What in the World Is the Soul?

(Soul & Psyche)

Robert Neuwoehner PhD

Data Sources Behind Jung’s Theories

• 60,000 dreams (±) — from his patients and his own

• Folklore and mythology

• The Bible (esp. the New Testament)

• Medieval alchemy

• Patristic literature (incl. heresiologists); Gnostic and Hermetic texts

• Ancient Egyptian & Greek religion

• Tribal people (Elgoni in Africa, Taos Pueblo in New Mexico)

• Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist texts

• Astrology

• Modern science (esp. biology and physics)

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Consciousness

• the sine qua non of experience

• the “life factor”

• a field of:• awareness, “awakeness,” sentience

• pure or simple perception• sensation, stimuli

• no names, no values

• no focus

• a primal unity

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The Ego

• the complex of personal identity, volition, individuality

• center of the conscious psyche

• focuses attention

• awareness becomes self-awareness

• development and growth means adding contents to consciousness, that is, to the ego complex

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The ego is “one’s experience

of oneself as a center

of willing, desiring,

reflecting, and acting.”

(Murray Stein, Jung’s Map of the Soul, p. 15)

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“The ego is a kind of mirror

in which the psyche

can see itself

and … become aware.”

(M. Stein, Jung’s Map, p. 15)

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“The ego is based in the body …

in the sense that it experiences unity

with the body, but the body that

the ego experiences is psychic.

It is a body image …”

(M. Stein, Jung’s Map, p. 24)

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Psychological Types

• innate pre-dispositions

• two attitudes• introversion

• extraversion

• four functions• sensation

• thinking

• feeling

• intuition

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SENSATION

INTUITION

THINKING FEELING

perception

inspiration revelation

emotion

1Now the serpent … said to the woman, “Did God say,

‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 [She replied]

to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the

garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree

[of the knowledge of good and evil] that is in the middle of the

garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” 4But the

serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5for God knows

that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be

like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:1-5)

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16To the woman [the Lord God] said, “I will greatly

increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring

forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you.” 17And to the man he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and

have eaten of the tree … cursed is the ground because of

you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 …

and you shall eat the plants of the field. (Gen. 3:16-18)

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19So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal

of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to

the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the

man called every living creature, that was its name. 20The

man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air,

and to every animal of the field … (Gen 2:19-20)

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Psychic Energy (libido)

• the mystery of “life force”

• subject of philosophical speculation through the ages

• explaining motivation and movement(development, transformation, pathology, etc.)

• physics as the analogy/metaphor• conservation of energy

• values serve as measurements• feeling tone

• money/spending

• energy directed by the ego → choice, volition

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Psychic Energy (libido) … continued

• energy enters the psychic system• through the body

• through the spirit

• energy flows in “channels” toward equilibrium• “canalization”

• symbols transform psychic energy

• extraverted during the “first half of life”

• introverted during the “second half of life”

• “altered states” ≈ energy in “non-ordinary” channels

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“… a theory of psychic energy, or libido,

should account for how objects in the

psychic world affect one another.”

(M. Stein, Jung’s Map, p. 70)

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“Symbols are the great

organizers of libido.”

(M. Stein, Jung’s Map, p. 82)

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The Outer World

• nature

• the physical environment

• culture

• the social environment• shared values, norms, mores

• worldviews

• commonly held beliefs, ideas

• social organization, institutions

• other people• family, friends, peers

• neighbors, coworkers, fellow citizens

• people like me — “us”

• people different from me — “them”

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The Persona

• “a psychological and social construct” (M. Stein, Jung’s Map, 111)

• 2 sources• societal expectations

• personal aspirations

• mediates between the ego and the world

• social roles, “masks”

• social identity ( ≠ the ego)

• protects against shame

• 2 problems: over identification, weakness or absence

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Persona Representations

• names

• birth order (eldest, youngest, etc.)

• gender, gender identity

• clothing, fashion sense, style

• job, profession

• interests

• activities

• peer groups

etc.

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