In psychology, there are many terms that are not understandable to the ordinary man in the street. In today's publication, we are ready to shed light on one curious phenomenon. Let's talk about what the concept of self.
Interpreted by Carl Young
Famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung showed upfounder of depth analytical psychology. Throughout his life, he actively applied the concept of "self". Jung believed that in every person laid deep unconscious talents. All our potential, about which we have not yet learned, is united in a so-called hidden personality.
Самость – это образец той личности, которой нам destined to become from birth. Some people achieve great success in the field of knowledge of their own internal resources and hidden talents. And some do not realize a small fraction of their own capabilities. So, at birth, each person is already destined to his own, unique way of life.
The self is a hidden personality, it is extremelyflexible and takes the context of a specific time period in a person’s life. For the greatest completeness of the implementation of their own internal resources, a person faces certain difficulties. A wise person takes all obstacles for granted, as an invaluable life experience, as an opportunity to move forward and learn the resources of his own soul, mind and body. A morally weak person forever grumbles at fate, feeling himself miserable and deprived. Paradoxically, even the most successful people are often unhappy with their current results.
Empirical concept expressing the unity of personality
We have already learned what the self means.It represents a kind of psychological spectrum and reflects how tightly the conscious and unconscious human personality merges together. The holistic personality includes an unconscious component, therefore it can reflect the experiences that have already taken place, as well as moments that have not yet occurred. Karl Jung believed that an unconscious personality can be endowed with supercircuits, and its possibilities can be truly unlimited.
Unity of Opposites
Empirically the self is a unity of twoopposites, as masculine and feminine, as the attraction of a negative and positive charge, as the interaction of light and shadow, as the struggle of a hero with his sworn enemy. This list is endless, and the third, as we see, is not given. Selfhood is the unification of opposites into a kind of integral union. This concept is not accepted as an independent philosophical idea and in fact is only a working hypothesis. However, it is widely represented in geometric forms and symbols, it can be traced in fairy tales, legends, myths and dreams. Therefore, the concept of the self takes one of the leading places in the series of many such archetypical ideas.
The problem of self in psychology
It happens that patients complain to doctors aboutinternal emptiness or lack of meaning in life. In this case, the loss of communication with his own hidden personality, which is able to lead a person forward, is clearly manifested. The absence of such a guiding star is a serious psychological problem and requires the intervention of professionals.
And apparently a person may seem toosure, but inside himself he is experiencing complete devastation. It seems to him that he is an absolute loser and that in the whole world no one loves him. Internal doubts and lack of self-esteem also have opposite manifestations, for example, a chronic need for attention from outside.
Narcissism leads to inner emptiness
Self-doubtful person, completely lostmeaning of existence, needs help and support. However, the hypertrophied ego, arrogance, narcissistic nature and the requirement of constant attention from others is also a problem. As we found out, the self is a hidden archetypal personality, which is an inner filling. Communication with her gives a person a feeling of harmony and integrity with the unconscious. When a person is disoriented in relation to his own "I", he has serious psychological problems.
Two sides of the same coin
Following two diametrically opposedclinical examples have the same effects. Psychiatrists often encounter such a picture. Observing two clinically depressed people, they notice a lot of similarities, but also some differences between them. Both patients may have the same physical manifestations of mental disorder: apathy, tearfulness, lethargy, anorexia and insomnia. However, their subjective experiences are radically different from each other.
One patient feels his moralimperfection and thinks of suicide in order to rid the world of its negative influence. Another patient does not feel his own immorality (narcissus), but he also does not see the point of existence on this planet. Thus, thinking about suicide, he does not lend to the world. The second patient lost a guiding star called "self". This in psychology means that a person is in dire need of comfort and support from outside. He yearns to reconnect with the internal objects that guide him through this life. Most often, he feels a sense of tremendous relief if someone is called to help him. In this case, even the all-consuming sense of shame goes to the background.
Melancholic and narcissus
People who have fallen into melancholy feel no shame,but accustomed to blaming myself for everything. According to these patients, they came to this planet in order to spoil the world. They are too full of internalized objects inherent in a hidden personality. These people have not lost touch with their own alterego, but, on the contrary, the self dominates them. This is described in psychology as an imbalance of personality, as the predominance of the unconscious over the conscious. Both pathologies — melancholy and narcissistic mental exhaustion — require clinical treatment.
