“Reality is far more subjective than is commonly supposed. Instead of reality being passively recorded by the brain, it is actively constructed by it.”
From Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain
by neuroscientist David Eagleman
Interpreting the world
Our brains don’t see the world, they interpret the world. The same is true psychologically. We interpret every single conversation, situation and relationship based on a lifetime of experiences and patterns. Most of these processes happen unconsciously. The goal of Jungian analysis is to uncover some of those unconscious motives, fears and desires, for a deeper understanding of ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us.
We all want lives that are meaningful and authentic.
If we understand more about our unconscious processes, then we can shine a light on our underlying motivations, self-defeating tendencies, relationship patterns and addictive behaviors, as well as our existential crises related to meaning and spirituality. Another way to look at it is this: our families of origin, cultures and life experiences installed a kind of software, and our adaptations, or the way we used the software, made sense at the time. But if we’re trying to run our lives on old software that wasn’t designed for the task at hand, it’s time for an update. Jung believed that our psyches can provide that update if we compassionately pay attention to our own unconscious processes. Sometimes depression and anxiety are not our fundamental problems - they are symptoms asking us to slow down, pay attention, check out our software, and make an update to an old, unconscious attitude. Of course this process is not as simple as a software update, in the same way that realizing one should eat better and exercise is not the same thing as actually doing it. As Jung said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” This is the work of analysis.
The world is more magical, less predictable, more autonomous, less controllable, more varied, less simple, more infinite, less knowable, more wonderfully troubling than we could have imagined being able to tolerate when we were young.
Clues from the Unconscious
Jung said that failure to understand our unconscious processes “deprives us of wholeness, and imposes a painful fragmentation” on our lives. Jungian analysts work with dreams and creative expressions like writing or painting, but there are many ways to explore our unconscious attitudes and processes. Whether we undergo analysis or not, we can all benefit from an attitude of openness and curiosity toward our own lives. We can learn to pay attention to the circumstances and situations that trigger or reflect something within us on an unconscious level. Usually we just react to people or situations, but we never make the connection to an internal, unconscious attitude, process or pattern.
Interpreting the clues
When someone rubs you the wrong way - when someone intrigues you - when someone inspires you - when you have an unexpectedly emotional reaction to a film, TV show, news story, social media post or book - when a song takes you somewhere far away - when you daydream - when you imagine hypothetical conversations - when you mentally replay past events - when you feel conflicted - when you feel depressed but don’t know why – these are all hints at what is going on underneath our thin layer of consciousness. Think of all the different aspects of yourself and the various roles you play and have played in your lifetime. If these parts don’t relate in a healthy and balanced way, we experience the “painful fragmentation” that Jung mentions in the above paragraph. Jungian analysis is like conflict resolution between the different parts of yourself. And once there’s a bit more harmony, and our inner attitude changes, we experience the outer world differently.