the direction of Jung’s no 2 personality. Examples to support this argument are given from Jung’s writings on contemporary affairs, and from his casework with patients.