The Psyche
The psyche is defined as the entirety of our conscious and unconscious experiences and processes. In other words, it encompasses all that animates us, all of what makes us who we are. The psyche is often equated with the soul of a person, their unique essence.
From the viewpoint of depth psychology, notably Jung’s analysis of the psyche, the ego is the ‘centre’ of consciousness while the self is the ‘centre’ of the entire psyche. The image we portray to the outside world is called the persona, which is a projection of how we want to be seen (usually emphasising our qualities and hiding our flaws). Through the conscious ego, we engage with the external world and we develop a sense of our identity. However, the psyche encompasses a much broader realm of unconscious material.
Part of the unconscious is personal (the personal unconscious ), that is, it reflects our own individual path and story – those memories we’d like to forget, those wishes we repress, those qualities we cannot bring ourselves to believe we possess. When too much tension develops in the personal unconscious, we develop ‘complexes’.
The greater part of the unconscious, however, is collective, that is, it is shared among all humankind. Jung named ‘archetypes’ the contents of the collective unconscious, and identified them as recurring motifs and modes of understanding the world around us. Archetypes are primordial carriers of meaning, and powerful sources of inspiration and action.
The layers of the Psyche (adapted from Rozuel, 2013)
The Self
In common language, the self usually refers to what we believe we are, the ‘I’ who thinks and acts. However, in depth psychology, the self consists in much more than this conscious engagement with the world – which is the task of the ego. In contrast, the self represents all of what we are, not just what we think we are or what we want to be.
In Jung’s term, the self is the archetype of wholeness, and is the real driver behind our need to grow, to develop and to expand our understanding of ourselves. The ego is the essential vessel with which we can navigate the world in a conscious manner; but the self is the vast ocean which we ought to explore to uncover what life is about and what we are truly made of.
When we talk of self-understanding or self-exploration, we actually mean understanding and exploring the self, not merely the ego which only represents a fraction of who we are.
Inner Work
We all possess a rich inner life, which Jungian analyst and writer Robert A. Johnson describes as ‘the secret life we all lead, by day and night, in constant companionship with our unseen, unconscious, inner selves’ (1989, p.9). To feel balanced and healthy in our mind and body, we need to give space to both the inner life and the outer, conscious, mundane life.
When these two essential domains can co-exist harmoniously, Johnson explains that ‘there is a constant flow of energy and information between the two levels as they meet in the dimension of dream, vision, ritual, and imagination’. In other words, we open ourselves and our lives to potentialities we may not even have been aware of, combining our learnt skills and our innate talents to grow further.
Inner work therefore consists in the intuitive exploration of the hidden corners of our inner life, leading towards the acknowledgment of what hides in the shadow and the integration of those hidden gems (opaque or shiny) within our conscious life. Although the work may be at times arduous, it also enriches our lives greatly. Inner work can be approached in many different ways, such as psychological analysis, imaginative or meditative exercises, embodied practices (for example yoga, tai chi, chi kung, bodywork).