A Primer on C. G. Jung’s Writings and Perspectives on Sexual Concerns and their Treatment
(These statements are paraphrased directly from Jung's writings on analysis, sex, and sexuality.)
On Human Instincts:
One encounters sexuality everywhere; thus in anything one is involved, their sexuality will appear too
No instinct rivals the spirit as strongly as the sexual instinct
Essential to give instincts their rightful place
Pressures to conform or deny natural instincts creates psychological splits between inner needs versus outer demands
Natural sexual instincts are reduced to widespread denial and repression
Psyche is formidable, hostile, and can even thwart one’s will; sexual instinct is often beyond human ability to expressly control or direct
Some psychic contents have an autonomous nature
On the Nature of Complexes:
Fear of complexes is a deeply-rooted prejudice; complexes are normal and basic parts of the psyche
Complexes are signposts to the unconscious
The erotic complex is omnipresent in the psyche, acausal, and paradoxical in nature
An erotic complex can dominate at the expense of other psychic material, then everything becomes sexualized and geared toward the sexual purpose
Every important affective event becomes a complex
The strongest feelings and symptoms are connected with the most powerful complexes
Denial of instincts and complexes increases power of the unconscious
Complexes and struggles manifest in places where one is most weak or less developed
The presence of an erotic complex is certain even if denied by the patient
Must expect powerful emotions and difficulties to congregate around sex because it is where adaptation is least complete and where one faces the most challenges to natural expression
On Individuation:
Individuation and a new level of consciousness are possible through integration of the erotic complexes
Goal of wholeness is achieved through the union of conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche
Struggle in reaching wholeness is rooted in the conflict between instinctual nature and civilization
Must work out the problems of our moral aspects or risk repression
On Cultural Issues:
Cultural pressures are to blame for making struggles with sex difficult and universal
Best opportunity for society is for each person to be in possession of one’s own personality
Culture must unburden itself from the erotic shame and guilt carried from previous centuries
Jung’s own contradictory statements demonstrate the challenges of overcoming cultural and moral biases, which are mostly unconscious
On Sexual Phenomena:
Essential to penetrate the deeper layers of the psyche common to all humans
Sexual struggles are deep driving forces that seek expression
How things are expressed by the psyche are not as important as what needs to be expressed
Repellent things belong to the psyche and are natural
Must place greater value on the roots of psychological problems than on surface expressions of symptoms
Psyche is purposive and directed
Should always search for the meaning of psychological phenomena
Disregarding psychological phenomena creates consequences, such as a split personality or loss of consciousness
Psyche communicates through powerful experiences, images, and symptoms
Sexual phenomena have multiple layers and meanings beyond universal or simple explanations
Psyche cannot be defined by categories or labels
The conscious psyche is always the smaller circle within the greater circle of the unconscious
On Spiritual Dimensions:
Spirituality and sexuality cannot be excluded from each other
Sexuality is a creative power equal to the spirit
Grave consequences for ignoring the spiritual side of sex; one becomes unconsciously driven by instinct and it hinders individuation and development
Sexuality has numinous aspects
Numinous experiences simultaneously elevate and humiliate
Concerned with engaging the numinous not with the treatment of neuroses; the numinous ultimately helps release one from the curse of pathology
Sexuality is both divine and hellish; it compels one to experience forces beyond ordinary domains
On Treatment of:
Illnesses affecting patients are mostly unconscious attempts to cure themselves
Analytic approach is symbolistic
All-simplifying theories serve an injustice to the patient and the soul
No single theory to explain the human psyche; no general criterion of judgment
There is no single method of treatment; it is not mechanical or procedural work
Profound experiences and conflicts, like sexual ones, evoke deep parts of the psyche, which explains the cautionary approach to engaging sexual issues in therapy
One can thrive and feel harmony only when instinct and spirit are balanced, otherwise imbalance creates one-sidedness and veers one toward neuroses or pathology
The main concern in treatment is being non-reductive toward the psyche; viewing the psyche as complex
There is a breaking point for the suppression of instincts that creates a split or neurotic individual, which is not usually conscious and requires support for realization and integration
Shadow aspects might produce violent responses from conscious positions of patients
The treatment goal is integration and rebalancing of inner conflicts through conscious awareness
Every situation requires the context of the individual
Expect high patient resistance, difficulty of treatment, and prevalence of sexual material; the unconscious erects significant barriers to treatment
Most patients are highly resistant to disclosure and create insurmountable obstacles to exploration
The patient senses something repellent in their own psyche; the shadow is a difficult moral challenge to ego consciousness
This work places extreme difficulties on the patient and the therapist; therapy is painful and challenging to both
Analyst or therapist must be appropriately trained and prepared by examining their own psychic contents
First duty is to keep close to the patient’s psychic material and not allow prejudice and subjectivity to distort emerging psychological phenomena
Important for therapists to open themselves to deeper and unknown experiences
A patient’s deviation into sex is sometimes used to escape one’s true problems
Therapists must first know how symptoms help and serve patients
Can never know beforehand what is what
Sexual issues may not have direct sexual aspect or direct means of treatment
Avoid attitude of a missionary out to cure patients and eradicate symptoms
Requires emerging crystallization of goals and a direction originating from the patient
Requires conscious attitude of cooperation and dialogue or the unconscious can be driven into opposition
Implications of a Depth Psychological Approach for Patients
Potential Benefits:
Reduce the labeling of sexual dysfunctions and the pathology of categorically defined symptoms
Help patients view their symptoms as potentially deeper aspects of the psyche or soul; remove stigmatizing perspectives regarding the surface expressions of psychopathology
Open up possibilities for viewing symptoms as important aspects of psychic expression calling for healing or attention from the unconscious
Provide a view of the numinous or spiritual aspects in the psyche expressed through sexual symptoms
Assist development and growth through the process of integration and individuation by becoming conscious of inner struggles and conflicts raging within
Develop understanding of deeper cultural and universal layers of the psychic situation
Provide an approach to understanding the root causes of sexual issues that are beyond symptomatic appearances
Develop greater awareness and consciousness of self and spiritual dimensions
Engage in mysteries of sexual expressions and desires by viewing them through wider perspectives
Recognize how diverse aspects belong on a spectrum of human complexity
Work toward integration with the shadow and unwanted aspects to foster a greater sense of wholeness
Understand how disunity of the self creates psychic suffering and split personalities or dissociation
Potentially reduce reliance on pharmaceutical solutions or medical interventions
Provide individualized treatment approaches tailored to patients’ unique psychological positions
Offer archetypal, imaginal, and mythological perspectives to help patients understand layers of the psyche and to add collective context to the repellant or unknown elements of the psyche
Allow more room to explore a range of potential affective causes and how the unconscious is purposive and directed in its expressions of suffering
Potential Challenges:
Some might not be ready for or welcome the challenges of the depth approach
Some patients might wrestle with a lack of answers or the uncertainty of a direction or method, which can increase frustration and impatience with the process
Difficulty coping with their own challenging psychic material, which creates feelings of confusion and more entanglement with the unknown
Experiencing greater vulnerability and feeling exposed on a level for which one’s conscious mind or ego is unprepared
Making the problem feel worse and more complex than originally thought
Havingresistances and avoidance of sexual issues brought into awareness
Facing the possibility of intensifying a patient’s resistance, which drives the unconscious into greater opposition and fuels increased symptoms
Get the PDF version here: Primer on C. G. Jung’s Writings on Sexual Concerns and their Treatment
Jung and Sex: Re-visioning the Treatment of Sexual Issues, Edward Santana, Ph.D.
Available at Amazon: https://amzn.com/1138919152